We are today celebrating 130 years of the Adult Suffrage Bill passing both Houses of the South Australian Parliament. At the time, it was a significant step for women, however for our Aboriginal voice the impact wasn’t immediately felt.
In the 1800’s women did not have the right to vote or sue, and married women had limited property ownership. They wore uncomfortable clothes, could not speak to a man until they had been formally ‘introduced’, and had to produce as many children as they could. Women typically had lower literacy rates than men, as they were barred from higher education. Our Aboriginal colleagues had it worse. Among this environmental backdrop 11,600 men and women signed a petition asking the South Australian Parliament to give women the right to vote. The vast number of signatures meant that the petition was 122 metres long. It is still the longest petition that has ever been presented to the South Australian Parliament.
So, on 18 December 1894, the South Australian Parliament passed the Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act.
This amendment granted women in the colony the right to vote and allowed them to stand for parliament.
South Australia is still celebrated as the first electorate in the world to give equal political rights to both men and women.
On that same day, South Australian Aboriginal women were also given the right to vote.
However, they were often not informed of this right. In some cases, Aboriginal people were actively discouraged from enrolling or voting.
These days we know (and quote) “the Aboriginal voice is heard within the community as an agent for social, cultural, and political development. The Aboriginal voice also speaks for the land and for spiritual matters.” Ref (1)
Cast forward to 2024, and we have witnessed the introduction of the South Australian First Nations Voice Election to Parliament, which is a representative, legislatively created elected body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the state. More than 110 candidates nominated for the First Nations Voice and the inaugural First Nations Voice election was held on Saturday 16 March 2024. Ref (2)
Through the Voice, First Nations people can have their say at the highest levels of decision-making in South Australia on matters, policies and laws that affect them.
If we cast back to approximately 1994, a writing project emerged, where Aboriginal women revealed their hopes and dreams for future generations. It resulted in the publication of a book Angkiku Bultu (Women's Paths) compiled by Port Adelaide Girls High School students.
Alice Rigney, Principal Kaurna Plains School, said at the time of the Angkiku Bultu book launch "It is important to know your background to get your direction for the future."
The First Nations Voice Act 2023 provides flexibility for each Local First Nations Voice to decide how it will engage with communities, the government agencies they want to connect with, and the matters they wish to engage on.
As we embrace our future, it is days like today which remind us how far we have come.
1894 Adult Suffrage Bill | A moment in time
Book
Images
Selected to depict a typical government of the 1800’s
Electoral Commission of 1877 The Electoral Commission in session, Washington, D.C., February 16, 1877; from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, March 10, 1877. Publisher Encyclopædia Britannica
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Electoral-Commission#/media/1/182343/150718
Selected to depict the South Australian backdrop in the 1800’s
View of Port Adelaide, South Australia, watercolour by Samuel Thomas Gill, c. 1845.
References
South Australia's First Nations Voice to Parliament
The 120th anniversary of women's suffrage in Australia
South Australia - Colonization, Exploration, Aboriginals | Britannica
Notes
The Voice is made up of 2 levels – 6 Local First Nations Voices and a State Voice.
For Federal Election voting, by June 1902, women were eligible to vote in two states: South Australia (1894), and Western Australia (1899). The New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Assembly followed in August 1902, then the Tasmanian House of Assembly in 1903, Queensland in 1905, and Victoria in 1908.