26 Jan It’s time Aborigines get due recognition (Sydney Morning Herald)
Peter Gebhardt
A change to the constitution would show our maturity.
LATE last year Prime Min- ister Julia Gillard, Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Minister for Indigenous Affairs Jenny Macklin banded together to announce a referendum proposal concerning Aborigines and the Australian constitution. It was the most bland and passionless occasion.
It ought to have been a significant one because it involved the future of relationships between the originals and the usurpers. Does political power rob the power-bearers of blood in their veins?
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Newspaper commentary on this pointed to the long-term importance of the issues for this country, for the proper independence and maturity of the citizens and for the potential for a distinctive civilisation.
Australia Day, that artificial and trumped-up celebration, the excuse for manufactured emotion, should force us to look closely at our history and the truths of that history vis-a-vis the Aboriginal population and the brutal facts of that history. …Go to article.