Aboriginal Advancement League
The Aboriginal Advancement League was founded in 1957 as the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL), is the oldest Aboriginal rights organisation in Australia still in operation. Its precursor organisations were the Australian Aborigines League and Save the Aborigines Committee, and it was also formerly known as Aborigines Advancement League (Victoria), and just Aborigines Advancement League. The organisation is primarily concerned with Aboriginal welfare issues and the preservation of Aboriginal culture and heritage, and is based in Melbourne. Its journal is called Smoke Signals. History. The Victorian Aborigines Advancement League (VAAL) was established in March 1957, partly in  response to an enquiry by retired magistrate, Charles McLean, who had been appointed in 1955 to investigate the circumstances of Aboriginal Victorians. McLean was critical of conditions in the Aboriginal reserves at Lake Tyers and Framlingham. McLean recommended that persons of mixed Aboriginal and European descent be removed from the reserves. The people of Lake Tyers objected to this, and the League was formed out of their campaign. The new League drew from two already existing organisations, the Australian Aborigines League, established in 1934 and the Save the Aborigines Committee, established as a response to the Warburton Ranges controversy in  1956–7. Founding President of the League was Gordon Bryant, with Doris Blackburn as Deputy President, Stan Davey as Secretary and Douglas Nicholls as Field Officer. A national umbrella organisation, the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (later FCAATSI) was founded in February 1958 in Adelaide, South Australia, but the Aborigines Advancement League of South Australia (AALSA) finally disaffiliated in 1966, because it thought the federal organisation was too centred on Victoria. (Davey also became secretary of FCAATSI, before moving to Western Australia. Early activities included lobbying for a referendum to change the Australian constitution to allow the Federal government to legislate  on Aboriginal affairs, and an establishing a legal defence fund for Albert Namatjira, after he was charged with supplying liquor to an Aboriginal ward. By 1967 it had moved to being fully controlled by Aboriginal people with Bill Onus as the first Aboriginal President. From 1975 to 1983, a salaried director of the Aboriginal Advancement League was Elizabeth Maud Hoffman becoming the organisations longest serving director. Publications. "Smoke Signals" is the official magazine of the AAL, first published in April 1960 and still being published . The first editor was Pastor Doug Nicholls. Current activities. The League provides a number of  services to Koorie people, including family support, food assistance, home visits, advocacy, counselling and educational programs, drug and alcohol awareness and funeral services. It also has a Cultural Unit that provides information and speakers for schools. Headquarters and cultural repository. In 1999 the Victorian government completed a $2,790,000 renovation of the League's headquarters in Watt Street, Thornbury. As well as providing a community facility, the building houses a museum and "keeping place" for items of historical, cultural and spiritual importance to Aboriginal people.