Making headlines

Student activity
A large crowd of Aboriginal rights protesters holding signs at a beach.

Key inquiry question #1

How was the 200th anniversary of Cook’s landing at Botany Bay marked by civil rights activists in Australia?


Task No. 1

Make a pitch

The Tribune was a weekly newspaper published in Sydney from 1939 to 1991. Many photographs were taken by the Tribune of Indigenous rights activism events, including the 1970 protest at La Perouse. A selection of these images can be found in the online exhibition, Eight Days in Kamayhere.  

You are a reporter working for the Tribune. You want to impress your editor, and ‘scoop’ the front-page story for the next day’s issue. Scroll through the carousel of images (linked above) and choose one to be placed on the front cover of the next day’s Tribune newspaper. Mock-up a front cover, including the photograph and major headline. To accompany this mock-up, write a letter to your editor persuading them that this is the story that should be put on tomorrow’s front page (written by you, of course!) You need to persuade your editor of the powerful nature of the image, headline and story. Explain why it belongs on the front page, and how it represents the ongoing struggle of Indigenous people to win their rights and freedoms and have their story heard. 

More photographs from the 1970 Day of Mourning protests can be viewed in the Library’s collections here.