|
Give it back
Issue 97 - 26 Jan 2006
NATIONAL, Issue 97, 2006: “Sovereignty became treaty, treaty became reconciliation and reconciliation became nothing.”
That’s the view of arguably Australia’s most culturally powerful Aboriginal man, Galarrwuy Yunupingu - the former Australian of the Year who last week demanded the Howard government return one of the nation’s most important pieces of Aboriginal ‘political art’.
In what is threatening to become a bigger international news story than the Long Walk in 2004, Mr Yunupingu has demanded the return of the Barunga Statement, which currently hangs in the Great Hall in Parliament House, Canberra.
On June 12, 1988, in the midst of Australia’s 200-year since colonisation celebrations, Mr Yunupingu, then Chairman of the Northern Land Council and Mr W Rubuntja, the Chairman of the Central Land Council (who passed away last year and for cultural reason cannot be named), presented Prime Minister Bob Hawke with the Barunga Statement during the annual Barunga cultural and sporting festival.
Written on bark and surrounded by a traditional Aboriginal painting, the Barunga Statement calls for Aboriginal self-management, a national system of land rights, compensation for loss of lands, respect for Aboriginal identity, an end to discrimination and the granting of full civil, economic, social and cultural rights for Indigenous Australians.
Mr Yunupingu spent several years negotiating the wording of the document with Aboriginal elders across the country.
Mr Hawke signed the Barunga Statement (although the agreement is not legally binding), telling the gathering he would organise a treaty between black and white Australians within two years (by 1990).
But in 1991, in his last act as Prime Minister, Mr Hawke cried as he hung the Barunga Statement in Parliament House, saying he wished he could have done more (he never delivered on the promised treaty).
Mr Yunupingu last week demanded the Barunga Statement be returned.
He told NT-based reporter for The Age, Lindsay Murdoch that the statement would be collected in Canberra and transported in a wooden coffin back to the Territory, where it will be buried.
“We will unhook the painting that I and other Indigenous leaders painted, lift it into a traditional log coffin and return it to Barunga where we will hold a sorry funeral ceremony,” Mr Yunupingu told The Age.
“We will dig a hole and bury it. It will be a protest but I also hope that it can represent a new start for Aboriginal people.”
Mr Yunupingu said the return of the Barunga Statement had the support of other Aboriginal leaders around the nation, a move that is likely to deeply embarrass the Howard Government and make international headlines.
NIT understands Mr Yunupingu has written to Aboriginal leaders about the issue, including brothers Patrick and Mick Dodson.
NIT also understands Mr Yunupingu has begun making arrangements to travel to Canberra and arrange for the return of the artwork.
The Prime Minister’s office did not respond to NIT requests for comment.
Indigenous Affairs Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone declined to comment on the matter.
“We’re not aware of any formal request besides what has been made in the media, therefore there is no comment I can make.”
• The Barunga Statement
We, the Indigenous owners and occupiers of Australia, call on the Australian Government and people to recognise our rights:
• to self-determination and self-management, including the freedom to pursue our own economic, social, religious and cultural development;
• to permanent control and enjoyment of our ancestral lands;
• to compensation for the loss of use of our lands, there having been no extinction of original title;
• to protection of and control of access to our sacred sites, sacred objects, artefacts, designs, knowledge and works of art;
• to the return of the remains of our ancestors for burial in accordance with our traditions;
• to respect for and promotion of our Aboriginal identity, including the cultural, linguistic, religious and historical aspects, and including the right to be educated in our own languages and in our own culture and history;
• in accordance with the universal declaration of human rights, the international covenant on economic, social and cultural rights, the international covenant on civil and political rights, and the international convention on the elimination of all forms of racial discrimination, rights to life, liberty, security of person, food, clothing, housing, medical care, education and employment opportunities, necessary social services and other basic rights.
We call on the Commonwealth to pass laws providing:
• A national elected Aboriginal and Islander organisation to oversee Aboriginal and Islander affairs;
• A national system of land rights;
• A police and justice system which recognises our customary laws and frees us from discrimination and any activity which may threaten our identity or security, interfere with our freedom of expression or association, or otherwise prevent our full enjoyment and exercise of universally recognised human rights and fundamental freedoms.
We call on the Australian Government to support Aborigines in the development of an international declaration of principles for indigenous rights, leading to an international covenant.
And we call on the Commonwealth Parliament to negotiate with us a Treaty recognising our prior ownership, continued occupation and sovereignty and affirming our human rights and freedom.
 
|