Council to Display First Nations Map, State from the Heart and Torres Strait Flag in Council Chambers -deferred to August Meeting
Amended Motion Resolved 8 August 2023
- Item 28 Notice of Motion: Council to Display First Nations Map, State from the Heart and Torres Strait Flag in Council Chambers
- That Council display the Map of Indigenous Australia in the Council Chamber and at local libraries;
- That Council display the image of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in the Council Chamber;
- That Council fly the Torres Strait Islander Flag in the chamber alongside the Aboriginal Flag;
- That Council bring back a report on adopting traditional place names in our correspondence;
- That Council fly the Aboriginal flag along Marrickville Road and on other mainstreets where possible, during Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week each year.
|
|
Council Meeting 20 June 2023 |
Subject: Notice of Motion: Council to Display First Nations Map, State from the Heart and Torres Strait Flag in Council Chambers
From: Councillor Marghanita Da Cruz
|
MOTION
1. That Council display the [AIATSIS] Map of Indigenous Australia [in the Council Chamber].
2. That Council display the Image of the Uluru Statement from the Heart in the Council Chamber.
3. That Council fly the Torres Strait Flag in the chamber alongside of the Aboriginal Flag.
4. That Council bring back[receive] a report on adopting traditional place names in our correspondence.
|
Background
Map of Indigenous Australia
“Australia's First Peoples have been living on the Australian continent for Millenia. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia is made up of many different and distinct groups, each with their own culture, customs, language and laws. They are the world’s oldest surviving culture; cultures that continue to be expressed in dynamic and contemporary ways.”
“This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group. It used published resources from the eighteenth century-1994 and is not intended to be exact, nor the boundaries fixed. It is not suitable for native title or other land claims. David R Horton (creator), © AIATSIS, 1996.
No reproduction without permission.”
Map can be viewed and purchased at https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia
Matching postcodes to traditional place names
Australia Post have recently launched a campaign that allows people to include the traditional name of places in the address field. This is one way that you can acknowledge that places are firstly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander places. Source: https://aiatsis.gov.au/whose-country
Uluru Statement from the Heart
· 2010 Prime Minister Julia Gillard establishes the Expert Panel on the Recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in the Constitution.
· 2012 Expert Panel Report finds strong public support for constitutional recognition and recommends removing existing constitutional references to race in ss 25 and 51(xxvi), inserting a statement of Indigenous recognition into the Constitution, giving the Commonwealth Parliament a new power to make laws about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, creating a constitutional ban on racial discrimination and inserting a provision recognising Indigenous languages.
· 2013 The Gillard government, with support from the Opposition, passes the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples Recognition Act 2013, to provide an interim form of recognition of Aboriginal people.
· 2014 Parliament forms a joint select parliamentary committee, chaired by Senators Ken Wyatt and Nova Peris, to advance the work of the Expert Panel.
· 2015 Indigenous Leaders meet with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten at Kirribilli House and issue the Kirribilli Statement. In response, the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader establish the Referendum Council.
· 
2016-17 The Referendum Council runs 13 First Nations
Regional Dialogues to discuss options for constitutional reform.
· 2017 The Referendum Council holds a National First Nations Constitutional Convention where delegates draft and overwhelmingly endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart which calls for a constitutionally entrenched First Nations Voice to Parliament, and a Makarrata commission to oversee a process of treaty-making and truth-telling. The Turnbull government rejects the call for a Voice to Parliament.
· 2018 A Joint Select Committee of Parliament finds the Voice is the only viable recognition proposal and recommends that the government ‘initiate a process of co-design [of the Voice] with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
· 2019 Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, announces a ‘co-design’ process to determine the structure and functions of the Voice. The constitutional enshrinement of the Voice was excluded from the terms of reference.
· 2021 The Uluru Statement wins the Sydney Peace Prize with co-laureates Pat Anderson, Megan Davis and Noel Pearson.
· 2022 Anthony Albanese is elected as the new Prime Minister of Australia and reconfirms his commitment to implement the Uluru Statement in full during his victory speech upon the Australian Labor Party defeating the Liberal National Party in the May federal election.
· October 2022 The Inner West is partnering with the Sydney Alliance to provide the training program and coordinate the recruitment campaign as well as making town halls and facilities available for the training free of charge.
· 2023 Legislation which Proposes an alteration to the Constitution to recognise First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in introduced into Federal Parliament. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2223a/23bd080
The Uluru Statement from the Heart and its history can be read here https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/
“Thomas Mayor is a Torres Strait Islander man who lives on Larrakia Country in Darwin. A father of five children, he is a wharfie and union official for the Maritime Union of Australia. He has tirelessly advocated for the proposals in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and is the author of four bestselling books. His First book, Finding the Heart of the Nation: The journey of the Uluru Statement towards Voice, Treaty and Truth, tells his story, the story of the Uluru Statement, and the stories of the remarkable people he met on his campaigning journey. A children’s version, Finding Our Heart, was published in June 2020. In 2021, Thomas released a children’s book, Freedom Day: Vincent Lingiari and the Wave Hill Walk-Off, published by Bright Light; and Dear Son – Letters and reflections from First Nations fathers and Sons. ” Blak & Bright First Nations Literary Festival, https://blakandbright.com.au/artist/thor/mas-mayo (viewed 2 June 2023)
Australian Flags lists these Special Days for flying flags
· 27 May to 3 June — National Reconciliation Week– 27 May as the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum which successfully removed from the Constitution clauses that discriminated against Indigenous Australians and 3 June as the anniversary of the High Court decision in the Eddie Mabo land rights case of 1992.
· July, nominated week — NAIDOC Week (originally an acronym for National Aboriginal and Islanders’ Day Observance Committee, the acronym has since become the name of the week) – NAIDOC Week is held every year to celebrate and promote a greater understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture
Source - 3rd edition of Australian Flags https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/australia-flag-booklet-fa-accessible-150dpi.pdf
Officer’s Comments:
No further comments were required for this Notice of Motion.
Nil.
Source https://innerwest.infocouncil.biz/Open/2023/06/C_20062023_AGN_4010_AT_WEB.htm
Comments
Post a Comment