Aboriginal march in Adelaide

By Tully Bates

ADELAIDE -- One hundred and fifty people marched from Parliament House to the Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute on October 13 to show their opposition to the proposal to scrap the Racial Discrimination Act and their dissatisfaction with the legislative process so far.

Irene Watson, an Aboriginal lawyer and lecturer at Underdale University, spoke angrily of how the media and multinationals have made a controversy out of a decision which is in fact very narrow and affects a very limited area of the country. She added that the decision provides the basis for the first step in the process of reconciliation, but only for less than 10% of the Aboriginal population.

Sandra Saunders, director of the Aboriginal Legal Service, explained that because native title applies to so few Aboriginal people, the issue of dispossession has to be addressed. The legal service is concerned with the direction the legislation is taking -- favouring the mining companies, pastoralists and state governments.

Brian Butler, an Aboriginal child-care worker, stated that if Aboriginal people were more united it would not be so easy for the federal government to bulldoze the legislation through.

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