03 May Indigenous group pledges different approach (The Sydney Morning Herald)
A new national representative body to give indigenous people a voice has been set up as a private company so that the federal government will not be able to sack the leaders, its architects say. The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples was launched yesterday amid the ghosts of past hopes in the Sydney hall where protesters in 1938 launched the Day of Mourning as a counterpoint to celebrations of the sesquicentenary of white settlement. A fresh generation of indigenous leaders, including its chairman, the NSW self-determination advocate Sam Jeffries, and chairwoman, the Torres Strait Islander public health specialist Kerry Arabena, stressed its independence compared with its failed predecessor, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission… go to article