VOICE | TREATY | TRUTH
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.
5 July 2019
The Uluru Statement From The Heart
Secondary Education Tool V5 Source
https://ulurustatement.org
6 July 2020
Aunty Pat Anderson AO, Professor Megan Davis and Noel Pearson speaking directly from the First Nations National Constitutional Convention in May 2017.
This video provides insight into exactly why the reforms called for by the Uluru Statement from the Heart are so important and what was being discussed and deliberated at the First Nations National Constitutional Convention.
Understand why the reforms of the Uluru Statement from the Heart are so important and help us educate all Australians on the way forward for Australian reconciliation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
SunNeverSetsOnMusic is written in Rubibi | Broome, Western Australia. The Yawuru people are the Native Title holders for the townsite of Broome. For thousands of years Yawuru people have lived along the foreshores of Roebuck Bay, across the pindan plains, as far inland as the Walan-garr (Edgar Ranges) and along the fringes of the Great Sandy Desert. Yawuru country is land and sea moulded by the cycle of seasonal change. It is a living cultural landscape with which Yawuru people have a dynamic and enduring relationship (Joint Management Plan for the Yawuru Minyirr Buru Conservation Estate).
I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land where I work and live. I pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging. I celebrate the stories, culture and traditions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders of all communities who also work and live on this land.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, SunNeverSetsOnMusic salutes all black musicians and give thanks for the great creative heritage that underpins so much of contemporary music and the arts - including Jazz, Blues, Gospel, R&B, Funk, Soul, Rock'n'Roll, Hip Hop, Rap and House.
The scourge of genocide, violence and neglect accompanied colonial settlement and industrialisation throughout the world, not least in Australia since 1778. By most measures, Indigenous Australians continue to suffer disproportionate disadvantage in comparison to the general population, in urban, rural and remote settings.
It is long overdue for Australia's governments, institutions and citizens to listen patiently and attentively to the many enlightened Indigenous voices and to respond caringly and generously, commencing with the constitutional enshrinement of the Uluru Statement From The Heart and a representative Voice to Parliament by fairly-elected representatives of Indigenous Australians.
Peter Hyland | SunNeverSetsOnMusic