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Aborigines make history in parliament

By James Grubel

12 February 2008 The Mirror UK - Aborigines playing didgeridoos and smeared with white body paint overturned hundreds of years of British tradition in Australia on Tuesday by taking part in the official opening of the nation's new parliamentary session.

The indigenous ceremony came a day before Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was due to deliver an historic apology to Aborigines for past assimilation policies, in which aboriginal children were taken from their families to be raised in white households.

Aboriginal elder Matilda House, standing barefoot and wearing a coat of animal skins, delivered a traditional message stick to Rudd on Monday to mark the first sitting of parliament since Rudd's Labour Party won power in last November's elections.

"With this welcome comes a great symbolism, the hope of a united nation through reconciliation," House told the politicians and guests in a crowded Members Hall.

The welcome was followed by traditional dances from Aborigines, some carrying boomerangs, and indigenous Torres Strait Islanders, with some of the performers wiping away tears over the symbolism of the event.

Australia gained independence from Britain in 1901, but retained Westminster parliamentary traditions that date back hundreds of years.

Governor-General Michael Jeffery, who represents the Queen under Australia's constitution, later opened the 42nd parliamentary session with a speech outlining Rudd's agenda for the next three years.

Jeffery said the Rudd Government would work to end indigenous disadvantage and halve the 17-year gap in life expectancy between Aborigines and other Australians within a generation, as well as help heal racial divisions in Australia.

APOLOGY

Australia's 460,000 Aborigines make up 2 percent of the 21 million population, but are the most disadvantaged group, with far higher rates of infant mortality, unemployment, imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence.

About 2,000 Aborigines and supporters marched on parliament house in a lunch-time protest against the government's decision to send police and troops to outback Northern Territory communities to stamp out widespread alcoholism and sex abuse of children.

The protesters threw leaves on a ceremonial fire and chanted "Stop the intervention -- human rights for all".

Rudd on Wednesday will end an 11-year wait for members of the so-called "stolen generation" of Aborigines when he leads a parliamentary apology for Australia's past assimilation policies.

A landmark 1997 report found between one in three and one in 10 aboriginal children were removed from their families between 1910 and 1970, and recommended a government apology.

But the former conservative government under prime minister John Howard refused, offering only a statement of regret, saying present generations should not be held responsible for past government actions.

Rudd told Tuesday's ceremony that when parliament first sat in Canberra in 1927, no Aborigines were invited and one aboriginal man who attended as a spectator was asked by police to leave because he was not dressed appropriately.

"Today we begin with one small step, to set right the wrongs of the past. In this ceremonial way, it is a significant and symbolic step," Rudd said.

"We can be a bit slow sometimes. But we got here."

(Editing by David Fogarty)

Source: The Mirror UK

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