By Philippa Stanford
BRISBANE - In protest against the Goss government's land
rights legislation, a group of Aboriginal community leaders have
organised a trip to the United Nations on behalf of the
Queensland Aboriginal people.
The legislation really only guarantees land rights for big
companies. It ignores the rights of non-reserve Aborigines, who
constitute 95% of the Aboriginal population, and does nothing to
challenge institutionalised racism.
According to Bob Weatherall, of the Foundation for Aboriginal and
Islander Research Action, ``What the legislation says is that
Aboriginal cultural heritage and cultural property is the
property of the Queen. We've never ceded our sovereign ownership
of our cultural heritage ... it's a case of cultural genocide.''
Weatherall said the state government had breached international
law in three areas - the international covenant on economic,
social and cultural rights, the international covenant on civil
and political rights, and the international convention on the
elimination of all forms of racial discrimination.
Weatherall said the trip will make it ``appear to the rest of the
world that the government, and the rest of the public, are not
prepared to deliver Aboriginal entitlements, basic human rights
and fundamental freedoms.''
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Reprinted from Green Left, weekly progressive newspaper. May
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