This conference is free to the public.
Contact Sheryl Connors, Phil Gordon or Helen Slarke
Phone (02) 339 8111 Fax (02) 339 8295
--------------------------------------
PLEASE SEND MESSAGES OF SUPPORT TO THE CONFERENCE IF YOU AGREE
WITH THE NEED FOR REAL ACTION - NOW!
--------------------------------------
GOVERNMENT STALLS WITH TALK OF RECONCILIATION
BUT NO ACTION ON PRISON REFORM.
The real motives of the Commonwealth Government towards
Australia's First People are to be read in their actions and not
in the words of their professional spokespeople.
The Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody, and the false
promises of the then Prime Minister Bob Hawke at Barunga, bought
peace for the 1988 'celebrations' of Anglo-Australia. But who
paid the price for that peace? Anglo-Australia reneged in both
cases.
The process of Reconciliation is consciously designed to buy
peace for the next round of Anglo-Australian celebrations of
the infantile disease of nationalism.
The Centenary of Federation; the bid for multimega-dollar
staging of the Olympic Games, - and overseas business as normal -
all benefit by the climate of good relations between the two
Peoples in Australia.
But the celebration of Federation - and of a Constitution which
does not recognise the Place of First People at the core of life
- will be dancing on the graves of many Aboriginal people unless
immediate action is taken to stop the genocidal use of jails.
Aboriginal people are 'over represented' in the jails just as
their rights and their laws are 'under represented' in the 1901
Constitution. What is there to celebrate?
At the present time, the next wave of genocide for Aboriginal
People - AIDS - is being brewed in the State's jails.
This deadly brew mixes known drug users with the State enforced
homosexuality of a prison population. The whole set up is
overseen by a system in which institutionalised racism is a
proven fact of life.
A deadly combination. A time bomb, as Aboriginal men return home
from the whitemans prison to their communities. AIDS could sweep
through their community like a bushfire.
The precedent set by smallpox is well known. There can be no
excuse from the authorities and experts that they did not know.
We all require evidence from the Commonwealth Government of its
genuine commitment to the long overdue process of restoring good
relations with the original people of Australia.
For such evidence to be convincing real and immediate action
must be taken to find a culturally appropriate alternative to
jails for Aboriginal people. Then we can talk of reconciliation.
ACTION! NOW!