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Aboriginal summit to expose government's media lies


Convenor Sharon Firebrace.
(Photo by Sue Bolton)

Greeen Left Thursday, July 1, 2010

A national gathering of Aboriginal community leaders will expose what they describe as the “treachery inherent in government policies targeting the civil and political rights” of their communities.

The New Way Aboriginal Summit, being held in Melbourne from July 1 – 4 to coincide with NAIDOC Week, will host a press conference at 12.40 pm this Friday 2nd July at Trades Hall Council, the main summit venue.

State Summit Convener and founder of the Aboriginal Genocide Centre Sharon Firebrace said today that a strong theme of the press conference will be to demand an end to the federal government’s draconian Northern Territory Intervention measures.

“Aboriginal Leaders will be calling on the federal government to adequately fund and empower Aboriginal communities. Maintaining and strengthening self determination, as per the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and the International Civil and Political Rights Declaration Articles 1- 21, is the key to meeting Aboriginal people’s needs,” she said.

“The government is not targeting the urgent needs of Aboriginal people such as deaths in custody and the 17 year gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Welfare Quarantining is not the way to address the needs of a brutalised and fragile people,” Ms Firebrace added.

The summit keynote address, at 7.30 pm on Friday 2nd July, by Walkley Award winner and founding editor of the National Indigenous Times, Chris Graham, will present compelling evidence of blatant lies, collusion and corruption involving government officials and media representatives to bring about the Northern Territory Intervention.

The New Way Aboriginal Summit, which kicks off at Broadmeadows Kangan Institute at 1 pm on Thursday before moving to Trades Hall, will conclude with a further press conference at 2.35 pm on Sunday 4th July, where a panel of Indigenous leaders will present the summit’s outcomes to the nation. The New Way Summit boasts an impressive list of speakers including the summit’s National Convener, Aboriginal tent embassy veteran and Euahlayi community leader Michael Anderson; former ATSIC chairperson Geoff Clarke; Dr Mark Rose of Deakin University; Professors Robert Manne and Richard Broome of La Trobe University; Professor John Taylor of ANU; Aboriginal Elder Sam Watson of the Socialist Alliance and Greens Candidate for the Seat of Melbourne Adam Bandt.

From GLW issue 842