Self Determination

First Nations pastoral workers seeking compensation for years of unpaid labour

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Lucy Martin ABC News 13 September 2013


Retired stockman Ben Barney worked on pastoral stations and missions around the Kimberley and NT

Aboriginal workers have played a key role in establishing Western Australia's pastoral and agricultural industries.

Half a billion in Stolen Wages contributed to abject poverty

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In 2013 Mr Conrad Yeatman, a proud old Aboriginal man who was never paid directly for a lifetime of work receives nothing and in the same week Francis Abbott (Daughter of Tony Abbott), born of privilege receives a $60,000 scholarship to help her study.

Conrad Yeatman
Conrad Yeatman
SBS News

Dr Woolombi Waters The Stringer 4 June 2014

How governments have tricked us over the Northern Territory Intervention

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Intervention killer of self-determination

Even before the Intervention began in June 2007, government had long planned a new approach to the 'management' of Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. It was no longer part of government thinking that self-determination and Aboriginal control over land could be allowed to continue. These were the Whitlam notions of 1975, and they were no longer acceptable.

Recognition Bill forced on First Nations people against their will

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On 7 February, 2013 the Australian Senate will vote on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Bill 2012 despite overwhelming opposition to constitutional inclusion by the majority of Aboriginal people and the government's own acknowledgement that the proposed changes to the constitution would be rejected by a referendum.
This shows the paternalistic contempt that the Federal Government and politicians have for Aboriginal people has not changed in 112 years.

WA under fire over stolen wages compensation

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Stolen Wages

The West Australian Government is under fire over its compensation offer to pay lost wages to thousands of the state's Indigenous workers.

Between 1905 and 1972, the government withheld up to three-quarters of the wages earned by workers on state-run Native Welfare Settlements, but they never got their hard earned money back.