The Australian Aboriginal leaders go both ways on republic By STUART RINTOUL 30oct99 ABORIGINAL organisations are split on whether to support a republic, with the Northern Territory's largest land councils saying yes, but Western Australia's influential Kimberley Land Council saying no. But the peak Aboriginal groups have come out strongly against the preamble because its reference to Aboriginal "kinship" with the land falls short of recognising ownership. KLC decided yesterday to recommend a no-no vote. Council director Peter Yu, who was recently part of an Aboriginal delegation to meet the Queen, said the minimalist republic would do nothing for indigenous rights, recognition of kinship with the land was meaningless, and Aboriginal elders had "a lot of respect" for the Queen. "We're not monarchists, obviously, but we are the first peoples of Australia and the republicans have failed to articulate a position which gives us any level of recognition," Mr Yu said. A no vote would "allow time for reflection on where we have been getting it wrong". A trenchant critic of the Howard Government, but on this issue a Howard ally, Mr Yu said: "As in 1901, we are excluded. All a yes vote will do is further institutionalise our current disadvantage." Mr Yu said the preamble was "entirely insulting", failing to acknowledge "our true and legitimate position as the traditional owners of this land". The Northern Land Council has decided to recommend a yes-no vote, saying while a republic would not immediately improve anything for Aboriginal people, "a yes vote provides a better chance in the near future of securing recognition of Aboriginal law and protection of Aboriginal rights in a rewritten Constitution". "We are saying yes only on the basis that the federal parliament honour the recommendation to re-establish the Constitutional Convention to make real and positive changes in the Constitution and that it includes adequate indigenous representation," NLC chairman Galarrwuy Yunupingu said. On the preamble question, he said: "We want to let Australians know that we are not at all happy with the preamble, and to call on them to support us and reject it. It denies us our identity." Central Land Council acting director David Ross said he would also "reluctantly" vote yes in the hope that it would lead to greater constitutional change. "The parameters of the debate ... present nothing to Aboriginal peoples, except as a symbol of further decolonisation," Mr Ross said. "That makes me a 'yes, but' voter." He said the proposed preamble was "objectionable" and "a con", and took Aboriginal people "nowhere". ------------------------------------------------------- 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/
