Significant Dates for Indigenous Australians in December

 

 Truth-Telling the Past. Honouring Survival. Advancing Justice.

 

December is a month shaped by defining moments for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It holds stories of frontier violence and legislated control but also landmark legal victories and historic steps toward truth-telling, land rights and self-determination.

 

These December events reveal a powerful truth. Despite attempts at erasure, First Nations peoples remain the custodians of their culture, Country and law - enduring, adapting and asserting immutable sovereignty.

 

Historical Anniversaries: Frontier Violence and Resistance

 

2 December 1827 – Iwaidja Massacre, Fort Wellington (NT)

 

Colonial soldiers and convicts attacked an Iwaidja camp at dawn on the Cobourg Peninsula, killing at least five, including a mother and child. Earlier that year, colonial forces had used artillery against the Iwaidja, demonstrating the militarised violence that accompanied territorial expansion.

 

6 December 1828 – Tooms Lake Massacre, Tasmania

 

During the Black War, soldiers ambushed a group of Palawa people, killing up to sixteen and burning their bodies - a method now recognised as part of the Tasmanian genocide.

 

16 December 1864 – Nassau River Massacre, Cape York (QLD)

 

Frank and Alexander Jardine killed Kokoberrin warriors defending their Country from livestock encroachment. Survivors were forcibly driven from their land, clearing the way for pastoral occupation.

 

December 1873 – Battle Camp Massacre, Palmer River (QLD)

 

When Aboriginal resistance escalated during the Palmer River gold rush, miners and armed colonial forces responded with lethal force. Human remains later found with bullet wounds confirmed the massacre. This tragic event stands as a haunting symbol of the violence used to forcibly seize land and extinguish custodianship.

 

These massacres are part of a broader frontier pattern: colonisation in Australia was not peaceful - it was brutally enforced.

 

The Devastating Legacy of First Contact

 

31 December 1788 – The Abduction of Arabanoo

 

Arabanoo, a man of the Eora Nation, was kidnapped on Governor Arthur Phillip’s orders to act as an intermediary between the inhabitants of the newly founded penal colony at Sydney Cove and the local Aboriginal peoples.

 

Chained and confined, Arabanoo was forced into captive service. He was later deployed as a guide during the 1789 smallpox epidemic - an outbreak many historians believe was deliberately introduced by colonial authorities to suppress Aboriginal resistance. The disease killed an estimated 2,000 Aboriginal people. Arabanoo, who inevitably contracted the illness himself, died while nursing survivors, embodying First Nations compassion amid colonial cruelty.

 

Arabanoo’s recorded lament - “All dead! All dead!” - remains one of the earliest firsthand expressions of grief in the wake of British invasion.

 

The Brutal Rise of the Protector of Aborigines System

 

28 December 1836 – Office of the Protector of Aborigines established in South Australia

29 December 1880 – Office of the Protector of Aborigines established in New South Wales

 

The offices of the Protector of Aborigines were introduced under the guise of humanitarian protection.

 

In reality, Protectors served colonial interests by:

 

• forcibly removing Aboriginal peoples from their lands
• strictly regulating movement, labour, marriage and wages
• enforcing assimilationist policies
• enabling the forced removal of children who became the Stolen Generations

 

Historical figures such as Matthew Moorhouse and A.O. Neville were not protectors - they were administrators of dispossession and architects of cultural destruction and erasure.

 

Legal and Political Anniversaries: Land, Rights and Recognition

 

8 December 1966 – Aboriginal Lands Trust Act (SA)

 

South Australia became the first jurisdiction to return Crown land to Aboriginal control through the Aboriginal Lands Trust, recognising forms of ownership long denied.

 

10 December – Human Rights Day

 

Observed globally, this day resonates deeply in Australia, where First Nations peoples continue to advocate for rights others take for granted.

 

16 December 1976 – Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act

 

This landmark legislation recognised Traditional Owners' land rights in the NT based on evidence of enduring cultural connection. It was the first legal acknowledgment that Aboriginal people had not surrendered their land.

 

24 December 1993 – Native Title Act Passed

 

Following the historic Mabo decision, this Act overturned terra nullius and recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples possess rights to land and waters. On Christmas Eve, Australia formally admitted a truth Aboriginal people have always known: Sovereignty was never ceded.

 

A Modern Turning Point: The Treaty Era Begins

 

10 December 2019 – First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria Inaugural Sitting

 

On 10 December 2019, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria held its inaugural sitting as Australia’s first democratically elected body established to prepare for treaty-making. This signalled a profound shift - from Aboriginal people being governed for to negotiating with government. The Assembly laid the foundation for treaty rules, an independent Treaty Authority and the nation’s first truth-telling process.

 

Nearly five years later, that work culminated in a defining moment when the Assembly, alongside the Victorian Premier, Cabinet and Governor, signed Australia’s first Treaty with First Peoples, giving Royal Assent to Treaty legislation and establishing the Assembly as a permanent representative and decision-making body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Integrated into a new entity, Gellung Warl, the Assembly now holds structural power, not symbolic promise.

 

12 December 2025 - The Treaty Era Commences

 

The Treaty will formally begin on Friday, 12 December 2025, following the Victoria’s Treaty: It’s Here ceremony and celebration. All Victorians are invited to gather at Fed Square to honour this historic moment through ceremony, song, dance, culture and community - a living tribute to the world’s oldest continuous culture and a shared commitment to a more truthful future.

 

Conclusion

 

December’s dates reveal the uncomfortable truth of Australia’s foundations - massacres, forced removals and calculated control - yet they also illuminate the unwavering strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who continue not just to survive, but to lead change.

 

The oldest living culture on earth is not a relic of the past - it is shaping the future.

 

History is not behind us; it is calling us forward.