PRESS RELEASE
from the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, Australia.
New Years Day 2001
We are not dancing on our peoples' graves
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy In Canberra, Australia wishes
to state the following in the memory of our Ancestors and the
survival of our much loved people.
To those who are in denial of the true meaning of the Federation,
this is to remind you that a war began in this continent in 1788
by the British Crown against unarmed human beings, who will continue
to stand, defending our sacred lands, as our ancestors did before
us.
The original Colonial Validation Acts (setting up the colonies)
never gained informed consent from original owners. These illegal colonies
were then combined to form the Federation of States in 1901,
without consultation with the 500 Aboriginal Nations, who are
the custodians of the most sacred Lore/Law on earth, caretakers
and guardians of this Country, Sacred Land of the Dreaming, now
known as Australia.
From 1770 to 1992 the acts of invasion were perpetuated under
the legal myth of terra nullius (land belonging to no one). In
1992 the continuation of this cover up came in the guise of the
Churches attempt to exonerate their guilt under the smoke screen
of Reconciliation which also urges Aboriginal people of the continent
and Aboriginal Nations to embrace multiculturalism. Yet multiculturalism
does not embrace and recognise Aboriginal Sovereignty.
Today, illegal aliens celebrate the one hundred years of these notorious legal fictions which attempt to legitimize occupation
of our lands and the continued attempt of genocide.
Australia is one of the last countries in the world that still
has a Racially Discriminatory Constitution. This was recognised in
the Hindmarsh Island Case (Katinyeri v The Commonwealth [1998]
HCA 22
(1 April 1998)).
The case described the Section in the Australian Constitution
51(xxvi…) as racially discriminating as the terms of reference allows the Australian Government to constitute laws that subjugate
Aboriginal People for the colour of our skin, our belief in Mother
Earth and our understanding of the Universe. The High Court used this section to intentionally continue the overt system of apartheid.
In this case Justice Kirby equates the Australian Constitution
to " the laws of Germany and South Africa …" .
Kirby also issued this warning "Both in Germany and South
Africa the special laws enacted would probably have been regarded
as unthinkable but a decade before they were made. They stand
as a warning to us in the elaboration of our Constitution. ".
United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has placed Australia on their early warning and urgent action
procedures because of the racially discriminatory Native Title
Acts which extinguish the land rights of Aboriginal Peoples in
favour of non-Aboriginal vested interests. The Native Title Act
requires the Traditional Owners of the Aboriginal Nations to
prove their Aboriginality. In response to this demeaning and
disrespectful process "We challenge the Federal Court to
prove we are not."
The current coercion for the rapid development under the Indigenous Land Use Agreements seeks to utilise land at the expense of the
environment and against the wishes of the Aboriginal Custodians
of the land, by way of forcing negotiations without full consultation
of all Aboriginal people concerned. The Australian Government
has teamed up with private and foreign investors to utilise the
1998 Amendments to the Native Title Act for profit in a corrupt
process that is a conflict of interest by the Australian Government
at the expense of Aboriginal Human Rights. The Australian government
justifies this as being in the "National Interest" on behalf of Advance
Australia
Fair.
The answer is No, because the developers are illegal occupants
of this continent and so all negotiations and contracts are not
legal and binding. Despite the current government laws Aboriginal
people assert our right to veto mining, other developments and
sales of our land to foreign investors and absentee landlords.
Without our right of veto it is an apartheid system that enables Genocide with a clear intent to destroy a race of human beings
who are the oldest cultures known on Earth.
The celebrations of apartheid and genocide are condemned by
the owners of this country and wish to express our sadness for
the victims that have experienced the human violations of the
British Empire and their constituents since 1788.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra, Australia would like
to notify Australia and the Australian Government that the Indigenous people of this Country will not dance on our Ancestors
Graves.
To the five hundred Indigenous Nations of Australia we must
live as our ancestors have lived and obey the Sacred Lore/Law
that has been left in our care.
The Australian Governments Hidden Agenda must be exposed and
the continual denial of an Aboriginal History in this country needs
to be confessed.
To the Celebrations of the Federation the war of resistance
has not ceased and the Indigenous people of this country continue to
struggle in all aspects of life.
The Aboriginal Nations of this country continue to challenge
the British Crown and the Commonwealth of Australia's usurped
sovereignty of this country, now called Australia.
The Aboriginal Nations of this Country would like to "relay"
to the pseudo - government appointed Aboriginal leaders that they have
no womandate/mandate to make decisions on behalf of Aborigine
Australia and in many cases not even their own communities. These
leaders should recognise them selves as agents of the colonisers
and that Indigenous Nations political structure is egalatarian.
The Australian "National Interest" is still defined
by the first Prime Minister, Mr Edmund Barton when he quoted
Professor Pearson in 1901.
" The fear of Chinese immigration which the Australian
democracy cherishes… is in fact, the instinct of self -
preservation, quickened by experience … .We are guarding the last part
of the world in which the higher [sic] races can live and increase
freely for the higher civilisation [sic]….The day will come
… when the European observers will look around the globe
girdled with a continuous zone of the yellow and black races.
It is idle to say that if all this should come to pass our pride
and place will not be humiliated. We are struggling among ourselves
for supremacy in a world which we thought of as destined to belong
to the Aryan race: and to the Christian faith: to the letters
and arts and charms which we have inherited from the best of
times.' (Federal Parliament Debate 7th August 1901."
Aboriginal Sovereignty to this country has never been ceded,
never will be and never can be.
Always was and Always will be
Aboriginal Land
Unity
Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, Australia.
Ray Swan & Alison Hoolihan : (02) 62950493
Marie Bennett: Mobile; 0418 224 046
FAX: (02) 62950493
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Rights and Wrongs
A Millennium message from ATSIC Chairman Geoff Clark
For Australia's Indigenous peoples the new millennium must
be a century of informed consent. This rare moment in our history
is a time for reflection, a time to recognise both the challenges
and the opportunities that will face us in the coming years.
It must be a century of sustained progress towards equality
and equity for Indigenous peoples firmly based on their informed
consent. As Australia celebrates its Centenary of Federation,
I ask everyone to consider the place Indigenous peoples have
in our past and in our future.
Two terrible defects weaken the foundations of the modern
Australian nation that were laid in 1901: racism and inequality
and the suppression of our true history. During the colonisation
of Australia, no treaties or agreements were negotiated with
the first peoples. Indigenous peoples' rights were ignored from
the moment of the arrival of the British, through to the debates
and conventions leading up to the adoption of the Constitution
in 1901.
In 1901, the "founding fathers", failed to recognise
the inherent rights of Australia's Indigenous peoples within the Constitution.
We were, and remain, constitutional strangers in our own land. We have now walked the walk. We have talked the talk. Now is
the time for action. It is now time to entrench a culture of
human rights in our own country.
Let us start the Centenary of Federation celebrations on a
pledge to work together to end poverty and inequality. We can
and must do it. We must continue to encourage recognition and
reconciliation by paying due respect to all our cultures, languages
and religions. We must wipe out the legacy of racism and discrimination.
My challenge is to ensure that Indigenous rights become a living
reality. In 1901, the colonies of Australia joined to create a new federation.
In 2001, it is the aspiration of Australia's Indigenous peoples
to negotiate a place in that Federation.
Now is the time to right the wrongs of the past.
Geoff Clark
ATSIC Chairman
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