:: One People, Many Cultures ::



::Living Together in Respect and Friendship::

Aboriginal elders walked off the community land in July to protest against the Northern Territory Intervention, which it says is “widening the gap on Indigenous disadvantage.”

This mirrors the first move to reclaim their traditional lands in 1966, when Aboriginal stockmen and their families walked off the Wave Hill Pastoral lands. Then, the action made headlines and gained national support. This attempt to do the same doesn’t seem to have had as much media coverage and I only found out about it this week.

A public meeting will be held in Melbourne today, 16th October, to support the walk-off protest. Please comment on this if you go or see anything more about this.

I’m again slow on the uptake here as uni has been keeping me very busy, but I want to highlight the recent visit of a UN expert on human rights to Australia after complaints about NT Intervention violating the rights of Aborigines. As I’ve said before, I’m not a fan of the idea of global human rights or any ‘rights’ dictated from outside, but it’s clear in this case that the Aboriginal community are not being given the opportunity to determine their own rights.

The Minister of Indigenous Affairs commended Professor Anaya on visiting Australia and expressed interest in open dialogue, but failed to appear for the results of the investigation. Mal Brough, who set the whole project in motion called Anaya an ‘armchair critic,’ saying that the intervention was about enabling Aboriginal children to lead happy lives.

I question how happy their lives will be when they’re being dictated by outsiders. And is intervention working at anyway? Apparently not. Alcoholism is still up and no paedophile has been identified. Children have restricted access to food.

And to top it all off, the Northern Territory government has asked for an exemption on the ban of alcohol for tourists.

What do you think? What rights should Aborigines have and how far can the government go to ‘protect’ them?