Jay Pearse
It is now over three years since the federal government was presented – and rejected – The Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Headed by Thomas Mayor, the Statement was the result of the hard work of many Indigenous leaders, and calls for truth, treaty and most importantly, a voice that speaks directly to parliament, and is not bound to the government of the day.
Once enshrined in the Australian Constitution, the truth telling can continue and the treaty making can begin.
On Saturday July 25, Byron Bay residents launched a local support group for the Uluru Statement, under the umbrella of the Northern Rivers supporting group.
If Black Lives Matter, surely we should all support the adoption of this plea to the Australian people.
We had nearly 5,000 people in this area turn out for the Black Lives Matter march.
Can we expect some of you to also support the Uluru Statement from the Heart?
Saturday’s event was held in Byron’s Anglican Church, and with limited numbers owing to COVID-19 restrictions, we were joined by others on Zoom. Thomas Mayor addressed the gathering.
Since the presentation of the Uluru Statement on 26 May, 2017, Thomas has been travelling Australia talking about what this means, not only for Indigenous Australians, but more broadly about how important it is for this country to be able to move forward and heal. He has also written a book on the subject: Finding the Heart of the Nation: The Journey towards Voice, Treaty and Truth.
Thomas graciously spoke to our small group for nearly an hour and answered several questions by members. He has twice visited and spoken in our area, and he encourages us to take initiative and to take action at all levels, big and small. He said, ‘We need our supporters to take the time and have the courage to have conversations with the unconverted. Help us build this movement’.
Thomas mentioned that in the near future, there would be an opportunity to take a short online advocacy course to develop skills to teach people how to tell stories, promote awareness, and advice on how to handle objections.
This is important, as when the time is right, a referendum will be held, and the more aware people are of this Indigenous issue, the better.
Through its adoption, we stand to gain many thousands of years of wisdom, learning the truth, and sharing our cultures in the future of this great country.
To read The Uluru Statement From The Heart, visit www.1voiceuluru.org. To register your involvement in the Byron Bay support group, please email [email protected]
♦ Jay Pearse is a local co-organiser of the Byron Bay support group for the Uluru Statement of the Heart.
The Uluru Statement From The Heart and the accompanying Voice is another futile attempt concocted with government patronage over the past two decades by lawyer Mark Seibler, sponsored by mining conglomerate Rio Tinto, following on from Native Title legislation, Indigenous Land Use Agreements and Reconciliation and Recognise campaigns, to appease a United Nations (UN) agenda to de-colonise global communities that’s been progressing since the 1960s. The Crown’s failure to Treaty with First Nations in Australasia has rendered its governing Constitution bogus at international law without consent from traditional owners and with no jurisdiction. Australasians are governed by bluff, bluster, belligerence and bastardry. Successive illegal regimes have attempted to remedy this violation with an underhand Treaty by stealth in gaining approval from government appointed First Nations fugitives from tradition despite staunch resistance from grass roots communities overseen by elders. 2020 deadlines for progress to de-colonise have ramped up pressure on increasingly desperate Crown initiatives, with inclusion in a bogus Constitution little more than farcical. The Crown is now facing expulsion from the UN in Australasia over its failure to Treaty in good faith, which will cause massive Sovereign risk and bring pariah status to the colony. Treaty will be conducted when the Crown’s supplicants are sufficiently equitable to negotiate women’s business and men’s business and become Treaty-ready, a prospect far removed from current government initiatives.
What rubbish !
“The Uluru Statement From The Heart” is nothing but a meaningless wish-list, I’m pretty sure it would be possible to get up a petition to have Ayer’s Rock painted ‘day-glo’ or some other nonsensical course of action that would be every bit as relevant. When will it dawn on these people that in order to have a ‘treaty’ you need to have at least two valid nations, and whatever could be construed as aboriginal nationhood was taken by conquest ( the only meaningful basis for territorial boundaries throughout the World ) over two hundred years ago. Like it or not, there is only one nation on this island , and while there are many races, any group based on racism is irrelevant and illegal.
Cheers G”)
I am elderly & at times I do not understand things. Please, without putting me down, can someone explain to me just what a Treaty entails?
The Uluru Statement is neither “a futile attempt concocted with government patronage” or “a meaningless wish list”. It is the best recent considered proposal from an Aboriginal representative group whose members came from all areas of Australia to attend the 2017 Aboriginal National Constitutional Convention to move race relations on in this country. The Uluru proposals are simply a call for a) Constitutional Reform to establish an Aboriginal body to sit alongside Federal Parliament to become the conduit to and from Federal Government on issues affecting Aboriginal People (enshrined in the Constitution so that it cant be politically manipulated or closed down) , and b) to create a Makarrata Commission to progress reconciliation of the situation where British people just came here and then claimed the whole continent as theirs (on the false claim of Terra Nullius – Translation: ‘a land empty of people’. Noting that no war was declared and nobody surrendered.). Makarrata is an Aboriginal word for the reconciliation process where different sides come together after conflict, with the Statement proposing that the Makarrata Commission supervise a process of a agreement making between governments and Aboriginal people ( which may be a Treaty) on the basis of a historical truth telling which includes the Aboriginal side of the history of European occupation. We are the only European occupied country that hasnt organised a Treaty with the original resident owners. Us Australians of immigrant backgrounds occupy, and exploit the resources, of land that should have been passed down to this generation of Aboriginal people who owned it for 60.000 years previously. Of course there are other options – an Aboriginal treaty directly with the British occupiers ( Australia is Constitutional Democracy with the British Queen, and her British Parliament, required to sign off on all laws proposed by the Australian Federal Parliament), or the violent global traditional way of addressing contested land grievances (and while most Aboriginal people are decent peace loving people that just want the broad society to walk with them to achieve a better place for Aboriginal people in our society, who could question that 500,000 Aboriginal warriors could take back all, or a big chunk of, this continent). There is no peace without justice, but there can be justice without peace. I suggest everyone have a look at http://www.1voiceuluru.org & ulurustatement.org