Antinuclear

In 2015 Aboriginal rights movement is rising, with renewed strength

an Aboriginal Spring – has arisen where now there is the urgent call for more of the changes still outstanding to be addressed for the descendants of the First Peoples.

The last remaining founder of the 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Michael Anderson, leader of the Euahlayi People, announced at the forecourt of Federal Parliament, “We will be back February 9 and we will stay.

From the western most region of the continent, an advocate of the Noongar people, Marianne Mackay journeyed six days to reach Canberra. “The Government wants to push our people off our homelands to make it easier for the miners and big business. Our homelands will be dispossessed unless we stand up.”

In Australia, there is the Aboriginal rights struggle, The Stringer,  by Gerry Georgatos January 30th, 2015 In Australia there is no greater rights struggle than the Aboriginal rights struggle. It is a human rights struggle where not only the First Peoples of this continent were violently and murderously dispossessed of their lands but since the advent of British colonialism onto their shores they were subjected to segregation, apartheid and the systematic destruction of their cultures and languages – more than 350 First Peoples’ nations and languages have been impacted.

On January 26, 1972, four young Aboriginal men pitched a beach umbrella on the front lawns of Australia’s Federal Parliament in Canberra, and then sat under the umbrella. They declared it Aboriginal Tent Embassy. This inspired a peaceful resistance movement, with at first hundreds and then thousands converging to Canberra to join them on the parliamentary lawns – setting up tents and camping. Their stances shone the lens of the media – domestic and international – onto the horrific social inequalities and disparities between the First Peoples of this continent and the rest of the population. Their stance contributed to the demise of the then incumbent Government. Some positive changes occurred but 43 years later for far too many of the descendants of the First Peoples little has changed while for many circumstances have worsened – to third world-akin conditions.

In this last year, a Freedom Movement – an Aboriginal Spring – has arisen where now there is the urgent call for more of the changes still outstanding to be addressed for the descendants of the First Peoples. On January 27, the Freedom Movement marched to Federal Parliament, defiantly walking past the police who tried to stop them. The Freedom Movement protesters gave notice that they would commence a historic Sit-In at the main entrance of Federal Parliament on February 9, the day parliament reopens. The nation’s media will have no choice but to ask, “What is wrong in our nation?”

The media will have no choice but to listen to what the Freedom Movement Elders, leaders and advocates from all over this continent have to say rather than forever depend on the wash of their own superfluous armchair journalism and on the assimilationist views of the Government……..

The last remaining founder of the 1972 Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Michael Anderson, leader of the Euahlayi People, announced at the forecourt of Federal Parliament, “We will be back February 9 and we will stay. We are here now to deliver this message. Parliamentarians return on that day and they will have no choice but to respond to us. This is our land, we never ceded our land and we will never cede our land.”

“We will not stand by and continue to watch our children jailed, our children suffer.”

An elder of the Ngarrindjeri people, Christina Abdulla said, “We will come and we will stay. We will fight because this Government here is a racist government. All their decisions are made on the basis of racist ideologies. Our kids are being taken, our land coveted, our people harmed. We will fight the White fellas who are here in this building making decisions about us without us.”

An elder of the Wiradjuri people and lifelong social justice campaigner, Jenny Munro said, “We own this land and you stole this land. There is no Black signature anywhere that we ceded this land.”

From the western most region of the continent, an advocate of the Noongar people, Marianne Mackay journeyed six days to reach Canberra. “The Government wants to push our people off our homelands to make it easier for the miners and big business. Our homelands will be dispossessed unless we stand up.”……..

Gerry Georgatos is a researcher, and with the lived experience, in Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait affairs and issues in Australia. He is a researcher in racism and of the ways forward, in suicide prevention and in racial and cultural identities. He is also a former correspondent with the National Indigenous Radio Service, the National Indigenous Times and contributes to the independent online site, The Stringer. http://thestringer.com.au/in-australia-there-is-the-aboriginal-rights-struggle-9430#.VMvrrNKUcnk

January 31, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL