For NAIDOC Week comes the welcome news that the South Australian Labor Opposition proposes to take a plan for a state version of the Uluru Statement, including a Voice to Parliament, to the next State election in 2022.This follows the negotiations in progress for a Treaty by the Victorian Government with elections for a 33 member First People’s Assembly to take place this month. Good to see the States moving in light of the sclerotic situation at the federal level. Whatever the new Government in Canberra comes up with will be I”ndigenous Recognition Coalition style” (maybe some statements in the preamble?) and certainly not reflecting the wishes of Indigenous people as set out in the Uluru Statement. Read more on the link below. The Victorian negotiations are being led by Gunditjmara woman and Victorian Treaty Advancement Commissioner, Jill Gallagher AO. A separate exercise is being led by Mick Dodson in the Northern Territory. [Indigenous Leaders welcome SA Labor’s vow to take Uluru Statement to Polls” by Calla Wahlquist, The Guardian online 6 July 2019]
Woman for an Australian Republic, Adelaide Ironside, republican poet and artist 1831-1867
Self portrait 1855, Newcastle Art Gallery NSW
