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please report any broken links or other errors to › want to come back later? click here to add this page to your bookmarks / favourites First their children were stolen …… now their land too? We write to appeal to you as Australia's constitutional Head of State.
We do so as a matter of some urgency and not without hope. We are looking
to you to protect the interests of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples of this land, Australia. We love this land and are proud of our achievements but we cannot be truly at peace in this country until such time as we properly acknowledge our full history and remedy what can, and must, be put to rights. The history of the treatment of the first Australians at the hands of Europeans is a sad one. It is a tale of disease, treachery, deprivation and murder. For many decades - as recently s the 1970's - Aboriginal babies and children where forcibly taken from their mothers, to be bought up in missions and foster families and assimilated into white society. Many where used as cheap labour, many where sexually abused. All were meant to be stripped of their culture and identity. Many never saw their mothers or fathers again. They have become know as 'The Stolen Generation'. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Oppurtunity Commission has just issued a major report concluding that past Australian government policy resulting in 'Stolen Generations' constituted an act of genocide, as defined in the international convention in 1948. Their finding has been supported by the executive council of Australian Jewry. It makes for a howorring reading, and has moved many to tears including parliamentarians and distinguished jurists. Your Governor General, His Excellency the Hon. Sir William Deane, has given a gracious and generous apology. However the report called for a national apology from the Prime Minister of Australia, but so far he has refused.
As recently as March 1996, following a visit to Australia, Amnesty International reported '… a pattern of ill treatment and arbitrary arrest occurs against a backdrop of systematic discrimination against Aborigines'. Even now an aboriginal child is 3-5 times more likely to die in infancy than other Australian children. Most Australians will live into their seventies, while most aboriginals will die in their fifties. Australia is one of the richest countries in the world but has still not provided safe drinking water to many Aboriginal communities. Despite the odds, Aboriginal people have survived in Australia. They do not want to dwell on the past or to apportion blame. They are people of exceptional generosity of spirit, who are working hard to climb out of the whirlpool of ill health, sorrow and dislocation which Australian colonisation has caused. Their vision of the future is one of harmonious co-existence with their fellow Australians. But this vision can only be realised if Aboriginal people have access to their traditional lands. Land is special to all who live and work on it, but to Aboriginal people land is of exceptional spiritual and cultural importance. Their religious traditions and culture cannot be practised without access to sacred and culturally significant sites, making land central to both their sense of identity and their survival. Land also enables Aboriginal people to negotiate about their future and economic development. Alone of Britains former colonies their has been no treaty with Australians first inhabitants. It was not until 1992 that the Australian High Court acknowledged that Australia was in faCT inhabited when Captain Cook landed in 1770, and that Aboriginal people in many parts of Australia still have some rights to their land. Six months ago the high court further ruled that native title rights could co-exist with the rights of pastoralists. Your Prime Minister, Mr Howard, is now proposing legislation which will take away most of these remaining rights to land - legislation that will give that land to the pastoral industry, an industry dominated by Australia's largest and wealthiest families. Many overseas companies and individuals also stand to benefit. Dispute appeals from the leaders of other parties in Parliament he refuses to guarantee his legislation will comply with Australian laws against racial discrimination. Prime Minster Howard refuses to guarantee that constitutional powers will not be used against the first Australians. Aboriginal people are not asking for anyone's land to be taken away they simply want the rights to co-exist with mutual respect. At the time of the granting of pastoral leases last century the crown stated it's concern for the rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this continent. Historical records demonstrate that the intention in pursuing pastoral leases was to preserve the hunting and other rights of the Aboriginal occupants, not to drive them into the sea. Today those rights are at grave risk, and many fear that the final act of dispossession is about to occur. In these circumstances, we appeal to you to take all appropriate steps within your power to ensure all Australians have full enjoyment of their rights, most particularly the full Native Title rights which the High Court has properly recognised. We also appeal to you to do all within our powers as Australia's Head of State to ensure a full apology to the 'Stolen Generation' and to all those who have suffered from the policies of forced removals of children, as recommended by Sir Ronald Wilson and the Human Rights and Equal Oppurtunity Commission. We commend your willingness; evident in your apologies you offered to the Indigenous Peoples of New Zealand, to recognise the continuing effect of past injustices. We particularly ask that you seize your opportunity with your meeting this week with Prime Minister Howard to pursue these matters.
Yours sincerely Australians for Native Title liberty (The Australian Council for Civil
Liberties) AN APPEAL TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE As Australians we share the views of the British Prime Minister on the importance of human rights in domestic and foreign policy. We support the appeal to Mr Blair to raise this grave human rights situation with Mr Howard in their discussions and to seek a commitment from him to respect the views of indigenous Australians and to work together with them for the realisation of their human rights. As Australians we acknowledge the ties of history and shared values with the women and men of the United Kingdom. Many of you have been part of our history. We need your help now to help us build a future free of discrimination and based on respect for the rights of the first Australians. Please write to the Australian High Commissioner in London at Australia House, The Stand, London, WC24LA. Urging the Australian Government to respect the anti-discrimination legislation and to pursue a path of true co-existence between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. The above advert was placed in The Independent (UK) Further reading
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 Support the Stolen Wages campaign. From 1904 to 1987, the Queensland Government withheld or underpaid wages earned by Aboriginal workers; a fraction has been offered as a settlement. Your assistance would be greatly appreciated. ›› Latest
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November
1997 - AN OPEN LETTER TO HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH 11 QUEEN OF AUSTRALIA
ENIAR
