Assimilation & Oppression

The Bar Association of NSW's submission to a Law Reform Commission inquiry into First Nations incarceration calls for a new approach to sentencing which takes into account the deprivation and disadvantage inherent in an individual's Aboriginal background. The association also calls for an end to mandatory sentences, which make it impossible for courts to make any allowance for such disadvantage in their decisions. The rate at which Aboriginal people end up in jail is appalling and in NSW last year Aboriginal people were 3 per cent of the population, but 24 per cent of the prison population. [node:read-more:link]

The United Nations has described Australia's lack of progress on Closing the Gap as "woefully inadequate", saying the over-incarceration of Indigenous people is a major human rights concern. Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples Ms Tauli-Corpuz said it was unacceptable that despite two decades of economic growth, Australia had not been able to improve the social disadvantage of its Indigenous population. She urged the Federal Government to establish a treaties and truth-telling commission. [node:read-more:link]

In the April issue of Land Rights News I celebrated the 30th anniversary of the progressive and supportive Blanchard report 'Return to Country': the Aboriginal Homelands Movement in Australia. And I wondered what celebration or reproach the 10th anniversary of the Northern Territory National Emergency Response, the Intervention that was militaristically launched with extraordinary media fanfare on 21 June 2007 might elicit.

The answers to this question are threefold. [node:read-more:link]

Response to the Referendum Council's so-called modest and substantive recommendation of a referendum to have an advisory-only 'Indigenous Voice' in parliament. $800 million plus has now gone down the gurgler, but then this is what happens when a government meets resistance, a resistance that has been going since 1770. It must be an enormous disappointment for the Turnbull government and Shorten's expectations that Leibler and his First Nations cohorts have failed miserably to deliver the goods, that is to assimilate First Nations Peoples in to the colonial constitution. Turnbull is clearly aware of a looming 'heroic failure'. [node:read-more:link]

Aboriginal Embassy Statement from the Sacred Fire
'WALKOUT STATEMENT' Opposing Constitutional Recognition and Manufactured Consent
- We, the First Nations People who gathered at the Sacred Fire of the Aboriginal Embassy on 24-25 June 2017, reject the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ and its’ Guiding Principles. The ‘Uluru Statement’ is a reflection of the corrupt proceedings of the Referendum Council’s Regional Dialogues and the National Constitutional Convention. [node:read-more:link]

Ghillar, Michael Anderson provides an insight into a viable pathway going forward:
At the Referendum Council's National Convention, the line was drawn in the sand. There are no objections to those who want to be absorbed into our oppressor's society. For us who seek to stand and fight, then we must set our sights on looking at the details of how we develop ourselves as self-determining Nations and Peoples, being guided by international legal norms, whilst living next door to our oppressor. [node:read-more:link]

The Videos from The RiseUp Gathering begin with feedback from attendees experience as elected delegates and observers at the fatally flawed Referendum Council National Convention at Ayers Rock Resort near Uluru, NT.

Recorded at Aboriginal Embassy on 24 and 25 June 2017 during First Nations Rise Up gathering. [node:read-more:link]

Unfortunately a Facebook administrator and a handful of people are using a standard strategy to divide and conquer. This is in opposition to the purpose of the Aboriginal Embassy, which is to unite our people through a common cause. There are a few who are using this platform to pursue the agenda to character assassinate me personally, and to discredit the core purpose of the Sovereign Union. - - Ghillar, Michael Anderson, Sovereign Union Convenor, counters the most recent defaming detractors ...      [node:read-more:link]