Tony Mullen & WACOSS
September 01, 2011
The West Australian Council of Social Service are pleased to invite you to the: Constitutional Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Social Policy Forum. You may be surprised and alarmed to learn that the Australian Constitution permits laws that discriminate on the basis of race. The Australian Constitution is the legal and political foundation of our nation but it doesn’t acknowledge the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our historical or contemporary society.
Read more: Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
NAIDOC Week commences Sunday 3 July. The theme this year is ‘Change – the next step is ours’. NAIDOC stands for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s which sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda has called on Australians on national Sorry Day today to remember the grief, sorrow and ultimate resilience experienced by members of the Stolen Generations. Commissioner Gooda said this year’s theme, “SORRY. Still Living On Borrowed Time!” was a stark reminder of the fact that more needs to be done to help Stolen Generations members overcome the trauma of the past.
Thursday May 26 is National Sorry Day. Sorry Day began in 1998 to collectively commemorate and express sorrow for members of the Stolen Generations. In Perth, the major event for Sorry Day is organised by the Bringing Them Home Committee and takes place at Wellington Square in East Perth on the 26th May each year.
As you may or may not know, the AEU is putting together a case to lobby governments to establish a long term (we say 25 year intergenerational) plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. In reflecting on programs which have been delivered in Aboriginal Education over the last ten years, it is the AEU belief that the evidence is unmistakable – Indigenous Education programs are generally short term in nature and funding, and driven by political cycles, rather than evidence.
