Monday 10^th December
6:30pm for a 7pm start
Swanston Hall*, in Melbourne Town Hall,
cnr Swanston St and Collins St CBD
On the 10^th of December
1992 Paul Keating made his Redfern Speech. Asthe Prime Minister of Australia he stated that the first step towardsIndigenous Justice is an “act of recognition” by non-IndigenousAustralia. “Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. Wetook the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. Webrought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We tookthe children from their mothers. We practiced discrimination andexclusion.”He predicted we would succeed in doing this within the decade.The 10^th of December 2007 marks 15 years on.Two events of the past few months alone represent how wrong hisprediction was.
In September this year Australia became one of the 4 states (out of 147)not to sign on to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights ofIndigenous Peoples because the Government disagreed with the phrase'self-determination'.Right now the Federal Government is implementing an “EmergencyIntervention” into Indigenous Communities in the Northern Territory.This Intervention overrides the Racial Discrimination Act; underminesIndigenous self-determination and Land Rights; has not been developed inconsultation with Indigenous communities and fails to address thecentral issues of poverty, lack of health care, basic services andinfrastructure that the government has been ignoring for so long.We are calling on non-Indigenous people to get serious about these majorhuman rights issues.
Come along on the 10^th of December and learn moreabout Indigenous struggles for self-determination locally, in the NT andbeyond. For Genocide to end, non-Indigenous people must takeresponsibility for themselves and immediately take action to supportIndigenous struggles. The past fifteen years and two centuries priorshow that Prime Ministerial speeches and Government policies are notgoing end it for us.
*Speakers:**Barbara Shaw
*Barbara is a town camp resident from Alice Springs and executive member ofthe Tangentyere Council.
* **Robbie Thorpe*Robbie is a Gunnai-Kurnai/Tjap-Wharrung activist committed to fighting forgenocide to be stopped and for Australia to be taken before theInternational Criminal Court for the war crimes that it has and continuesto commit, for Sovereignty to be acknowledged and for a Treaty to be made.
*Muriel Bamblett*Muriel Bamblett is a Yorta Yorta woman who has been employed as the ChiefExecutive Officer of the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency since1999. From 1997-99 Muriel was the Chairperson of VACCA. Muriel is activeon many boards concerning children, families and the Indigenous community. Muriel is the current Chairperson of the Secretariat of NationalAboriginal and Islander Child Care, the peak agency representingIndigenous Child and Family Services nationally.Muriel has been the recipient of a number of awards: Robin Clark MemorialAward for Inspirational Leadership in the Field of Child and FamilyWelfare 2003 and was awarded an AM (Membership in the General Division) inthe Australia Day Honours 2004 for her services to the community,particularly through leadership in the provision of services forAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families.
*John Langmore*John Langmore is a Professorial Fellow in the Political Science Departmentat the University of Melbourne. He was Director of the UN Division forSocial Policy and Development in New York for five years from 1997 and haspublished extensively on political, economic, social, strategic andenvironmental issues relating to Australia and the global contextincluding the United Nations.-------------------------------------
Organised by the Alliance for Indigenous Self determination - an open,Melbourne-based alliance of groups and individuals..For more information: 0429 136 935 / 0439 891 832
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