Aboriginal Sovereignty can be recognised!

AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 2007: Aboriginal Sovereignty can be recognised!

Native Title and Reconciliation have not adequetly addressed Indigenous rights on this continent. Native Title puts the onus on Indigenous peoples to somehow prove continuous connection with their land - an impossible task given the effects of dispossession and attempted genocide. Indigenous peoples have sacred connections and rights to this land exercised over tens of thousands of years.

Stop the genocide of Indigenous peoples; Achieve recognition of Indigenous peoples as having sovereign rights over the land; and Work towards the development of treaties so that Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples can co-exist on the land...
NAIHO Collective
© 1983

SOVEREIGNTY

Sovereignty is not a vague legal concept.

Sovereignty is a practical and achievable goal.

Sovereignty for Aboriginal people can be defined as recognition of our Aboriginal Rights. Sovereignty can be demonstrated as Aboriginal people controlling all aspects of our lives and destiny.

Sovereignty is independent action. It is Aborigines doing things as Aboriginal people, controlling those aspects of our existence which are Aboriginal. These include our culture, our economy, our social lives and our indigenous political institutions. Wrapped up in all of this are health housing education legal matters and land rights, and many others things. When Aboriginal people are able to exercise absolute control over these essential areas without penalty being imposed on us by non Aboriginal society, then our Aboriginal Sovereignty will have been recognized.

At present the federal government has taken on some responsibilities for some areas of Aboriginal survival, so has the state government and so has local governments. Aboriginal Sovereignty will be recognized and working when these non Aboriginal agencies relinquish control or influence over these areas of Aboriginal survival to our people in toto.

This is not apartheid nor separatism, we are not saying send all the blacks to the territory and let them run it and have nothing to do with the rest of Australia, we are instead promoting parallel development. Aboriginal Sovereignty can be recognized and actioned without destroying the Commonwealth, it may be hard but it is possible. Canada, Denmark, China, U.S.A. and other acceptable western democracies have recognized the Sovereignty of the indigenous people without the disintegration of that society.

Aboriginal people can exist as sovereign, identified, indigenous nations within the Commonwealth of Australia.

NAIHO Collective
© 1983

http://www.kooriweb.org/gst/sovereignty/naiho.html

_______________

The Reconciliation process has failed. The concept of reconciliation is based on the approach that Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples need to 'reconcile their differences'. Indigenous peoples have suffered attempted and actual genocide at the hands of white people.

White settlers directly and indirectly killed large numbers of Indigenous people. The Australian government continued the attempted genocide through enclosed camps, reservations and forced removals of children.

Indigenous peoples today continue to be severely disadvantaged, suffering shocking Third World conditions that Australia should be ashamed of. We must recognise the attempted genocide of Indigenous culture, society and people, and end it.

There is no escaping the issues of genocide, sovereignty and treaty. Unless they are properly addressed, Indigenous peoples will continue to suffer greatly and struggle to regain their dignity. Unless they are properly addressed, non-Indigenous people will continue to carry the scar in their souls and their society that comes from not being at peace with the land and its traditional owners.

Get Indigenous rights back on the agenda. REALISE the shameful situation facing Indigenous peoples on this continent...


---
"There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one's native land." - Euripides 431 B.C.
---

Warning! Some of the links below contain images of indigenous people now deceased.

Sources:
Back to Basics - Aboriginal Sovereignty
Australia Day, Invasion Day or Aboriginal Sovereignty Day?
TOWARDS ABORIGINAL SOVEREIGNTY
kooriweb.org - Black Australia's 200 year struggle for justice
Genocide to end - Sovereignty acknowledged - Treaty to be made
Indymedia