I feel quite dismayed by the imbalance and rhetoric in reporting.
Nowhere is there a cogent letter from a constitutional lawyer or an Indigenous Elder or anyone with on-the-ground experience of Indigenous communities and the challenges they face.
It is time we listened to the informed opinions of respected Indigenous Elders and their communities. I feel compelled to give ‘voice’ to a respected Indigenous Elder by way of shedding some much needed light from a legitimate source with legitimate concerns on a pressing subject:
‘Stop treating us like children and forcing inappropriate solutions upon us, that are propped up by mainstream propaganda and funded by corporations that have never cared for our self-governance, our liberty or our freedom.’ Senior initiated clan leader of the Yolngu Nation of North East Arnhem Land, Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM provides more detail.
Duncan Shipley-Smith, Byron Bay
Ed note:
We don’t consider letters over ‘reporting’. The opinions of local Indigenous leader Delta Kay (front page, The Echo 30 August) and Belle Budden (p15, The Echo 13 September) are worth reading if you missed them. Both are available on The Echo online: www.echo.net.au.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
