The hub of bloggers we've engaged with includes the MurriBlog. Now re-activated, here is the latest post. make sure you bookmark the site.
by Lara Pullin
I cannot contain either my joy or sense of anticipation this morning. It's an historic occasion, as a perfect crisp Canberra day commences with it's usual flawless indigo summer sky to contrast with the chilled dew on the grass. The campers were arriving yesterday afternoon - the delegations who bused from Central and South Australia were pitching camp at sunset. Happy voices of children running around, playing, doing their thing at the just added to the joy of the occasion. I wonder if our folk camping at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy will be feeling the cold in their bones this morning. It's almost too hard to imagine that given the warmth and excitement in everyone's hearts.Victory - finally - a simple apology. But one which means so very much to very many people - especially elders and those who survive having lost the many who should have heard these words a long time ago. And to a nation. It is a sign of a certain maturity -well - NOT apologising was certainly a sign of immaturity - of the racism and hatred, of a now ended regime. But the apology must be backed up by actions. Lift the Intervention. Listen to the solutions communities and health workers have put forward over the past twenty years - but especially over the past six months. Meet the demands of the Convergence. We don't want to be back here in 20 years again demanding the same basis - the toll on our communities would equal Genocide.
It's over twenty years since I became politically active through the focus and unity of the bicentennial protest movement - which successfully united black and white Australians under the banner of the Aboriginal Flag to demand a recognition of injustices, to demand that the colonisers representatives "Pay the Rent", that they "End deaths in custody" - in short that those who hold the political and economic power in this country use their positions in a JUST manner to restore JUSTICE to the original inhabitants of this colonised land - the ongoing sovereign custodians of the worlds oldest continuous living culture.
Yet I feel there is more focus and unity in the Convergence this weekend. It is the beginning of taking back our power and autonomy - an important step towards Sovereignty. I am about to leave to the Tent Embassy. And to the second National Aboriginal Alliance Meeting. I'll update this space tonight - news & photos. Stay tuned!
