Australia is the only commonwealth that does not have a federal treaty with its First Nations peoples.
The battle for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (First Nations) rights in Australia has been ongoing. Despite the overturning of “Terra Nullius”, to the Redfern Address and Kevin Rudd’s “Sorry Day”; despite countless promises from Prime Ministers such as Bob Hawke, there is yet to be a federal treaty with Australia’s First Nations peoples.
Why is the treaty so important? A treaty will mean a lot of things: Symbolic recognition of sovereignty, better protection of indigenous rights and a basis for regional self-government, amongst others.
The notion of sovereignty is something very meaningful to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The 2017 Uluru Statement of the Heart quotes: “This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co-exists with the sovereignty of the Crown.”
The Commonwealth of Australia is a nation borne at the expense of the gross mistreatment of First Australians, and a treaty is a necessary step towards healing the wounds of the past and building a better future.
Written by Josie
Artwork by Sophia Patterson
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