Constitutional Reform

Ghillar Michael Anderson exposes the consequences of the insidious nature of colonial social engineering which used the 'dog tag' to divide against First Nations. People issued the 'dog tag' or 'exemption certificate' were 'exempted' from being Aboriginal and partially accepted into the colonial society on its terms, namely they were not allowed to associate with their own kind, known as the 'grassroots communities'.

     

Protest at Kirribilli, against forced assimilation and genocide through 'Recognition' - 6 July 2015 - Sydney Protest Video Page

The arguments that mainstream media is hiding from you. The media and the government has only ever offered two sides of the story. One is the position the government calls for through their 'Recognition', which is a 'Yes Vote', and the other is the opinion of extreme right-wing racists. However, the grass roots First Nations people understand that their input has 'NEVER' been provided to the general public. Here we offer the alternative views of First Nations people who maintain their culture and know their Sovereign Rights, and they demand the self-determination and reject forced assimilation.

Letter to SU - '... While I fall into the white/migrant category of Australians I would have to be blind not to see the deceitful and exploitative nature of the Crown and its local agents, as well as the 'assimilate or die' tactics used against the Aboriginal people ...

Tolerating the Crown despite its crimes against humanity would amount to acquiescing to those crimes and inviting their continuation.

Maria Giannacopoulos, a lecturer and researcher in Socio-Legal Studies believes that Frank Brennan's recently published conservative position on Constitution reform, leaves us with a flawed structure and giving us only superficial changes.

Even though the problem Brennan seeks to address is racism, Brennan argues for leaving a racist structure undisturbed. Giannacopoulos believes he may have done this, because he does not view the Constitution through the larger lens of colonisation.

Unofficially, Recognise claims the debate has moved on and no-one, except for Noel Pearson, is talking about ‘Recognition' being in the form of fluffy words inserted in the preamble (Pearson is calling for Constitutuion Recognition, which would sit above the constitution in an attempt to drum up support from constitutional conservatives. It flies in the face of statements made by Prime Minister Tony Abbott suggesting the opposite - that we are not looking at any concrete suggestion to remove discriminatory clauses from the nation's founding document.

Educating for Democracy - A letter by Ray Jackson, President, Indigenous Social Justice Association.

Ray reminds us of the hypocrisy in relation to the 'Recognition Campaign' after 227 years of silence, and at the same time in our education system, choosing not to recognise that the First Nations and peoples even existed or that each nation fought a bloody battle for the land and their rights.

When this country is built on truth it will lay a solid foundation for the nation to come to maturity and accept the past, deal with it, and then find it within their hearts to pay respects to the First Nation people as equals and not an imitation of the 1901 model of the master and slave relationship.

Kerry Blackman, First Nations Justice Leader, writes about the Constitution Recognition farce.