The ‘New Way’
Aboriginal Summit
MELBOURNE
JULY 1– 4 2010
“ Why we must have a new way and what is it ?”
Download latest summit program:
http://treatyrepublic.net/pdf/new-way-summit-melbourne-1a.pdf
see also http://treatyrepublic.net/
Archive for June, 2010
New way Summit – Melbourne 1-4 July – program available
June 29, 2010Gathering to defend indigenous rights, Alice Springs July 6-9
June 29, 2010DEFENDING INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
LAND, LAW and CULTURE
STOP THE NT INTERVENTION
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SCRAP RACIST LAWS
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JUSTICE FOR ABORIGINAL PEOPLE
GATHERING at YIRARA COLLEGE,
ALICE SPRINGS
JULY 6 – 9
ALL WELCOME
The gathering will be an important opportunity for Aboriginal people to come together and join supporters including international Indigenous activists to talk about the government’s Intervention policies.
Contact: Richard Downs 0428 611 169,
Paddy Gibson 0415 800 586,
or
Lauren Mellor 0413 534 125
Check out the website:
www.defendingindigenousrights.wordpress.com
Closing the Gap and the Gillard Government
June 29, 2010Australian Human Rights Commission
Close the Gap – Making it Happen
A meeting with Prime Minister Julia Gillard is a priority to keep the Close the Gap health campaign moving forward, according to delegates at a national Indigenous health meeting.
The ‘Close the Gap – Making it Happen’ workshop held last week in Old Parliament House, Canberra, included key Indigenous and non-Indigenous health peak bodies and experts from across Australia’s non-government and government sectors.
The Close the Gap Campaign’s Co-Chairs, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda, and National Coordinator – Tackling Indigenous Smoking, Dr Tom Calma, look forward to working with the new Prime Minister and praised former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s achievements.
“Only a Prime Minister can bring the whole of government focus to Closing the Gap that is necessary to make progress in all areas, including Indigenous health,” Mr Gooda said.
“The Close the Gap Campaign looks forward to working with the new Prime Minister to meet the government’s commitments to the Indigenous Health Equality Statement of Intent signed by the Government and Opposition in 2008.”
The workshop focused on practical moves to bring to fruition the government’s commitments to Close the Gap, particularly the development of a long term national action plan developed in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
“Delegates agreed that the Statement of Intent expressed the essential philosophy of the campaign,” Mr Gooda said.
“This included that Indigenous community controlled health services and their peak bodies had to be central to the design and delivery of services for our people.”
Campaign Co-Chair Tom Calma, said the first steps had been made toward a partnership with government to Close the Gap in Indigenous health and that the workshop agreed on a way forward based on plans already in place.
“However we need all areas of government involved in helping us make this happen,” Dr Calma said.
“If Indigenous health is just seen as one minor silo in the Health department we will not progress beyond just having good intentions.
“The Department of Health alone will not resolve Indigenous health inequality,” he said.
“A good start has been made by the government to addressing Indigenous health equality but ultimately inequality will only be addressed if all departments and agencies work collectively and cooperatively in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. That is why we look forward to working with Prime Minister Gillard to Close the Gap,” Dr Calma said.
NSW – Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal People
June 22, 2010From www.daa.nsw.gov.au
The NSW Government proposes to amend the Constitution Act 1902 (NSW) by inserting a new section, which is suggested to take the following form:
(a) The People and Parliament of New South Wales acknowledge and honour the Aboriginal people as the first people and nations of the State, and
(b) The People and Parliament of New South Wales recognise that Aboriginal people have a spiritual, social, and cultural relationship with their traditional lands and waters and have made a unique and lasting contribution to the identity of New South Wales.
(c) Nothing in this section creates in any person any legal right or gives rise to any civil cause of action, or affects the interpretation of this Act or and other law in force in New South Wales.
A 4 page Discussion Paper outlining the proposal can be downloaded from:
http://www.daa.nsw.gov.au/data/files//cab%20min%20discussion%20paper.pdf
If you are having trouble downloading the Discussion Paper, hardcopy versions are available on request from Aboriginal Affairs NSW.
Members of the public are invited to make written submissions in response to the proposal.
Submissions should include your views and suggestions on the proposal to recognise Aboriginal people in the Constitution Act 1902 and on the proposed formulation of the amendment.
Closing date for submissions is 5 pm, 11 August 2010
Written submissions to the proposal are to be to addressed to:
Aboriginal Affairs NSW
Level 13, Tower B
Centennial Plaza
280 Elizabeth Street
SURRY HILLS NSW 2010
Or email to: enquiries@daa.nsw.gov.au
Aboriginal Affairs NSW also accepts telephone submissions on 1800 019 998.
“Passage of NTER Amendments a step in the right direction”
June 22, 2010Australian Human Rights Commission
Commissioner Innes, and Commissioner Gooda, said passage of the Social Security and Other Legislation Amendment (Welfare Reform and Reinstatement of Racial Discrimination Act) Bill 2009 yesterday would go some way to lifting the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) and state and territory anti-discrimination laws in the Northern Territory.
Race Discrimination Commissioner, Graeme Innes said the passage of the amendments will end much of the uncertainty, misinformation and conflict that communities have endured in relation to their rights.
“It is imperative that the government now provides clear and comprehensive information about these changes to the people in affected communities,” said Commissioner Innes. “People need information about their rights and protections – some of which were suspended during the course of the intervention – and they need to know what will be available to them again.”
Noting that the amendments do not completely reinstate the RDA, Commissioner Innes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mick Gooda, emphasised that the passing of this legislation should only be seen as a first step in the restoration of full protections for the affected communities.
The Commissioners said they were particularly concerned about:
* continuation of the compulsory five-year lease arrangements and their exclusion from the protections against discrimination under the RDA;
* potential characterisation of some measures as ‘special measures’ under the RDA;
* the broad reach of some categories of the new income management measure, particularly where they could result in a disproportionate number of Aboriginal people being unnecessarily income-managed, and
* continuation of unnecessary and unreasonable business management areas powers.
Commissioner Gooda said the focus should now be on getting services delivered on the ground. “There is a continued need for services in these communities, particularly in relation to housing, health and education,” Commissioner Gooda said. “The government must engage with affected communities to ensure that funding is correctly targeted and that services are delivered and developed appropriately.”
The Commissioners said that long-term, sustainable success would now be dependant on ensuring the involvement of Indigenous people and affected communities to:
* develop community-driven processes to address issues like unhealthy drinking patterns and pornography; and
* develop the delegated instruments that are non-discriminatory and consistent with human rights obligations, on which much of the implementation of the Northern Territory Emergency Response will now be dependent.
Commissioner Innes said it was vital that the next steps for improvement to the Northern Territory Emergency Response include the gathering of relevant baseline data and development of monitoring and evaluation tools, followed by further steps to ensure the full reinstatement of the RDA.
ABC TV program – Rush to Riches – well worth a look
June 21, 2010“Rush to Riches”
ABC TV Four Corners
21 June 2010
reporter – Deb Whitmont
A fascinating mix of factors (land ownership, who can speak for country) regarding a now bitter dispute between First Peoples in Western Australia (the Kimberley region) regarding the location of a gas processing plant.
(Provides very interesting parallels with the way the Australian government is handling the location of a radioactive waste storage facility at Muckaty Station in the Northern Territory – including the role of Land Councils – this comparison not made in the 4 Corners program.)
Available online
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/
see also
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/special_eds/20100621/kimberley/
United States apologises to (U.S.) Native Americans
June 14, 2010Seems to be on or about 20 May, 2010;
From media release found at various sources:
“Chad Smith, chief of the Cherokee Nation, said most tribes had not specifically asked for a formal apology from the US government, but the gesture was appreciated.
“It’s difficult to issue an apology and sometimes it’s difficult to accept one,” Mr Smith said.
“Once you put those differences of the past aside, perhaps the next step is, can you do any better in this round?
That is where our greatest challenge is. The history of the US (toward American Indians) is not a bright record. The real question is, what happens from this day forward? (emphasis added)”
Read more:
see text:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:S.J.RES.14:
See also:
Maurice Blackburn lawyers – Muckaty media release 3 June
June 11, 2010Press Releases and Announcements – 03 June 2010
Indigenous owners launch Federal legal challenge over Australia’s first nuclear waste dump
The Commonwealth Government and the Northern Land Council (NLC) will face a Federal Court legal challenge over plans for a radioactive waste dump on Indigenous land at Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory.
Mark Lane Jangala, a senior Ngapa traditional owner for Muckaty Station claims he and many other senior elders never gave consent and were not consulted over the nomination of their land for Australia’s first radioactive waste dump.
They are particularly outraged that a sacred male initiation site is being threatened by the move.
By law, before a site on Aboriginal land can be nominated by government, the traditional owners must be adequately consulted and give consent.
Mr Lane Jangala has instructed Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, together with NSW firm Surry Partners and Julian Burnside QC, to commence proceedings challenging the nomination of the land at Muckaty Station as a site for the disposal of radioactive waste.
Muckaty Station was formally returned to the traditional owners after a long land claim in 2001.The Aboriginal Land Commissioner Justice Gray determined that five traditional owner groups had joint and overlapping traditional ownership of the Station: the Ngapa, Wirntiku, Milwayi, Yapayapa and Ngarrka clans. However, the NLC and Government now claim that a single sub-group of one of these clans owns the relevant land for the waste dump, so that only their consent is required.
This claim of ownership, which is contrary to the findings of Justice Gray and the traditional knowledge of senior elders of the five clans, is based on a secret anthropologist report which the Commonwealth Government and the NLC refuse to release to the traditional owners.
Maurice Blackburn and Surry Partners represent Mark Lane Jangala and senior elders from all five groups of traditional owners.
Mr Lane Jangala has been campaigning along with many other traditional owners against the proposed site because of its cultural significance.
“I am senior Ngapa man for Muckaty and I did not agree to the nomination of the site, along with other senior Ngapa elders for Muckaty Station who did not agree. We don’t want it. There was not even a meeting in town to consult all of the traditional owners.”
“I want to look after my Country and Dreaming, look after the Sacred Sites I am responsible for and to make sure my children are raised properly in their Country,” he said.
Under the Commonwealth Radioactive Waste Management Act 2005 and the proposed new National Radioactive Waste Management Act, Resources Minister Martin Ferguson can at any time make a declaration confirming Muckaty Station as the site of the waste dump.
Maurice Blackburn senior associate Martin Hyde said most of the traditional owners were not given the opportunity to make an informed decision.
“If you are going to take away people’s land in perpetuity and fill it with radioactive waste, you have a legal and moral obligation to ask the owners first and seek their informed consent. It appears that simply did not happen”.
George Newhouse, human rights lawyer with Surry Partners said: “This is an important case not only because it is about the dumping of nuclear waste on Aboriginal land but it will set out the principles that will guide the way that Indigenous Land Councils treat the people that they are supposed to represent.”
http://www.mauriceblackburn.com.au/news/press-releases–announcements/indigenous-owners-launch-federal-legal-challenge-over-australia%E2%80%99s-first-nuclear-waste-dump.aspx
Foreshore and Seabed Act
June 7, 2010“Iwi insist private titles must go
NZ Herald Monday Jun 7, 2010
Maori will refuse to forgo their rights to the foreshore and seabed and see it vested in the public domain unless private owners do the same, says Mark Solomon, Ngai Tahu chairman and member of a Maori iwi leadership group.
The Government has agreed to repeal Labour’s foreshore and seabed legislation, which put the areas in Crown ownership.
A ministerial review found that the Foreshore and Seabed Act was unfair and said that was because it removed property rights available to Maori.”
full story
http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10650228&ref=rss
Muckaty – joint and overlapping traditional ownership
June 5, 2010Aboriginal group challenges planned nuclear dump in court
LINDSAY MURDOCH DARWIN SMH
June 4, 2010
ABORIGINAL traditional owners have initiated a Federal Court legal challenge to plans by the federal government to build Australia’s first national radioactive waste dump near Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory.
Mark Lane Jangala, a senior elder of the Ngapa clan, says he and many other senior elders were not consulted about the nomination of their land.
…
The offer of the land in return for one clan receiving $12 million in cash and other benefits has bitterly divided Aboriginal family groups in the Tennant Creek region.
…
The government and the land council have refused to make public an anthropological report the land council says shows that one clan owns the nominated 1.2 square kilometre site 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek.
However, the court action will centre on a finding by the Aboriginal Land Commissioner in 2001 that five owner groups have joint and overlapping traditional ownership of the land.
The Maurice Blackburn senior associate Martin Hyde said most traditional owners were not given the opportunity to make an informed decision.
