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The Hon
Alexander Downer
Dear Minister We, the undersigned, write to express our concerns regarding the Australian exhibition, currently being held in the buildings of the United Nations, which is promoted by a mining company purporting to support 'two significant and distinct cultures working together'. The exhibition is entitled New Directions - Aboriginal Australia & Business, and it is being presented at the Palais de Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, during July 1999. the exhibition is apparently sponsored by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, Rio Tinto and QANTAS. We presume that it has been held at the UN site following the request of your government. We consider this to be more than a coincidence, given that the Working Group on Indigenous Peoples is meeting at the same time, and given the circumstance that the Committee on the Elimination on All Forms of Racial Discrimination is soon to meet here again to consider Australia's racism against our Peoples. We point out that our Peoples are the subjects of the display. We emphasise in the most strongest of terms, the display does not have the endorsement of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, and this exercise continues to reveal the disregard by the government and the mining industry of the norm in human rights requirements for the 'free and informed consent' by the Peoples. We also point out that we were not informed or aware of this display prior to our appearance at the United Nations meetings. There has been no disclosure in Australia of the government's and Rio Tinto's campaign. This is dishonesty and betrays the lack of public accountability. It is our definite view that this exhibition is part of a campaign by the Australian Government to protect and maintain its racist legislation, the Native Title Amendment Act 1998. It is our definite view that the government and the mining industry has taken the wrong option to expend their extensive financial and material resources to improve their image on race relations, rather than pursue an honest attempt to ameliorate or eliminate the extensive human oppression and sufferings, and the land theft and degradation that they create, uphold and extend. We strongly recommend that you a) immediately dismantle the display, b) seek proper participation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the process of finding a 'new direction' before telling the world that there is a 'new direction', and c) be accountable to our Peoples about your government's policies which might affect our lands and resources, and our future. We thank you in anticipation of your urgent attention and positive response to this letter.
Yours faithfully National Aboriginal and Islander Legal Services Secretariat National Indigenous Working Group on Native Title Sovereign Union (First Nations Peoples) National Secretariat of Torres Strait Islander Organisations Ltd National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action |
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FAIRA
Aboriginal Corporation |
