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3 - Mediating the Yolngu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

Tim Rowse
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Summary

On 10 March 1971, the Liberal Party replaced John Gorton with William McMahon as their leader. Within two hours of McMahon becoming prime minister, Coombs was in his office ‘offering the Prime Minister a vision of a historical role for himself in Aboriginal affairs and the Arts. Mr. McMahon was sympathetic and attracted …’ For the next twenty months, Coombs, Dexter and Stanner sought to capitalise on that sympathy. The issue of land rights, in particular, came to define their success and failure.

The Cairns statement

Coombs' approach to McMahon is amply expressed in a letter written on 30 March 1971, summing up the CAA's ‘deep sense of frustration and disillusion’:

The work of the council has been restricted by the lack of a clear statutory or Ministerial authority, by an unsatisfactory statement of the responsibilities of the Minister-in-Charge in relation to Aboriginal affairs in the Northern Territory, and above all by an inability to place our conclusions and recommendations before the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

The CAA had refrained from resigning ‘partly in the hope that the situation might change for the better, partly because of our profound identification with the case of the Aborigines, and partly because we feared that our resignation would leave them even more exposed than they are at present.’ Coombs assured McMahon of ‘a unique place in Australian history’ were he to demonstrate ‘personally and effectively his concern for the Aboriginal people’.

Type
Chapter
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Obliged to be Difficult
Nugget Coombs' Legacy in Indigenous Affairs
, pp. 53 - 69
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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  • Mediating the Yolngu
  • Tim Rowse, University of Sydney
  • Book: Obliged to be Difficult
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511552199.004
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  • Mediating the Yolngu
  • Tim Rowse, University of Sydney
  • Book: Obliged to be Difficult
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511552199.004
Available formats
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  • Mediating the Yolngu
  • Tim Rowse, University of Sydney
  • Book: Obliged to be Difficult
  • Online publication: 01 June 2011
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511552199.004
Available formats
×