Blue King Brown » Indigenous Affairs

ABORIGINAL RIGHTS COALITION (ARC)

Blue King Brown — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 02:00:03 +0000

A coalition of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal activists from a variety of ages, backgrounds and perspectives. Meets Monday nights at Redfern Community Centre, Hugo St, Sydney. You can join ARC mailing list by sending an email to nt-solidarity-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

www.aboriginalrightscoalition.wordpress.com

CENTRAL LAND COUNCIL (CLC)

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:12:18 +0000

“Council of 90 Aboriginal people elected from communities in the southern half of the Northern Territory….the CLC is a representative body promoting Aboriginal right.

Its region covers 771,747 sq km of remote, rugged and often inaccessible areas.”
www.clc.org.au

SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORT 2007

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:11:57 +0000

Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner.

Note: check out chapter 3 “NT Emergency Response Intervention – a Human Rights Analysis”

HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION (HREOC)

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:11:34 +0000

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social justice

“The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission was established in 1986 by an act of federal Parliament. We are an independent statutory organisation and report to the federal Parliament through the Attorney-General. HREOC is leading the promotion and protection of human rights in Australia by:

•Making Human Rights values part of everyday life and language
•Empowering all people to understand and exercise their human rights
•Working with individuals, community, business and government to inspire action
•Keeping government accountable to national and international human rights standards
•Securing an Australian Charter of Rights.

ABORIGINAL & TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER YOUTH CAUCUS AT THE UN

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:09:33 +0000

Read the joint statement to UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues by the youth delegation. Joint statement by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Youth Caucus

Agenda Item 8: “Ongoing Themes and Priorities – Children and Youth”

We the Australian Indigenous Youth delegation wish to recognise and acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land in which we meet, and are honoured to pay our respects to the Elders and our youth brothers and sisters of the visiting nations from around the globe.

Madam Chair,

This intervention is by the Australian Indigenous youth delegation present at the 7th Session of the UNPFII, with the support of the Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. The Australian youth delegation is comprised of members from rural, remote and regional communities.

However, we are all impacted by similar issues which affect us in different ways.

We the Indigenous Australian Youth welcome and applaud the apology to the stolen generations of Indigenous peoples by the Parliament of Australia, however, policies are just paper, unless real and practical outcomes are achieved.

The Indigenous children and youth of Australia make up approximately 60 per cent of the Indigenous population, and therefore our views are crucial to this forum. Today we are growing up in a legacy of disempowerment and submissive behaviours, and it would be naive to pin point it to one particular issue. Today, we will focus on health, identity and education.

The social determinants of health have impacted specifically on Indigenous children and youth through the history of Australia and trans-generational trauma. We have a lower life expectancy, so too will our children, high rates of chronic disease, so too will our children, cancers and respiratory diseases, so too will our children. Even before birth, indigenous children are at a disadvantage, with high infant mortality and lower birth weights in our communities. Pre-natal care is a high priority with a number of our babies being born with foetal alcohol syndrome.

Young indigenous peoples often have poor access to education facilities, experience institutional racism in schools and are recorded as having low attendance rates across all levels of education. There are also low expectations on Indigenous children and what they are capable of achieving in education systems. There is no recognition of cultural education and language within our formal education system. We also have an untrue depiction of what Australian history is where in the formal system children are only taught of the colonisation of Australia and no education on the atrocities and attempted eradication of the Aboriginal culture.

We recognise, and celebrate the diverse cultural identities that exists within Australia’s Indigenous children and youths, however, we are losing our identity in culture and tradition because we are being dominated by western ideals.

We are extremely concerned about the portrayal of Indigenous cultures by mainstream media in Australia that misrepresent our cultures, does not celebrate the diversity within our communities, or accurately reflect our true views.

It is normal for us to grow up in communities lacking health and other appropriate social services as well as being dominated by welfare dependency, drug and alcohol abuse, and incarceration – all factors that significantly impact on our personal and cultural self-esteem. We support the comments by the Global Youth Caucus Statement on Human Rights which emphasises the importance of our identity to our well being.

As indigenous youth delegates, we rely on the doctrine of responsible Government to implement real and sustainable policies – policies that not only alleviate social and economic disadvantage, but aim to eradicate it.
In Australia, we are currently at a stage where policies tackling climate change, social exclusion, poverty as well as economic and social disadvantage are gaining real momentum. The time has come in our nation’s history to play an active, responsible and collaborative role in putting these policies into practice – by assessing and acting upon what the human and social costs will be if the change that is needed does not happen now.

We, as Indigenous Youth, want to see these issues as the key priorities in all nations spending throughout the world. We, like many of our Indigenous brothers and sisters, would applaud our governments and leaders spending more on these as targeted domestic priorities, rather than supporting international conflicts.We want our children to be born into a world not marred by conflict but one that has matured into one that has embraced cultural diversity, one that our children have the same life chances as their non-indigenous brothers and sisters and where being Indigenous is not seen a social stigma.

Following on from the welcomed and timely apology from the Australian Government, we ask the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to:

Encourage States’ to ensure representation of Indigenous peoples in decisions about our issues, including through supporting nationally elected representative bodies.
Encourage States to assist and implement indigenous youth parliaments within their countries. The parliament formation should be elected by the Indigenous peoples of the nation.
Support and commend the Australian government’s pledge to close the gap in Indigenous health and encourage them to do this in transparent practical steps.
Call on UNICEF, and other relevant UN agencies, to encourage state education systems on all levels to recognise Indigenous cultures and perspectives within on mainstream history curricula.
Call on States to develop stronger infrastructure that includes services that support the above issues including mental health, families, substance abuse, and the justice system. IN conclusion, we the Indigenous youth of Australia believe there is no one solution to the issues facing our communities, and we need and require a holistic approach from all levels of government working in partnership with our communities.

Thank you Madam Chair.

BLACK TRACKS – INDIGENOUS MEDIA

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:07:23 +0000

“Black Tracks is a travel show with a difference – showing the experience of travel from an Indigenous perspective. The program has a dedicated crew in New York, talking to the 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who’ve made the journey from Australia. Respected Australian journalist Ginny Stein is on the ground and is sending updated reports straight from UN Headquarters.”

See video interviews with indigenous delegates at the UN:

www.nitv.org.au/blacktracks

INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIA: GOVT POLICY & GRASS ROOTS ACTION NT INTERVENTION

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:06:18 +0000

“I thank you Prime Minister Rudd for your apology but it’s an invasion all over again. We are being told where to shop, what to eat, how to act and how to live.”Lyle Cooper, vice president of the Bagot Community in Darwin.

“What is required is a determined, coordinated effort to break the cycle and provide the necessary strength, power and appropriate support and services to local communities, so they can lead themselves out of the malaise: in a word, empowerment!” Pat Anderson and Rex Wild QC, Little Children are Sacred report, 2007.

OVERVIEW:
The Northern Territory Intervention is the enacting of federal laws relating to the land, culture and self-determination of Indigenous people living in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Introduced by the Howard Govt as The National Emergency Response Act 2007, the laws gave power to the commonwealth to take over 72 Aboriginal communities and town camps in August 2007. The NT intervention was backed by military, police and doctors and cost $1.5 billion to enact.

It is the newest and most controversial piece of legislation affecting Indigenous people, not least because it applies only to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and required the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act (RDA) to become law.

The NT intervention contravenes Australia’s Racial Discrimination Act. It also breaches international human rights charters which Australia is signatory to, including the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Charter, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

For more info check out the Central Land Council’s
SHORT AND EASY GUIDE TO THE COMMONWEALTH INTERVENTION
www.clc.org.au

RESPONSES BY INDIGENOUS LEADERS & COMMUNITY MEMBERS

“The most significant problem with the new arrangements identified by the Report is the lack of capacity for engagement and participation of Indigenous peoples. This manifests as a lack of connection between the local and regional level, up to the state and national level; and as a disconnect between the making of policy and its implementation.

Indigenous peoples are treated as problems to be solved, not as partners and active participants in creating a positive life vision for the generations of Indigenous peoples still to come.

The greatest irony of this is that it fosters a passive system of policy development and service delivery while at the same time criticising Indigenous peoples for being passive recipients of government services!” Tom Calma, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, 2007 Social Justice Report.

“I live 25km outside Alice Springs on my traditional land. After having worked for about 48 years, reared 10 kids and worked in between that time, I retired to the good life and I’m hit with this intervention. I’m being ‘income managed’ and they couldn’t give me a reason why.” Kathleen Martin, Inkerreke station, NT.

“As medical professionals, we question the notion that you can treat poverty, dispossession, marginalisation and despair (the root causes of substance misuse and sexual, physical and emotional abuse) with interventions that further contribute to poverty, dispossession, marginalisation and despair.” Dr Mark Wenitong, President of the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association.

“The govt’s plan failed to address long-term problems such as education, overcrowded housing, unemployment and poor health….in their present form the proposals miss the mark and are unlikely to be effective. There is an over-reliance on top-down punitive measures and insufficient indication that additional resources will be mobilised where they are urgently needed.” Letter excerpt – from a coalition of 30 groups including indigenous, welfare, health, housing, church, and cultural organizations to the Howard Govt, June 2007.

“This is affecting people’s self esteem, they are feeling shame and humiliation, they feel like it’s back to the mission days. People are saying: this doesn’t apply to other people so why should it apply to us?’” Olivia Nigro, Darwin Aboriginal Rights Coalition.

For more info on the impacts of intervention, check out this PPT.

POSITIVE ACTION:
In this political era of the new federal Labor government, and after the PM Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations in February 2008, the grass roots movement to support Indigenous self-determination and human rights is now focused around the federal intervention. Many community groups are calling for a change in the current policy due to its negative social and economic impacts on Indigenous communities and the erosion of the human rights of Indigenous Australians. A focal point of the campaign is the reinstatement of the Racial Discrimination Act, which was suspended by PM Howard to pass the federal intervention laws. If you want to get active, listen to Indigenous people’s experiences, check out the resources on this site, and find community groups in the links below.

AUSTRALIA
Sydney: May 24-25 2008: National Conference in Redfern organised by Aboriginal Rights Coalition.
National: June 21, 2008: Mass rallies planned across Australia for the first anniversary of intervention.

INTERNATIONAL – UNITED NATIONS (UN)
A delegation of 40 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians attended United Nations permanent forum on Indigenous issues in New York, April 21-May 2, 2008. This year’s forum focused on the issues of climate change, bio-cultural diversity and livelihoods. It is the first summit since the UN’s non-binding declaration on Indigenous rights in 2007. Indigenous delegates have taken the opportunity of the forum to voice their concerns about the impacts of the federal intervention on their communities.

LINKS: LISTEN TO INDIGENOUS VOICES!

Check out Indigenous speakers from all over Australia express their views on NT intervention during a protest at Parliament House, Canberra. February 12, 2008.

AWAYE!

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:04:23 +0000

“AWAYE! provides an important platform for indigenous people from all over Australia to share the richness and diversity of their culture with all Australians, and to discuss a wide range of contemporary and historical challenges facing their communities. From the cities to the outback, indigenous Australians share their stories and their ideas for positive change on this weekly radio program presented by Daniel Browning.

AWAYE! dives in deep with consistently well researched and thought provoking programs, opening a window for the wider community to become more aware and better informed about Indigenous Australia, and how we can move forward together. AWAYE! is broadcast nationally on ABC Radio National each Saturday at 6pm and repeated each Monday at 3pm. Each program is available for 4 weeks as podcast or audio on demand.” www.abc.net.au/rn/awaye/

The ReconciliACTION Network

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:04:00 +0000

The ReconciliACTION Network is a network of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people who have an interest in reconciliation and Indigenous rights issues and those who are active in their communities.

ReconciliACTION was started in 2002 by a group of Indigenous and non-Indigenous young people from metropolitan, regional and remote New South Wales. Since then ReconciliACTION has grown to become a national network which includes young people from across Australia, with autonomous partner groups in NSW, the ACT and Victoria. www.reconciliaction.org.au

Koori History Website

Blue King Brown — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:03:36 +0000

Gary Foley’s Indigenous history archive and education resource site  features material on Black Australia’s 200 year struggle for justice.