Paul Keating speaks at Redfern on Human Rights Day 1992

Submitted by Rick Eyre on December 10 2012, 2:00 pm

December 10: Human Rights Day. The anniversary of the date in 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted.

To mark Human Rights Day in 1992, Australia's Prime Minister Paul Keating gave a speech in Redfern Park on the issues facing indigenous Australians. Although under-reported by mainstream media at the time, it was a remarkable acknowledgment that few in leadership positions in this country had been willing to make in the past, and in the two decades since has earned its place in history as one of Australia's finest speeches.

The full text can be read at Wikisource among other places, but here is the video of that great speech made by Prime Minister Keating twenty years ago today (from the National Archives Youtube channel):

People: