Top environment award for Top End Aboriginal leader
Australian Conservation Foundation, Dave Sweeney, 5 June 13, Australia’s largest National Park got bigger this year with the inclusion of the unique Koongarra region into the World Heritage listed Kakadu. This achievement – and the man who made it possible – ( Jeffrey Lee, at left, )has been acknowledged in the Australian Conservation Foundation 2013 Rawlinson Award
The Koongarra region is part of the estate of the Djok clan and has extremely high cultural and conservation values and properties. It includes the famous Nourlangie Rock (Burrunggui/Anbangbang) and is important in both the Rainbow Serpent and Lightning storylines.
The senior Traditional Owner Jeffrey Lee has spoken powerfully against uranium mining at Koongarra and consistently rejected pressure from a series of multi-national mining companies, most recently the French nuclear giant Areva, to mine a major uranium deposit on his country.
Uranium mining has long been a source of conflict in Kakadu with Traditional Owners leading campaigns against mining proposals at both Koongarra and Jabiluka. The industry continues to generate headlines and heartache in Kakadu with mining company Energy Resources of Australia currently seeking federal approval to develop a new underground uranium mine at its existing Ranger site.
At the 2010 federal election all major parties agreed to support Jeffrey’s call for Koongarra to be incorporated into Kakadu and in March 2013 Jeffrey Lee finally secured the long term protection of his country stating that it’s inclusion in Kakadu “will ensure that the traditional laws, customs, sites, bush tucker, trees, plants and water stay the same as when they were passed on to me by my father and grandfather”.
For years Jeffrey has patiently and persistently taken his message opposition to uranium mining and his efforts to permanently protect this area from the corridors of Canberra to UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
His tenacity and vision is a powerful reminder of the importance of country and culture and has provided a lasting legacy for all people and time. ACF is proud to acknowledge Jeffrey’s efforts with a special Rawlinson Award for his outstanding efforts to protect one of Australia’s most special places from the threat of one of Australia’s most contested industrial activities.
Aboriginal landowners have been deprived of control over their land
Mabo’s native title victory squandered, says judge The Age, June 1, 2013 Jane Lee Eddie Mabo’s High Court win has been ”squandered”, with native title reduced to something of little practical significance, a retired Federal Court judge says.
Peter Gray, previously the Aboriginal land rights commissioner and deputy president of the National Native Title Tribunal, retired after 29 years at the Federal Court on May 17.
In his farewell speech to the court, he referred to the historic 1992 decision that overturned the terra nullius doctrine that Australia belonged to no one before white settlement, paving the way for native title rights for indigenous people.
”The biggest disappointment in my career has been to see the opportunity given to us by the High Court in the Mabo case squandered,” Mr Gray said. ”The concept of native title has been reduced to something of little practical significance by judges who have been unable to understand, and legislators who have been consciously averse to, the vital relationship between people and land in Aboriginal traditions.”
He said a future generation of Australians had to devise a new native title system that ”recognises and respects the rights of our indigenous peoples and returns to them a measure of control over what, but for colonisation, would have been indisputably theirs…
Aborigines’ legal push for independence
Australia’s Aborigines Launch a Bold Legal Push for Independence TIME, By Ian Lloyd Neubauer May 30, 2013 If a determined group of indigenous people get their way, the world’s newest country won’t be in Africa or the Balkans but on the eastern periphery of Australia’s outback. A bleak, foreboding, flood-prone savannah the size of Austria 750 km northwest of Sydney, the Murrawarri Republic was home to an Aboriginal nation that lived in the Culgoa River region of the state of New South Wales (NSW) tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers. On March 31, they took the first step in ending more than 200 years of colonial rule when they sent letters to Queen Elizabeth II and the Australian government demanding evidence of either a treaty or deed of cessation. When those parties failed to respond to the Murrawarri’s 28-day deadline, they issued a Declaration of the Continuance of the State of Murrawarri Nation.
“When Captain Cook arrived here in 1770, he said he was claiming the continent in the name of the Crown. But on what legal grounds did he take our land?” asks Sharni Gibbons, daughter of Fred Gibbons, chairman of the Murrawarri People’s Council.
Australia’s Aboriginal-sovereignty movement can be traced back to 1972. That year, on Jan. 26 — celebrated nationally as Australia Day — a group of black militants planted a tent on the lawns of the Old Parliament House in Canberra. The Aboriginal Tent Embassy galvanized support for indigenous land rights and thrust its ambassador Michael Anderson into the international spotlight…….. Continue reading
Australian Government knew that Aboriginals were exposed to radiation at Maralinga
Paul Langley supplies extracts from Hansard Federal Parliamentary Hansard, ABORIGINES AT MARALINGA : EXPOSURE TO RADIATION (QUESTION NO. 5786….) ABORIGINES AT MARALINGA : EXPOSURE TO RADIATION (QUESTION NO. 5786)
Mr Uren asked questions about Aboriginals’ exposure to radioactive fallout from the atomic bomb testing, and also about the “cleanup”- and got very unsatisfactory answers.
In Darwin, Indigenous Guardians of Land and Sea meet, under auspices of United Nations
On Monday, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of 
Indigenous Peoples James Anaya stressed the importance of governments recognising international instruments that protect the basic rights of native people………
The international network of indigenous and local community land and sea managers recently became an official part of the United Nations after the government of Australia handed over its management to the Equator Initiative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Guardians of the Land and Sea Meet in Darwin By Milagros Salazar DARWIN, Australia , May 28 2013 (IPS) – “Are you a park ranger?” IPS asked. “No, I am one of the owners of the territory,” Ángel Durán responded in a firm voice. The Bolivian indigenous leader is in this northern Australian city along with 1,200 other native delegates from over 50 countries for the World Indigenous Network (WIN) conference.
Durán, who was born in and lives on a collectively-owned native territory, is attending the conference in representation of eight native groups from Bolivia’s Amazon region that total more than 20,000 people.
Although he is not on the programme as an official speaker and can only communicate in Spanish, this is not stopping him from sharing his knowledge and experiences with other indigenous leaders walking from one auditorium to another at WIN headquarters in Darwin, the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory.
The meeting, supported by the Australian government, runs May 26-29, with presentations of successful projects for the preservation of ecosystems and biodiversity, the sustainable use of protected natural areas, and the development and food security of indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America and other countries like Canada or Australia itself. Continue reading
Traditional owners, Central Land Council, unions marched in Tennant Creek, against nuclear waste dump
Waste dump opponents ‘not going to back down’ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-27/waste-dump-opponents-not-going-to-back-down/4715238 By Gail Liston May 27, 2013 More than 200 people have marched in Tennant Creek to protest against a nuclear waste dump planned for Muckaty Station north of the town.
Traditional owner Diane Stokes says the chairman of the Central Land Council (CLC), Maurie Ryan, addressed the rally, declaring the CLC will support the protesters. Mr Ryan told the crowd, the CLC is on a collision course with the Northern Land Council over how they have handled the Muckaty nomination. Ms Stokes says it is time the CLC takes control of the country as far north as Elliott to support traditional owners in their bid to stop the dump going ahead.
“We were saying before about the boundaries to be put back now because Central Land Council is very strong on helping us out, supporting us in getting the boundary back to Elliott,” she said.
She says representatives from Unions NT and the CLC travelled to Tennant Creek to join the rally. “I’m very happy that we’ve marched and I know I want these people out there to know that we’re still standing strong and I want to let the supporters know that I want to thank them for supporting us,” she said.
Natalie Wasley from the Beyond Nuclear Initiative says the protesters recognise that the proposed nuclear waste dump is not just an NT issue. “This is shaping up to be a very important issue in the Northern Territory for the federal election and so that was expressed very strongly at the rally, that people are going to be knocking [on] the doors of all the candidates and asking where they stand and are they going to stand up for the Territory on this issue,” she said.
She says it has been six years since the site was nominated and no-one is planning to give up the fight. “It was noted that this Muckaty campaign has outlasted many federal ministers, chief ministers and chairpeople and CEOs of the Northern Land Council,” she said.
“The community is absolutely resolute and they’re not going to back down. “They’re going to build up and radioactive waste is going to last even longer than all of those politicians.”
First World Indigenous Network (WIN) Conference opens in Darwin
World Indigenous Network 5 Day Conference Underway In Australia By Albert Oppong-Ansah Ghana News -SpyGhana.com 28 May 13 The inaugural World Indigenous Network (WIN) Conference has formally been opened in the Northern Territory capital of Darwin, Australia.
The five day conference, which is being attended by about 1,500 delegates from over 50 countries including Ghana, would share stories, knowledge, cultural experiences and ideas on how to better manage ecosystems, protect the environment and support sustainable livelihoods…….
Dr Braulio F. de Souza Dias, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, said initiatives such as the WIN which recognized and thrives on local knowledge and actions was the surest method to achieve the Aichi target by the UN.
The Aichi target, he explained, seeks to reduce direct pressure on biodiversity and promote its sustainable use.
Dr Dias said traditional knowledge was the most efficient method of conserving the environment and called on governments to adopt such an approach.
Ms Eleen Ravin, Manager, Equator Initiative at the United Nations Development Programms, said WIN’s commitment to promoting local and indigenous knowledge and experience was a value closely shared by the Equator Initiative, and by UNDP as a whole.
“Although there are synergies between the vision of the Equator Initiative and that of the World Indigenous Network we see WIN as additional opportunity to build on our experience of working to connect local and indigenous land and sea managers,” she said.
Ms Ravin said UNDP recognised community-based approaches seriously because it could help nations to advance people-centered development solutions.
She said sharing similar values regarding the importance of utilizing local and indigenous knowledge was a tool for addressing some of the most pressing development and environmental issues facing the world today. http://www.spyghana.com/world-indigenous-network-5-day-conference-underway-in-australia/
First Nations Sovereignty Challenge to Australian Government
Anderson challenges Prof. George Williams and the Commonwealth Attorney-general to publicly debate First Nations continuing Sovereignty at the Sydney Opera House.
Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia said today: “A recent comment[1] made by one of Australia’s leading constitutional lawyers, Prof George Williams, demonstrates the incapacities on non-Aboriginal legal experts to see beyond the legal system that they are sworn to serve and uphold. Prof Williams was responding to statements by Fred Hooper on the recent Declaration of Independence by the Murrawarri Nation.
“Clearly Prof Williams lacks objectivity in his radio interview with The Wire, because his teachings and his practice focus primarily on the system that affords him his status in his society, which is the same society that seeks to steal our patrimony, citizenship and usurp our sovereignty without any legal foundation.
“Many established lawyers fail to come to terms with other aspects of the Mabo decision. As a constitutional expert, surely Prof Williams understands, when the High Court held in Mabo that competing sovereignties between Aboriginal Nations and the colonial Australian state come face to face, no domestic municipal courts within Australia have the capacity to rule over issues of competing sovereignties. Continue reading
Australia hosts the first World Indigenous Network conference in Darwin.
Native voices join together at conference Border Mail, By Rick Feneley May 27, 2013 “….. Australia hosts the first World Indigenous Network conference in Darwin.
Launched on Sunday, it is a rainbow connection of about 1200 of the world’s indigenous rangers and land and sea managers. It will hear the mangrove people of Bangladesh on the challenge of climate change. The forest people of Madagascar and the Republic of Benin will talk about ecotourism. It will hear from the Bedouin of Egypt, the Maori and indigenous delegates from Brazil, Mexico, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Mongolia, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and more countries……
Arnhem Land traditional owners used the event’s launch to celebrate the creation of Australia’s first government-recognised indigenous protected area over the sea. The new Dhimurru IPA will extend 40 kilometres out to sea from the Gove Peninsula and cover 450,000 hectares of water around the north-western tip of the Gulf of Carpentaria.
With the support of the federal and Northern Territory governments, the Dhimurru Aboriginal Corporation will manage the conservation of the sea territory in collaboration with quarantine, customs and fisheries authorities.
”It’s important because, in our culture, we have to look after the land and the sea,” says Dhimurru ranger Lisa Dhurrkay, 25. Their responsibility doesn’t stop at the shoreline, she says.
Four IPAs covering more than 85,000 square kilometres were declared in Western Australia’s Kimberley last week…. http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/1528298/native-voices-join-together-at-conference/?cs=7
NT trade unions join Traditional Owners to protest Muckaty radioactive waste dump.
24 May 13, Six years and still standing strong: NT Union members will join Traditional Owners and supporters from across the Territory in Tennant Creek this weekend for a rally against the proposed national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory. The rally and concert will mark exactly six years since the Northern Land Council voted to nominate the site.
In May 2012 the Australian Council of Trades Unions National Congress unanimously voted to support the Muckaty campaign. Bryan Wilkins, NT Organiser for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said, “NT Unions 
are standing in solidarity with Traditional Owners and communities to resist the federal government plan for a radioactive waste dump. We will continue to campaign against any legislation that targets the Muckaty Land Trust, or any site in Australia for a nuclear waste dump that is not based on recognised scientific and international best practice.”
Muckaty Traditional Owners and the community in Tennant Creek remain resolutely opposed to the national radioactive dump being built. Muckaty Traditional Owner Dianne Stokes said, “It’s been six years of big struggle for Warlmanpa and Warumungu people. We are still standing strong. We are saying that we still don’t want the waste to come to Muckaty Land Trust.”
“Tomorrow will be a big day for us mob, the Traditional Owners of the Muckaty. We are happy that we have people traveling to Tennant to join us for the rally against the nuclear waste. We also have unions coming along and we are looking forward to meet these people. We will march together to stand up strong and tell the NLC and the government to back down and leave us alone.”
Beyond Nuclear Initiative coordinator Natalie Wasley added, “The nomination of Muckaty by the NLC and the dogged pursuit of the site by successive Federal Ministers are being challenged on the ground as well as in the federal court. It is highly disappointing that while the court is scrutinising the original nomination process, the NLC is preparing to nominate a new site on Muckaty for assessment. The process of managing radioactive waste must be transparent and include all stakeholders. We urge Federal Resources Minister Gary Gray to step away from the highly contested Muckaty plan and initiate an Independent Commission into radioactive waste management.”
Indigenous cultures and the future – World Indigenous Network Conference
The heavy footprint of the mining sector is compounded by the legal limitations of the native title regime, the often controversial and secretive nature of mining agreements and the fact that the cards are heavily stacked against the Aboriginal people who are concerned about or would prefer to see no mining on their country.
Selling the future short ANDREW PICONE ABC Environment 24 MAY 2013 Mining offers great hope for many Indigenous communities, with promises of jobs and schools. However Australia’s traditional owners should not sell themselves short of a future. “…….Next week in Darwin, Indigenous land owners, environment groups and other stakeholders from around the world will come together to address some of these burning issues at the World Indigenous Network 2013 conference. The conference comes at a key moment because across Australia, particularly in the north, there is an increasing number of collaborations between Indigenous Australians and conservationists, occurring alongside Australia’s mining boom.
Indigenous peoples from places as diverse and distant as Egypt, Mongolia, Lappland, Ecuador and all over Asia Pacific and representatives from communities right across Aboriginal Australia will share stories and strategies about a broad range of land and sea management issues and to celebrate healthy country and strong cultures. Continue reading
National Native Title Conference for benefit of whom?
Oxfam report mocks Native Title, Lateral Love Australia, by Gerry Georgatos May 20th, 2013 “……The Oxfam report and Mr Anaya’s arguments are timely with the annual National Native Title Conference scheduled for the first week of June – in Alice Springs. There is much wrong on the Australian landscape with Native Title, with some of the resources sector ripping off blind Aboriginal communities, with the so-called mining boom having returned contextually little to Aboriginal communities, and with huge inconsistencies in compensation payments for Traditional Owners signing Indigenous Land Use Agreements…….
In 2013, the annual National Native Title Conference will be convened by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) and the Central Land Council (CLC) on the traditional lands of the Central Arrernte people, the Native Title holders of the Alice Springs area.
Rest assured, that there will be changes to Native Title practices end of the year but sadly they will not be favourable to Aboriginal peoples.This year’s Conference title is “Shaping the Future” but for whom?
Themes of the Conference will include “The Native Title Act 20 years on, where to from here?” But to be honest, it should be back to the drawing board. The Native Title Act was skewed from its original moderate intentions by Prime Minister Paul Keating to a weak policy structure that allowed the resources sector and developers to steamroll Aboriginal peoples. The weakness in the Act is that negotiations between parties are to be had “in good faith.”
The Act was further watered down by Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The Native Title Act has continued on as the outrageous (racist) joke that it has been ever since cheating Aboriginal communities out of opportunity and equality and turning not only Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples against each other but also Aboriginal peoples against one another.
The remaining themes of the Conference are how to manage the little returns Aboriginal Corporations secure from mining industries for their Traditional Owners – ‘development options’ and ‘Indigenous governance.’ The Conference would better serve impoverished Aboriginal peoples and Native Title holders if it instead themed Oxfam’s report – that only one of the 53 biggest miners on the Australian Securities Exchange had a public commitment to the principle of informed consent for Aboriginal peoples. http://thestringer.com.au/oxfam-report-mocks-native-title/#.UZm8398iPIU
Mining companies secretive about how they gain consent of Aboriginal communities
Oxfam report mocks Native Title, Lateral Love Australia, by Gerry Georgatos May 20th, 2013 Oxfam Australia has added its weight to the controversy that domestically and internationally embarrasses Australia over how the resources sector and the various prescribed government bodies cheat Aboriginal land owners out of due benefits for access to land for mining projects. Oxfam has completed a study that has found that only one of the 53 biggest miners on the Australian Securities Exchange had a public commitment to the United Nation’s principles of informed consent for Aboriginal peoples.
OXFAM CEO, Helen Szoke said that Australian companies are circumventing the intentions of the Native Title Act and that informed consent is not being secured.
“We looked at the policies of companies specifically within the context of how they dealt with the issue of consent of Indigenous peoples to use their land,” said Ms Szoke.
“Disturbingly what we found is that the majority of companies do not have any transparent policies about how they gain that consent and how they go about negotiating with local Indigenous communities.” Continue reading
Yvonne Margarula’s continued fight against uranium mining on her people’s land
Fifteen years on and still no mine at Jabiluka
Sunday May 19th marks fifteen years since Yvonne Margarula – Senior Traditional Owner of the Mirarr clan – was arrested for ‘trespassing’ on her traditional land at Jabiluka.
In the early hours of May 19th 1998 Yvonne Margarula was arrested along three other Aboriginal people – Jacqui Katona, Christine Christophersen and Reuben Nango – on the Jabiluka mineral lease. The highly controversial proposed Jabiluka uranium mine was under construction at the time of the arrests but development of the mine was eventually halted as a result of the campaign lead by Ms Margarula.
Ms Margarula argued that her protest against the Jabiluka uranium mine was “traditional action taking a modern form” and that her long standing opposition to the mine was fulfilling her duties as a Traditional Owner. However, in an extraordinary court ruling Ms Margarula was found guilty of trespassing on her own land and after appeal was fined $500.
Yvonne’s arrest took place on a shipping container which was the property of the mining company and she was aware of the fact that she may be arrested. This combination of factors was enough to see tens of thousands of years of living culture and connection with land overruled by the imposition of an unwanted mining project. Amidst significant publicity surrounding this ludicrous legal situation, Yvonne’s fine was anonymously paid and legal history was made.
Fifteen years ago Yvonne Margarula stood on her country and said no to unwanted mining just as her father said no to unwanted mining on Mirarr country at Ranger fifteen years before that. The efforts of the Mirarr to protect their country and culture continue. Please support the Mirarr in their continued fight to ensure responsibility at Ranger and to permanently protect Jabiluka.
Declarations of Aboriginal Independence advanced at Brisbane Treaty Talks
Declarations of Independence advanced at Brisbane Treaty Talks, 20 May 13 Michael Anderson, Convenor of the Sovereign Union of First Nations and Peoples in Australia, said from Brisbane today:
“Having attended a two-day Brisbane Treaty Talks conference and workshops on the continuing sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, I can say that the meeting was one of the best meetings on a single national issue that I have attended for many years.
“Clearly the people are now asking the pertinent questions relating to a process of asserting their continuing sovereignty as individual Nations.
“They expressed their great admiration for the steps taken by the Murrawarri Republic and are now seeking further advice in relation to the processes that were adopted by the Murrawarri People to take this revolutionary action. The participants agreed unanimously to investigate the processes adopted by the Murrawarri Republic and will now make all efforts to follow the same or similar path.
“The participants of the conference and workshops know in their own hearts that this is what their Elders passed have been seeking to achieve. The people are saying that now they need to make a greater effort to achieve what the Murrawarri have. (For those who were unable to attend, the Treaty Talks were webcast live.)
“A number of considerations that were made that will be followed by another meeting in five weeks time, when we will further investigate domestic and legal positions that establish the legal foundation of our own statehood under international.
“Again this meeting will be open to all people considering these actions including non-Aboriginal supporters. The suggested date and venue is:
22 – 23 June 2013
Murri School,
1277 Beaudesert Road,
Acacia Ridge, Brisbane Continue reading
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of the week – Australians for War Powers Reform (AWPR)
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