Call for Rights Gathering at Aboriginal Embassy, Canberra

Reclaiming our Rights Gathering
20 July 2005
Aboriginal Embassy, Canberra

Michael Anderson 07 4625 0808 or 0428 54 76 93 or 0421 795 639

Western Gumilaroi People are calling up all people to gather at the ABORIGINAL EMBASSY, Canberra, on 20 July 2005 to determine our future movement.

The western Gumilaroi emphasise the urgency for such a gathering, given we now have a parliamentary system that has the potential to become totally authoritarian in respect to Aboriginal Peoples and our future. Our primary concern is that since Howard took office Aboriginal people across Australia have consistently lost all that was gained in previous years. We have had too many selected representatives making decisions for and about us without any true form of consent from us. On the other hand, bureaucrats are constantly overriding us and disregarding the wishes of the people. A proper consultative process does not exist. Governments tell us what they are going to do instead of seeking informed consent.

We are marching on 20 July from the ANU, Australian National University, to the Embassy to commemorate the 20 July 1972 when Prime Minister Billy McMahon passed legislation to get rid of the Aboriginal Embassy and thousands of our people and students marched to protect the Embassy. We are gathering at the corner University Avenue and Childers Street, outside the Federal Court at 10am. The march will move off at 11am to the Embassy, where speakers will address the gathering and we take our struggle forward.

The greatest concern of the western Gumilaroi is the winding back of Aboriginal ownership of land, housing and businesses etc. It has been constantly said in Aboriginal circles that governments have deliberately set programmes that are destined to fail with no appropriate support or training being provided. For too long Aboriginal people have been dependant on outsiders and the honesty of bureaucrats to ensure the success of their programmes.

The greatest failure is that government programmes never focused on the creation of financially self-sustaining community development. It is wrong to blame our people when we are denied true self-determination.

The necessity for such a gathering of this nature cannot be overemphasized, particularly when we even have the ACT Chief Minister, Jon Stanhope quoted as saying:

“The ACT’s Human Rights Commissioner has reported that these [Shared Responsibility Agreements] are clear breach of the Territory’s Human Rights Act and what makes me particularly despair is that not a single media outlet in this jurisdiction, or this country, reported her findings.” (National Indigenous Times, 23 June 2005)

The attacks on our rights are compounded by Australian Government policy expressed by Senator Tsebin Tchen in his final speech to Federal Parliament on 22 June 2005:

“Under the leadership of John Howard, this government has been determined to
change that situation, and we are starting to see results. We are starting
to see the Indigenous community becoming reconciled to us. Reconciliation
has never been about us becoming reconciled to the Indigenous community. We are here and they must become reconciled to our presence here, and that is what we are working towards. We are lifting their living standards and education standards and giving them hope so that they can become part of the Australian community as equals. That is true reconciliation and I am glad to see that we are on our way.”

The time has come for us to stand and fight for our rights, or we roll over and assimilate. Our People are ready and those of us who know the corporate ideology of the early Aboriginal militant struggle must now show the way again. We must not fail our people. The urgency of this leadership is more apparent now than it was in the ‘60s and 70s.

See you at the Embassy on 20 July.

Michael Anderson 07 4625 0808 or 0428 54 76 93 or 0421 795 639