Link hands on path to a treaty

State by state, Australians are working towards agreements, and Tasmania must respond, writes Henry Reynolds

IN December 1994 the United Nations’ General Assembly designated August 9 as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

The UN estimates that the 370 million indigenes reside in 90 countries. There are 500 distinct cultures and nearly as many languages that are still spoken.

The Reconciliation Council of Tasmania will link hands with people all around the world to commemorate the day this Friday.

August 9 was chosen because on that day in 1982 the UN hosted the first meeting of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations setting in train the long and difficult task of drafting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. It took 25 years to bring to fruition and was finally ratified by the General Assembly in 2007 to be added to the treasury of the world’s key human rights documents. It was ratified by Australia in April 2009. At the heart of the Declaration is the objective of protecting the indigenous peoples’ rights as distinct peoples.

Central to that objective is a global commitment to protect their lives and preserve their languages and cultures. A number of important rights are considered to be essential to the achievement of that end including the rights to selfdetermination and to traditional lands, territory and resources. There is as well the right to autonomy or selfgovernment in matters

relating to internal or local affairs and to provide education of children in their own language. Treaties with national governments are also given considerable attention, both the negotiation of new ones and the honouring of historic agreements.

A national debate about treaties has run an uneven course in Australia since the 1980s.

Currently the question of constitutional recognition is being widely discussed without any clear indication of f what will eventually emerge as s government policy. It seems doubtful that a national treaty will eventuate. But there have been far more significant developments in the states and d territories.

A few weeks ago Queensland set out on what is called Tracks to a Treaty and appointed a panel of leading citizens, including Quentin Bryce, to begin the process of negotiating a local treaty or more likely treaties.

Last year, the Northern Territory government came to an agreement with the four land councils at the Barunga Festival and in March Mick Dodson was appointed as the Treaty Commissioner to set the process in motion.

Victoria was a few steps ahead and passed legislation in 2017 setting out the Government’s intention to enter into treaty negotiations and set aside $37 million to facilitate the process. In January last year a Treaty Advancement Commission was established and elections will soon be held to create the First People’s Assembly of Victoria.

But Western Australia has made even more striking progress and earlier this year finalised the South-West Native Title Settlement, which legal expert George Williams has called Australia’s first treaty, remarking that, “Yothu Yindi sang Treaty Now, and this is what we are doing here; this is a treaty between the government of Western Australia representing the new comers, and the nation of the Noongar people”. The agreement covers the whole southwest of the state an area three times larger than the whole of Tasmania containing 30,000 members of Noongar communities. Progress was made by negotiating six local deals which took the form of Indigenous Land Use Agreements and were registered with the Native Title Tribunal and thereby given the force of law.

While consummated by the Labor government, the process was designed and set in motion by Colin Barnett’s Liberal administration.

Our Government gives little indication that it intends to move in this direction. But Tasmania has a distinctive history, one which involves an historical treaty negotiated by G.A. Robinson on behalf of the government of George Arthur during his “Friendly Mission”

between 1829 and 1834. Its main provisions were that the Aborigines would move temporarily to Flinders Island but that they would be able to return to their homelands, that they would be liberally provided for and no attempt would be made to interfere with their customs and traditions. The promise of a return to mainland Tasmania was only carried out for a remnant population in 1847.

This is similar to what happened in North America where hundreds of Indian treaties were disregarded. But that was not the end of the story.

In the middle of the 20th century many treaties were reconsidered and restored to life and the same is true with the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand.

Which brings us back to the United Nations which has reassessed the importance of historical “treaties, agreements and constructive arrangements” and declared that indigenous people “have a right to their recognition, observance and enforcement.” This is a message to which Tasmania will eventually have to respond.