David Dryden of the Yorta Yorta Nation seeks to confront Prime Minister Kevin Rudd next Monday

Yorta Yorta Country -

 northern Victoria and southern New South Wales

David Dryden - Yorta Yorta
It's Our Menu Incorporated
Mobile: 0419662812
Email: davidyorta@gmail.com

Indigenous Yorta Yorta man

to call out Australian Prime Minister

On 19th October at 9am (AEDST) and every day for a week following, David Dryden, a Yorta Yorta man will be outside parliament house Canberra in traditional Victorian Aboriginal dress to call out the Prime Minister, Mr Kevin Rudd, in regards to unfinished business for Indigenous people. It is expected that up to 10,000 supporters will join him.
Victorian Aboriginal people, along with their brothers and sisters Australia wide, continue to suffer the effects of colonisation says David Dryden, an Indigenous Yorta Yorta man from the Murray River Region, and while Kevin Rudd's Apology statement opened the door to healing, things need to move faster - overcrowding in housing, poor health, deaths in custody, over representation in prisons and the justice system etc need to be resolved – now, Says Mr. Dryden.
While much of the recent focus has been on problems in the Northern Territory, Mr. Dryden believes that Victorian Aboriginals are being neglected, citing the withdrawal of government funding from the Maya Healing Centre in Melbourne as an example of this neglect. In an attempt to draw attention to the problems which Mr. Dryden says is killing his people and keeping many of them in abject poverty and atrocious living conditions, Mr. Dryden is gathering supporters to call out the Prime Minister from Parliament House so that he can present a petition to the Prime Minister demanding support to create an integrated healing approach for indigenous Victorians.

The Prime Minister himself said, in his Sorry address to the nation, that the old solutions to indigenous problems haven’t worked, says Mr. Dryden, so we are offering new solutions. We want to create healing centres in the bush where families can go to heal and learn skills that will help them live lives in dignity and self respect. At the moment we have some Victorian families living in overcrowded houses, up to 14 people in one house with parents who don’t have the coping skills to get themselves out of this situation. It’s a national disgrace that we have these Third World conditions existing in what is supposed to be one of the most livable cities in the world.

Mr. Dryden will be on the steps of Parliament House in Canberra at 9am on Monday the 19th October dressed in a traditional Victorian possum skin cloak and it is expected that Indigenous people from across the country and their supporters will be in Canberra to join him. David and his supporters will be camped in front of Parliament House for a week or until his voice is heard. International media have been notified of this event.