SYDNEY May 8 (IPS) – Climate change will further marginalise
Australia’s Aboriginal communities forcing them out of their
traditional lands destroying their culture and significantly
affecting their access to water resources indigenous rights
advocates warn.

As coastal and island communities confront rising sea levels
and inland areas become hotter and drier indigenous people are
at risk of further economic marginalisation as well as potential
dislocation from and exploitation of their traditional lands
waters and natural resources said Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma.

Indigenous people have been living in close affinity with
nature for thousands of years preserving the environment and
protecting the biodiversity. Dispossession and a loss of access
to traditional lands waters and natural resources may be
described as cultural genocide; a loss of ancestral spiritual
totemic and language connections to lands and associated areas
said the Human Rights Commission’s 2008 Social Justice and Native
Title reports launched this week.

Aboriginal people account for only 2.5 per cent of the total
population with an estimated population of 517200 according
to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ 2006 Census.

The cruel irony is that indigenous people have the smallest
ecological footprint but are being asked to carry the heaviest
burden of climate change Commissioner Calma added.

The government of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has
signed the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and committed to
reducing Australias greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent
below 2000 levels by 2020 if the world agrees to an ambitious
global deal to stabilise levels of CO2 equivalent at 450 parts
per million or lower by 2050.

The new reports are urging the government to create new
partnerships with indigenous Australians in climate change
policy and planning.

The government should fully implement the recommendations of
the reports which highlight important ways that indigenous
peoples can be involved in responses to the issues of climate
change and water access while building lasting and sustainable
industries that include the best of indigenous knowledge and
Western science Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations
(MLDRIN) Executive Officer Steven Ross told IPS.

Indigenous rights to water are not adequately recognised by
Australian law and policy. For example today 90 per cent of the
water consumed in the Murray-Darling Basin is used to irrigate
agricultural lands.

The reports highlight the need for what we call ‘cultural
flows’ – a legal entitlement to water allocations for indigenous
peoples to deliver to sites of cultural and ecological
significance which would also support maintenance of cultural
practices such as ‘bush tucker’ (bushfood) and medicinal plants
Ross added.

The reports also call for positive practical changes to be
made to the native land title system against the looming threat
of compulsory acquisition of indigenous lands. The common law of
Australia recognises rights and interests to land held by
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people under their
traditional laws and customs.

However Kevin Smith an official with Queensland South Native
Title Services Limited told IPS the native title system is in
need of reform as it contains convoluted ill-fitting legislative
functions and complicated and unfair claim processes
particularly in light of the heavy burden of proof and it has
been bedevilled by policy myopia. Native title has been
intentionally excluded from the range of options to address
underlying indigenous disadvantage.

Smith proposes implementing a broader land settlement
framework where native title is a means to an end not an end
in itself – that is native title should be a tool along with
other legislative and administrative tools that assist with
redressing indigenous disadvantage.

Keeping to his pre-election promise Labour Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd had last February offered an historic unconditional
apology to indigenous Australians for the wrongs committed by the
State in the past.

Amidst tears and cheers in the Federal Parliament in Canberra
Rudd had said the long awaited Sorry three times to members of
the Stolen Generations’ comprising tens and thousands of
children who were forcibly removed from their families between
1900 and 1970 under government assimilation policies to breed
out their Aborigine blood and supposedly give them a better life.

Australia has since also formally endorsed the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Rudd made
Closing the Gap between indigenous and non-indigenous people a
cornerstone of his national apology.

But the reports caution that while the Closing the Gap’
campaign is helping achieve indigenous health equality the
optimism could be short-lived and the current economic downturn
would pose real challenges for the Aboriginal communities living
largely in remote areas with abysmal access to education and
health facilities.

Alcohol abuse domestic violence chronic diseases
unemployment high suicide rates and lawlessness are rife in
Aboriginal communities.

The Australian government has signed a bipartisan Statement of
Intent to close the life expectancy gap by 2030. However
indigenous Australian children are twice as likely to go to
hospital for chronic conditions than non-indigenous children and
are much more likely to die before they are 20.

The reports also warn that destruction of infrastructure like
housing and sewerage would expose indigenous communities living
in remote areas to greater risk of disease from flooded rubbish
and insect-born diseases like dengue fever and malaria.

Indigenous leader academic and Australian of the Year’ Mick
Dodson recently told a conference in Alice Springs that ensuring
indigenous children attend school is one of the keys to improving
Aboriginal health and closing the life expectancy gap. The fact
that 30 per cent of indigenous adults lacked basic literacy had a
significant impact on their health he said.

Calling for urgent action to address the education crisis faced
by indigenous communities Commissioner Calma pointed out that
many indigenous kids living in remote areas only have a teacher
come out to teach them three days a fortnight. These children are
being educated in tin sheds with dirt floors. (FIN/2009)

Neena Bhandari