Newsletter date: 19 March 2013
Contents:
* Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Quality of life for Australians 2nd only to Norway, but for Aboriginal peoples 122nd
* Rachel Evans & Leticia Funston, Green Left: Bowraville murders spark renewed protest
* Tracker: Hundreds protest lack of action over Bowraville murders
* Tracker: Murder victim's families to march on Parliament
* David T. Rowlands, Green Left: Blue Mountains crossing cemented colonisation
* Dr Alessandro Pelizzon, Sovereign Union: General Principles of Sovereignty for non-lawyers
* Background to the Aboriginal sovereignty movement
* ALSWA's Report Card reveals the Barnett Government has FAILED
* The Stringer: Adam Giles becomes the first Aboriginal leader of an Australian State/Territory
* Other articles
* GERRY GEORGATOS, THE STRINGER: QUALITY OF LIFE FOR AUSTRALIANS 2ND ONLY TO NORWAY, BUT FOR ABORIGINAL PEOPLES 122ND
- Analysis / Opinion
The Stringer: Quality of life for Australians 2nd only to Norway, but for Aboriginal peoples 122nd
http://thestringer.com.au/quality-of-life-for-australians-2nd-only-to-no...
16 Mar 13: "Once again the United Nations has ranked Australia second behind Norway in its annual Human Development Index - for public health, social wealth, education, even happiness. But if Aboriginal peoples go stand-alone they would not be part of that 2nd rating - they would be 122nd. The United Nations Human Development Index is a measure of the quality of life across 187 nations. Aboriginal peoples in various parts of Australia continue to languish in third-world conditions despite Australia powering on as the world’s thirteenth largest economy." By Gerry Georgatos, a life-long human rights and social justice campaigner, a multi-award winning investigative journalist
Gerry Georgatos: http://thestringer.com.au/gerry-georgatos-contributing-editor-and-journa...
* RACHEL EVANS & LETICIA FUNSTON, GREEN LEFT: BOWRAVILLE MURDERS SPARK RENEWED PROTEST
- News
Green Left: Bowraville murders spark renewed protest
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53623
16 Mar 13: "Aboriginal banners decorated an angry rally in Sydney’s Hyde Park on March 14. ... Twenty-three years ago, four-year-old Evelyn Greenup and 16-year-olds Colleen Walker and Clinton Speedy-Duroux were killed in a five-month period on a street near the Bowraville mission. ... The families are calling the NSW government to order a Royal Commission to investigate the murder, the original police investigation, the committals, inquests, the two failed trials and the subsequent lack of concern shown to the families by the NSW government." By Rachel Evans & Leticia Funston
- Past Event
Event: Thu 14 March 2013: Sydney, NSW
Justice for The Bowraville Children Protest March:
Call for Royal Commission into the Bowraville murders
Event details: http://www.northernstar.com.au/news/protest-rally-calling-for-royal-comm...
Event details: http://allevents.in/Sydney/Justice-for-The-Bowraville-Children-Protest-M...
Event details: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Redfern-Waterloo/message/7097
Petition: http://www.jumbunna.uts.edu.au/researchareas/justicepetition.html
* TRACKER: HUNDREDS PROTEST LACK OF ACTION OVER BOWRAVILLE MURDERS
- News
newsTracker: Hundreds protest lack of action over Bowraville murders
http://tracker.org.au/2013/03/hundreds-protest-lack-of-action-over-bowra...
15 Mar 13: "NEW SOUTH WALES: Protesters have rallied outside NSW Parliament House to demand justice for three Aboriginal children killed in northern NSW more than 20 years ago. About 100 people marched from Hyde Park to state parliament chanting "justice, justice" on Thursday and calling for Attorney-General Greg Smith to reopen the unsolved murder cases. Colleen Walker, 16, Clinton Speedy, 16, and four-year-old Evelyn Greenup all disappeared from the Bowraville mission over a six month period in 1990. "We haven’t moved on and we won’t rest until we get justice," ... "
* TRACKER: MURDER VICTIM'S FAMILIES TO MARCH ON PARLIAMENT
- News
newsTracker: Murder victim's families to march on Parliament
http://tracker.org.au/2013/03/murder-victims-families-to-march-on-parlia...
14 Mar 13: "NATIONAL: The nation’s largest Aboriginal member-based organisation has called on the public to support three Aboriginal families fighting for justice more than 20 years after their children were murdered in Bowraville, on the mid north coast. ... They will be protesting from Sydney’s Hyde Park to the state Parliament House on March 14th. Chair of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council Stephen Ryan called on the public and the media to support these families."
* DAVID T. ROWLANDS, GREEN LEFT: BLUE MOUNTAINS CROSSING CEMENTED COLONISATION
- Analysis / Opinion
Green Left: Blue Mountains crossing cemented colonisation
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/53622
16 Mar 13: "This year marks the bicentenary of the first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in NSW. For white Australia it was a great triumph and a significant step forward in the process of colonising the entire continent. For the Aboriginal people of this area, however, it was a disturbing development that heralded the most significant challenge they had ever faced. ... For Aboriginal people of the Blue Mountains area, the bicentennial evokes painful memories of past injustices. It also represents 200 years of resistance to the remorseless tide of dispossession, and a call to stay strong and united in the struggle that continues today." By David T. Rowlands
* DR ALESSANDRO PELIZZON, SOVEREIGN UNION: GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SOVEREIGNTY FOR NON-LAWYERS
- Analysis
Sovereign Union: General Principles of Sovereignty for non-lawyers
http://nationalunitygovernment.org/general-principles-sovereignty-non-la...
"What is Sovereignty? ... In other words, Sovereignty is the ultimate power, authority and/or jurisdiction over a people and a territory. No other person, group, tribe or state can tell a sovereign entity what to do with its land and/or people. A sovereign entity can decide and administer its own laws, can determine the use of its land and can do pretty much as it pleases, free of external influence (within the limitations of international law)." By Dr Alessandro Pelizzon LLB, LLM, PhD
* BACKGROUND TO THE ABORIGINAL SOVEREIGNTY MOVEMENT:
Last updated: 17 March 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-aboriginal-sovereig...
* ALSWA'S REPORT CARD REVEALS THE BARNETT GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED
- Media Statement
Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia (Inc.): ALSWA's Report Card reveals the Barnett Government has FAILED
http://www.als.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=263:a...
7 Mar 13: "The Barnett government has been handed a resounding FAIL in ALSWA’s report card on its handling of Aboriginal Affairs. With Western Australia having more Aboriginal children locked up in detention than any other Australian state or territory, Aboriginal Legal Service of WA (ALSWA) CEO Adjunct Professor Dennis Eggington says that under Barnett’s stewardship, his government’s human rights’ record has been appalling.
Mr. Eggington says the policy of removal of Aboriginal children is still being brutally applied through the criminal justice system. ...
Commenting on the Barnett government’s reduction of 'Redress WA' compensation to Aboriginal people abused within state care, Mr. Eggington is equally as damning. ...
ALSWA has also slammed the pittance offered to Aboriginal Western Australians who had their wages stolen by the state. ... "
* THE STRINGER: ADAM GILES BECOMES THE FIRST ABORIGINAL LEADER OF AN AUSTRALIAN STATE/TERRITORY
- News
The Stringer: Adam Giles becomes the first Aboriginal leader of an Australian State/Territory
http://thestringer.com.au/adam-giles-becomes-the-first-leader-of-an-aust...
14 Mar 13: "The Northern Territory has a new Chief Minister. Terry Mills has been dumped and will be replaced by Adam Giles, the first Aboriginal person to lead a State or Territory jurisdiction. ... Mr Giles said he will not be focused on his Aboriginal heritage. "I am not an Indigenous Chief Minister. I am a person who fights for a very strong reconciled state." "Hold me to account for the man that I am and the position that I hold, and don’t let my heritage get in the way."."
See:
WGAR News: Greatest challenge for Giles is to remedy the ills resulting from intervention: Jeff McMullen, SMH
http://indymedia.org.au/2013/03/15/wgar-news-greatest-challenge-for-gile...
- Related Analysis / Opinion
SMH: History made with change at territory's top
NT Country Liberals have quietly installed an indigenous leader.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/history-made-with-change-at-territorys-to...
16 Mar 13: "Forty-one years after Neville Bonner was elected to the Senate in his own right, Australia's most reactionary electorate has become the accidental trailblazer. Amid the hullabaloo surrounding Julie Gillard's championing of Nova Peris' political aspirations and Tony Abbott's pledge to recognise Aborigines in the constitution, the Northern Territory's turmoil-ridden Country Liberal Party elected Adam Giles as Chief Minister. He is the first indigenous person to head an Australian government. Giles, whose paternal grandmother was a Gamilaroi woman born in the Pilliga scrub, ... " Damien Murphy
Crikey: New NT Chief Adam Giles isn’t home quite yet. What odds on a counter-coup?
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2013/03/13/new-nt-chief-adam-giles-i...
13 Mar 13: "Willem Rudolf Westra van Holthe is still - despite this afternoon’s extraordinary coup that saw Adam Giles and Dave Tollner installed - finally - as NT Chief Minister and Deputy respectively - the Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. At least until the appropriate administrative arrangements can be put in place. ... But with the way the CLP is at the moment I wouldn’t be surprised if in the few hours until Terry Mills lands in Darwin at about 2.30 tomorrow afternoon that someone (who is your guess as much as mine) had another stab at leadership and tried on a counter-coup. Or maybe not. Willem?" Bob Gosford in the NT
- Related News
ABC: Indigenous party calls CLP power play 'disgusting'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-15/fnpp-maurie-ryan-says-clp-behaviou...
15 Mar 13: "An Aboriginal interests political party has decried the past week in Territory politics as "absolutely disgusting". Australian First Nations Political Party founder Maurie Ryan was scathing about the way new Chief Minister Adam Giles rose to power. Terry Mills lost the support of the Country Liberals' parliamentary wing while he was on a trade mission in Japan. Mr Ryan said he was happy for Mr Giles, who has Indigenous heritage, to be in the top job but he did not believe it happened in the right way."
newsTracker: NT coup the lowest act: Snowdon
http://tracker.org.au/2013/03/nt-coup-the-lowest-act-snowdon/
15 Mar 13: "NORTHERN TERRITORY: Federal Labor MP Warren Snowdon says the rolling of Northern Territory chief minister Terry Mills while he was overseas is the lowest political act he can think of. Mr Mills has been replaced by transport minister Adam Giles, who becomes Australia’s first Aboriginal state or territory leader. "What’s embarrassing is that we’ve had a chief minister who is overseas doing trade business with a major investor in the Northern Territory and had his throat cut while he’s away," the Northern Territory MP told reporters in Sydney."
Australian: Indigenous leader pushes 'jobs, jobs, jobs' agenda
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous-leader-pushe...
16 Mar 13: "AUSTRALIA'S first indigenous head of government will demand a fundamental change in the direction of federal indigenous affairs, away from the "socialism that's killing Aboriginal people" and to economic development."
* OTHER ARTICLES:
- News
Australian: COAG 'is for governments only'
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/coag-is-for-governments...
16 Mar 13: "INDIGENOUS Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin has rejected an attempt by the peak Aboriginal representative body to be made a member of the Council of Australian Governments, giving it the same official status as the states and territories."
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