November 2018
Victorian Treaty Process
Every TO group should have a place at the table on Treaty
You can’t have a treaty process without all Nation involvement.
M.P Lidia Thorpe leads 38 Nations Rally
Treaty discussions between Indigenous leaders and the Victorian government are set to begin next year, however some voices are claiming they are being left out of the discussion.
11 Victorian Indigenous language groups will have a seat at the table during the treaty discussions, however there are 38 or more Indigenous languages present in the state.
Greens M.P Lidia Thorpe, lead a protest in October, urging the treaty commission to expand discussions to the full 38 nations.
Reporter Catie Mcleod spoke to Lidia Thorpe about this. A 13 minutes audio recording is available here.
Need for Treaty Engagement reform
“We are here protesting about the treaty arrangement that is in place at the moment, which is ignoring a number of clans from Victoria, which is not giving them a voice at the table. So how can they create their own self-determination?”
“How can you have a treaty when you’re missing a good two-thirds of the representative people to this land? It’s not acknowledging their rights to speak on its [the land’s] behalf.”
Elder Uncle Bill Nicholson Jr.
For further information (including a 12 minutes Radio Interview) please click here.
November 2018
Treaty-Truth Telling
2018 Garma Key Forum – Truth Telling Session
Yingiya Mark Guyula
You cannot understand treaty until you first understand sovereignty
Please click here to watch the speech (YouTube)
Please click here to download the speech (PDF)
April 2018
Prince Charles asked to intervene on behalf of the Yolngu
Prince Charles on Monday April 8th 2018 “visited the Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Arts Centre in the Northern Territory, where he met with Yolngu clan leaders and the Member for Nhulunbuy who asked him to intervene on their behalf and acknowledge their people’s sovereignty.
He was asked to take a strong position on the issue and was handed a letter stick to deliver to the Prime Minister of Australia.
“We have many difficulties with the Australian governments because they do not recognise our sovereignty,” Member for Nhulunbuy Yingiya Mark Guyula MLA said.
“We need to correct this situation, for the sake of our children and their children, for our cultural survival – for our ancestors.””
Source: Prince Charles winds up Australia visit, Sydney Morning Herald, April 10th 2018
Yolungu Leaders Declare Sovereignty (PDF)
Prince Charles tours Nhulunbuy for sixth visit to the Northern Territory (ABC News)
Aboriginal Declaration of Sovereignty – meeting with Prince Charles (Tasmanian Times)
January 2018
Treaty Yeh, Treaty Now!
Long March for ‘Justice Thru Treaty’ 26 Jan
“Calls for a Treaty were repeatedly raised by Aboriginal communities during the recent Constitutional Recognition consultations as a practical means to recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the First Nation Peoples and to implement the structural changes required to establish self-determination. … A Treaty sets a process to legitimately move forward in partnership between Aboriginal people and the Australian State.”
Indigenous Peoples Organisation (IPO)
Flyer: Please click here
List of Speakers: Please click here
IPO Video compilation of event (17 minutes):
Watch this video on YouTube
Treaty Talks Workshop on 23-25 January 2018
In the three days before the “Justice Through Treaty” march Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will meet to discuss what we wish included in a national Treaty. Speakers and participants from every State will look at practical means to address self-determination, how we can support our communities to overcome the legacy of colonialism, poverty, racism and marginalization.
For more information please click here.
Facebook Page: Justice Through Treaty
For other January 26th events: Please click here
March 2016
http://www.yingiya.net/english.html
Quest for Treaty: Yingiya’s Bid for Parliament
Yingiya Mark Guyula, a Yolngu Elder, endorsed by the Yolngu Nations Assembly, makes a bid for the NT Parliament as an independent candidate. He stresses the importance of Treaty and the need for the Yolngu Madayin Law to be recognised.
As part of Treaty Awareness and Fund Raising Tour Mr. Guyula spoke at two events:
Geelong, 11 March 2016: Mr. Guyula spoke on the disempowering impacts of living under the ongoing intervention policies, the need of a Treaty for Arnhem Land and his contributions towards the book The Intervention: an Anthology
Melbourne, 12 March 2016: Mr. Guyula spoke on Madayin law and how his platform Treaty Now! will work.
Please click here to read his speech
Please click here for further information (including videos) of the events.
Declaration of the Yolŋu Nations Assembly (Yolŋu Matha and English) on Sovereignty & Treaty
March 2015
First Nations Women Speak out for Treaty
On 20th March 2015 a public forum was held in Redfern: First Nations Women Speak out for Treaty.
Treaty would recognise the sovereignty of the First Nations People over their land and enshrine the right of self-determination which was promised to them when Australia ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 40 years ago.
The forum also discussed the relationship between Treaty and the current campaign for constitutional recognition.
For more information about the Forum please click here
February 2015
Treaty Messages
Treaties and Constitutional Recognition are both important issues. They are independent of each other. There is no particular order in which these important changes should be made.
“Canada has its centuries-old treaties, and more modern treaties today, and more recently, constitutional recognition of Aboriginal Canadians in the life and history of that nation.”
Mick Dodson, July 2007
Please click here for more Treaty messages
December 2014
The Advantages of Treaty
Bobby Nicholls, Gene Roberts and Janet Turpie-Johnson
On 6 December 2014, ‘concerned Australians’ invited a group of some 50 colleagues and friends to join them for a discussion on Treaties.
Three of the attendees graciously agreed to share their views on the advantages of treaty. They were Bobby Nicholls, Aboriginal Partnership Officer at the Department of Health in Wangaratta and Co-Chair of the Traditional Elders Owners Land Justice Group, Gene Roberts who is now the Western Metropolitan Local Justice Worker for VALS, and Janet Turpie-Johnstone. Melbourne’s first Aboriginal Anglican priest, and currently working as an Aboriginal Equity Pathways Officer at the Australian Catholic University.
All three were enthusiastic in their belief that treaties would improve the lives of Aboriginal peoples across Australia and their establishment would be the only way by which Aboriginal culture could be protected. Janet feared that without treaties Aboriginal culture might not survive.
Please click here to read the full article.
Open Letter from Rev. Dr. Djiniyini Gondarra OAM in Response to
the Prime Minister’s Statement to The Australian
Open Letter from Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM to Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia for his courage in publicly acknowledging the terrible impact on Aboriginal Peoples as a result of early British settlement.
It is of extreme importance to us that we now work together for better outcomes and this can happen when a Prime Minister is prepared, as you have been, to recognise the pain and suffering that has taken place. This is a beginning point and we thank you for it very sincerely.
You say that we should be recognised as first class citizens in our own country. We believe this to be true and we also believe that determining our own future is our right. With your determined support we look forward to realising this in the not too distant future.
Your support for the recognition of Aboriginal Peoples in the Constitution is greatly welcomed and it is our wish that changes will also include provision of a framework for incorporating treaties as they are negotiated.
Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM
Treaties
The message from very many Aboriginal Peoples in Australia to the Australian Government is that the time is long overdue for genuine negotiation on treaties.
Treaties
25 Jan 2014 – Yalmay Yunupingu calls for Treaties
Yalmay’s speech in response to her husband, Dr M Yunupingu, being posthumously awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia
27 Jan 2014 – Warren Mundine on Treaties with Aboriginal Nations
28 Jan 2014 – Tony Abbott Open to Aboriginal Treaties
30 Jan 2014 – Yolngu Nations Assembly on Indigenous Treaties
October 2013
John Pilger’s film “UTOPIA”
The Premiere of Utopia was held at the London National Film Theatre (BFI South Bank) on Thursday 3 October 2013. A large crowd attended the screening and many signed a message calling for Treaties to be negotiated between Aboriginal Nations and the Australian Government.
Utopia is John Pilger’s new feature documentary. In his new film Utopia, John says that until white Australia negotiates a genuine Treaty with indigenous Australia, it can never claim its own nationhood.
The launch of the film in Sydney will feature special screenings at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Sydney, leading up to ‘Australia Day’ on 26 January 2014, followed by a cinema release across the country.
Further film screenings: http://utopiajohnpilger.co.uk/screenings