MEDIA STATEMENT 1 June 2012
WGAR supports the Yolngu statement opposing the Stronger Futures laws
The Working Group for Aboriginal Rights stands in solidarity with the Yolngu Nations Assembly and strongly supports the Yolngu’s right to be independent and free nations living under their own Law.
WGAR understands that the Stronger Futures legislation, as an extension of Australian Government’s Northern Territory Intervention into Aboriginal communities, is a colonial imposition on the owners of Country, who have never ceded their sovereignty and have maintained their own Law and customs for millennia.
When the NT delegation to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial discrimination (CERD) presented their opposition to the NT Intervention in August 2011, the CERD recommended that the Australian Government enter into Treaty negotiations with the owners of Country:
‘ … the Committee recommends that the State party consider the negotiation of a treaty agreement to build a constructive and sustained relationship with Indigenous peoples.’
[CERD/C/AUS/CO/15-17 27 August 2010]
We recommend that it is high time that all political parties cease the denial of the true sovereign rights of First Nations Peoples and commence serious negotiations for a meaningful future, in which First Nations Peoples take their proper place in this land, once again.
In solidarity,
Winiata Puru and Ffionnan Brooke-Watson
on behalf of Working Group for Aboriginal Rights, Australia
contactwgar@gmail.com and http://wgar.wordpress.com/
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See CERD: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/cerds77.htm
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See:
Background to support for the Yolngu statement and opposition to the 'Stronger Futures' laws
Last updated: 22 June 2012
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/06/10/background-to-support-for-the-yolngu-...