Sol Bellear, chairperson of the Redferrn Aboriginal Medical Service (AMS) was there from the very beginning.
He recalls that when the AMS was created in 1971, there was a hospital just up the road from the Aboriginal Legal Services called the Rachel Foster Hospital.
Today the AMS sees over one thousand patients a week.
He says 'This hospital just didn't like to provide treatment to Aboriginal people, but it wasn't just this hospital in Redfern. Hospitals all over Australia segregated against Aboriginal people.'
For instance, a number of hospitals had separate wards for Aboriginal mothers who were unable to access adequate care. Mother's then gave birth outside on hospital verandas and there were no Aboriginal doctors across the country.
Sol Bellear remembers that the 70's were characterised by massive activist organisations such as the anti-war movement that denounced the Vietnam War.
Other movements were very vocal against apartheid in South Africa, while other activists demanded equal rights for African-Americans in the United States. There was hardly any activism for a fairer and more humane treatment of First Peoples of Australia.
The AMS was set up by volunteers who worked there for free in their spare time. Doctors would spend an hour or two at the AMS after serving in their own surgeries.
