“I have a dream, too” – for Aboriginal self-determination
I have a dream too, of basic human right August 31, 2013 Sol Bellear http://www.smh.com.au/comment/i-have-a-dream-too-of-basic-human-rights-20130830-2sw3r.html#ixzz2dZis35mC “…..King’s speech inspired my people. And yes, King’s speech shone an international light on the appalling treatment of Aboriginal Australians. But while King was arguing for basic civil rights, in Australia we were still fighting for basic human rights, a fight that continues today.
”I have a dream” was delivered in 1963, when Aborigines were still classed as ”flora and fauna”. It would take another half a decade before our nation voted to count Aborigines in the census, and afford us citizen status.
But the great promise that the referendum held forth – justice and equality before the law – has never fully materialised.
I’m not suggesting there haven’t been some gains in Australia. The activism of the 1970s and ’80s, strengthened by the determination of men such as King and women such as Rosa Parks, brought us modest land rights.
In NSW, there exists a land rights system that costs the taxpayer nothing, and which is leading economic development in many metropolitan and regional Aboriginal communities. The NSW system is not perfect – indeed it has returned to Aboriginal people less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total NSW land mass – but, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya, it is the best land rights legislation on Earth……
Why, 50 years after King’s speech, does the most basic human right – self-determination – still elude my people? Why, today, do we seem further away from this dream than ever before?
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott recently promised to appoint a national indigenous council if he is elected to office. Hand-picking our leaders to
get the advice you want to hear didn’t work in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. It won’t work now. It’s as far from self-determination as you can get……..
Fifty years on, I dream of a day when Australians will face up honestly to the failures of their past, regardless of the kindness of their intent. I dream of a day when non-Aboriginal Australians demand not a dream about a future for my people, but a simple plan to restore our basic human rights.
Most of all, I dream of the day when Aboriginal Australians will be judged not on the colour of our skin, but on the strength of our self-determination. http://www.smh.com.au/comment/i-have-a-dream-too-of-basic-human-rights-20130830-2sw3r.html#ixzz2dZjVOnIc
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