Abuse in Country

REPORT & VIDEOS: Delegates came from as far away as Oombulgurri in the Kimberley, WA and Atherton in Far North Queensland. First Nations delegates were joined by participants from the Mapuche in southern Chile, Canada, Fiji and Bangladesh. The Gathering was also well attended by youth from across the continent. The Sovereign Union has recorded the testimonies of ongoing crimes against humanity, genocide, ethnocide, ecocide and persecution, as well as ways forward.

The new Biodiversity law is tantamount to a declaration of War against First Nations Peoples. These changes will seriously impact on our Laws, culture, religion and spirituality in the State of New South Wales. The new law is deregulation in its worst form, farmers can now basically do on "their" land what they want, clearing, destroying ecosystem and shoot whatever moves. Our sites, be it archaeological campsites, burial grounds or even sacred places have lost the little bit of protection they had, no we will not even be notified, if there is no Native Title claim over the area.

The Northern Basin Aboriginal Nations (NBAN) who represents the 22 First Nations in the Northern Basin, fully support Minister Hunters call for the extra promised 450 GL of Water to be delivered to the Murray Darling Basin. "By the Prime Minister moving the water portfolio from Environment to Mr Joyce's Agriculture, is equivalent to putting Dracula and his Vampires in charge of the blood bank" one of the delegates at the meeting said. He also said that "nobody will get any blood" we need to understand that this exact scenario is playing out in the Murray Darling at the moment.

A new report suggests Aboriginal people are facing enormous pressure to lose their traditional culture in order to be successful in Australia.
"Daily I'm juggling with who I am, how I talk, how I act and look and whatever," an anonymous respondent in the study said. "So you get it from the whitefella's, you know, that you can't talk good English, and then these blackfella's: 'Why are you acting white, talking white?'"

From 1998-2004, the Australian federal government used thuggish, racist tactics in a failed attempt to impose a national nuclear waste dump on Aboriginal land in South Australia. The government's subsequent attempt to impose a dump on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory was even more thuggish and even more racist. But that also failed. Now the Australian government has embarked on its third attempt to establish a nuclear waste dump and it has decided to once again try to impose a dump on Aboriginal land in SA despite clear opposition from Traditional Owners.