"We absolutely feel ignored".
The National Congress of Australia's First People, Australia's peak Indigenous elected representative body, has called out Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull over an interview in which he shed tears, questioning his true commitment to Aboriginal affairs.
"Our people reach out every single day because they're hurt. If somebody, whether it's the prime minister or an individual, feels that they are hurt by one particular story, then I say they should multiply that by hundreds of thousands of times and see how they feel after that," Congress chairman Rod Little said about Turnbull choking back tears during the interview with Stan Grant.
Turnbull was recalling an old sound recording of a lullaby in the now extinct Ngunawal language, the traditional language of the Canberra area, when he cried.
"The thing that's so sad is to imagine that mother singing that story to her at a time when you were losing culture and the last thing that baby was, was safe," Turnbull told Grant.
Little says he doesn't doubt Turnbull's emotion but does say it's a small patch on the trauma Indigenous Australians endure everyday.
"I have no criticism of the prime minister to feel that emotion. I'm sure it's genuine at times, but we got things we need to get on with because Indigenous people are losing their lives, they're losing opportunities they're are losing culture as we speak," Little said.
Lukas Coch / AAP
The congress has not met with Turnbull since he came to power after ousting Tony Abbott last September.
Little says the congress was Initially buoyed by discussions with Turnbull's office after he became PM but says communication has gone cold.
"We haven't met yet, the message came from his office in September that he would like to meet. Since then we've written seven times, we have had a meeting with his advisor and we are still seeking that meeting [with the PM]".
The congress is an elected body which also represents the interest of hundreds of Indigenous organisations. And Little says that if Turnbull is truly committed to closing the appalling gap in health, education and employment between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, he'll speak with their elected representatives.
"Here is an organisation, a democratically elected board from its membership of over 9000 individuals with almost over 200 community organisations that have a reach to hundreds of thousands of individuals in communities across this Australia".
"Absolutely we feel ignored now. You can't ignore the fact that the congress is the voice of the first peoples".
via BuzzFeed - World http://ift.tt/1OPmnxQ
Put the internet to work for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment