VOICEOVER: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are
warned that the following video may contain images
and voices of deceased persons.
[MUSIC] DR TOM CALMA AO: The world over we celebrate
the tribal cultures of a society, the history of a society
but it's also recognised internationally that we are
the longest continuing surviving culture in the world and, you know,
that's very important to recognise and to respect and to value and,
you know, and to celebrate, I think.
Here our history is a bit shameful.
We've been denied access to basic citizenship rights
and human rights up until very recently.
We've got a lot of catch up to do.
HON.
PAUL KEATING: It begins, I think, with an act of recognition.
Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing, we took
the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.
We practised discrimination and exclusion.
LES MALEZER: Indigenous peoples have been fighting for a long time
to get recognised as distinct peoples with the right
to run their own lives, determine their own futures.
BAN-KI MOON: All the indigenous representatives
from around the world, we have travelled long distances,
physically but also in the struggle to achieve your rights.
[MUSIC CONTINUES] VOICEOVER: The document is made
up of 9 key sections- foundational rights; life and security; language,
culture and spiritual identity; education, information and employment;
participation, development and economic and social rights;
rights to country, resources and our knowledge; self governance.
MICK GOODA: So they're very important to understand that you don't
have to do anything to actually earn human rights,
you have human rights because we're a member
of the human race.
DR TOM CALMA AO: Self-determination is important.
We can't be self-determining if we don't know, you know,
what's affecting a decision.
So we should be able to make- should be able
to make decisions without any coercion.
MICK DODSON: Until people actually make real decisions
about things that affect their lives, it's very difficult to make progress
and this is perhaps at the heart of self-determination.
BRIAN WYATT: In terms of your- the resources,
it does not mean only just extractive industries, it means, you know, water,
it also means your access to national parks, forests,
traditional foods, medicines.
So anything that has to do with land and is connected
in that context people should understand that they have a right
to that so that they're not denied those rights when they're confronted by law.
UNCLE BOB ANDERSON: With the ground has been broken and
the pathways they have been laid down by others and one of those,
one of the people that helped to lay that
down was Eddie Koiki Mabo who was a very good friend
of mine who dispelled the myth of terra nullius and changed
the bowling completely.
GWEN PARKIN: After 20 years, that's how long we've fought
for this land, meetings and meetings and meetings,
dealing with different departments, it finally came through and it was
the most wonderful feeling.
We just jumped up and screamed when he said,
"Congratulations, you have- this is your land, you have your, yeah, title.
" VALERIE COOMS: Well that's what human rights does, it brings Geneva
to Australia, to Dunwich actually when you saw
all the people in the hall and Justice Dowsett gave
a fantastic summary.
People were laughing, smiling, biggest mob of black fellas was
at the hall.
EVELYN PARKIN: We've still got to work within the Western system
and so with the native title it just meant yes, at last they've recognised we are
the traditional people of this land
through the Western system.
We've always known it, our people, our Quandamooka people that no-one
can take away your spiritual ties, no-one, because this
is where we were put.
DARREN BURNS: We're traditional owners and
as traditional owners we need to have an equal say
in how our traditional estate's managed.
It's not a day job for Quandamooka people.
We live it, we belong to this country, we feel it, you know, we're a part
of this ecology.
[MUSIC CONTINUES] JANINE GERTZ: The preservation
of our languages goes to the very heart of our cultural
and spiritual identity.
Languages are the way that we pass on our knowledges
to future generations.
It's also the way that we assert our cultural
and spiritual identity.
[SINGING IN LANGUAGE] KEN LANGFORD-SMITH: The differences
between Yipirinya and other schools is that firstly it's what they call,
the elders call a two-way school.
When they started it, this was what, 33 years ago, they wanted
to have a school of their own and when they went
to the Government the Government said, "No,
what's wrong with the government schools?"
And they started then what was
a 10=year campaign.
So that was a great triumph and it was established
as an independent school.
CHERYL WILSON: Keeping our language strong, it's a part of us,
it's a part of our old people.
Like I've been saying it's where we're from, you know.
We can't be an indigenous race and have nothing, you know.
We are an indigenous race because we've got language,
we've got culture and we're strong and we need to teach the children that.
[WOMEN SINGING IN LANGUAGE] WOMAN: It's got to be two ways,
you know.
European came to our country, they've got to come up beside us
and we walk side by side and we learn from them
and they learn from us.
VALERIE COOMS: And when you're an Aboriginal person and something's
not right you know in your guts that that's not right.
[MUSIC] DR MEGAN DAVIS: You know, I would recommend and I do take
the declaration to all my meetings in any public department,
local government, State Government, Federal Government and use the rights,
mention the rights, refer to the rights.
It's really important in terms of this declaration having real power
in this country that everyone from school kids to elders refer
to articles in the declaration.
[MUSIC CONTINUES]