Oral intervention to Plenary, 6 September 2001, Durban, South Africa
World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

Stop Genocide and return our lands through a Peace Accord

Today I say Sorry. Sorry to the Peoples of the world that the Australian government for the last fifty years failed to implement the Genocide Convention. How many other countries are there like this? Who are they and why has this situation been tolerated so long? Let's be serious about this matter. Member States either join up or they must be thrown out.

A prerequisite to be a member State of the United Nations must include full compliance with the Genocide Convention. Personal accountability is a powerful force for change.

UBUNTU! UBUNTU! UBUNTU! I call for unity among Indigenous Peoples and UN member States to address this insult to humanity.

We propose an international Indigenous Peace Accord for Land Rights and Sovereignty and for Kofi Annan and Mary Robinson to support our call for a Special Rapporteur on Genocide in Australia.

The 1992 the High Court Mabo judgement threw out Australia's claim to sovereignty, the lie of terra nulllius, replacing it with an Act of State, which is only a doctrine, not international law. The Mabo case admitted that domestic legal systems can not determine the sovereignty of Aboriginal Peoples. Only the International Court of Justice can do this. We argue that if the UN is serious about ending racism it should take the Indigenous sovereignty issue out of the debate and refer it to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. Our resolve is to claim back our sovereign identity and our traditional lands and cultural heritage, with a clear unrestricted right to maintain our religious and spiritual practices.

If all Australians had the same living experiences as Aboriginals, a third of them would not be alive today. We addressed many UN Committees in search of remedies. CERD [Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination] placed Australia on early warning and urgent action. Nothing improved. Since 1999 CERD condemned the Native Title Act as racist, as it validates non-Indigenous title to land, while depriving us of our inheritance. It is only a bundle of residual rights, not proper land rights.

Justice Kirby in the High Court said that the Australian Constitution is racist, like Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid. Australia has repossessed the apartheid policy, which they once sold to South Africa, and welcomes the foot soldiers, who left South Africa on the chicken run. Australia is celebrating the Centenary of its Constitution, which is an Act of the British Parliament. In 1901 the National Interest was defined for the Aryan race and the Christian faith. The Queen in 1954 personally signed the Aborigines Ordinance, which forcibly removed our people off their lands in Canberra.

On 11 and 12 September in Canberra High Court, in Wilson-v-Anderson, we welcome international lawyers and observers to witness these proceedings, where the government-funded National Farmers Federation is challenging the Native Title claim of Michael Anderson, the co-ordinator of SUANPA, who was prevented from being here, because this case was scheduled immediately after this conference.