Mabo Day celebrated in Melbourne : Melbourne Indymedia

Mabo Day is the date when the High Court of Australia handed down its decision in the Mabo case in 1992, finding that there was prior occuption and ownership of the land, thus overturning the doctine of Terra Nullius. It was a land mark case, and it could be the basis for reconcilation based on justice between indigenous Australians and those who settled here from Europe and other parts of the globe.

In the Torres Strait Islands Mabo Day is a public holiday. But everywhere else the politicians want it to be forgotten and buried.

The colonisation, exploitation and cultural genocide continues with the desecration of the sacred fire in King's Domain.

Ellen, a Torres Strait Islander, spoke movingly of the importance of Eddie Mabo. Robbie Thorpe spoke on the continuing Genocide against aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Many of those gathered spoke from the heart about the importance of reconciliation, justice and a treaty.

Leaflet handed out:
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Celebrate MABO Day
JOIN US AT 1.OOpm ON SATURDAY 3rd JUNE 2006
at FEDERATION SQUARE (Corner St. Kilda Rd & Flinders St. MELB)
TO MARK THE 14TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AUSTRALIAN HIGH COURT DECISION HANDED DOWN ON THE 3RD JUNE 1992 THAT RECOGNISED INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIANS HAD RIGHTS TO LAND IN LAW BECAUSE OF THEIR PRIOR OCCUPATION OF THIS CONTINENT.

Faced with the prospect of indigenous Australians legally claiming land, the pastoral ' industry, the National Party and the Howard led Liberal Party initiated a campaign ; that delivered `bucket loads of extinguishment' by destroying the spirit and intent of the High Court decision that buried TERRA NULLIUS, 206 years after white colonisation began.

A multi pronged attack on the idea, that indigenous Australians had been illegally dispossessed of their lands in the most brutal fashion, was launched by conservative and authoritarian elements within Australian society. The whitewash brigade, aided and abetted by a partisan media, launched an attack to roll back the gains indigenous Australians had made since Aboriginal stockmen and their families walked off Vesty's Wave Hill Station in 1966. Through a campaign of lies and distortions, they have created a climate of hostility towards indigenous Australians who are trying to achieve justice through the courts, and by using political and direct action.

Celebrating MABO Day is one way of counter attacking the viscous litany of lies and half truths that is levelled at indigenous Australians who are fighting for reconciliation between indigenous and non indigenous Australians that is based on justice, not charity.

By celebrating MABO Day, people take the first step in the long journey towards reconciliation. We encourage our readers around Australia to acknowledge the importance of MABO Day to us as individuals and as a community. We encourage you to organise events to mark a day that should bring non indigenous and indigenous Australians together on the road to reconciliation.

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'CULTURE WARS COUNTER ATTACK'

P.O. Box 5035, Alphington 3078, VICTORIA

The 3rd of June marks one of the most important days in the Australian calendar. On the 3rd of June 1992, the Australian High Court decided that indigenous Australians had rights to land in law. The decision sent shockwaves through rural, regional and urban Australia. The certainties of land tenure and pastoral titles that had been established through the dispossession by force of people who in some cases had continuously occupied land in Australia for over 40,000 years, had come under challenge.

Those indigenous Australians who could prove continuous association with land during the post colonial period, continued to have rights to land in law. The descendants of those who had been disposed by force had rights to compensation. Paul Keating, the Prime Minister, in one of the most political courageous decisions taken by a Prime Minister, went down to the inner Sydney city of Redfern and delivered the `Redfern Statement'. He accepted the High Court decision and opened up a dialogue with indigenous Australia about how best to accommodate the High Court judgment.

John Howard, the current Prime Minister and then Opposition leader, promised the Australian electorate "bucket loads of extinguishment". Many of those Australians who were accustomed to exercising power had become uneasy about the gains made by working people, women, indigenous Australians, students and gays and lesbians in the 1960's and 1970's. A High Court decision that directly challenged their ownership of land galvanised them into action.

The behind the scenes mutterings were crystallised into a movement that became known as `the culture wars'. At stake were the hearts and minds of the Australian people. Over the past 20 years, the social and community gains that were made over the 1960's and the 1970's have been challenged and in many cases rolled back. The election of the Howard government a decade ago brought the historical revisionists out of the wilderness into the Cabinet room. Over the past decade, Australia's institutions and courts have been stacked with people who are determined to stamp out gains made by the dispossessed and working Australians.

Indigenous Australians were the first victims of the culture wars, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) became the second victim. Even Australia's galleries and museums have been attacked; Board members and staff who don't support the Howard government's agenda are replaced by those who do. Working people are now beginning to feel the culture wars blow torch. Trade Unions have become almost irrelevant, the right for workers to withdraw their labour is now virtually illegal, and over the past few months a direct attack has been launched against working people's wages, hours and conditions by the Howard government's new Industrial Relations laws. Disability pensioners and those who receive unemployment and student allowances are also under sustained attack.

Enough is enough; faced with these increasingly damaging attacks, a group of activists based in Melbourne have launched THE CULTURE WARS COUNTER ATTACK. We will attempt to roll back the losses of the past decade by directly tackling the lies, historical distortions and appointments made by governments and the corporate sector to positions of authority in Australian society to people and organisations who believe they are the only ones fit to exercise authority and have a divine right to rule. We encourage you to form your own autonomous chapter of THE CULTURE WARS COUNTER ATTACK in the places where you live and work. We encourage you to use both parliamentary and extra parliamentary methods to rid the community of this cancer that is destroying the Australia soul.

Dr. Joseph TOSCANO
National Convenor Culture Wars Counter Attack