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Harris, Lochie --- "Recent Happenings" [2001] IndigLawB 66; (2001) 5(11) Indigenous Law Bulletin 36

Recent Happenings

by Lochie Harris

5 July

Northern Territory Chief Minister Denis Bourke tabled the controversial Public Order and Anti-Social Conduct Bill. Bourke claimed the Bill was directed at ‘itinerants or long grassers,’ and that ‘many of the Territory’s problems might not be there if some of these people went home.’ A notice of motion was passed in the Federal Upper House seeking to overturn the Bill.

8 July

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) Week celebrations commenced throughout the country, with the theme ‘Treaty – Let’s Get it Right’. NAIDOC Week 2001 continued until July 15.

9 July

A Sotheby’s auction of Aboriginal art in Melbourne achieved a sale price of more than $5 million, the highest overall sale price for an auction of Aboriginal art to date. Rover Thomas’s work, All That Big Rain Coming From Top Side (1991), was sold to the National Gallery of Australia for a record price of $786,625, nearly double that previously paid for a work by Aboriginal artist. Johnny Tjupurrula’s piece Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa sold for $486,500 last year, at the time the highest price ever paid for a single piece of Aboriginal art.

12 July

The world’s best-known lexicon, The Concise Oxford Dictionary, has included stolen generation in its latest edition. The entry reads, ‘Stolen generation. Noun. Australian. The Aboriginal people forcibly removed from their families as children between the 1900s and the 1960s, to be brought up by white foster families or institutions.’

26 July

A recent National Council of Churches report admitted that the Anglican Church had not released records of stolen generation children cared for by church institutions ‘due to concerns about both confidentiality and liability.’ Federal Parliamentary Secretary Mrs Chris Gallus said that the reluctance of some churches to open up records was hampering the reunion of families separated by past Indigenous child removal policies in Australia.

31 July

In a speech to the UN in Geneva, Chairman of ATSIC, Geoff Clark, said that reconciliation is failing.

8 August

The NSW Administrative Decisions Tribunal ordered publican Tim van Kooten to pay $30,000 compensation for discriminating against three Aboriginal men in March 1997 when they stopped at his pub for refreshments after a rugby league game. The men said they had been searched, humiliated and ordered to leave the hotel.

9 August

Chief Executive Officer of Tranby Cooperative for Aborigines, Jack Beetson, was honoured by the United Nations at the International Day of World’s Indigenous People where he was named an ‘unsung hero’ for his work in building reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.

16 August

At the Moving forward: achieving reparations for the stolen generations conference in Sydney, former South African Truth and Reconciliation commissioner, Mr Dumisa Ntsebeza, warned that the stolen generations issue will be ‘like toxic waste’ to the Government unless it changes its policies. Mr Philip Ruddock, Federal Minister for Immigration and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, told the conference that a reparations tribunal was neither practical nor feasible and that it would cost $3.9 billion. Mr Bob McMullan, Shadow Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, noted that the Government has already spent $11.5 million fighting the Cubillo-Gunner stolen generations test case. Although Labor promised an apology and a national conference, Mr McMullan backed off his December commitment to set up a tribunal and pay cash compensation.

20 August

Tjurabalan traditional owners won exclusive possession of 26,000 sq km in a Federal Court hearing in the Great Sandy Desert. The claim stretches from 120km south of Halls Creek in WA to the northern end of the Canning Stock Route near the Northern Territory border. The claim is the third to be agreed to by the WA Government. There are 125 native title applications in the state, with 45 listed for trial.

21 August

Justice von Doussa of the Federal Court rejected developers Tom and Wendy Chapman’s $20 million compensation claim for delays to construction of the Hindmarsh Island bridge, caused by the ban of the building of the bridge in 1994. As the only man to have read the documents detailing the secret women’s knowledge, Justice von Doussa said he was not satisfied the secret women’s business had been fabricated and that the developers had not suffered any loss through construction delays. His Honour’s ruling contradicted the finding of the 1995 Hindmarsh royal commission that the evidence of secret women’s knowledge was fabricated. The Chapmans are considering whether to lodge an appeal.

23 August

The Country Liberal Party was voted out of office for the first time in 26 years in the Northern Territory parliamentary elections. With the Territory’s first female Chief Minister, Clare Martin, at the helm, the Labor Party took office with a majority of 13 seats. Indigenous MPs make up one quarter of the new Labor Government, including John Ah Kit (Arnhem), Matthew Bonson (Millner), Elliot McAdam (Barkly), and Marion Scrymgour (Arafura). John Ah Kit was also named as the Territory’s first Aboriginal minister and Australia’s second Aboriginal cabinet minister, with responsibility for the Prisons and Transport portfolio. Indigenous MPs count for less than 10 of Australia’s 598 State and Territory politicians. There is one Aboriginal MP out of 244 Federal Politicians.

24 August

Chairman of the Northern Land Council Galarrwuy Yunupingu and NT Chief Minister Clare Martin signed a pledge at the Garma Festival in northeast Arnhem Land, restating their common intention to repeal mandatory sentencing laws as quickly as possible.

30 August

According to a major report, The Health and Welfare of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, launched by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Indigenous Australians have higher death rates, shorter life expectancy and are more likely to be hospitalised than other Australians.


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