Indigenous Rights as a Young Native American in Aboriginal Australia
"Australia misinformation, conspiracy, racism in view - ‘We forgive, but never forget’: yes campaigner Rachel Perkins responds to Warren Mundine on Uluru statement"
A Native American activist reflects on how the US and Australia can improve Indigenous rights.
Victor Anthony Lopez-Carmen
Listen to this article December 2, 2020
Why Global Citizens Should Care The UN's Global Goals work together towards ending extreme poverty through tackling its systemic causes. Yet, across the world, marginalized communites — such as Indigenous communities — face barriers to achieving equal education, health care, human rights, and other issues tackled by the Global Goals. Join the movement to end extreme poverty and its root causes by taking action here to ensure all people achieve the rights laid out by the Global Goals.
Victor Anthony Lopez-Carmen is a young Native American and member of the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, and the Yaqui Nation in Arizona and Mexico.
He is a passionate advocate for Indigenous people’s rights, and serves as co-chair of the United Nations Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. He has previously co-edited a compilation of young Indigenous people’s essays from all over the world, entitled Global Indigenous Youth: Through Their Eyes, which was launched by the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.
He is currently a student at the Harvard Medical School in Boston and holds a Masters in Public Health from the Western Sydney University in Australia. Here, he reflects on his time studying in Australia and what he thinks can be done to better protect Indigenous rights in the US.
He spoke of his aunt, who escaped an assimilationist residential school and walked hundreds of miles through the desert back to her home community.
His story reminded me of those told to me about my own Dakota Sioux grandparents. As children, they were taken from their families and forced to attend US residential school programs, where speaking Dakota was punishable by force .. https://americanindian.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter3.html . Indeed, the US and Australia used similar tactics to assimilate Indigenous communities. Despite it all, Indigenous Nations in our respective countries have fought hard to protect our cultures, sovereignty, and national freedoms such as the right to vote.
These shared histories motivated me, a Dakota and Yaqui student, to venture “down under” on a Fulbright Scholarship .. https://us.fulbrightonline.org/ . My Fulbright research focused on understanding the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth attending boarding schools in inner cities like Sydney. While venturing into a topic riddled with historical similarities, I became aware of modern differences in the way Indigenous rights to education, health, justice, culture, identity, and sovereignty are addressed.
When gold was discovered in these sacred mountains, miners moved in and the Black Hills were stolen by force. In 1980, the US Supreme Court ruled .. https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/448/371/ .. that the Black Hills were wrongfully taken from our people, and that instead of returning them to us, we were to be compensated monetarily. To this day, the Oceti Sakowin have refused to accept .. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/north_america-july-dec11-blackhills_08-23 .. the money, and maintain that the Black Hills be returned to our people as was agreed in the original treaty.
In comparison, Australia is the only country among its Britain-rooted peers without treaties .. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40024622 .. enshrining the inherent sovereignty, self-determination, and continuity of Indigenous Peoples on their traditional territories. The limited land rights Aboriginal Peoples receive are won through Native Title .. https://www.klc.org.au/what-is-native-title , granting land usage on a family-group basis, only after such groups are able to prove substantially uninterrupted connection to land and waters.
Instead of recognition through formalized treaties, Aboriginal historical ties to the land are acknowledged in Australia in the public sphere. Acknowledgements of Aboriginal Peoples in parliament, national apologies from prime ministers, and National NAIDOC Week .. https://www.naidoc.org.au/ , which celebrates the culture and history of Aboriginal Peoples, all take place regularly.
When I witnessed the open recognition of Aboriginal Peoples at luxurious ceremonies, national conferences, major meetings in parliament, and by professors before starting classes, I was pleasantly surprised.
However, after working with Aboriginal Peoples across the country, I quickly realized that this sort of recognition was often betrayed by actions inconsistent with what true recognition requires. Words and gestures without recognition of the rights of Aboriginal Peoples in treaties has created a false sense of effort.
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The basis for improvements in health, education, justice, and cultural vitality, or “closing the gap,” is and always will be Indigenous self-determination. In the long-term, Indigenous independence is both economically healthy and morally just. Because of the horrible atrocities the US and Australia inflicted on Indigenous Peoples, there is an obligation to go beyond words and tangibly reverse the conditions that have manifested from them.
In the end, the US can do a much better job accurately and meaningfully recognizing Native American sovereignty in the public sphere, while backing up acknowledgements by honoring nation-to-nation treaties that the House, Senate, and previous presidents ratified. Australia, too, can learn from mistakes made in the US and commit themselves to the legal realization of Aboriginal autonomy that goes beyond words and public gestures.
As an Indigenous youth, I want governments across the world to fulfill the promises they made to Indigenous Peoples. I envision a world where the US and Australia take responsibility for policies that still affect our well-being, such as the fact that Native Americans did not get the right to vote in all 50 states until the 1960s, which means we did not get an equal say in matters that impacted us.
In the end, I want our people to have access to all the freedoms granted to non-Indigenous citizens, such as the right to vote, as well as the rights that have belonged to us since time immemorial — such as the right to hunt, speak our languages, and manage our traditional territories. I want our sacred places to be returned to us and protected in the law, so my great-grandchildren can practice our traditions on them.
Until this happens, public forms of acknowledgement will remain disingenuous and the intergenerational impacts of colonization will continue to stain our respective nations.
If you're a writer, activist, or just have something to say, you can make submissions to Global Citizen's Contributing Writers Program by reaching out to contributors@globalcitizen.org.
‘We don’t interfere’: Russian envoy on Voice debate
"Australia misinformation, conspiracy, racism in view - ‘We forgive, but never forget’: yes campaigner Rachel Perkins responds to Warren Mundine on Uluru statement"
Our area internet is slower today than a turtle with two broken legs.
Moscow’s local envoy says he will not silence a pro-Kremlin conspiracy theorist who is organising rallies against the Indigenous Voice to Parliament .. https://www.afr.com/link/follow-20180101-p5e4c6 .. while he is holed up in a Russian diplomatic compound in Sydney.
“Important Australian issue”: Russian ambassador to Australia Dr Alexey Pavlovsky in Canberra. Alex Ellinghausen
“The Russian government is not encouraging anything of what you are talking about,” Dr Pavlovsky told The Australian Financial Review.
“Our principal position is we don’t interfere in the internal affairs of foreign states. We are against it, unlike our so-called Western partners who do that as an everyday practice.
“It is ridiculous to say the opinion around this important referendum Australia will have is somehow to the smallest degree influenced outside of Australia.”
It emerged this week Mr Boikov is helping to marshal “worldwide rallies for freedom” in mainland capital cities as well as regional towns Casino and Yeppoon.
The events are now being promoted as “No to the Voice” but earlier promotional material included references to a grab bag of causes, including opposing AUKUS, 5G, abortion, NATO, mask mandates, the “Albo government” and interest rate rises.
Mr Boikov uses his online platforms to sprout pro-Russian propaganda and support Russian President Vladimir Putin in his war against Ukraine.
Since December last year, he has been living in the Russian consulate in Sydney’s eastern suburbs after police wanted to arrest him for allegedly assaulting a pro-Ukrainian supporter. Mr Boikov was on parole at the time for breaching a suppression order.
Asked by the Financial Review whether the Russian government had a responsibility to rein in Mr Boikov because he was living and operating effectively from Russian soil, Dr Pavlovsky noted Mr Boikov had been active on social media platforms for many years.
“He is an Australian citizen. Wouldn’t it be interference in internal Australian debate just to prevent an Australian citizen to express his opinion on an important Australian issue?” Dr Pavlovsky said.
“It’s not an option.”
Asked how long Russia would tolerate Mr Boikov as a “house guest”, Dr Pavlovsky said “let me just limit myself by saying we are in touch with DFAT on that”, although he dismissed the idea Mr Boikov would be made a Russian diplomat, so he could enjoy diplomatic immunity and be spirited away to Moscow.
Mr Boikov told online radio host Chris Smith on Thursday Russian officials “don’t have any idea what I’m doing, they’ve probably never heard of the Voice”.
Mr Boikov has ruled out leaving the consulate, saying he did not want to give police the opportunity to take him into custody.
A number of current and former MPs are being promoted as speaking at the rallies, including Senator Ralph Babet, NSW upper house MPs John Ruddick and Tania Mihailuk, and former federal Liberal members Craig Kelly and Ross Cameron, who are both no longer in the party. Mr Boikov said Indigenous elders and veterans would also speak.
The official No campaign has distanced itself from Mr Boikov’s events as pro-Voice advocacy group the Uluru Dialogue labelled the rallies an “affront to democracy”.
“These ‘No’ rallies demonstrate how the No campaign benefits from division and disunity, with hostile and anti-Australian interests aligning themselves with No’s position and supporters,” co-chairs Pat Anderson and Megan Davis said.
“It is not only divisive but outright dangerous for leaders of the No campaign to turn a blind eye while Simeon Boikov ... exploits the Voice referendum for his own gain.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said people should stay away from Mr Boikov’s rallies.
“That’s madness and I’ve condemned that. Anybody who’s pro-Putin has significant issues, and they should seek help for those issues,” Mr Dutton said.
“But I would encourage people to go to peaceful, lawful rallies, conducted by No campaigners and listen to the very serious concerns and hesitations that those people have.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko said the consulate should evict Mr Boikov.
“It’s grotesque that the grounds of the Russian consulate in Sydney are being used to interfere in Australia’s important debates,” he said. Andrew Tillett writes on politics, foreign affairs, defence and security from the Canberra press gallery. Connect with Andrew on Facebook and Twitter. Email Andrew at andrew.tillett@afr.com
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