Aboriginal leaders condemn land theft
By Nick Everett
BRISBANE — Since the 1967 referendum, "the advances of the first 10 years for Aboriginal people have stagnated over the last 20 years", declared FAIRA (Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action) general manager Les Malezer at a meeting here on June 16. "The debate about equality is being left in the hands of people who do not understand human rights."
Four hundred people attended the meeting at City Hall organised by FAIRA. Participants heard Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Land Council, Galarrwuy Yunupingu, chair of the Northern Land Council, and former ATSIC chair Lois O'Donoghue challenge Howard's 10-point Wik plan.
Yunupingu declared, "This is a fight for our right to exist. When we build bridges of reconciliation, Howard pulls them down."
All of the speakers noted that the Howard government has used the Wik decision to create a fake debate about native title. The government's real agenda, they said, is a land grab aimed at converting leasehold properties to freehold.
Pearson said that from the outset of its election campaign, the Coalition had sought to use racism to take away Aboriginal land rights. The campaign slogan "for all of us" was an attempt to marginalise Aboriginal and Asian people as "special interest groups". "We were treated to an orgy of divisiveness and negativity about ATSIC, about dole bludgers", he declared.
"More despicable than people like Pauline Hanson are those who know what they say is wrong, but are prepared to capitalise on the myths", stated Pearson.
Pearson claimed that the native title legislation enacted by the previous Labor government emboldened a spirit of compromise and demonstrated that "the cause of Aboriginal land rights had an unequivocal advocate in the nation's leader". Other speakers expressed a less favourable assessment of the ALP's record.
Yunupingu declared his dissatisfaction that the Native Title Act requires Aboriginal people to be "dragged from one end of the country to the other" to prove their title.
Lois O'Donoghue expressed frustration with the policy of reconciliation. "What we want is a treaty", she declared, noting that the Labor government had refused to consider this option.
O'Donoghue also condemned the racist decision of the Coalition government to conduct a special audit of Aboriginal organisations without any consultation with ATSIC and with the specific aim of cutting funding to Aboriginal services. There can be "no reconciliation without justice", she declared.