Antinuclear

Michael Anderson on Aboriginal people and Australia’s lack of democracy

They are welfare dependent and have to accept loss of income if they don’t bow to the rules of the government. That happens while they make billions and billions from mining on Aboriginal land. Just look at the Northern Territory, where most Aboriginals live, and its special conditions as federal territory. It is the only place in the world where a state directly operates an industry to gain communal assets, often without even allowing negotiations with Aboriginal locals. Democracy does not apply to Aboriginal people,

‘Democracy does not apply to Aboriginal people’, New Internationalist,
22 Jan 13,  This year’s Australia Day, one of the world’s longest
occupation protests turns 40. Activists of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy
in Canberra have been fighting for acknowledgement, sovereignty and
self-determination of their peoples ever since.

Michael Anderson, Aboriginal rights activist and former ambassador of the Embassy, talks to Christoph Behrends about past and current struggles – and the offering of a peace pact.

Question: Michael, you’ve been one of the initiators of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy that has been residing in front of the Old Parliament House for 40 years. What comes to your mind when you think about 27 January 1972?

If you go back in history, there have been a lot of wars fought within this country. But Australia suppresses these facts This day is still very clear in my mind. The day before, the Prime Minister stated they would lease land to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples instead of giving us land rights. As a consequence, we decided to put up a permanent camp in Canberra. Within our discussions we became aware that we need a political entity, an embassy, to gain sovereignty. It was a period of not knowing what the future would bring, but knowing what we wanted…..

Question:  In 1995 the National Heritage Trust listed the Aboriginal Tent Embassy as the ‘only location that represents Aboriginal Peoples in their political struggle’. Was that occasion important for the movement? It was important that they recognized that we have a legitimation, and it also symbolized a milestone in Aboriginal affairs in Australia’s history……

Socially our people are totally demoralized.If you look across Australia right now, we have an emerging number of poor and underprivileged people. In some regions more than 80 per cent are unemployed. They are welfare dependent and have to accept loss of income if they don’t bow to the rules of the government. That happens while they make billions and billions from mining on Aboriginal land. Just look at the Northern Territory, where most Aboriginals live, and its special conditions as federal territory. It is the only place in the world where a state directly operates an industry to gain communal assets, often without even allowing negotiations with Aboriginal locals. Democracy does not apply to Aboriginal people, let us put it that way.
Question What do you criticize about [Northern Territory Emergency
Response,   “the intervention”, ‘Stronger Futures in the Northern
Territory’. ]?

There are a number of issues we dismiss. One is: the Racial
Discrimination Act, a national convention to prohibit discrimination,
was suspended. Apart from the psychological harassment to people when
the military moved in with army tanks, the intervention prohibited
people from claiming any land on the native title in the Northern
Territory. It also prevents Aboriginal people from having any rights
to negotiate with mining companies. Not only was it an act of racial
discrimination, it also suspended the people’s right to negotiate
anything related to their own country. It’s quite insane…..
Alongside our claims for compensation and restitution, we want
self-determination as a people. That will allow us to find our own
economic and social advancement in society. But as part of that we
also want to make a peace pact with the government so we can become a
united Australia. Otherwise, we will be an Australia with two
separated societies living on one public land.
http://newint.org/features/web-exclusive/2012/01/25/aboriginal-rights-michael-anderson-interview/

January 22, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL