Our Right to Protect our Knowledge
I begin by paying my respects to the Ngunnawal peoples, the traditional owners of this land. I pay my respects to your elders, past, present and future.
I begin by paying my respects to the Ngunnawal peoples, the traditional owners of this land. I pay my respects to your elders, past, present and future.
I would like to begin by acknowledging all the traditional owners of the land where we meet, the Ngunawal Ngambri people. Thank you Matilda House for your welcome and for joining us here today. It is a pleasure to jointly address the Press Club with Fred Chaney from Reconciliation Australia. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Reconciliation Australia have a history of working in partnership together.
I would like to start this afternoon by acknowledging the Noongar people, the traditional owners of the land where we meet today. For those Noongars here – I’d like to congratulate you in the success of your native title claim over this area. Your determination and your ability to work together as a group to pursue this claim is an inspiration to all of us. Indigenous property rights and connection to land are crucial considerations for this presentation because they underpin any discussion about human rights, Indigenous people and land matters.
I call my paper 'Social Justice Then Native Title' in order to make a clear distinction between two aspects of Indigenous People's struggle; the ultimate goals we are seeking to achieve and the means by which we seek to achieve them. Distinguishing the means and the ends, the former a servant of the latter, is a fundamental tenet of strategic thinking. And it is clear to me that a strategic approach will identify native title as simply a tool for achieving social justice for Indigenous people.
I am honoured to present this distinguished lecture, which has been established as a tribute to the contribution of Sir Wallace Kyle to Western Australian society.
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.
It is a great pleasure to be speaking today with Judge Clifford Wallace. I had the pleasure of meeting him on several occasions at Judges' conferences in the Pacific. I was very sorry to miss him when he was in Adelaide in 2003.
The Hon Catherine Branson was President of the Australian Human Rights Commission from 7 August 2008 - 29 July 2012. Click here to access her biography.
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.
In September 2001, after a gap of 18 years the United Nations finally held the third World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa.
My thanks to the Human Rights Law Resource Centre, in particular to Phil Lynch, for inviting me to address this important gathering of human rights advocates and supporters about what I consider vital for the implementation and promotion of human rights in Australia.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak here this morning. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional owners, the Turrbal people on whose land we are on today.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Ending violence in Indigenous communities Forum
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.
It is the intention of this paper to explore the concept of citizenship, and some associated ideas in order to present a perspective on the relevance of citizenship to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I will seek to examine some key principles in relation to citizenship which must be established in order to ensure full and just respect for the rights and aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
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