Recognition of the Traditional Owners of the Land
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Many events in Australia begin with a Recognition of the Traditional Owners of the Land, a phrase, paragraph, or sometimes an entire speech recognising that the land where the event is taking place is stolen and traditionally belongs to the Indigenous people of Australia. The recognition is not of Aboriginal people as a whole, but of the Aboriginal nation where the event takes place. The Recognition is a political act in that it directly challenges the idea of white occupation and government of the country and affirms that the land was never given up, and was never terra nullius. Therefore the Declaration is a claim of Aboriginal sovereignty The speech may be made by an Aboriginal or non-Aboriginal speaker. Often permission and exact wording is asked to the Aboriginal Land Council of the local Aboriginal nation before the event.
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[edit] Format
Depending upon the event and the group hosting the event, recognition will often include:
- Recognition by name of the traditional owners of the land, the local Aboriginal people.
- Recognition that the land where the event is taking place is stolen.
Sometimes the speaker will also give a history of the people, an account of the theft of the land, a personal testimony (if the speaker is Aboriginal), an account of the language spoken if the language is extinct or moribund, and an account of the current state of the Aboriginal nation.
[edit] History
Aboriginal sovereignty was first declared in Australia in 1972 at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, but the history of the Declaration at events is unknown.
