Critical Times

Last year Alyawarr leader Richard Downs led his Alyawarr people in a walk-off from their community town of Ampilatwatja, about 300 kilometres from Alice Springs in central Australia.

They were protesting about the terrible housing and the lack of action to assist them in the wake of the racist Federal Government “intervention” in the Northern Territory.

Richard Downs says the Alyawarr are becoming sick from living in tin houses which are ankle-deep in sewage.

Darren Coyne

Organisers of a Canberra rally last month calling for an end to the “racist” Northern Territory intervention have issued an appeal to unions and grassroots members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

A proposed motion drafted by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition urges ALP branches and unions to call on the Rudd government to immediately review the NT intervention, and to ensure that reparations are paid to members of the Stolen Generations.

The motion follows the February rally in Canberra when more than 1,000 people, including Aboriginal people from every state and territory, marched on Parliament House demanding an end to the intervention, and laws of “apartheid”.

By DARREN COYNE
CHRISTINE King is not taking any chances. She plans to travel to Canberra with her elderly mother – a member of the Stolen Generations – for the first sitting of Parliament next month just in case Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says sorry.
As the Indigenous Co-chair of the Stolen Generations Alliance, Mrs King has been waiting a long time for the apology promised by the new Labor Government.

Brendan Nelson made it clear today that reconciliation and the rights of Aboriginal Australians are of no concern to him whatsoever. In trying to attack Kevin Rudd on his ability to prioritise issues of national importance, Nelson showed the country why he and his Party are not fit to hold office. This is what he had to say:

“Whatever the attitude of Australians towards this generation, apologising for things that were done by earlier generations, you’ve really got to ask yourself whether this is a high priority for the Australian Parliament.

Take a moment to imagine a cultural icon six times older than the Pyramids, eight times older than Stonehenge. Imagine probably the earliest surviving rock carvings on this planet: close to a million images of ancient faces and our earliest fauna, including the mighty Tasmanian tiger, spread throughout a group of small islands alongside the west coast of Australia.

Most Australians have never even heard of these rock carvings on the Burrup Peninsula – and have no idea this silent world treasure is at risk of being needlessly pulled apart and destroyed from blind industrial development.