Producer unknown to us
Armband “Defend Native Title“
Australia, Northern Territory, Alice Springs
1986–87
Cotton, Polyester
Birgit Scheps (Curator for Australia) acquired this button in 1987, during a study trip to Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Donated to the museum by Scheps, 2001
Au 4441
The Australian Land Rights Movement’s armband, reading “Defend Native Title,” refers to the Australian land reform policy of 1986–87. It decreed that former Indigenous reserves and mission stations were to be dissolved. Thus suddenly becoming “freely available,” tribal lands were sold on the market, rather than being returned to Indigenous communities. During rallies and in everyday life, activists wore armbands like this one as a visible form of protest against the land grab. Birgit Scheps, currently curator for Australia and the Pacific at Leipzig, acquired the armband during a study trip in 1987.
Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider