Gross Abuse

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]

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]

Video Gallery (with descriptions): The political confrontation that occurred at the National Convention was caused by the very apparent stacking of the meeting by the organisers (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies, AIATSIS), no doubt supported by the Referendum Council with a budget of over $800 million.
What was visually clear during the whole process was the apparent divide between members of the Referendum Council. [node:read-more:link]

Labor and the government have come to a "settled position" which will deliver native title law changes through federal parliament next week. The bill, slated to be debated in the Senate on Tuesday, is aimed at resolving legal uncertainty around more than 120 indigenous land use agreements relating to major projects, including Queensland's Carmichael mine proposed by Indian resources giant Adani. The bill expected to pass parliament next week reverts the system to the pre- McGlade status quo. [node:read-more:link]

URGENT NATIONAL CALL
22 - 25 June 2017
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra
First Nations Peoples say NO CONSENT to constitutional 'Recognition'. - Four days of actions and pathways forward. - This is a National Call to Action for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to oppose the Australian government's agenda of Genocide. [node:read-more:link]

As Chairperson of APY Law and Culture, I have written to the Referendum Council to say the Tjilpis are insulted that the Referendum Council did not respect protocol and procedure before they called a meeting for discussion on having Anangu/Aboriginal people all over Australia included in Australia's Constitution. We, the Traditional Owners for Uluru and Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara country argue that our Law is the Law of the Land in this part of the world and not the whiteman law. We know we have been controlled by the whiteman law because we didn't have enough warriors and clever Lawmen who can take the fight up to these people who occupy our lands illegally. [node:read-more:link]

The Referendum Council has been having invitation-only dialogue meetings with Aboriginal people across Australia which we called 'secret meetings' because only selected First Nations people were allowed to attend and many Tribes and Nations were not represented.  Now we find that there is an additional 'Invitation-Only' meeting in Canberra. First Nations people who have been seeking a voice for the 'NO' vote have discovered this meeting in Canberra on Wednesday 10 May 2017, because as it was poorly advertised many people do not know about it, so are unable to attend. [node:read-more:link]