First person: Aboriginal Australians suffer ‘history of violence’ and ongoing ‘institutional racism’

Hannah McGlade represents the Kurin Minang Noongar people, at Permanent Forum on Indigenous Affairs.

Ms. McGlade spoke to UN News at UN Headquarters, during the 2023 session of the Forum, which runs from 17 to 28 April.

“I have been an activist in my community since I was young. I decided to study law because I thought I could help improve our human rights situation. I was lucky enough to be able to get a master’s degree in international human rights, so I used it to the best of my ability at international forums, while also campaigning for reforms in Australia, for the sake of the situation. Our human rights are very serious.

My people, the Noongars, were brutally stripped of their lands by the British and essentially enslaved: my great-grandmother was a contract child laborer. Those who opposed the very cruel laws of the day were imprisoned and taken from their country in chains to an island prison, where many died. Aboriginal children are forcibly removed from their families, seriesas part of a policy called assimilation.

This is our violent history. As I grew up, we faced many problems, including racism and police targeting of Aboriginal people, including Aboriginal youth; violence against women; deny our land use rights; and poverty.

Racist coding, rights denied

Today, there is still a lot of racism in the media and in society. We face serious human rights issues, including the separation of children from their mothers, high rates of incarceration for Aboriginal people, especially children and young people, in extreme conditions. very inhumane.

Australia is not the country in which I grew up, where offensive, racist language is openly used. But now there is more coded racism. For example, the extremely sad issue of Aboriginal child sexual abuse is used as an excuse to remove children from their families.

There are many objections to having our rights recognized, even the right to have our own national indigenous body, which should not be contested in this day and age.

In some ways, our rights situation is getting worse, according to government data. We are seeing more Aboriginal people incarcerated; more and more Aboriginal children are separated from their mothers and families, more and more coming to non-Indigenous families where they have lost their cultural identity; and we’re also seeing more Aboriginal suicides.

These are the shocking, ongoing effects of colonization, and we know that systemic and institutional racism and discrimination are the main drivers of these problems.

The fight for a voice in parliament

There have been some improvements. We are currently considering a national referendum to change the Australian Constitution, to protect the democratically elected Aboriginal voice in parliament, which will be consulted and heard on. problems affecting Aboriginal people. This would represent a very substantive, historic reform to the Constitution.

I really hope that we make this change. But of course we are in the minority, only four per cent of the population, and a majority of Australians will need to vote in favor of reform.

We are also calling on Australia to adopt a national action plan based on United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. That was the recommendation of the 2014 World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, and it hasn’t happened yet. Australia cannot claim international leadership without honoring its international commitments to indigenous peoples.

The power of international law

This forum is a real opportunity for us to raise indigenous human rights issues with governments around the world and indigenous peoples around the world listening. The decisions made here may not be binding at the national level, but United Nations Member States have an obligation to truly participate and protect our rights as peoples. native.

Sometimes we have a better chance of influencing domestic reforms in our country by arguing our case before the UN and at UN forums: the UN remains a powerful international forum. trust that we know our governments must respect.

I have used UN mechanisms to promote violence against Indigenous women in Australia; Over the past 5 years, I have been to many UN treaty bodies and highlighted this issue and the government’s failure to allocate resources and formulate related policies. This ultimately led to a commitment to action from the Australian Government.

Now we are part of the United Nations and world affairs. With the threat of climate change and our future in balance, it’s clear that indigenous peoples have their place in this dialogue.”