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Report on the 'Time for a Treaty' meeting at the House of Commons

22 March 1999 - by M. Moriarty

'The English came to our land with the bible. They got the land. We got the bible.'

Elder Gnarnayarrahe Inmurry Waitaire

Rikki Shields, Gnarrayarrahe Inmurry Waitaurie, Ponjydflyidu

Introduction

On Monday the 22nd of March, 1999, I attended the launch of the 'Time for a Treaty' Campaign at the House of Commons. The meeting was called to launch the campaign and to discuss ways of achieving a treaty that recognises the rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Indigenous People of Australia.

The meeting followed the recent strong condemnation of the Howard Government's Aboriginal Policies by a Geneva-based United Nations Human Right Committee.

When one considers writing a report of this nature, normal practice is to write such a report in a third person vernacular. The thing that struck me the most was the fact that the issues of rights for the Indigenous Peoples of Australia are so immense and complex that one faces numerous problems on which angle to pitch such a report.

The Welcome

The meeting opened up to a traditional Indigenous welcome ceremony by Elders Gnarnayarrahe Inmurry Waitairie and Ponjydflyidi (Una Branfield).

The two elders related their experiences as an Indigenous People. This part of the proceedings was an extremely moving experience.

Stories of the way their peoples have been treated by the white immigrants. Stories of the forcible removal of their children to children's homes or foster care. Stories of forcible removal from tribal land were but a few of the terrible litany of experiences that the Indigenous Populations have had to endure to the present day.

Glenroy Watson, Chair of the RMT Black Members Group, chaired the meeting.

'We're not saying we have a treaty in mind, or that we want it rushed through,' said group spokesman Lez Malezer, vice-chair of the Brisbane-based National Indigenous Working Group.

'We are trying to re-ignite a debate about Aboriginal rights, recognition of our rights as peoples and recognition of our rights to self-determination.'

'Our lands have been taken, our peoples forcibly removed, we have been set to the disadvantage of living like third world peoples.'

'We have no control over our lives. We have no control over our families. We have no control over futures. We have no rights of inheritance we can pass on to future generations.'

'That is the message we're giving.'

Lez Malezer stated that rallies would be organised with speakers flown from Australia to spread the message, with the aim of a treaty by 2001.

Australian born Professor Germaine Greer spoke at the meeting and vowed not to return to Australia until the Federal Government negotiated a treaty with Aborigines that sought to put right past injustices.

She also made a plea to the world's black athletes to use the Sydney Olympics for some ''expression of solidarity' with Indigenous Australians, similar to the controversial black power salutes that characterised the Mexico Games 30 years ago.

Dr Greer said the raised black-gloved fists of medal-winning Americans at Mexico had galvanised world opinion. She said Sydney 2000 provided Aborigines with their best opportunity to raise international awareness of their plight.

Dr Greer added that she was ashamed to have been born in Australia and ashamed of the 'triumphalist line that is Australian history. That's how stupid our history is,' she said and until this was set right through reconciliation, she would stay away.

'I consider myself as much in exile as those who escaped South Africa during apartheid.' She said.

Dr Greer's comments included a strong attack on Australians' 'willful blindness to the simplest and most obvious issue of natural justice' and said their lack of understanding of a treaty boiled down to fears that they would lose their houses and their beloved Hill's hoists.

She said Australians were in a state of 'deep denial' because they had no right to be in the country. She warned that Aborigines would be 'ripped off during the Olympic Games for their colour, their culture and their tourism value.'

Geoff Clarke is the Commissioner for Native Title from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Vice Chair of the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, thought 'that it was appropriate that the meeting was taking place at the House of Commons especially as the building has witnessed some of the worst human rights atrocities. 'It is therefore quite right that we meet in this building to achieve a treaty'.

'History for our children is very important. We have to teach them the genocide that has gone on in Australia.'

The campaign for a treaty is being co-ordinated by the London-based European Network for Indigenous Australian Rights. The group believes a treaty should be negotiated in time for the Centenary of Federation in 2001 and formally recognise the rights of Aborigines to land and a greater say in their future.

The British Government and public will be urged to advocate the settlement of a treaty between the Australian Government and Aborigines under a new campaign.

A number of statistics were quoted which have a significant bearing on how:

• The Indigenous People of Australia face one of the highest mortality rates in the world. The infant mortality rate of Indigenous children is 3 times that of non-Indigenous children.
• The maternal mortality rate for Indigenous women is 5 times that of non-Indigenous women.
• 1.3% of the population over the age of 14 are Indigenous Peoples but 14% of the prison population are Indigenous.
• Health standards are similar to the third world. Average life expectancy of an Indigenous person is 17 years less than that of a non-Indigenous person.
  Education standards are similar to the third world. 22.5% of Indigenous children complete their secondary education compared with 76.2% of non-Indigenous children.
  
• The 1901 Act of Independence denied laws to Indigenous Peoples. This was judged to be fundamentally racist in it's intent.
• During the 12-month ending July 1998, 16 Aboriginal people died in custody. This was the highest number of Aboriginal deaths in a 12-month period since 1980 when records began. This is despite the far-reaching recommendations of the 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
  
• Payment of compensation to Indigenous People affected by atomic testing has not been made. This is despite the fact that the British Government agreed these payments should be made in 1990.

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