Aborigines call for preamble to include their sovereignty
Aborigines call for preamble to include sovereignty
By James Vassilopoulos
CANBERRA — The Aboriginal Tent Embassy on August 10 demanded that any preamble to the constitution recognise Aboriginal sovereignty. Ray Swan, representing the embassy, said, "The illegal invasion and occupation of Aboriginal land will not be erased by replacing the English crown with a republic.
"Any preamble must recognise the primacy of the title of the Aboriginal nations to our homelands. To treat native title as a residual form of title is a racist insult."
The embassy also called recently for the creation of an international war crimes tribunal to try crimes against humanity and acts of genocide committed against Aboriginal people.
On August 12 the federal government again raised the threat of evicting the embassy. Territories minister Ian Macdonald said the embassy is "illegal" and has health and structural problems.
Macdonald, in a crude attempt to split Aboriginal people, said that the local Ngunnawal people did not want the tent embassy. In fact, the Ngunnawal have not made any public statement against the embassy.
Isobel Coe, from the embassy, responded to Macdonald's claims on radio 2CN on August 13. She said Aboriginal people have been doing illegal things for 211 years, according to the laws brought by the European invaders.
Coe said that many from the local Aboriginal community were very supportive. Thousands of Aboriginal people lived in much worse conditions than people live at the embassy.
Wadjularbinna, from the tent embassy and the Gungalidda nation, told Green Left Weekly that the government will not tolerate political dissent in the period before the Olympics. The shameful living conditions of Aboriginal people are to be hidden.
Wadjularbinna said Aboriginal people do not want to be reconciled to a class-based society where the few have everything and the majority have little.
Sue Bull, from the Democratic Socialist Party, praised the embassy as a protest organisation and a symbol of the grassroots movement. "If the tent embassy is attacked, Canberra unions, left parties and progressive activists can play a vital role in stopping this censorship of political protest", she said.