Aborigines find common ground

Higher mortality rates, higher rates of youth suicide, constant daily discrimination and lower levels of education than white or settled communities are some of the "significant similarities" the Aborigines of Australia share with Travellers here, an Aboriginal leader said yesterday.

Mr Peter Yu, chief executive of the Kimberley Land Council in north-western Australia, was speaking after a meeting with Irish Travellers in Dublin yesterday.

The four-member delegation from Australia is here to explore their shared history with Ireland, and to explore "indigenous issues".

They had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth in London on Wednesday.

Their trip to Europe is in advance of the referendum on November 6th to decide whether Australia should become a republic. Australians are also voting to include a newly-drafted preamble in their constitution, to reflect the nation's ethnic mix and the importance of the country's first inhabitants.

Mr Yu described the proposed new preamble, which commits the state to "honouring Aborigines . . . the nation's first people for their kinship with their lands", as insulting for its failure to recognise Aborigines' "ownership" of land.

"It's a superfluous statement which has no legal meaning," he said.

Describing their situation, he said the Aborigines had a very high rate of youth suicide. "In some communities it is as high as 80 per cent," he said. "We have the highest rates of incurable disease. The eye disease, glaucoma, is rife, a disease which is hardly an issue among whites."

Aborigines, he continued, made up a higher proportion of the prison population in Australia (19 per cent) than they did five years ago, despite a Royal Commission's recommendations for attempts to reduce that figure.

"Their [Travellers'] experience resonates significantly with ours," said Mr Yu. "We are here to see what we can do strategically to improve our position, to communicate our position and to enjoy our rights."

Two members of the delegation, Mr Patrick Dodson and Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, have Irish ancestry. Commenting on his ties with Ireland, Mr Dodson said reconciliation was based on recognition and justice.

"Just as in Ireland reconciliation [in Australia] must be based on shared and negotiated principles and must be realised through real and substantive action."