Australia to consider recognizing indigenous people
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Australia will hold a referendum on recognizing its indigenous people in the constitution to improve conditions for its most disadvantaged community. Prime Minister Julia Gillard said there was a “once-in-50-year opportunity” to harness public and parliamentary support for greater recognition. The 550,000 Indigenous Australians make up 2.7% of the population.
They suffer disproportionately high rates of unemployment, imprisonment, drug abuse, alcoholism and disease. Ms Gillard, of the center-left Labor party, said that practical efforts to help Australia’s Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders could not succeed without greater respect. “The Australian constitution is the foundation document of our system of government, but it fails to recognize the special place of our first Australians,” she said in a joint statement with the minister for indigenous affairs and the attorney-general.
“Constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians is an important step towards building a nation based on strong relationships and mutual respect,” she added.
“Recognition will demonstrate that we are a country that is united in acknowledging the unique and special place of our first peoples.”
The referendum will ask the country to give constitutional recognition to indigenous people. It is unclear when the vote will take place.
Aboriginal leaders say a positive result would have a “dramatic effect” on the community’s self-esteem. Forty-four referendums have been held in Australia since 1901. Only eight have been passed.
Example of Australian Aboriginal art
The Kimberley region of northern Western Australia is a vast region covering more than 400,000 square kilometres. It is home to Aboriginal people of diverse language and cultures.
Kimberley art is recognized as a strong and distinctive style.
Wandjina figures are some of the most visually striking of all images in Kimberley art.
The Worrorra, Wunambal, and Ngarinyin people of the north-western and central Kimberley say that the Wandjina are the creator beings of the Dreaming, and that they made their world and all that it contains. They are found in many rock art sites in caves and rock shelters throughout the Kimberley.
Wandjina are usually painted as full-length, or head and shoulder, figures, either standing or lying horizontally. Their large mouthless faces feature enormous black eyes flanking a beak-like nose. The head is usually surrounded by a band with outward radiating lines. Elaborate head-dresses are both the hair of the Wandjinas and clouds. Long lines coming out from the hair are the feathers which Wandjinas wore and the lightning which they control. Wandjina ceremonies to ensure the timely beginning of the monsoon wet season and sufficient rainfall are held during December and January, following which the rains usually begin (Source: Western Australian Museum).
Aboriginal people believe that if the Wandjina are offended then they will take their revenge by calling up lightning to strike the offender dead, or the rain to flood the land and drown the people, or the cyclone with its winds to devastate the country. These are the powers which the Wandjinas can use.
AN EXAMPLE OF KIMBERLEY, WESTERN AUSTRALIAN ART BELOW
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[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Scott, Holte Ender. Holte Ender said: RT @madmike1 Australia to consider recognizing indigenous people http://bit.ly/bPrP9l […]
Reminds me of how in Canada many historians think of Canada as a contract between two founding nations, French and English. To which I say, that’s true only because the indigenous peoples were excluded from the process.
Very true Mike. Our ancestors were pretty arrogant.