2.Uluru-Ayers Rock Statements
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.
How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
AYERS ROCK STATEMENT FROM THE HEAD
We Australians, having been born and bred here, as well as those of us coming from all points of the world, make this statement from the head:
We acknowledge that the ancestors of our Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander citizens were the first peoples of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands from some 60,000 years ago. These original peoples had a deep spirituality with, and an understanding of, this land on which they lived in their many separate societies, according to their own diverse beliefs since from the Creation.
We acknowledge that all Australians born of this land can have a spiritual notion of an ancestral tie with, or a custodianship over, this land, the longer their ancestors having been here, the stronger the developing tie. But this is not sovereignty, that concept of International Law, that came into existence for our land in 1770 in the name of the British Crown and which is now vested in the Commonwealth of Australia, as the custodian for All of us Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples could never have ceded or retained legal sovereignty, because under International Law they have never been in possession of it.
How could it be otherwise? Our Australian sovereignty, has never been challenged in the International Court of Law and, under Inter-temporal and Prescription law, it never can be. Do we expect that our sovereignty should be just divided up because 3% of the population say so?
No constitutional change is necessary for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to voice their opinions and advice to parliament. They can do that now like ALL other Australians.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are not an innately criminal people or poor parents, but responsibility does rest with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to be the prime solver of their problems. Australian society will continue to provide resources and do whatever it takes to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people bridge the Gap, but the commitment and responsibility must come from within.
The great majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not show a ‘torment of powerlessness’, but are getting on with their lives like the rest of us Australians. Only those Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who allow their political elites to oppress them under an ideology of victimhood, will forever be disadvantaged, while the rest of society flourishes and moves on.
We now see Australians of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander background successful in all walks of Australian society, including state and federal parliaments, and we acknowledge their contributions to our great Country and Society.
But we totally reject Ethnic Nationalism and say No to the Voice to Parliament, a Makarrata and changes to Our Constitution, the Constitution of all Australians. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander treaties and constitutional recognition are complementary goals and they are about power – power to an Aboriginal Political Elite that will claim special rights for a minority of Australians based on their ethnic origins.
Instead, we invite Australians of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent to continue to improve their own lives and walk with the rest of us Australians together, as equals, in this great country ours, Australia.