James Kenneth Bowen CV
The author's notes will for the sake of brevity be introduced by the abbreviation "JKB".
The colourful one page preface to the full 26-page Uluru Statement.
JKB: Note especially bold italic text in the Uluru Statement.
WHEN SUBJECTED TO RIGOROUS SCRUTINY, THE 26-PAGE ULURU STATEMENT IS EXPOSED AS A CONCOCTION OF FALSE CLAIMS, LARGELY INVENTED HISTORY, IRRATIONAL HATRED OF PEACEFUL BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN 1788, AND REJECTION OF ESTABLISHED INTERNATIONAL LAW THAT DESTROYS ITS CLAIM TO ABORIGINAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER AUSTRALIA.
I find it very difficult to view the Uluru Statement as anything more than a demand for power and unearned wealth driven by alienated leftist Aboriginal intellectuals, many of whom live comfortable and privileged taxpayer-funded lives in our cities and appear to care little about Aboriginal Australians existing in strife-torn outback communities except as ammunition to feed their demands.
THE TEXT OF THE ONE-PAGE PREFACE TO THE 26-PAGE ULURU STATEMENT
"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 (Aboriginal sovereignty) 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.
*[JKB NOTE: The attribution of sovereignty to nomadic Aboriginal tribes who wandered leaderless across the vastness of Australia at the time of British settlement in 1788 is not accepted by international law. See explanation.]
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.
*[JKB NOTE: The high levels of Aboriginal Australians in prisons is purely related to the high levels of crime committed by Aboriginal Australians. In many Australian jurisdictions, Aboriginal Australians are more likely to receive good behaviour bonds rather than imprisonment for serious crimes. I have signed an indictment for jury trial of a rape charge in which an Aboriginal Australian had six pages of prior convictions, some for very serious offences such as robbery and aggravated burglary, without ever receiving a prison sentence]
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.
*[JKB NOTE: Australians, and especially Australian women, need to know more about Aboriginal tribal culture before they accept it as a “gift”. See explanation.]
We call for the establishment of a First Nations Voice enshrined in the Constitution.
*[JKB NOTE: Aboriginal Australians already have thousands of “voices” to push for ever-increasing taxpayer-funded benefits; and those “voices” include the National Indigenous Australians Agency (1,200 public servants in 39 offices around Australia and responsible to the Federal Minister for Indigenous Australians), 30 Land Councils, 3,521 Aboriginal Corporations (including 243 Native Title bodies corporate), 11 Aboriginal Federal politicians, and the Council of Peaks. Australian taxpayers struggling to meet sharply rising living costs and put food on the table will now realise how the Federal Productivity Commission found in 2017 that 30 billion taxpayer dollars was being expended annually solely on a massive Aboriginal industry that achieves little in improvement of Aboriginal welfare, especially in outback Aboriginal communities torn by continuing public and domestic violence.]
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.
[JKB NOTE: The word "Makarrata" actually means payback for wrongdoing, but this alarming aspect is carefully concealed in the Uluru Statement. It is a complex Aboriginal Yolngu word (north-east Arnhem) describing a process of conflict resolution by punishment. Makarrata literally means a spear penetrating, usually the thigh, of a person who has done wrong… so that they cannot hunt anymore, cannot walk properly, and cannot run properly; in other words, to maim them.]
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history.
*[JKB NOTE: “Agreement” is elsewhere in the 26-page Uluru Statement is described as “treaty”. “Truth-telling” becomes a very largely invented blackening of Australia’s foundation since 1788 apparently designed to produce guilt in the 96 per cent of Australians without any Aboriginal connection and condition them to part with property and hard-earned wealth to Aboriginal Australians. See Explanation]
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.
*[JKB NOTE: This statement is misleading. The 1967 referendum deleted section 127 which stated that "Aboriginal natives" were not to be included in reckoning the population of Australia. The key word is "natives"; and the section recognised the extrordinary difficulties that would face census-takers in locating nomadic tribal Aborigines in the vastness of outback Australia. This section did not exclude mixed-race Aboriginal Australians living urban life-styles from inclusion in the census. It also transferred responsibility for Australian Aborigines from the State and Territory governments to the Federal government.]
PROMINENT SKY NEWS POLITICAL COMMENTATOR PETA CREDLIN HAS DRAWN ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAW TO EXPOSE THE 25 PAGES OF THE ULURU STATEMENT DELIBERATELY HIDDEN FROM AUSTRALIANS BY PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE AND EXPOSED HIM AS HAVING REPEATEDLY DECEIVED AUSTRALIANS AS TO THE MASSIVE CHANGES TO AUSTRALIA THAT WILL BE PRODUCED BY HIS PROMISED IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ULURU STATEMENT IN FULL - INCLUDING SOVEREIGNTY, VOICE, TREATY AND TRUTH-TELLING.
Peta Credlin AO
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been exposed as lying to Australia about the length and content of the Uluru Statement.
'Time and time again, Anthony Albanese has repeatedly stated the Uluru Statement is a simple one-page document. In June, he said at a press conference at Parliament House,
“The Uluru Statement from the Heart, I’d encourage people to read. You can fit it on one A4 page.”
A week later he told a business gathering in a speech:
“Sometimes I focus on a couple of lines, but often I read it right through. If you haven’t, I recommend you do. Like the Gettysburg Address, it only requires a few minutes. It literally fits on one A4 page.”
This is a lie. The Uluru Statement from the Heart is not a one-page document. It is actually 26 pages in all, including diagrams. What the Prime Minister spruiks is merely an extract and we only know that because the government has just been forced to release the full document under freedom of information, or FOI.'
Reported by prominent political commentator Peta Credlin AO in "The Australian" dated 4 August 2023.
BELOW ARE EXTRACTED AND UNALTERED QUOTES FROM THE HIDDEN 25 PAGES OF THE ULURU STATEMENT THAT COVER DEMANDS FOR TRANSFER OF SOVEREIGNTY OVER AUSTRALIA TO HUNDREDS OF ABORIGINAL FIRST NATIONS, ESTABLISHMENT AND POWERS OF THE ABORIGINAL VOICE TO THE AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT AND EXECUTIVE GOVERMENT, TREATY (CALLED "MAKARRATA") WITH THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT, MASSIVE REPARATIONS TO ABORIGINAL AUSTRALIANS DRAWN FROM AUSTRALIAN TAXPAYERS, AND EXPOSURE OF AUSTRALIA'S SUGGESTED DARK HISTORY OF COLONISATION FOLLOWING BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN 1788.
JKB NOTE: Explaining the references in the 26-page Uluru Statement to 'dialogues', 'Expert Panel', and 'Joint Select Committee".
Prime MInister Malcolm Turnbull established an Aboriginal Referendum Council in 2015. Composed of fourteen Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members, it was given a responsibility to advise the Australian government on how best to recognise Aboriginal Australians in the Australian Constitution.
The Referendum Council established for its guidance an Expert Panel and Joint Select Committee. It then organised twelve taxpayer-funded meetings across Australia of Aboriginal people and people identifying as Aboriginal. These meetings attracted the name First Nation Regional Dialogues, and explain the many references to "dialogues" throughout the 26-page Uluru Statement.
in May 2017, an Aboriginal First Nations "National Constitutional Convention" was sponsered by the Referendum Council at Uluru in Central Australia. Two hundred and fifty delegates gathered at Uluru to consider whether the Referendum Council's discussion paper on constitutional changes could satisfy Aboriginal expectations. The delegates were almost totally drawn from the urbanised Aboriginal political elite, many of them activists, and did not represent the views of many thousands of Aboriginal Australians living in strife-torn outback towns.
This meeting of Aboriginal delegates at Uluru led to release of an "Uluru Statement from the Heart" which rejected constitutional recognition of Aboriginal people as the first inhabitants of Australia, and instead, made demands that were flagrantly racist, unjustified, and clearly intended to divide Australians.
1. RECOGNITION OF CONTINUING ABORIGINAL FIRST NATION SOVEREIGNTY* OVER AUSTRALIA AFTER BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN 1788. [JKB critique]
NOTE: Page references beside every quoted extract below are references to the actual 26-page Uluru Statement.
We have coexisted as First Nations on this land for at least 60,000 years. - page 2
Our sovereignty* pre- existed the Australian state and has survived it. We have never, ever ceded our sovereignty. - page 2
With substantive constitutional change and structural reform, we believe this surviving and underlying First Nation sovereignty* can more effectively and powerfully shine through as a fuller expression of Australia’s nationhood. - page 2
Australia was not a settlement and it was not a discovery. It was an invasion. - page 3
The Expert Panel’s report in 2012 stated that the legal status of sovereignty is as follows:
‘Phillip’s instructions assumed that Australia was terra nullius, or belonged to no-one. The subsequent occupation of the country and land law in the new colony proceeded on the fiction of terra nullius. It follows that ultimately the basis of settlement in Australia is and always has been the exertion of force by and on behalf of the British Crown. No-one asked permission to settle. No-one consented, no-one ceded. Sovereignty* was not passed from the Aboriginal peoples by any actions of legal significance voluntarily taken by or on behalf of them.’ - page 9
And the final report of the Joint Select Parliamentary Committee found that ‘at almost every consultation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participants raised issues of sovereignty*, contending that sovereignty was never ceded, relinquished or validly extinguished. Participants at some consultations were concerned that recognition would have implications for sovereignty’. - page 9
Treaty was seen as a pathway to recognition of (Aboriginal First Nations) sovereignty.. - page 18
*[JKB NOTE: The attribution of sovereignty to leaderless nomadic Aboriginal tribes who wandered across the vastness of Australia at the time of British settlement in 1788 is not accepted by international law. See explanation.]
2. ESTABLISHMENT AND POWERS OF THE ABORIGINAL VOICE TO THE AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENT AND EXECUTIVE GOVERMENT. [JKB critique]
A constitutionally entrenched Voice to Parliament was a strongly supported option across the Dialogues. It was considered as a way by which the right to self-determination could be achieved. - page 17
There was a concern that the proposed body would have insufficient power if its constitutional function was ‘advisory’ only, and there was support in many Dialogues for it to be given stronger powers so that it could be a mechanism for providing ‘free, prior and informed consent’. - page 17
Any Voice to Parliament should be designed so that it could support and promote a treaty-making process. - page 17
Treaty was seen as a pathway to recognition of (Aboriginal First Nations) sovereignty.. - page 18
Treaty would be the vehicle to achieve self- determination, autonomy and self-government. - page 19
Any body must also be supported by a sufficient and guaranteed budget, with access to its own independent secretariat, experts and lawyers. - page 18
It was also suggested that the body could represent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples internationally. - page 18
The body’s representation could be drawn from an Assembly of First Nations, which could be established through a series of treaties among nations. - page 18
The Voice should be accommodated on an appropriate site within the parliamentary circle in Canberra. -page 22
The Voice should be established to enable it to perform its functions as a representative institution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander First Peoples, enabling First Peoples to deal with the Executive Government of the day as well as the Parliament. - page 22
3. TREATY CALLED "MAKARRATA" (OR PAYBACK ) BETWEEN ABORIGINAL FIRST NATIONS AND AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS AT EVERY LEVEL. [JKB critique]
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history. - page 1
[JKB COMMENT: 'MAKARRATA ' MEANS PAYBACK IN THE YOLNGU LANGUAGE.
It is important for readers of the 26-page Uluru Statement to keep in mind that the enforcement body of the Voice is to be a Makarrata Commission, and the basic meaning of "Makarrata" in the Aboriginal Yolngu language is a form of payback or revenge produced by spearing for an act deemed wrongful by the tribe. This does not bode well for the 96 per cent of Australians who have no Aboriginal ancestors.]
‘Treaty was seen as the best form of establishing an honest relationship with government.....It is the culmination of our agenda. It captures our aspirations for a fair and honest relationship with government and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. - page 7
By making agreements at the highest level, the negotiation process with the Australian government allows First Nations to express our sovereignty – the sovereignty that we know comes from The Law. - page 7
The pursuit of Treaty and treaties was strongly supported across the Dialogues. Treaty was seen as a pathway to recognition of sovereignty and for achieving future meaningful reform for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. - pages 18-19
Treaty would be the vehicle to achieve self- determination, autonomy and self-government. - page 19
JKB COMMENT: The mention of 'self government' is of critical importance in understanding how the Uluru Statement will change Australia if implemented in full as Prime Minister Albanese has repeatedly promised. 'Self-government' is not the same as 'self-determination'. 'Self-government' means complete independence of Aboriginal First Nations from the rest of Australia.
In relation to process, these questions included whether a Treaty should be negotiated first as a national framework agreement under which regional and local treaties are made. - page 19
In relation to content, the Dialogues discussed that a Treaty could include a proper say in decision-making, the establishment of a truth commission, reparations, a financial settlement (such as seeking a percentage of GDP), the resolution of land, water and resources issues, recognition of authority and customary law, and guarantees of respect for the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In relation to enforcement, the issues raised were about the legal force the Treaty should have, and particularly whether it should be backed by legislation or given constitutional force. - page 19
Towards Makarrata:
(There should be) an appropriate institution (to be called the Makarrata Commission) to supervise the making of agreements between First Peoples and Australian governments. - page 23
The Bill establishing the Makarrata Commission should confer all necessary powers and functions to facilitate the settlement of a National Makarrata Framework Agreement between Australian Governments and First Peoples. - page 23
The consultation and negotiation leading up to the settlement of the National Makarrata Framework Agreement should take place between the Voice and the governments of all relevant jurisdictions in a process supervised by the Makarrata Commission. - page 23
4. A MAKARRATA (OR PAYBACK) COMMISSION WOULD EXPOSE TO THE WORLD AUSTRALIA'S SHAMEFUL HISTORY OF COLONISATION FOLLOWING BRITISH SETTLEMENT IN 1788 AND WILL MANAGE REPARATIONS TO ABORIGINAL FIRST NATIONS. [JKB critique]
It is important for readers of the 26-page Uluru Statement to keep in mind that the enforcement body of the Voice is to be a Makarrata Commission, and the basic meaning of "Makarrata" in the Aboriginal Yolngu language is a form of payback or revenge produced by spearing for an act deemed wrongful by the tribe. This does not bode well for the 96 per cent of Australians who have no Aboriginal ancestors.]
We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of...... truth-telling about our history. - page 1
The Makarrata Commission.....should have as one of its functions the role of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to enable all Australians to face the truth of the past and to embrace a common hope for the future. - page 23
Our First Nations are extraordinarily diverse cultures, living in an astounding array of environments, multi-lingual across many hundreds of languages and dialects. The continent was occupied by our people and the footprints of our ancestors traversed the entire landscape. - page 2
This rich diversity of our origins was eventually ruptured by colonisation. Violent dispossession and the struggle to survive a relentless inhumanity has marked our common history. - page 2
In 1787, Governor Phillip was instructed to treat the First Nations with ‘amity and kindness’. But there was a lack of good faith. The frontier continued to move outwards and the promises were broken in the refusal to negotiate and the violence of colonisation. - page 4
Australia must acknowledge its history, its true history. Not Captain Cook. What happened all across Australia: the massacres and the wars. - page 3
The invasion that started at Botany Bay is the origin of the fundamental grievance between the old and new Australians: that Australia was colonised without the consent of its rightful owners. Now is an opportunity for the First Nations to tell the truth about history in our own voices and from our own point of view....This will be challenging, but the truth about invasion needs to be told. - page 3
The Dialogues emphasised that the true history of colonisation must be told: the genocides, the massacres, the wars and the ongoing injustices and discrimination. - page 20
This truth also needed to include the stories of how First Nations Peoples have contributed to protecting and building this country. - page 20
A truth commission could be established as part of any reform, for example, prior to a constitutional reform or as part of a Treaty negotiation. - page 20
This is the time of the Frontier Wars, when massacres, disease and poison decimated First Nations, even as they fought a guerrilla war of resistance. - page 3
Eventually the Frontier Wars came to an end. As the violence subsided, governments employed new policies of control and discrimination. We were herded to missions and reserves on the fringes of white society. Our Stolen Generations were taken from their families. - page 4
The taking of our land without consent represents our fundamental grievance against the British Crown. - page 6
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples enshrines the importance of truth-telling. - page 12
COMMENT BY HISTORIAN KEITH WINDSCHUTTLE, EDITOR OF "QUADRANT" MAGAZINE:
“If the proposed referendum is held later this year, as Albanese has promised — some time between September and December, he said recently — voters need to be aware of its ultimate objective. This is to establish a politically privileged race of Aboriginal people, and to relegate the rest of us to a subservient position in what we once thought was our own country.”
FROM: “Living on stolen land”, Quadrant 12 February 2023.
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