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“Describe and explain the changes that have occurred to the rights and freedoms of aboriginal people between 1900 and today” Between the 1900 and today, there have been many significant changes to the rights and freedoms of Aboriginal people. Some of the main issues being the stolen generation, the equality of Aboriginals among white Australians, the 1967 Referendum, the Day of Mourning, assimilation, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy and the Eddie Mabo case. All these events have contributed to the changes that have occurred to the rights and freedoms of Aboriginal people between 1900 and today. When the white explorers first came to Australia, they operated under the law of terra nullius. Terra nullius was the European law that applied (incorrectly) to Australia when it was discovered. It is a Latin term for "land without owner" in which European explorers can claim a land for their sovereignty. Australia was claimed under this law because the English deemed it a land without inhabitants, this is because they did not see the Aboriginals as being a civilised race, and also because they saw them as an inferior race that could not survive without white paternalism. Paternalism was the ‘fatherly’ control of the Abo