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On behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, I would like to welcome you to this workshop on the recognition of Aboriginal Customary Law.
On behalf of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, I would like to welcome you to this workshop on the recognition of Aboriginal Customary Law.
With respect and gratitude I acknowledge that we sit on the lands of the Gadigal peoples of the Eora Nation, and I thank the Traditional Owners for allowing us to do so.
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the conference organisers: the Central Commission for Popularization and Education of The Communist Party of Vietnam, and The University of New South Wales Initiative for Health and Human Rights, and particularly Professor Daniel Tarantola.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land where we are meeting tonight, the Gadigal peoples of the Eora nation. I pay my respects to your elders and to those who have come before us. And thank you to Chicka Madden for your generous welcome to country. Chicka and I spent a term together on the Board of Aboriginal Hostels.
Thank you to the Australian Catholic University for inviting me to speak today. As you no doubt know, I am a social worker by training , graduating in 1978, so it is wonderful to have an opportunity to address you. It is great to see so many upcoming social workers here today, as well as a number of you who have a wealth of experience and do so much good in our communities. It’s a tough job at the coal face. One that you often do in difficult circumstances, with little support, not to mention little money!
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today and to pay my respects to their elders. I would also like to thank the University of NSW and Professor Daniel Tarantola for organising this event, and the Chair; and to acknowledge my eminent fellow speakers – Sofia Gruskin, Paul Hunt, Justice Michael Kirby and Daniel Tarantola again. It’s an honour to be speaking with such a distinguished group.
I would also like to thank the Law Council of Australia and its Advisory Committee on Indigenous Legal Issues for inviting me to deliver this address, and to take part in the customary law panel discussion later today.
My presentation today will focus on the content of my Native Title Report 2005. I will outline the debates about economic development on Indigenous land - the possibilities and the challenges. At the conclusion of this presentation I will provide some challenge statements about the responsibilities of service deliverers on Indigenous land.
At the outset, I would like to extend my warmest thanks for the invitation addressed to me to present my views concerning on timing and important subject entitled: "the participation of Indigenous Peoples in the political institutions of the United Nations system."
The right of Aboriginal people to control what happens on their land was acknowledged in the Woodwood Commission report into the protection of Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory. The report recognised that ownership of land was a meaningless concept if the owners were not able to control access to their land.
I would like to begin by acknowledging the Eora people, the traditional owners, custodians and kinsfolk of the land where this conference is being held.
Amongst all this expertise, it is fair to ask why is the President of the national human rights commission – and particularly a President who has only fairly recently commenced in this role - here presenting the keynote speech to such a conference?
I am here today partly because Michelle Castagna was quick off the mark in organising me to come before I had accepted any of the numerous other possibilities for events for the international day.
I'd like to begin by acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we meet, the Gadigal people. I would also like to acknowledge elders and colleagues here today, Senator Trood, Johnathon Hunyor, and to thank President Von Doussa for inviting me here today.
Despite its rather grand title, this presentation will be a relatively modest attempt to set out the key challenges for human rights in Australia as I see them at the outset of my term as Human Rights Commissioner. Let us begin with a quick survey of the state of human rights internationally and in Australia today.
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