20/02/2017
Recognition is a white word for white Australia.
The constitution of Australia is the most racist, white supremacist founding document in the world and we’re glad we’ve refused to be part of that.
This constitution is our proof that we never ceded our sovereignty to the white trespassers.
The Australian government is a signatory to the UN declaration that relates to First Nations People’s. We demand they comply with the document they signed under international law in 2009.
Without first having land rights, we can’t have human rights.
We can’t close the gap we didn’t create. We demand our land back so we can control it; our future rests on this, securing the future for our grandchildren’s children.
Today, white Australians are guilty of receiving stolen goods, a criminal offense under their own law, aiding and abetting is their way of life. Today white Australians have 8 generations of wealth to hand down from father to son; land, houses, businesses, mines and money. All of it thanks to our land.
We were considered flora and fauna until 27 May 1967. On 28 May we stopped being animals under white law and as you’d conclude, animals don’t own land or houses. This is the root of our dispossession. White Australians stole our land; if it wasn’t stolen, then white man show me your deeds from the traditional custodians who belong to this land.
Generational trauma isn’t only a problem for us, it’s also a problem for white Australians. I wonder how they sleep at night with their ancestral conscience.
We can’t accept recognition without talking about restitution, treaties, self-determination and sovereignty.
This comes first.
Recognition is something that white Australians need more than anything. They’re in a hurry to change the constitution, however we don’t have to play by their rules. We’ve lived here for more than 60,000 years; we have a different concept of time. If the government wants legitimacy they need to recognise each sovereign nation of this land, their languages and totems.
If we go along with the recognition deal and accept the changes they propose, we will be giving the white government consent to take our land.
For 228 years our people have been killed, mutilated and imprisoned, our children are kidnapped and our waters are poisoned, however we’ve survived the genocide. They buried our kids in the ground up to their necks and kicked their heads off to put fear into us, they put ground glass in sugar and arsenic in flour and left it on the wood heaps to be taken and eaten. But they didn’t succeed because we’re the living proof, we’re still here and we still have no fear.
We’ve given our land the best sportspeople, Olympic athletes, artists, writers, politicians, the best and the brightest, despite their attempts to wipe us out.
They need to change their racist, white supremacist, and disgraceful constitution, not us. They need recognition to be here, not us.
I love my children and my grandchildren and I will fight until my last breath to give them back what is rightfully theirs.
On January 26th at the aboriginal tent embassy in Canberra, I met a strong, black man with a wide smile and weathered face. “When are we meeting again?” ...
