The online exhibition presents quotes from SAFA president, the late Charlie Perkins, and fellow freedom rider Anne Curthoys
A new revitalised online exhibition exposing the racial tensions and poor living conditions for Aboriginal people in country New South Wales was brought to light during the 1965 Freedom Ride held 50 years ago.
Presented digitally by the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) for the first time are candid accounts from multiple students that took part in the Freedom Ride, revealing the often violent response from NSW townsfolk to the student-organised protest.
“The 1965 Freedom Ride was a watershed moment for Aboriginal Rights. Along with the Warburton Ranges film, it showed the world the racism and intolerable living conditions for Aboriginal people at the time.
This exhibition is an accurate portrayal of the shock that the Freedom Ride generated in 1965, and fifty years later it reminds Australia that these attitudes were alive and present throughout the nation really not so long ago,” AIATSIS Principal Russell Taylor says.
The Freedom Ride was organised by the Student Action for Aborigines (SAFA) organization of University of Sydney students who wanted to see the conditions of life for Aboriginal people themselves.
The online exhibition presents quotes from SAFA president, the late Charlie Perkins, and a diary account from fellow freedom rider Anne Curthoys, alongside press clippings from the time.
“Walgett RSL was famous for entertaining the Aboriginal troops when they came back from World War II. For one day. The next day the majority of the Aboriginal community were banned for good,” said Charles Perkins in his autobiography, A Bastard Like Me, which has been quoted extensively throughout the exhibition.
View The 1965 Freedom Ride online exhibition
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