Activists at a demonstration supporting the 1967 Referendum, Parliament House

In May 1967, after 10 years of Aboriginal rights campaigning, a referendum on Indigenous recognition in the Australian constitution was held. The lead-up to the poll focused public attention on the fact that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were treated as second-class citizens. Nearly 91 per cent of the electorate voted to amend the constitution. This change was seen to reflect public recognition of Aboriginal people as full Australian citizens.

In this photograph of Indigenous rights activists, Chicka Dixon is on the far left talking to Bill Wentworth, who would later become the first Minister in Charge of Aboriginal Affairs.