Six Years of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Today marks six years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted theUN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). In a historic vote on September 13, 2007, 144 countries voted for the Declaration. It is the outcome of 25 years of hard negotiations. The rights spelled out in the document "constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous Peoples of the world." The Declaration protects collective rights and individual rights of Indigenous Peoples in relation to self-government, land, education, employment, health and other areas. Several countries have made steps towards aligning their policies with the standards enshrined in the Declaration, however, an implementation gap remains. There has been an increased international focus on Indigenous Peoples' right to participate in decision-making processes, especially on the states' duty to consult Indigenous Peoples to seek their Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) in regards to issues that will affect their lands, lives, and livelihoods.
As one UN Permanent Forum delegate stated, "The most important element of Indigenous Peoples' ability to claim the right of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is to have informed and organized communities." Access to information about the Declaration and FPIC is crucial.
Cultural Survival's FPIC Initiative is strengthening Indigenous Peoples' capacity to implement FPIC by increasing awareness and understanding of this right through community media and community exchanges.
GET INVOLVED!
1. Listen to FPIC radio programs here (en espanol aqui). Help translate into Indigenous languages and distribute to Indigenous radio stations, contact us:consent@cs.org.
3. Listen and watch a webinar on FPIC organized with First Peoples Worldwide and International Indian Treaty Council.
4. Be social! Share all this content on facebook and twitter.
5. Invest in Indigenous rights today. Please support our work! Thank you.
As always, we welcome your comments. Please send your feedback and suggestions toagnes@cs.org.
Cultural Survival is a global leader in the fight to protect Indigenous lands, languages, and cultures around the world. In partnership with Indigenous Peoples, we advocate for Indigenous communities whose rights, cultures, and dignity are under threat. For more information go to www.cs.org
A gaping wound in the heart of West Papua, which
was once a beautiful and sacred mountain, capped by a glacier, is visible from
space.
It is so horrible and shameful for American
politicians to see, they are taken in deliberately different flight routes when
they visit the region so that they do not see the devastation which they are
often helping to fund with this mine.
Everyday thousands of tons of gold and copper
are
being extracted from
the Grasberg mine, the largest goldmine on Earth.
The work is also incredibly unsafe and unfair,
whilst all of the mine owners are either American or Indonesian, the Papuans
are given the most dangerous and low paid jobs. This year alone, over 29 people
were killed in 2 mining disasters.
When workers went on strike in 2011, they were
beaten and shot at by police, at least one worker was killed.
Freeport is Indonesia's biggest taxpayer and all
the proceeds are channeled to Jakarta, whilst Papuans become poorer and poorer
in their own land.
Freeport dumps over 238,000 tonnes of toxic waste
into the local river system EVERY DAY. And pays the Indonesian military over 3
MILLION dollars every year to kill local Papuans and keep them away from the
mine.
During the start of operations here, thousands of
local Papuans were killed and evicted by the Indonesian military just to make
way for this monstrous mine.
This only adds to the 500,000+ innocent West Papuan
men, women and children who have so far been murdered by the Indonesian
military, only for expressing their desire to live in a free and independent
nation of West Papua.
An Open
Letter to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
In our
collective living memories it is a rare occurrence that both people vying for
Office are regular Church going Christians.
It is extraordinary to us as
practising Christians and a matter of shame therefore, that both of you are
determined to win office by continuing cruel, oppressive and wasteful policies
towards the Aboriginal and Islander First Peoples, towards desperate Refugees
and Asylum Seekers, and also by
deliberate disregard for the perilous state of the Earth under global warming.
It’s incredible to us that whoever wins
Government, from the lofty heights of membership of the UN Security Council,
Australia will be pointing out human rights abuses in other countries.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto
you.’(Matthew 7/12 )
‘Welcome the stranger.’ (Matthew 25/36) ‘
‘Take care of the Earth ’(Genesis
2/16)
We don’t
think so.
signed
Dr Alitya
Rigney, Kaurna Elder
(Sisters)
Roberta Aitken, Joan Evans, Alice Foley, Margaret Kenny, Marion Gambin, Rebecca
Scanlan, Susan Pollard, Kenise Neill, Marie Faulkner and Maureen McGuire
The people of West Papua are among the poorest in the world. Many rural people have no cash income with few material possessions. Though it is the largest and most resource rich region of Indonesia, the people are by far the poorest. West Papua has the highest HIV/AIDS rate outside of Africa and hospitals and healthcare are few and far between.
Just this year, over 95 Papuans starved to death in one district
due to systematic neglect and starvation by the Indonesian state.
Indonesian transmigrants are the ones with all the money, education and healthcare. In the towns they are regularly seen with 3 cars and running big businesses whereas Papuans are forced onto roadsides to sell local produce.
Many Papuans have lost much of their family and friends due to Indonesian military attacks, disease and starvation.
Yet despite these horrors, Papuan children such as these still manage to have a smile on their faces. They have hope for a better future in freedom.
The Free West Papua Campaign is a non-profit organisation, we provide healthcare and support to suffering West Papuan families. We help Papuans fleeing violence by providing them with funding and clothing. We help refugees cross the border into Papua New Guinea and ensure they can live safely and have their citizenship recognised.
All money raised through your donations will go directly to helping to support those suffering in West Papua and helping to campaign for freedom. Office and staff costs are fundraised for separately, by individual grants.
Please help to ensure this new generation of Papuans grows up in freedom, safety and happiness.
'It's like expecting the Jewish people to celebrate and embrace what the Nazis did in Germany against the Jewish people.' Aunty Isabel Coe.
January 26, commonly known as 'Australia day' is sold as a day to celebrate the 'lucky country' the date chosen to commemorate the arrival of the First Fleet, the 'discovery' of the Great Southern Land. This date is more appropriately known to most First Nations people as Survival or Invasion day.
It is also a day of mourning, we mourn the loss of land, culture, languages, we mourn the loss of freedom and abundance, and we mourn for the people who have, and continue to suffer under this disconnected, insatiable, violent and destructive imposed capitalist system.
Australia remains without a treaty, consent or compensation, the Stolen Generation, stolen wages, dispossession, racism, assimilation, land theft continue.
This is a call to all people of this land to step forward and right the wrongs together and build some momentum against the out-of-control machine that threatens our very existence as the oldest living culture in the world.
Let us all keep vigil so that these avoidable deaths can disappear from our penal institutions and law enforcement practices. Let us all keep vigil so that there will always be - for people like Terry - another go at life, love, family and community. Let us keep vigil so that human life and our own humanity testifies and triumphs.
It is quite clear that, in matters Aboriginal, Canberra - its politicians, its bureaucracy - cannot be relied on nor can it be believed.
In a week when we have heard of the mixed blessings of the Close the Gap Report, now there is this.
The Australian taxpayer needs a full accounting and full reporting on what the Alliance model of housing provision has cost the taxpayer in actual dollars and Aboriginal communities in terms of not only dollars but in
health,
disillusionment,
continuing overcrowding, and
loss of jobs and work-based skills
And, I would ask, where is the Northern Territory Government in all this? Will Aboriginal communities who have a history of voting Labor continue to do so at the 2012 NT elections? Is NT Labor taking Aboriginal support for granted? Can we now say that the Federal and Northern Territory Governments have broken their social contract with the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory?
The article below is by Tess Lawrence and is re-posted, with permission, from the Independent Australia website. I hope Networkers will pop over there to follow up on the comments to Tess's article. Tess has kindly published my previous post in the comments section as well. And I hope you too will become a regular reader of IA.
~~~~~~~~~~
AUSTRALIA DAY IN BLACK AND WHITE
by contributing editor-at-large Tess Lawrence
“Many of our people call it invasion day,” said Mr Mick Dodson, a professor of law at the Australian National University. “To many indigenous Australians, in fact, most indigenous Australians, it really reflects the day in which our world came crashing down.”
When Mick Dodson uttered those words in 2009, after being named Australian of the Year, he addressed the echidna in the outback room. I’m not the only Australian that empathises with him and like thinkers.
We have become so used to having a moribund Federal Parliament that has long divested itself of any concern, or even affection, for its people, but instead has morphed into a wasteland of toxic factions and fetid egos whose venal pursuit of power for power’s sake has reduced our nation’s governance to political squalor and hypocrisy.
This year we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy set up on the grounds of the old Parliament House in Canberra. It is a sacred vigil.
The Tent Embassy has a nobility, patriotic passion and sense of purpose that is completely lacking in The Big House.
Its Coat of Arms and Constitution has no need for royal decree, since the people themselves have decreed it and declared it.
It does not buy and sell speakers and squelchers of the House. Its Ambassadors do not sit in high chairs or high dudgeon.
The Tent Embassy seeks equality not superiority. It seeks recognition that this nation was occupied by aborigines when the first white boat people arrived in their tens, then hundreds, then thousands and now millions and became the master race through brute and gentler force, imposing their language, their religion and their diseases — and whatever else…
It is a disgrace that we have yet to acknowledge the original inhabitants of our Great Southern Land in our Constitution. I say that, as I write, in the midst of much back patting and back stabbing and nonsensical puffery surrounding the issue.
It is more than a disgrace that we have no Treaty in place and I have long felt this.
I feel we will remain an illegitimate nation until we are honourable enough to do the right thing.
In February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd wrote himself indelibly into Australian history when he said Sorry. Perhaps we will have to wait for the Gillard FM (Faceless Men) Coup to be reversed for him to negotiate a Treaty.
Certainly, of all the big noters and the big notaries in the Labor Party – the big talkers and the big hawkers – Kevin Rudd came the closest to effecting a Treaty. He might yet get the chance to extend his historical paragraph.
Today, Independent Australia republishes an article I wrote for Planet Oz Media in 2009 about the Dodson Affair. Tragically, so little has changed in the years since. Dodson was seen by some to be ungrateful and ungracious when he made his comments — and yet, I rejoice that other Australians of the Year have since voiced their passions and beliefs and told it like it is, without marinating in spin or ingratiation.
It’s the Australia that I once knew and still love. Our Governments can reduce us to political Shamocracy, but We the People can still act on behalf of, and with, our communities and refuse to be threatened into silence or brutalised by corporations into submission.
AUSTRALIA DAY OR LOSTRALIA DAY?
G’day Australia. Do most of us really believe that it’s the right thing to celebrate Australia Day on the anniversary of a date when a bunch of whiteys preposterously plonked a Union Jackboot in the sand and declared the land unoccupied, when they had clearly seen a bunch of black fellows peeping through the gum leaves.
Smacks of a rip-off to me. Come off it, sport, how UNaustralian is that, mate?! Fair suck of the saveloy our gracious king.
And what’s up with ‘lil Kev. When he was Kevin 007 he said ‘Sorry’ for Gawd’s sake. Now he’s morphed into Kevin 09, long lost blue blood brother to one John Winston Howard, hogging the mike and telling us all the answer is an emphatic ‘ NO! ‘to any thought of moving the date for
Australia Day to a more appropriate ‘time of the month’ or year.
I was rather disturbed at his attitude and his nobody language. How can Kev go on about democracy and freedom of speech and in the same breath dictate to that big black upstart, the man with the hat, and his like, that the date WILL NOT be moved. Who said? You’re an elected servant of the people, Kev. The Great Unwashed. You might be removed at the next election, mate, for all you know. And what’s up with the drongo Supposition agreeing with him?
Not a good thing to say ‘never’ in politics, Kev. We of the never never reckon you could find yourself eating someone else’s turds. I’m with Professor Mick Dodson, Australian of the Year – and
Ron Barassi and the apparent minority to which I belong, that believes in Australia Day – but not its date.
As it stands, it’s a day for dancing alright; dancing on the collective grave of the inhabitants of the First Nation. You’ve lost me on this one Kev. Australia Day is invasion day — Lostralia.
What’s more, Kev, and this is neither threat nor prophecy (in case you’re thinking of issuing any ridgydidge fridge magnets to report any Australia Day insurgents), if you keep this up you could get a pair of thongs thrown at you at your next press conference.
A.D. or B.C.?
Should A.D. (Australia Day) better reflect B.C. (before Cook)? I say yes. I say change — not the short change that keeps coming to indigenous Australians.
Tough if it’s an inconvenience to change the date, or to seriously think about what we are doing to our indigenous brethren. All the platitudes in the gin-joints of the world mean nothing if we are incapable of empathy on this matter.
In truth this country was ‘founded’ on a lie. It was not ‘terra nullius’; but to a people that considered itself the master race of the universe, blacks were not humans. Bungs didn’t count.
Do they now, Kev? Not really. Neither in fact; nor in law. Not the white man’s lore. Not the King’s Law. Nor the white Queen’s Law. Nor, it seems, do we want them contributing to public debate and impacting upon the outcomes of those debates.
A bit of shiny bling…
…to pin on their diseased and diabetic chests
We orchestrated their past and we’ll orchestrate their future. We know what’s good for them.
Say ‘Sorry’, keep them happy, give them a bit of shiny bling to pin on their diseased diabetic chests.
Better hold on the toxic sugar. And the rabid 100% alcohol-proof fences.
Even if they are on the dole forever, their life span is not as long as ours, so whiteys on the dole forever can still enjoy the dole life plan for much longer. In a way, their early deaths represent considerable saving to the public purse. Come to think of it, then, this means it is not economically viable for us to improve their health.
They wouldn’t work in an iron ore lung…
They wouldn’t work in an iron-ore lung anyway.
There are two types of black deaths in custody. There are your traditional black deaths in custody: go alive into a prison cell, come out dead — Aunties wailing and tearing their hearts and hair out.
You know the scenario. They make such a bloody songline and dance about it.
Then there’s the other black deaths in custody. They now run into their thousands.
They’re the black deaths that have taken place since they’ve been in custody of the wider community. Our community. In our political custody and all that entails. That is, the sum total of all of us since white foot first trod heavy upon this Great Southern Land.
Once, in 1967, white and whiteish folks voted for aborigines to be counted in the national census.
What if we turned the tablelands on that? Do you think we could ask indigenous Australians to participate in a referendum about the date on which we should celebrate Australia Day? Could they be trusted with such political gravitas? Is that too big a word for them, Kev?
You probably want to keep them away from the political gravy train. Look at what happened to ATSICK. I mean, you wouldn’t want them handling a Wheat Board or, say, be Victoria’s Minister for Transport, Lynne Kosky, or anything like that.
Reckonciliation — Reconciliation
And you’d have to keep them away from plonk, glue and petrol wouldn’t you, Kev? Thenthey might be able to handle it. You’d have to keep them away from parliamentary dining rooms otherwise all their rellies would be eating there and complaining theirservings weren’t big enough.
Have you seen how they scoff their tucker? As if there’s no tomorrow. A short tomorrow, granted — but, look, they do get everything just handed to them on a platter. They get handouts and handsup and handshakes — and then they paint all those hands and plant them in the ground. And then have the cheek to give us their hand in wreckonciliation … oops! Reconciliation, I mean.
But that’s not all. They might have altercations on a night out with the iguanas, which they like to bake over an open fire. And you’d have to ban them from going overseas and representing us as diplomats because they’ll just get on the booze — they could also lose their daks, gawd love’em; but they do wear those red nappy things when they’re dancing, so it would probably be alright in the long run.
Better still Uncle Kev, keep them away from any real participation in political change. No, I like
the way you stood up to Professor Mick — have you done a bio authenticity check on him? What’s he profess to be a Professor of, ’eh?
We stole this land. Dress it up in laws and legislation as much as you like. We all continue to collude in this theft. As long as we delay Reconciliation and a Treaty, we remain accomplices.
It’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s not justice. We can’t undo the past. But we should be honest enough to acknowledge it.
Obama spells a Mabo backwards
I love this country. Like many of us who travel overseas, I am perplexed at the nostalgia and sentiment that intoxicate the brain when away from her. It is surely a spiritual bond and not the privilege of one skin colour alone. The power comes from her — and not those who walk upon her; sometimes walk all over her.
People keep asking if there’s an Obama type of fellow out there amongst our indigenous folk. Fat chance. You wouldn’t consider Mick or Noel would you? Don’t even think about a black sheila.
Unless it’s that Catherine the Great sprinter, the one who’s got ‘Salome’ as one of her middle names,
strewth! That’s a bible name. Cheek of it. She must be well up herself, with a surname like
Freeman. I reckon she could be a closet Muslim. Think about it, Salome………
She was given a bogong wasn’t she — an OAM I think. It’s that bling thing again with them.
And she won a gold medal in the Olympics desperately trying to ingratiate herself to us.
Trying to be whiter than white. As for her draping their flag around herself like that, well, with a middle name like Salome what do you expect ?
I thought she’d breakdance into the dance of the Five Veils, it being the Olympics and all. It was different when our Dawn nicked the Aussie flag — that’s more in keeping with our tradition and idiom; plus our Dawn’s got the advantage of being white. But look, getting back to skin colour, of course it matters. For a start, some of them are that white they only claim to be black so they can get the benefits.
Funny that Obama spells A Mabo backwards. I reckon that’s a sign. Black Magic. Also, some of them blacks are muslims like Obama. Did you ever hear of anything so ridiculous. What’s wrong with The Dreamtime? Their own culture not good enough for them? Rainbow serpents and Muslims. Didge in one hand — Koran in the other. What’s going on there? They should be facing Uluru, not Mecca; the Southern Cross, not Saudi Arabia.
I dunno, Kev, I think I’ve just about talked myself out of it now. Yeah, keep Invasion Day as Australia Day. After all, there’s more of us than them. Yo, whiteys rule! And don’t forget, they’re a dying race. As long as we go on as we are, soon there won’t be a race problem. They’ll die out. They’ve brought it upon themselves.
Geezus, they didn’t even put up a decent fight. And when you think about it, they may have lost their country but look at all they’ve gained. We brought them Civilisation! We took them out of the
Stone age. They put themselves into the Stoned age. We give them voting rights. They want Land Rights. They want equal rights. They make us feel like guests in our own country.
You can’t build a dunny on a dung heap without them claiming it’s sacred land and demanding billions of Australia Day medals. The only mistake we made was when we didn’t follow the example of our own white European ancestors. We didn’t learn from our own history. After all, did not the Dutch buy Manhattan for 60 guilders, if not baubles and beads, from the local red Indian savages. After all, our mob couldn’t read or write — still can’t. Anyway, even if we had’ve given them a few bob, where were they going to spend it ? They hadn’t even invented money. No shops. No milkbars. No malls.
To-day, January 26, is Australia Day - Australia's national day of celebration (that's the settler attitude) or the day to mark survival (that's the Aboriginal point of view). The Governor-General publishes a list of Australian honours. It is my Australia Day ritual to peruse the lists nodding in agreement with some (not a lot) and making snarky remarks to myself about others (quite a few). The snarky remarks go along the lines of - well, he/she has got it for a job in which they were well remunerated; so-and-so got this level of honour while so-and-so did similar activities and only got a lower level of honour.
One thing is always clear to me, though, and that is that Honours Lists are status-ridden. The highest level honours are few, seldom given to women or at least not more than one woman per list, and it is clear that one has to have reached a certain position - usually based on economic position - to be in the running. Although it is possible to work your way up from one level to another. This is noted in the lists with the biographies clearly delineating what the recipient has done since his/her last and lower honour.
For you, dear Networkers, I have singled out a few which are a great fit for the ethos of The Network. I have excerpted their listings and have placed them in the document below so you can read them in greater detail. Those that capture my attention are as follows:
David Rhett BUTLER - Firstly, don't you love the name, Rhett Butler. At least one parent must have loved Gone with the Wind. And, did he marry someone called Vivian and have a daughter called Scarlett? That's not why he made The Network Honours List. No. It is because he is the chair and founder of Skyjuice Foundation. As Networkers realise, water is a major priority on The Network and so I regard this not only as a gong for David Butler but for water as well.
Bryan Andrew KEON-COHEN QC. Networkers will realise that the First Nations have the highest priority on The Network. This blog is concerned for recognition and relationships with the First Peoples of all parts of the globe. This, however, is an Australian blog and The Network's primary concern is with the First Nations of Australia. Bryan Keon-Cohen's work for which he is honoured makes it perfectly clear that his priority is the same as The Network's priority.
Jon Stephenson - like myself an old Townvillean - has gone from the midst of us. Please note, Networkers. If you wish to nominate someone, please don't wait until they are on their last legs. Jon's achievements are amazing. For my money this man should have been nominated years before and received no less than our highest honour. Neither of these things have occurred. This man's achievements are many and unique. We ought to be reading about him in schools and libraries across the country. Is there a Hall of Fame somewhere for Jon Stephenson?
Lyn Pengilly of Parkes and Helen Poulos of Bondi Junction touch my heart strings. The Network emphasises and tries to live and breathe community and communitarianism. Lyn and Helen display this in their daily lives and have been honoured for it - one in regional Australia, the other in the very centre of Australia's major city. They are unpaid. They have done the most basic of volunteer jobs. Without Lyn and Helen and people like them across this nation and across the world our human community would be poverty stricken in mind, body, and spirit. They have turned their hands to what needs doing. They have provided the grease for the wheels of their communities.
Today marks six years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted theUN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
