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Dear Leo Lane,

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You wrote :

« Banjo, what are the "sovereign rights" you assert. The aboriginals had not claimed or taken possession of the land. They had no civilization or political organisation. They were nomads who wandered the continent in tribes »
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The OED definition of “sovereign” as an attributive is: “(of a nation or its affairs) acting or done independently and without outside interference”.

The sovereign rights of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia are not - and have never been - determined or influenced, in any way, by their degree of civilisation, their political organisation, or by their sedentary, migratory or nomadic mode of existence. That was simply an argument invented by the colonizers.

The British Crown and government lost their colonies in America in 1783 due to the American War of Independence and needed to find an alternative destination for their convicts. The choice was either South Africa or Australia. They chose Australia as part of their global strategy – close to the trade routes to South-East Asia and China. The UK was engaged in a geo-political power struggle at the time with other major European maritime nations such as Spain, Portugal, France and The Netherlands.

At no stage during their lengthy deliberations did the British authorities take any account of the fact that the country they were considering colonising was inhabited by indigenous peoples. They took for granted that the doctrine of terra nullius (land belonging
to no one) applied.

International Law had been elaborated by the European powers to accommodate their own imperial ambitions. Their law became the International Law which, naturally, raises the question of its validity, not only with respect to non-European countries and indigenous peoples, but even with respect to their own rights and obligations on the international scene.

As you may be aware, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted in 2007. At the time of the vote, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US voted against the Declaration. All four later decided to support it :

http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/DRIPS_en.pdf

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Proclamation—Captive Nations Week, 2017
July 14, 2017
By the President of the United States of America

During Captive Nations Week, we stand in solidarity with those living under repressive regimes, and we commit to promoting our American ideals, grounded in respect for natural rights and protected by the rule of law, throughout the world..
The injustices and abuses authoritarian regimes inflict on their own people affect us all,.

The Congress, , 1959 (73 Stat. 212), has authorized the President to issue a proclamation designating the third week of July of each year as "Captive Nations Week."

DONALD J. TRUMP,. I call upon all Americans to reaffirm our commitment to those around the world striving for liberty, justice, and the rule of law.
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Ukraine is corrupt , violent and lawless but Russian settlement is not a right.

Hi Nick, as Allan and Graham said, we need to know about Australian history, the good the bad and the ugly. However, Indigenous people cannot insist that we acknowledge violence by British settlers, without acknowledging that the troopers were often assisted by other Indigenous groups, or pretending that their ancestors didn't do the same thing. The first Aborigines may well have invaded and various Indigenous groups have been at war at various times.

Acknowledging one group's violence, but not that of others, seems racist to me.

I agree which is why PM Chifley apologised to Japan for putting bullet holes in their Darwin bombers. He was briefly jailed while his kangaroos were confiscated and joined Tokyo Rugby League and Karate club.

Graham,

I think it matters little re whom 'discovered' anything.

Today we should focus on the more important and long past due issue of indigenous welfare dependency and cultural individualism.

We, as a whole national community need to ensure indigenous people are encapsulated into mainstream Australia.

By this I mean, if indigenous people really want recognition, then the should embrace mainstream Australia, no more separate indigenous welfare, close those communities where economic opportunities are non existent, or have little opportunity for education, employment and prosperity. For those unwilling to leave, reduce or remove welfare which perpetuates isolation, domestic violence, education imbalance and lack of economic self reliance.

We cannot continue this us and them philosophy, it has not, nor will it work into the future, good money after bad.

Acceptance by all there have been wrong's perpetrated by both sides, but additionally an acceptance by all that it is time to move on.

Harping on about discovery, blame and all those other things negates the opportunities which abound when positive and progressive attitudes are embraced.

I may be white, only three generation Australian, but I refuse to shoulder any blame for historical ills which I never enabled, excused, endorsed nor suffered, move on people, we cannot afford this financial, social and guilt/shame ridden legacy any longer

Australians claiming descent from aborigines really should get over themselves. They should also be thinking about how things would be now if colonisers less enlightened than the British had 'discovered' their Stone Age ancestors.

What happened in the past should be as of little interest to descendants of aborigines as it is to me, a white, third generation Australian of mixed heritage, who doesn't give a stuff about anything except being AUSTRALIAN. Any ill-treatment was inflicted on people who have been dead and buried for a very long time. They suffered, not the pack of whingers and rent-seekers taking advantage of the Western freedoms and advantages they have now – in including the dole that too many of them are spending their lives on. After 200 plus years, there should be no distinction between Australians at all.