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Four national bodies claim as true voice of our people by Ray Jackson 12 December 2014
I
refer to a report from Ghillar Michael Anderson that contains a rebuttal against the charges put by Congress co-Chair, Les Malezer, to the trip taken by Michael to Geneva to do some assessment work on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. I know that both men have done substantive international work with UN bodies to attempt to bring the Australian federal governments over some years to live by, and to let us live by, the appropriate UN declarations to our long term mutual benefit. To date with very little success here. I am quite ambivalent about these activities and to their likely long term success in putting real
Ray Jackson claims, ‘We now have four national bodies each claiming to be the one true voice of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders’ in PM’s Advisory Group; Noel Pearson; National Congress and Aboriginal Freedom Summit Committee. human rights to the fore for both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. The heady days of un euphoria are long gone and most nations ignore even those UN declarations that they have actually signed. Australia has become an international pariah nation, along with the USA, UK and Isreal, for their continued breaches against UN delegations and rapporteurs in the fields of human rights abuses against asylum seekers and their minorities. I have long believed that these human rights struggles are better here, in the streets, in their faces, outside their parliaments and that view has become daily strengthened by the abject failure of coalition and labor governments to raise either a moral or quizzical eye-brow even to any and all un censure. How much moral suasion is reflected worldwide is somewhat of a moot point when most countries are doing similar dastardly deeds. I do
Noel Pearson: The Cairns Post
however respect both men in their endeavours and leave it to them as to who speaks for whom, and why, and with what authority. The report by Les Malezer, co-Chair of Congress, to my mind smacks of too little, too late. We now have four national bodies each claiming to be the one true voice of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders. Firstly is the foul Abbott’s hand-picked black and white team headed by an equally hand-picked but self-appointed national leader, Warren Mundine. Next comes the font of all knowledge in his Kingdom of One, Noel Pearson, with great support from his platform, The Australian. Third claim to the crown is the Congress that has been put on life support leading to its eventual demise whilst the final contender is now the Aboriginal Freedom Summit. The former two have no validity whatsoever and are mainly ignored
Warren Mundine and Tony Abbott: The Guardian
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Aboriginal Freedom Summit: nationalunitygovernment.org
by mainstream Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders but do have the backing of governments. The latter two have some credibility having gone through a process of election to at least a wink and a nod to some weak democracy. But, and it is a big but, how much real support does either body have nationally? Neither voice has any ongoing recognition from any government and both are fighting to
gain the high moral ground and the required funding. Labor endorsed the funding regime to the Congress whilst the foul Abbott has cut it financially adrift in the last budget. So the Congress speaks with a rapidly diminishing authority whilst the Summiteers struggle to gain theirs. The call by Les for proper recognition of the UN declaration and for self-determination by June
National Congress: nationalcongress.com
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2015 will prove to be a courageous call indeed and one that I see will most certainly fall on very infertile ground. The counter-attack, if that is what it is, by the AFS is to gather at the Canberra Tent Embassy on or about Invasion Day, 26 January, 2015 to await the thousands to join them and to stay camped until the federal government opens in February, 2015. And then ... I must admit to being underwhelmed by both tactics.