Aboriginal Rights Delegation
Reflection On Aboriginal Rights Progress Since Aboriginal Delegation To Britain
Eight years on from the 1998 Aboriginal delegation to Britain, and has anything changed? Sure! It's worse!
Delegation for Aboriginal Rights
In 1998, a delegation of Aborigines from the Kimberleys in Western Australia visited Britain to fight for Aboriginal land rights for the growing population of around 300,000 Indigenous people living on the Australian continent. The delegation was led by Peter Yu, Aboriginal leader and Aboriginal rights activist.
At the time Uncle John Watson, a Fitzroy Valley elder, said:
"We have our own law, our language and our ceremonies. I have learned these from my old people. We are not recognised as a distinct people by the Australian government. Now the British are planning to turn their backs on us as if they had nothing to do with our dispossession. The British people must be reminded of this".
The Aboriginal elders spent the week beginning 23rd November 1998 in London, meeting with government, human rights and legal figures to discuss Britain's historic responsibility to indigenous Australians.
The Delegation's Aims
The delegation wanted to make the British public aware of
- the lack of status of Aboriginal Australians in the eyes of the Australian government,
- abuses of human rights by legislating to extinguish Native Title and denying Aboriginal self-determination.
- Aboriginal poverty and the appalling state of Aboriginal health.
- Australia's advance towards a republic without any recognition Aboriginal rights of sovereignty and land ownership.
The Kimberley Land Council delegation's chief aim was to remind Her Majesty and Parliament of a fiduciary responsibility to Aborigines as colonised people.
In Retrospect
So, looking back, did the UK actually respond in any meaningful way to this? All I know is that today British Prime Minister Tony Blair is leading the charge in rejecting the United Nations' attempts to establish international Indigenous human rights. In light of this, it could be said that the delegation failed to engage the conscience of the British government.
"God save the Queen"? God save us!
