Aboriginal march in Adelaide
By Tully Bates
ADELAIDE - One hundred and fifty people marched from Parliament House to the
Tandanya Aboriginal Cultural Institute on October 13 to show their
opposition to the proposal to scrap the Racial Discrimination Act and their
dissatisfaction with the legislative process so far.
Irene Watson, an Aboriginal lawyer and lecturer at Underdale University,
spoke angrily of how the media and multinationals have made a controversy
out of a decision which is in fact very narrow and affects a very limited
area of the country. She added that the decision provides the basis for the
first step in the process of reconciliation, but only for less than 10% of
the Aboriginal population.
Sandra Saunders, director of the Aboriginal Legal Service, explained that
because native title applies to so few Aboriginal people, the issue of
dispossession has to be addressed. The legal service is concerned with the
direction the legislation is taking - favouring the mining companies,
pastoralists and state governments.
Brian Butler, an Aboriginal child-care worker, stated that if Aboriginal
people were more united it would not be so easy for the federal government
to bulldoze the legislation through.