| Nickname | AAL |
|---|---|
| Predecessor | Australian Aborigines' League & Save the Aborigines Committee |
| Formation | 1957 |
| Founded at | Melbourne |
| Purpose | Indigenous rights campaigning |
| Location |
|
Region | Victoria, Australia |
| Website | aal |
Formerly called | Victorian Aborigines Advancement League |
TheAboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as theVictorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldestAboriginal rights organisation inAustralia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were theAustralian Aborigines League andSave the Aborigines Committee, and it was also formerly known asAborigines Advancement League (Victoria), and justAborigines Advancement League.
The organisation is primarily concerned with Aboriginal welfare issues and the preservation ofAboriginal culture and heritage, and is based inMelbourne. Its journal is calledSmoke Signals.
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The Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL)[1] was established in March 1957,[2] partly in response to an enquiry by retired magistrate, Charles McLean, who had been appointed in 1955 to investigate the circumstances of Aboriginal Victorians. McLean was critical of conditions in theAboriginal reserves atLake Tyers andFramlingham. McLean recommended that persons of mixed Aboriginal and European descent be removed from the reserves. The people of Lake Tyers objected to this, and the League was formed out of their campaign.[3]
The new League drew from two already existing organisations, theAustralian Aborigines League, established in 1934[4] and the Save the Aborigines Committee, established as a response to theWarburton Ranges controversy in 1956–7. Founding President of the League wasGordon Bryant, withDoris Blackburn as Deputy President, Stan Davey as Secretary andDouglas Nicholls as Field Officer.[2]
A nationalumbrella organisation, theFederal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI) was founded in February 1958 inAdelaide, South Australia, but theAborigines Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA) finally disaffiliated in 1966, because it thought the federal organisation was too centred onVictoria.[5] (Davey also became secretary ofFCAATSI, before moving toWestern Australia.[6]
Early activities included lobbying for a referendum to change theAustralian constitution to allow theFederal government to legislate on Aboriginal affairs, and an establishing a legal defence fund forAlbert Namatjira, after he was charged with supplying liquor to an Aboriginal ward.[2] By 1967 it had moved to being fully controlled by Aboriginal people, withBill Onus as the first Aboriginal president.[7]
In 1968, the AAL, led byBruce McGuinness andBob Maza, invited Caribbean activistRoosevelt Brown to give a talk onBlack Power in Melbourne, causing a media frenzy. The AAL was influenced by the ideas ofMalcolm X andStokely Carmichael. TheAustralian Black Power movement had emerged inRedfern in Sydney,Fitzroy, Melbourne, andSouth Brisbane, following the "Freedom Ride" led byCharles Perkins in 1965, but this visit brought the term to wider attention.[8][9]
Salaried directorElizabeth Maud Hoffman, who served From 1975 to 1983, was the organisations longest-serving director.[10]
In 1999 theVictorian government completed a $2,790,000 renovation of the League's headquarters in Watt Street,Thornbury. As well as providing a community facility, the building houses amuseum and "keeping place" for items of historical, cultural and spiritual importance to Aboriginal people.[11]
Smoke Signals was the official magazine of the AAL,[12] Published since 1957,[13][14] Copies were unnumbered until April 1960,[15] when Volume 1, Issue 1.[16] Three issues per year were published until August 1963, after which it was published quarterly.
The first editor Stan Davey, with Gordon Bryant following Davey as editor when he left to work forFCAATSI. The newspaper was especially focused on educating non-Indigenous Australians about the activities of the VAAL, as well as the social and economic conditions in whichAboriginal Victorians lived. While some sources report thatSmoke Signals ceased publication in 1972,[17][14] library catalogues andMuseums Victoria show that it went on being published occasionally until at least 2011.[16] and possibly longer.[13] As of 2022[update] there is no mention of the journal on the website.[18]
The League provides a number of services toKoorie people, including family support, food assistance, home visits, advocacy, counselling and educational programs, drug and alcohol awareness and funeral services. It also has a Cultural Unit that provides information and speakers for schools.[19]
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