WGAR News: Aboriginal Rights - Upcoming events around Australia - June 2011

Newsletter date: 7 June 2011

Contents:
* Aboriginal Rights - Upcoming events around Australia
* Prime Minister Julia Gillard visits Alice Springs today
* Bankstown Income Management forum, 20 June 2011 - Organised by STICS
* Central Australian delegates return from UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York
* Calls for Native Title reform
* Other Northern Territory (NT) Intervention articles
* Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention

ABORIGINAL RIGHTS - UPCOMING EVENTS AROUND AUSTRALIA:

Click on the links for details of the events ...

27 May to Sun 9 October 2011: Kalgoorlie, WA
Exhibition: From Little Things Big Things Grow - Fighting for Indigenous Rights 1920-1970
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/tra...

Wed 8 June 2011: Armidale, NSW
'Our Generation' Community Screening
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/events/

Thu 9 June 2011: Epping, Sydney, NSW
'Our Generation' Community Screening
[scroll down page] http://stoptheintervention.org/
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/events/
http://www.greenleft.org.au/events/47781
Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Facts-Info-Our-...

Fri 10 June 2011: Northcote, Melbourne, Vic
Melbourne Funrazor - Stop The Intervention
"Event to raise funds to get Aboriginal community members who are living in NTI 'Prescribed Areas' up to Darwin ... "
http://treatyrepublic.net/node/754
https://indymedia.org.au/stop-the-intervention-funrazor
Flyer/Poster: https://sites.google.com/site/treatyrepublicfilebank/im/STOPTHEINTERVENT...

Sat 11 June 2011: Newcastle, NSW
Rally: No Waste Dump at Muckaty
http://kanuguba.org/AnnouncementRetrieve.aspx?ID=51245

Tue 14 June 2011: Canberra, ACT
Rally: Don’t dump on the Territory - No national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty
http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/2011/05/22/june-14-canberra-rally/
Poster: http://beyondnuclearinitiative.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/muckaty-rally...

Sun 19 - Mon 20 June 2011: Darwin, NT
Prescribed Area Peoples’ Alliance Meeting
Including finalisation of the "Rebuilding from the ground up" document
http://rollbacktheintervention.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/funding-appea...
[scroll down page] http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/
http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/alternative-to-the-interven...

Mon 20 - Wed 22 June 2011: Canberra, ACT
Aboriginal Embassy symposium
http://acih.anu.edu.au/events/aboriginal-embassy-symposium

Mon 20 June 2011: Bankstown, Sydney, NSW
Bankstown Income Management Forum
http://indymedia.org.au/bankstown-income-management-forum-june-20
[scroll down page] http://stoptheintervention.org/
Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/B...

Tue 21 June 2011: Darwin, NT
Rally: 4 Years Too Long - Stop the Intervention
Including launch of "Rebuilding from the ground up" document
[scroll down page] http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/
http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/alternative-to-the-interven...

Tue 21 June 2011: Melbourne, Vic
Speakout: Four years too long. Stop the Intervention!
http://www.greenleft.org.au/events/47766

Sat 25 June 2011: Sydney, NSW
Rally to stop the NT Intervention - Four years of racist shame
Including Sydney launch of alternative program "Rebuilding from the ground up"
http://indymedia.org.au/sydney-rally-to-stop-the-northern-territory-inte...
[scroll down page] http://stoptheintervention.org/
Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/2...

Wed 29 June 2011: Sydney, NSW
'Our Generation' Community Screening
Part of the Guringai Festival
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/events/

Tue 9 August 2011: Adelaide, SA
'Our Generation' Community Screening
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/events/

Wed 10 August 2011: Manly, Sydney, NSW
'Our Generation' Community Screening
http://www.ourgeneration.org.au/events/

Fri 26 - Sun 28 August 2011: Kalkarindji/Daguragu, NT
Gurindji Walkoff from Wave Hill - 45th Anniversary Commemoration
http://www.gurindjifreedomday.com/

Fri 4 November 2011 to February 2012: Townsville, Qld
Exhibition: From Little Things Big Things Grow - Fighting for Indigenous Rights 1920-1970
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/tra...

February 2012 to May 2012: Queensland Museum
Exhibition: From Little Things Big Things Grow - Fighting for Indigenous Rights 1920-1970
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/
http://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/from_little_things_big_things_grow/tra...

PRIME MINISTER JULIA GILLARD VISITS ALICE SPRINGS TODAY:

- Media Release

Intervention Rollback Action Group, Alice Springs:
Aboriginal leaders tell Gillard: The Intervention is a failure - Self-Determination now
http://rollbacktheintervention.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/mr-7-6-11.pdf
7 Jun 11: "Town camp leader Barbara Shaw will present Prime Minister Julia Gillard with a statement today, calling for the repeal of all Intervention legislation and demanding a development program based on principles of self-determination.
Prime Minister Gillard's visit to Alice Springs comes in the wake of the release new government statistics that confirm growing social crises under the Intervention.
The statement 'Rebuilding from the Group Up: An Alternative to the NT Intervention' has already been endorsed by Aboriginal leaders from more than 15 communities, along with a range of organisations including the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), ANTaR and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission.
The statement will be formally launched at a demonstration in Darwin on June 21, marking four years since the announcement of the Intervention. ...
For a full copy of the statement and list of current endorsements see http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/alternative-to-the-interven... "

- Audio

Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association:
CAAMA Radio News 6-06-2011
http://caama.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/am-6-06-update.mp3
http://caama.com.au/caama-radio-news-6-06-2011
6 Jun 11: "Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit town camps and the new visitor park as part of her visit to Alice Springs on Tuesday."

BANKSTOWN INCOME MANAGEMENT FORUM, 20 JUNE 2011 - ORGANISED BY STICS:

Bankstown Income Management forum June 20
Sydney Indymedia: http://indymedia.org.au/bankstown-income-management-forum-june-20
STICS: [scroll down page] http://stoptheintervention.org/
"Quarantining of Centrelink payments is coming to Bankstown
What has been the experience under the Northern Territory Intervention and around the country?
Monday June 20th
1pm Bankstown Senior Citizens' Centre
7 West Terrace, Bankstown
Speakers include:
Paddy Gibson, Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, UTS (recently returned from Alice Springs)
Katie Wrigley, Welfare Rights Centre
The federal government has recently announced that Income Management will be implemented in Bankstown in 2012 along with four other disadvantaged areas around Australia. ... Income Management is a policy which "quarantines" 50 per cent of Centrelink payments onto a BasicsCard. This card can only be used to buy "priority items" at government approved stores. Income Management was first introduced through the federal Intervention in NT Aboriginal communities for all people on Centrelink. It has been very discriminatory and is resented by a large number of people. ... The Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney has organised a community forum in Bankstown for members of the local community, service providers and welfare rights advocates to hear about the experience of Income Management under the NT Intervention and around Australia. ... "
Poster: http://stoptheintervention.org/uploads/files_to_download/Past%20Events/B...

CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN DELEGATES RETURN FROM UN PERMANENT FORUM ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES IN NEW YORK:

- Audio

Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association:
CAAMA Radio News 6-06-2011
http://caama.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/am-6-06-update.mp3
http://caama.com.au/caama-radio-news-6-06-2011
6 Jun 11: "Central Australian delegates who have returned from the United nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous issues say Aboriginal people need to know about and better understand their basic human rights under the UN convention."
[Includes comments by Ngarla Kunoth-Monks and Barbara Shaw.]

See:

WGAR News: UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, 16 to 27 May 2011
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2011/05/21/wgar-news-un-human-rights-high-commis...

WGAR News: Interview with Richard Downs on the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues / Barbara Shaw at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (28 May 11)
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2011/05/28/wgar-news-canberra-rally-june-14-2011...

WGAR News: Ngarla Kunoth-Monks, Richard Downs and Barbara Shaw at the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York (2 Jun 11)
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2011/06/02/wgar-news-global-call-to-action-petit...

See more about Barbara Shaw:

IRAG (Intervention Rollback Action Group): Mparntwe - Alice Springs:
http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/

WGAR News: Darwin gathering for Aboriginal people living in prescribed areas under the NT Intervention, June 19-21, 2011
http://indymedia.org.au/2011/04/29/darwin-gathering-for-aboriginal-peopl...

WGAR News: Interview with Barbara Shaw, of the Intervention Rollback Action Group, on the NT Intervention (7 May 11)
http://indymedia.org.au/2011/05/07/wgar-news-interviews-with-barb-shaw-a...

WGAR News: Speech by Aboriginal activist Barbara Shaw on the NT Intervention (10 May 11)
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2011/05/10/wgar-news-nt-nuclear-waste-dump-plans...

See more about Richard Downs:

Intervention walk-off's Blog:
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/

Six Videos by Eleanor Gilbert of Enlightning Productions:
Opening Protest House Ampilatwatja Walk-off NT:
http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/video/

WGAR News: Protest House at the Alyawarr people's walk-off camp (16 Feb 10)
http://indymedia.org.au/2010/02/16/wgar-news-protest-house-at-the-alyawa...

WGAR News: Speeches from National call out by John Pilger & Richard Downs (3 May 10)
http://indymedia.org.au/2010/05/04/wgar-news-speeches-from-national-call...

Frequency: Richard Downs & Harry Nelson Speaking at Melbourne University Ampilatwatja Walkoff & NT Intervention (14-16 Oct 10)
http://www.frequency.com/video/richard-downs-harry-nelson-speaking-at/47...

CALLS FOR NATIVE TITLE REFORM:

- Audio

The Wire: Calls for Native Title reform
[scroll down page] http://www.thewire.org.au/daydetail.aspx?SearchDay=2011-06-06
6 Jun 11: "More voices are calling for an overhaul to the Native Title processes. In a speech last week former Prime Minister Paul Keating, who introduced the Native Title Act in 1993, called the current workings of Native Title “unjust”. He says native title claimants should not have to prove an ongoing connection to land, particularly when many communities were forcibly removed under Governmental policy.
Featured in story: Jacqueline Phillips - Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, and Dr Lisa Strelein - Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander studies."

- Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration delivered by former prime minister Paul Keating

Australian: Time to revisit native title laws
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/native-title...
1 Jun 11: "This onerous burden of proof has placed an unjust burden on those native title claimants who have suffered the most severe dispossession and social disruption. It has substantially slowed the right of redress by Aboriginal people to adequate recognition of their rights in respect of land, water and other natural resources. In fact, after fifteen years’ operation of the Native Title Act 1993, there have been 1300 claims lodged, arriving at 121 native title determinations, covering just over 10% of the land mass at a cost to the taxpayer of over $900million." Paul Keating

- Related News

SMH: Give Aborigines deeds to land: Katter
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/give-aborigines-deeds-to-l...
6 Jun 11: "Maverick Queensland MP Bob Katter wants to give indigenous Australians formal deeds to land they hold under native title. It's one of a number of policies he has outlined since launching Katter's Australian Party on Friday. "We are determined that the first Australians, Aboriginal Australians, will get a title deed ... on the 25 per cent of Australia they are supposed to own," he told the Seven network on Monday."

Australian: Pearson backs Keating on native title reverse onus
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/aboriginal-australia/pearson-ba...
4 Jun 11: "ABORIGINAL leader Noel Pearson says indigenous people have fewer land rights than squatters, backing Paul Keating's call for the onus of proof to be reversed in the Native Title Act. On the 19th anniversary yesterday of the Mabo decision, he said the way the legislation had been interpreted in case law was "perverse" to its original intentions and that of the 1992 High Court ruling."

- Related Analysis / Opinion

Crikey: Federal Court decision breaks through the native title roadblock
http://www.crikey.com.au/2011/06/03/federal-court-decision-breaks-throug...
3 Jun 11: "On Tuesday this week the former prime minister Paul Keating issued a spray at the current operation of the Native Title Act, particularly in relation to the tests for the recognition of an applicant’s connections to land over which rights are claimed. Delivering the annual Lowitja O’Donoghue Oration at the University of Adelaide on May 31, Keating said: "This onerous burden of proof has placed an unjust burden on those native title claimants who have suffered the most severe dispossession and social disruption. ... " Bob Gosford

- Background Compilation

WGAR News: Problems with Native Title (5 Jun 11)
[scroll down page] http://indymedia.org.au/2011/06/05/wgar-news-rebuilding-from-the-ground-...

OTHER NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT) INTERVENTION ARTICLES:

- Video

Sky News: Aborigines: Are They Getting A Fair Deal?
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Australian-PM-Julia-Gillard-...
6 Jun 11: "Australia's Prime Minister is to meet Aboriginal leaders and tell them her government is doing its best to improve their lives - but Sky News has filmed some of the squalid conditions many live in. Ms Gillard's government has continued a controversial policy which was introduced by the previous Liberal Prime Minister John Howard. Four years ago he intervened to take direct control of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory after claims of widespread child abuse."

- News

Australian: Intervention's child health checks flawed
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/investigations/interventions-child-...
4 Jun 11: "ONE of the key strategies of the Northern Territory intervention - child health check-ups that cost $55 million over three years - did not meet best practice or World Health Organisation guidelines, disrupted existing programs, caused bottlenecks in the system and had a negligible impact on those they were meant to help. The first major review of the Child Health Checks Initiative gives a damning assessment of the strategy ... Consultants Allen and Clarke, commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing to conduct the review, ... "

BACKGROUND TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT) INTERVENTION:

Creative Spirits: Northern Territory Emergence Response (NTER) - "The Intervention": http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/politics/northern-terr...

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Northern Territory National Emergency Response: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Territory_intervention

IRAG (Intervention Rollback Action Group): Mparntwe - Alice Springs: http://rollbacktheintervention.wordpress.com/

CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) - NT Intervention: http://caama.com.au/?s=NT+Intervention

STICS (Stop the Intervention Collective Sydney): http://stoptheintervention.org/

The Greens: Rachel Siewert: Northern Territory Intervention: http://rachel-siewert.greensmps.org.au/category/issues/indigenous-rights...

Treaty Republic - NT Intervention: http://treatyrepublic.net/search/node/NT%20Intervention

ANTaR (Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation) - NT intervention: http://www.antar.org.au/issues_and_campaigns/nt_intervention

Crikey - NT Intervention: http://www.crikey.com.au/topic/nt-intervention/

Jobs with Justice: http://jobswithjustice.wordpress.com/

MAIC (Melbourne Anti-Intervention Collective): http://maicollective.blogspot.com/

'concerned Australians': Without Justice there can be no Reconciliation: http://www.concernedaustralians.com.au/

New Matilda - northern territory intervention: http://newmatilda.com/tag/northern-territory-intervention

Amnesty International Australia: Looking back at the Northern Territory Intervention: http://www.amnesty.org.au/indigenous-rights/comments/24460/

Defending Indigenous Rights: http://defendingindigenousrights.wordpress.com/

Intervention walk-off's Blog: http://interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com/

Australian Human Rights Commission: Northern Territory ‘Emergency Response’ intervention: http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/intervention/index.html

FAIRA; Human Rights Law Resource Centre; NACLC: Australia’s compliance with CERD - Fact Sheet 2: Northern Territory Intervention: http://www.hrlrc.org.au/files/Fact-Sheet-2-NT-Intervention.pdf

Green Left: Northern Territory intervention: myths and facts: http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/39732

WGAR (Working Group for Aboriginal Rights): http://wgar.wordpress.com/

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