If you tuned into our weekly slot on 2SER breakfast with Tim Higgins this morning, you would have heard me discussing the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association launched in Sydney in 1925. As a forerunner to NAIDOC, the AAPA, and the Aborigines Progressive Association that proceeded it in 1937, mark the beginning of the civil rights movement in Australia. As NAIDOC week gets underway around the country, this year the focus is on the vision expressed through the Yirrkala Bark Petitions of 1963. This petition is the first documentary recognition of Indigenous people in Australian law. Before this, there were other petitions made to Australian parliaments and directly to the Crown. While unsuccessful, they paved the way for the constitutional changes that were to come much later. Headed by Aboriginal activist Fred Maynard, the AAPA ran its headquarters out of Addison's Hall in Surry Hills in Sydney. With links to the communities in northern NSW, the AAPA campaigned for land rights and an end to the removal of Aboriginal children from their families. Most importantly, they sought self determination and equality and the dissolution of the Aborigines Protection Board in New South Wales. In 1927, the association petitioned the New South Wales Premier, Jack Lang, to restore lands removed from communities under the Aborigines Protection Act 1883 . Activist and member of the AAPA, Jane Duren wrote directly to King George V contesting the power of the Aborigines Protection Board to withdraw Aboriginal control of reserves on the grounds that they had been granted by Queen Victoria. Threatened by the AAPA's action, the Aborigines Protection Board hit back through the press and directly to the Premier, discrediting its leaders. Though the association had built up 11 branches across New South Wales, with over 500 active members, threats to Maynard's family and police harassment saw an end to this foremost association. You can read more about the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association and the activists who paved the way for future constitutional reform in the Dictionary. If you missed my chat with Tim this morning you can download a podcast. Don't forget to tune in next Wednesday on 107.3 at 8.20am for another Sydney history highlight when our chairperson, Lisa Murray, returns to the airwaves.