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A Report on the
Moving Forward Conference ( on achieving reparation for the Stolen Generations
) I attended this two day Conference. Like many participants I felt that there was not enough time allotted for audience participation and insufficient opportunity for individuals to tell their personal stories. Every session began with various speakers talking about the work that they were involved in and their struggles to secure reparations. Included on the panels were international guest from New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. The last afternoons panel consisted of the Minister for Immigration and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, Mr Phillip Ruddock and the shadow Mnister Mr Bob McMullan, Senator Aden Ridgeway, the Democrats and Stan Grant as the Chair. The Minsters said very little in terms of action, Ruddock's speech was all about the considerations of compensation, litigation and the high costs involved with any form of reparation. McMullan said that Labor would seriously take into account the recommendation for reparation. Aden talked about action and directed this to both members, what should be expected from their parties, he said that whilst the Democrats don't hold the power they could keep the 'bastards' honest. The same thing happened as did at most sessions, individuals were not allowed enough time to speak, but the audience as a whole reacted angrily and yelled at Stan Grant who was determined to stick to the time allocated for questions. An elder, Wadjularbinna from the Gulf Area of Queensland, spoke up in a loud voice, and directed her deeply felt concerns to both Ministers, she said, " YOU ARE THE ORIGINAL BOAT PEOPLE, HOW DARE YOU TREAT THOSE PEOPLE WHO COME HERE IN BOATS LIKE YOU DO!" "How dare you treat us Aborigines like you do, we have a much better system of law than you", " You need healing, you need purifying, you need smoking!" " YOU HAVE THE PROBLEM NOT US! GIVE US BACK OUR LAND, GIVE US BACK OUR RIGHTS! " The last afternoon's session mainly concentrated on the recommendations from the workshops, participants were given a copy of these recommendations. Individuals felt that because of the time constraints within the two day conference, all of us needed to go back to talk to our communities and meet again at a later stage to discuss the recommendations. It was great that such a conference was organized and special thanks to the organizers but we obviously need more time for individual concerns, responses and the recommendations. I also felt that the cost of attending the Conference was very high, and this excludes a lot of people, especially those people who are unemployed. I am also very apprehensive when I represent voice of Aborigines because I can not be the voice for all people. Brenda McDonnell (Coordinator ACM) |
Whilst
it was important to hear from other Indigenous about their struggles
and their achievements, and it was very informative, it was also
very important to allow enough time for individual responses and
personal accounts by our own Indigenous People. I also thought that
there was not enough time given to the workshops as well, because
people only had enough time to participate in one of the topic areas
of reparation. Further to that, a second workshop was cancelled
because participants needed to discuss outcomes from the previous
day along with questions directed to the(reparations and reconciliation)
panel. 