Justice In Our Land

January 5th, 2006 by Critical Times

Media Release Pukatja Community Inc
Ernabella via Alice Springs NT 0872 ABN 57 189 260 264
Tel 8956 2966 Fax 8956 2945
29 November 2005

“Anangu communities have spoken through a decisive vote
in support of the Anangu Justice in Our Land Campaign and
against the Government’s heavy handed interventions ”, says
Gary Lewis elected AP Executive member for Pukatja.
“In October this year the Parliament of South Australia rushed
through amendments to the land rights legislation, without
proper consultations with the traditional owners. The Anangu
response has been decisive. “


The Stolen Generation

The dreaming we have
Is all that we have
Of the land that we share
That is yours.

And the love that we have
Of this land that we have
Is yours and yours and yours.

And the rest I must have
In the sleep I shall have
Proves death is simply a pause.

For the dark brown sward
Of the grave I shall have
Is yours and yours and yours.

And the hopes that I have
For the love that I have
For black feller ways and laws.

Means the gold of the sun
Burns bright through black lands,
Giving power through our blood
To the poor.

Peter Howes

“ Anangu voters saw that Traditional Owners control of
our Lands and in decision making was weakened by the
amendments. Culturally appropriate elections and decision
making processes were busted up by the State Government
with ill-considered legislative change and the extraordinary
intervention of the Acting Premier in Anangu Land Council
affairs. This has boomeranged back in the government’s face
with communities’ decisive vote for our leadership.

Government must listen”, says Gary Lewis.

“We are concerned that the government
has more interest in mining our lands than
in supporting all Anangu. It couldn’t and
wouldn’t provide a proper electoral process
which had safeguards against abuse. Pukatja
Community has already informed the Minister
Terry Roberts, South Australian Minister
for Aboriginal Affairs, that a complaint
will be lodged with the UN Human Rights
Committee about the inappropriate actions of
government.”

“We want community development, support for health
and unemployment issues, and remedies for our needs in
education, training and for our youth, and especially doing
something effective about the scourge of petrol sniffing we’ve
had for twenty-five years.

This is why we need an indentured agreement over land rights.
So we can be heard.”

“Playing politics with our land is not acceptable any more. It
is our land and our law which we are standing for, and which
Anangu have voted for us to uphold.”
This is what we are taking to the United Nations Human Rights
Committee, South Australia will now need to answer to the
whole world for how our faith in the Land Rights Act was
shattered.

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