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:

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 Islander 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.

How could it be otherwise? That peoples possessed a land for sixty millennia

and this sacred link disappears from world history in merely the last two

hundred years?

With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this

ancient sovereignty can shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s

nationhood.

Proportionally, we are the most incarcerated people on the planet. We are

not an innately criminal people. Our children are aliened from their families at

unprecedented rates. This cannot be because we have no love for them. And

our youth languish in detention in obscene numbers. They should be our hope

for the future.

These dimensions of our crisis tell plainly the structural nature of our problem.

This is the torment of our powerlessness.

We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful

place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children

will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their

country.

We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the

Constitution.

Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: the coming together after a

struggle. It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the

people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and

self-determination.

We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-

making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our

history.

In 1967 we were counted, in 2017 we seek to be heard. We leave base camp

and start our trek across this vast country. We invite you to walk with us in a

movement of the Australian people for a better future.