Land Sea & Water

Former PM, John Howard

With the passage of time it is now painfully obvious that former Prime Minister, John Howard, fully realised that Aboriginal peoples maintain a very powerful position in Australia, so much so, that by amending the Native Title Act in 1998 he demonstrated the inherent power of Aboriginal peoples, which stems from our continuing sovereignty.

Having now reviewed his Ten Point Plan it is important for us, as First Nations Peoples, to revisit John Howard’s amendments and what they meant.

Howard’s Ten Point Plan promised ‘bucket loads’ of extinguishment of Native Title after the Wik decision, in which the High Court found that Native Title continued to exist on pastoral leases in Queensland. This sent the Howard government into a fervent need to create ‘certainty’ for the non-Aboriginal landholders, driven by the fear in existing landholders of our continuing connection to Country.

 Sovereign Union Media Release - Howard recognised continuing Aboriginal sovereignty pdf

Far from being hunters and gatherers, the first Australians may have managed the biggest

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farming estate on Earth, writes Tony Stephens.

The still common assumption is that Aboriginal Australians in 1788 were simple hunter-gatherers who relied on chance for survival and moulded their lives to the country where they lived. Historian Bill Gammage might have driven the last nail into the coffin of this notion.

Gammage draws striking conclusions from more than a decade's research. [node:read-more:link]

Stanford University Report, July 12, 2012

Hunting with fire appears to benefit Australia's small-mammal populations, say Stanford researchers

Western Australia's Martu people set small fires as a matter of course while hunting lizards. But the technique may also buffer the landscape against two extremes – overgrown brush and widespread lightning fires – that hurt Australia's endangered small mammals.

BY MAX MCCLURE [node:read-more:link]