From the 1950s onwards, German Jewish refugees Emil and Hannah Witton were at the forefront of activism in collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, due in part to their close friendship with Australian South Sea Islander civil rights powerhouse Faith Bandler and her husband Hans, a Jewish refugee from Vienna. Emil and Hannah focused on creating sustainable structural changes to the political landscape in order to improve the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. Most significant was their involvement alongside Faith in the campaign she drove for the 1967 Referendum to remove two discriminatory references in the Australian Constitution. This overwhelming electoral victory finally enabled Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians to be both counted in the national census and covered by Commonwealth legislation.