Date: February 13 2013 THERE will be echoes of 1967 in
Parliament House on Wednesday when both sides of politics pass
legislation that will give momentum to the push to recognise the
first Australians in the nation's founding document. Shirley
Peisley was 26 when she pinned badges on the lapels of
politicians in support of modest but hugely symbolic
constitutional change. On Wednesday she will watch as a new
indigenous generation does the same in support of something more
ambitious. In 1967, Ms Peisley was a woman in awe, inspired by
the leadership and example of Lowitja O'Donoghue, who organised
her trip from Adelaide to a planning meeting for the 1967
referendum campaign. Like most of the activists, they stayed at
Brassey Hotel, then called Brassey Hostel. ''Anyone who had a
room - and some of us did - would have swags all over the
floor,'' Professor O'Donoghue recalls. When they weren't talking
about the struggle or singing We Shall Overcome and other
anthems of the American civil rights movement, Professo