The following letter is for distribution regarding the coming referendum ...... Dear Sir The debate about the Republic, and ironically the preamble, has largeley passed Aborigines by. Neither the 'Yes' nor the 'No' camps bothered to come near Aborigines to talk about the implications of Aborigines supporting their position. The only thing our people saw from the respective groups was the glossy leaflets which made no effort to explain why Aborigines should support either case. There was a failure to broadly involve Aborigines in the debate about the form of words to be used in the preamble. Whether Aborigines even preferred for the reference to Aborigines to be placed in the preamble instead of in the body of the Constitution is completely unknown: outside of a selected few, Aborigines have been badly denied access and input. We are urging people to vote 'no' at the coming referendum. It is not because we support the monarchy, far from it. It is because we believe some fundamental unfinished business needs to be sorted out between Australians and Aborigines before Australia feels free to go off, so to speak, to deal with the sumpolism of the Republic. The type of outstanding issues involves constitutional questions such as whether Aborigines have the right to self-determination or a right to enter into a treaty. A successful 'yes' vote to the preamble and Republican questions will not bring about any legal change which will positively affect the rights of Aborigines. Issues of land, health, deaths in custody and self-determination remain unresolved. By inference, the head of state issue is a priority over Aboriginal rights for the republicans, otherwise they would defer the current referendum and made it conditional on a satisfactory resolution to the Aboriginal rights issue. Support for a symbolic change to Australia's perceived political allegiances would be justified where the campaign displayed character and integrity, two features sadly lacking here. It is difficult to distinguish the two camps: the monarchists have historically neglected Aboriginal issues, and the republicans show they are prepared to do the same. What Message are the republicans sending by supporting a campaign which symbolically gives Australians a new sense of direction while reducing Aboriginal rights to a meaningless preamble ? Some Aboriginal leaders have personally supported the referendum. That does not mean the position they have adopted is universally the view of Aboriginal people. If Australia is to move ahead in the new millennium it cannot close the chapter or its obligations arising from its past. There is unfinished business. Jack Beetson, NSW; Geoff Clark, VIC; Josie Crawshaw, NT; Pat Dodson, WA; Les Malezer, QLD; Michael Mansell, TAS; Glen Shaw, WA; Peter Yu, WA. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
