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Nobody from my tribal groups were present from the Western Cape of Cape York Peninsula. If the government does not represent me, then does the Uluru Statement?
People quickly come to 'get', on some instinctive level at least, that you can't 'sock the system', be that the white fella system or the broken aspects of the traditional tribal system.
Sadly, we are now at a time in Australian history where an influential minority are demonising James Cook, accusing him of being the originator of every social and economic problem that Indigenous Australians have faced.
They are working hard on creating on three pieces of international law that would, if implemented, expand intellectual property regulations to protect things like indigenous designs, dances, words and traditional medicines.
However, holding NAIDOC Week perhaps could serve to remind many folk that they share the land with its original residents who founded it some forty to sixty thousand years ago.
We can design and create a Makarrata Commission that's a democratically elected, non-legislative body speaking on behalf of all our nation's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
As a former Australian Labor Party president and advisor to conservative prime ministers John Howard and Tony Abbott, Mundine is not known for pulling his punches.
