Assimilation & Oppression

None of the recognition proposals confer any right on Aborigines to sue, nor do they impose any obligation on government to act, writes First Nations Activist, Michael Mansell.

"New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia have already recognised indigenous people in their state constitutions and the Federal Parliament passed the Act of Recognition in 2013. Not a single benefit to anyone has flowed from those measures, writes Michael Mansell, a Lawyer and First Nations Activist from Tasmania." [node:read-more:link]

First Nations children are eight times more likely to be receiving child protection services than non-Indigenous kids, and more than 10 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care, a report has revealed.

Across Australia, 68% of children placed in care are placed with relatives or kin, other Indigenous caregivers or in Indigenous residential care, in line with the Aboriginal Child Placement Principle.

Summary by Helen Davidson (Guardian) and link to Full Report [node:read-more:link]

Matt Thistlethwaite MP responds on behalf of his local First Nations community to Tony Abbott's claim that Australia was unsettled prior to British investment. Published on Jul 17, 2014

Matt Thistlethwaite Labor MP - 'Kingsford Smith electorate' covers the South-Eastern corner of the Sydney Inner Metropolitan area. The electorate area covers approximately 127 sq km from La Perouse in the south to Randwick and Coogee in the north. [node:read-more:link]

Yolngu Nations Assembly (YNA) urges the Commonwealth Government and Indigenous communities to consult carefully before considering entering into 99-year township leases ... The Traditional Owners only made an agreed to negotiate. "When Yolngu say, 'yes, we understand' that doesn't mean 'yes, we can go ahead'."

To force our people to accept 99 year leases for their land as the only way for them to achieve any form of economic advantage from their homelands is a crime. [node:read-more:link]

... it just will not deliver long-term gains

It seems like a bizarre kind of double-think that the government can abandon the Gonski funding model, which would have most helped disadvantaged students; cut $534 million in funding for Indigenous community health and education programs; and then turn around and claim that a sparkly new program will somehow "fix" First Nations literacy.

The Abbott Government's likely expansion of welfare reforms, including the quarantining of people's entitlements has been done before, just not to 'us'

Chris Graham New Matilda 1 July 2014 [node:read-more:link]