Since 2007 when government troops entered remote communities as part of the Emergency Response to child abuse and neglect, the 18 town camps in Alice Springs, like all majority-Aboriginal communities, came under restrictive laws regarding alcohol. While those laws didn't eliminate misuse of alcohol, domestic violence and other crime, the situation in Alice Springs escalated when those laws lapsed in July 2022.
In 2014 more than $500 million was taken from Indigenous Affairs. Neglect of remote communities caused an influx of people into Alice Springs where they camp in the river bed.
If life seems hopeless and an Aboriginal walking down the main street of Alice Springs feels like an alien in their own country, a bottle of grog to block the pain can seem like the only option.
The Prime Minister visited Alice Springs. The alcohol laws are back in place, but since they didn't fix the main problems which are displacement, alienation, neglect, racial stereotyping and lack of meaningful opportunities, that will bring limited relief, if any.
There were also some funding announcements, the Tangentyere Women's Council being one of the beneficiaries.
A Voice to Parliament would help. Being heard, being understood, returning the dignity that was taken from them, waking up as a nation to the deep knowledge that is embedded in First Nations culture which we could all learn from, these actions would help.
The Uluru Statement from the Heart
We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
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.
How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two hundred years?
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood.
Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope for the future.
These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem. This is the torment of our powerlessness.
We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country.
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution. Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination.
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp and start our trek across this vast country . We invite you to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future.
