Negotiate a treaty with the Alyawarr people

We, Alyawarr people are asserting our right to self-determination and calling upon the Commonwealth Government to negotiate a treaty with us.

Through a treaty, we wish to participate fully and effectively in Australian society, through a cooperative Federal system.

We also urge other First Australian Sovereign Nations (Language Groups) to join with Alyawarr Peoples to change the course of all our peoples’ struggles towards creating a future that will give our people self-governance and full participation at all levels of involvement in our regions and other Nations and set a clear path and a future for our younger generation.

The traditional lands of the Alyawarr people extend over 50,000 square kilometers of the Barkly region in the Northern Territory. Much of this land pastoral lease, which is covered by native title. We are a distinct Indigenous people, living on our traditional lands. We have our own distinct culture, our own laws, our own society, our own history, our own traditions, our own language, our own livelihoods and our own visions of the future.

Overall, Government policies and system has not worked for us First Australians. We have neither the capital-base upon which to build our future, nor adequate recognition from our colonisers in respect to our law and culture.

The Commonwealth Government’s Northern Territory Emergency Response and Stronger Futures measures has been an abject failure on our lands: they were inappropriately applied in a blanket manner across the Northern Territory and its effect has been suffocating. Commonwealth funding is increasingly subject to leasing our land and at the same time, the Commonwealth is withdrawing funding for outstations, homelands with a view to closing many of them down.

As a First Australian people we are now saying enough destruction through force feeding of system failures.

As an Indigenous people of our Nation we seek to weave our rightful place within Australia’s multicultural fabric, with people from all faiths and cultures, through the agency of a treaty, which will charter our future and enhance all of our society.
For more information, go to www.alyawarr.info