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The History made among the stringybarks

BY TARA RAVENS

24 July 2008 - Federal cabinet met in an indigenous community for the first time yesterday,deep in the heart of Arnhem Land. As a dog wandered past barefoot children in an open shelter surrounded by stringybark forest, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and 15 of his ministers listened to the concerns of the Northern Territory's Yolngu people.

After the ancestors of the region's 16 clans were called with singing,dancing and clapping sticks, cabinet was handed a metre-long bark petition calling for the recognition of indigenous people in the constitution. The ceremony took place on the same ground at Yirrkala where, 45 years earlier, Yolngu people presented the federal government with a bark petition, voicing their opposition to a mine at Gove.

Aboriginal leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu, clad in ceremonial dress of garlandsand a yellow loin cloth, said, ''We do not seek to take away from the rights of other Australians, we simply seek the protection and recognition that is given to the rights of other Australians. ''We do not seek to be separate from Australia but to be recognised and secure within Australia.''

The petition calls on the Australian Government to secure within the constitution the ''self-evident and fundamental right'' of the clans of east Arnhem Land to their land, waters, economic independence and future.

Mr Rudd, who received the petition surrounded by dancers in ceremonialdress, said his Government had taken the first step to reconciliation by saying sorry; the next priority was closing the gap on Aboriginal disadvantage.

''The Labor Government has long had a commitment to the constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people,'' Mr Rudd said. ''We will also give attention to detailed sensitive consultation with indigenous communities about the most appropriate form and timing of constitutional recognition.''

Yesterday's gathering was the fifth time cabinet had met outside Canberrasince the Labor Government won power last November. Mr Rudd used the occasion to urge locals to embrace a new framework for the future. He said the cornerstone for the Government's blueprint for closing the gap was a three-way partnership between government, communities and companies.

''What I would like to see more of in the future is each community in remote and regional Australia will be teaming up with a major Australian company who may have a direct interest in helping provide employment, microfinance [and] helpingin other areas in building up the local communities,'' he said.

A statement from 53 clan elders was presented to cabinet, including a25-point list calling for fundamental change in the way Government deals with Aborigines.

Source: Canberra Times

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