Uluru Statement from the Heart: An Invitation to Reflect
A movement to create a better future for all Australians
Date Posted:
14-Jun-2017
Uluru. Image used with permission
During the last week in May 2017 over 250 delegates– a cross section of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples from around Australia– gathered at the 2017 First Nations National Constitutional Convention and... made an historic statement from the heart in hopes of improving the lives of future generations.
ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
"We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention, coming from all points of the southern sky, make this statement from the heart:
Our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tribes were the first sovereign Nations of the Australian continent and its adjacent islands, and possessed it under our own laws and customs. This our ancestors did, according to the reckoning of our culture, from the Creation, according to the common law from ‘time immemorial’, and according to science more than 60,000 years ago.
This sovereignty is a spiritual notion: the ancestral tie between the land, or ‘mother nature’, and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Is lander peoples who were born therefrom, remain attached thereto, and must one day return thither to be united with our ancestors. This link is the basis of the ownership of the soil, or better, of sovereignty. It has never been ceded or extinguished, and co- exists with the sovereignty of the Crown..."
In the Uluru Statement delegates invited all of us "to walk with [them] in a movement of the Australian people for a better future".
We, Sisters of Mercy Parramatta Congregation, in our Chapter Statement have pledged to address violence and discrimination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, at personal, local and systemic levels. Accordingly, we welcome this invitation to journey and renew our commitment to join with others to create a better future for all Australians.
Read the Uluru Statement in full here
The full Statement will now inform and be issued through the Council’s report to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition, which will be delivered on 30 June.