Materials to help ATSI communities protect their rights

December 19, 2010 in Campaigns, Rants & Raves
Tags: Aboriginal Australians, Australia, Australian Human Rights Commission, federal government, human rights, Indigenous Australians, information, Mick Gooda, National Congress of Australia's First Peoples

Materials to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to understand and protect their rights were launched last week in Sydney by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda.

The overview and community guide on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples aim to bring the Declaration to life by highlighting existing examples of Indigenous peoples’ rights in action. This is an important initiative to empower people and communities; enabling people and communities to more proactively protect their rights.

“Twenty years of hard work by Australian Indigenous leaders, including Lowitja O’Donohue, Les Malezer, Mick Dodson and Megan Davis, has helped deliver to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples this blueprint for ensuring our rights are protected in every aspect of our lives,” Commissioner Gooda said.

“These materials will help to lift the concepts of the Declaration off the page and make them real for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

“This might be by simply making someone aware of their right to be recognised as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander, or it might reinforce for them that they have a right to housing, sewerage facilities or education.

“These are rights many Australians take for granted but the reality is that many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are still being taught in classrooms with dirt floors, or living in overcrowded housing where water and sewerage facilities are second rate.

“These materials will help give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their communities a starting point from which they can work to bring about practical improvements in their lives.”

Funded by the Christensen Fund, with additional support from Oxfam Australia, the Declaration materials include a poster, a plain-English Community guide with case studies of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders can use the Declaration, as well as an eight page overview.

“The Declaration is one of the most important documents that sets out our human rights as Indigenous peoples and I will be using it to guide my work during my term,” Commissioner Gooda said.

“As we enter a potentially history making period in Australia with growing support to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution, we should be looking to the Declaration as a platform upon which we can build a truly reconciled Australia.

“I urge communities and individuals to use these Declaration materials in their advocacy work – it is only by using the Declaration that we can give it meaning,” Commissioner Gooda said.

Find the materials here

Check out the work of the Australian Human Rights Commission and the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples