Latest news with #Reconciliation
The Guardian
a day ago
- General
- The Guardian
King Charles's visit brings frustration for First Nations amid ‘backslide in reconciliation'
King Charles's speech to Canada's parliament this week was framed as a subtle rebuke to Donald Trump's threats of annexation and an assertion of the country's sovereignty. But for many Indigenous people, the elaborate spectacle of the royal visit – with its protocol, regalia, thrones and mounties in pith helmets – evoked a model of national identity at odds with ongoing efforts to confront Canada's own violent history of colonization and dispossession. The visit came as some Indigenous Chiefs and academics warned that questions of reconciliation with First Nations are being drowned out by the noisy surge of patriotism provoked by the US president. 'There's only so much oxygen in the room and it gets all sucked up with standing up to Trump. It's 'Indigenous people, you're important – but not right now'. That's a strategy of settler colonialism too,' said David MacDonald, a political science professor at Guelph University in Ontario from Treaty 4 lands in Regina, Saskatchewan. Canada was formed to promote unity among British colonial territories and to stop American expansion – and it was created through genocidal violence against Indigenous people, said MacDonald. 'We need to be careful not to fall back into those historical patterns, because it's pretty easy for a lot of settler Canadians to think that's the way it has been and should be, especially if we appeal to older historical figures,' he said. Indigenous leaders also highlighted the irony of such high-profile declarations of Canadian sovereignty when First Nations are themselves forced to make similar assertions to Canada's own federal government. Canada's federal government admits that colonial efforts to forcefully assimilate Indigenous peoples, and the displacement of First Nations on to inhospitable reserves have all contributed to shorter life expectancy, poverty and illness. Indigenous communities have repeatedly been forced to turn to the courts in order to force the federal government to meet its obligations under centuries-old treaties between First Nations and the Crown. In one case last year, Canada's highest court ruled that the crown had made a 'mockery' of a 1850 agreement by failing to adequately compensate First Nations for the riches extracted from their ancestral territories. 'We were sovereign. We still are sovereign. And you have to respect that we enter these treaties to make sure that we share land and resources – and therefore Canada, the colonial state, must share revenue as well,' said Chief David Monias, of Pimicikamak Okimawin in Manitoba, at a press conference following the King's speech. Grand Chief Krya Wilson of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs welcomed the King's decision to mention Indigenous rights, meet and acknowledge that Canada's parliament building sits on traditional Algonquin territory. But she added: 'There was talk of truth and reconciliation. But … we've heard the term 'reconciliation' for years now,' she says. 'And what we are expecting – and what we've been expecting for years – is tangible action.' National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak, who is head of the Assembly of First Nations, said that during her meeting with the king she stressed the need for 'less colonialism'. 'People don't like this [US] colonialism that's happening at the borders,' she said. 'But first nations have been feeling that for a long time: colonialism trying to dictate our lives.' Over the past 20 years, Canada has engaged in a fitful reckoning with its colonial past, with a 2015 report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) concluding that the country had engaged in a 'cultural genocide' in which tens of thousands of First Nations children were forcibly removed from their families and incarcerated in residential schools rife with abuse. A major shift in public discourse also came four years ago this week, when remains of 215 children were confirmed outside a former residential school in southern British Columbia. But that historical reassessment has been drowned out by a surge of nationalism in response to Trump – often invoking the iconography of British colonialism, said Rowland Keshena Robinson, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, who is a member of the Menominee Nation of Wisconsin. On the day of Charles' speech, the Ontario government announced that a statue of John A Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, would be put back on public display, five years after activists threw paint on it to highlight Macdonald's efforts to eliminate Indigenous people including through starvation, 'There absolutely has been a backsliding in reconciliation in the last five years,' Robinson said. Macdonald argued that Canadians face a unique opportunity to define themselves as different from the US not through loyalty to Britain but through by enacting true reconciliation with Indigenous people. 'What's the opposite of a dictatorial, authoritarian presidential system? It's a decentralized system where Indigenous people have control over their own lands, waters and keep large corporations from digging everything up,' he said. 'That would be the most anti-American thing a Canadian could do,' he said. 'If the narrative could change Indigenous self-determination could be a central part of Canadian identity.'
SBS Australia
3 days ago
- Business
- SBS Australia
NITV News: May 29, 2025
A big step forward for mob in Victoria as the first local Treaty-making process begins. 25 years on from the landmark Reconciliation Bridge Walk advocates still optimistic for the future. The Federal Government defies Traditional Custodians, granting a huge licence extension for a controversial gas plant.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Flinders Island councillor in push to stop Welcome to and Acknowledgement of Country protocols
A local councillor from Tasmania's Flinders Island wants to stop Welcomes to and Acknowledgements of Country at events the council is involved in — a move the Mayor says would cause division. Flinders Councillor Garry Blenkhorn said "Australians did not want separatist development" and that discontent with the Acknowledgement of Country was growing. "These protocols are not historical and have only existed for around 50 years." Flinders Council has included the Acknowledgement of Country in publications and events since 2019. Since 2013, the council — which covers the Furneaux Group of islands, including Flinders Island, off Tasmania's north-east coast — has also held an alternative celebration to Australia Day, which it describes as an "inclusive celebration of being Furneaux Islanders". In the lead up to the federal election, the merit of the welcomes to and acknowledgements of country was questioned by then-Opposition leader Peter Dutton and Senator Nampijinpa Price. Reconciliation Australia, the peak body for reconciliation with Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, said they were "simple but profound ceremonies which allow Australians to express respect for traditional owners of the Country on which the ceremony occurs". "Long before the colonisation of Australia, under traditional protocols, when one group entered the land of another Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander nation, they would ask permission. The hosting group would welcome the visitors and offer them 'safe passage and protection of their spiritual being during the journey'," it said. The organisation rejected the suggestion that welcomes and acknowledgements were divisive. "In fact, reconciliation provides a strong foundation for a more unified society," a spokesperson said. Reconciliation Australia said they should be performed when organisers of meetings or events deemed it appropriate. "The regular positive response of [for example] sporting crowds to Welcomes to Country ceremonies indicates that many Australians welcome these ceremonies." It said in the lead-up to National Reconciliation Week, it was important to understand what the ceremonies represented. The Flinders Island community has the second-highest proportion of Aboriginal people in Tasmania. It is also the location of the old Wybalenna Mission, where Aboriginal people were exiled to in the 1880s, and where many died as a result of European disease and poor conditions. Flinders Island Mayor Rachel Summers said Cr Blenkhorn's proposal would cause division over what was "essentially a very brief" part of council events. "It's literally 30 seconds, 60 seconds, when we just acknowledge the contribution the Aboriginal community has made over their time as custodians of the land," Cr Summers said. She said she was disappointed Cr Blenkhorn had not raised the issue before submitting a notice of motion for Wednesday's council meeting. "Things like this which have real community impact should come to a [council] workshop in the first instance, and then we could have had that discussion. "And if he was saying that he wanted to put this motion forward, then we could have maybe done some community engagement," Cr Summers said. She said Aboriginal associations and the services they provided were "critical" to the whole community. In response to Cr Blenkhorn's motion, the council's general manager, Warren Groves, said the motion "could well be seen as difficult to reconcile" if supported and contrary to efforts the council has made to improve its relationship with the Aboriginal community and stakeholders. Mr Groves said he had recently spoken with the chief executives of the Flinders Island and Cape Barren Island Aboriginal associations and the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania. He said "all three CEOs are strongly opposed to any proposed withdrawal of the Welcome to or Acknowledgement of Country from council proceedings". Cape Barron Island Aboriginal Association chair Aaron Maynard said the council told him about Cr Blenkhorn's motion. "Words can't really explain how disgusting and just how disrespectful this is to everyone," Mr Maynard said. "Our people on this land in Australia are the oldest living race in the world at 65,000 years old, and we're still not celebrating that to our full capacity." He said he would be attending the council meeting. Speaking on ABC Local Radio on Sunday morning, Tasmanian Aboriginal activist and lawyer Michael Mansell said the idea was "disappointing". "So, again, it's people who just have a very different view, and we need to tolerate that, but why they would try to destroy something that's very positive, and that people do want to participate in, is very hard to understand," he said. The motion will be debated on Wednesday. Cr Blenkhorn was contacted for comment.
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Politics
- News.com.au
Albanese government urged revive Indigenous Affairs agenda or risk ‘obliteration' for Aboriginal culture
Former senator Pat Dodson has called on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to revive his government's stalled Indigenous Affairs agenda, warning that Aboriginal people risk being culturally erased. 'If you don't participate, you'll end up being the subject and the property of the assimilationists,' Mr Dodson, long hailed as the father of reconciliation, told ABC's 7.30 on Monday night. 'That's what the new assimilation is about — completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. 'If you looked at what they were talking about in the opposition at the last election, getting rid of land councils, revising a whole range of symbolism, throw out the Welcome to Country, get rid of the flags, rescind the ambassador. 'Anything that indicates the presence of Aboriginal people would have gone. That's what the new assimilation is about, completing the obliteration of Aboriginal people from the landscape. 'Cultural heritage is another very important aspect of that. The more you smash and destroy the cultural heritage of Aboriginal people, the greater it is to say well there is no substantive argument to say that they had any presence here, because there's no evidence, they've blown it up.' Mr Dodson, a Yawuru man from Broome who retired from parliament in early 2024, urged the Albanese government to recommit to the Uluru Statement from the Heart. While last year's Voice referendum failed, the other two pillars, treaty and truth-telling, remain on the table. It is now time for Labor to pursue this after claiming a landslide victory earlier this month, Mr Dodson says. 'They can do that because it doesn't require a constitutional referendum. It can be done by way of legislation,' he continued. He also called on Labor to revisit the Calma-Langton model — a network of regional Indigenous bodies proposed under the Morrison government — as a path forward for local decision-making. 'Whether they call it a Voice or whether they call it a regional assembly ... but an entity and that entity will have to be representative of the regional people,' he said. 'That way we can start to manage the awful incarceration rates of young people and the underlying circumstances that's given rise to that.' Mr Dodson admitted he was disappointed by the Prime Minister's decision to pull back from reconciliation efforts following the failed referendum, but understood it politically. 'I think Albanese was smart not to drink from the poisoned chalice,' he said. 'He had to do that.' Dodson's own role in the campaign was limited by cancer treatment. He left federal politics shortly after the referendum, a result he described as personally devastating. 'I felt the sadness,' he said. 'We saw a response at the poll that I think shocked many of us, many people felt gutted … I thought time will heal this.' He believes resistance to the Voice stemmed from a deeper discomfort in acknowledging Indigenous sovereignty. 'We don't know how to recognise Aboriginal peoples as sovereign peoples, because we fear this will undermine our own sovereignty,' he said. 'They think this is something about (Indigenous Australians) getting something better or more than they might be getting.' Dodson said constitutional reform via referendum will likely remain out of reach due to the requirement for a national majority and support in a majority of states. 'We're never going to see a provision put forward to support Aboriginal people be successful,' he said.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Politics
- ABC News
Mixed emotions on Sorry Day as some survivors wait for compensation
National Sorry Day marks the anniversary of the tabling of the landmark Bringing Them Home report in the federal parliament on May 26, 1997.
