Bauman, Toni --- "Stirrings: Tracking Your Rights" [1998] IndigLawB 21; (1998) 4(9) Indigenous Law Bulletin 20

Tracking Your Rights

by Toni Bauman

0n 20 January 1998, Michael Dodson in his final public appearance as the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, launched the National Community Education Project, a Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission ('HREOC') project. The launch took place at the Glen, an indigenous alcohol and other drug abuse rehabilitation facility on the lands of the Darkinngong people near Gosford in New South Wales.

Sponsored by Ansett Airlines, the Law Foundation of NSW and the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, Tracking Your Rights is a training package, tailored for four regions-Western Australia, Northern Territory/ South Australia, Queensland and south-eastern Australia-which teaches indigenous people how to develop strategies to combat discrimination across the country. Its impetus was Recommendation 211 of the Royal Commission into Deaths into Custody which called on HREOC to develop programs to inform indigenous communities about anti-discrimination legislation and to ensure the distribution of such information across communities.

Listening was the key to the success of this project as members of the HREOC team sought to empower indigenous people by developing practical tools and resources in responses to real-life experiences. Footprints cut from red cardboard bearing the names of all those who supported the project were strung around two marquees and around the fences at the launch.

Part One of the package relates to national and international laws and processes for taking action using these laws. Part Two includes case studies and discusses individual rights rights in a range of circumstances (involving police, media, housing, employers and government departments, for example). Part Three describes steps for taking action. The Package provides contact points, a guide to useful agencies, explains some legal and policy terms and provides information on community strategies to assist people to sort out problems for themselves. It uses video and includes training manuals and a mediation audio tape.

The launch was a moving occasion supported by many organisations including the Ngaimpe Aboriginal Corporation, the dancing group 'Djuigang' from the Central Coast and Mount Penang Juvenile Justice Facility, Central Coast Area Health Service and dancers Anthony Lesley and Heath Goolagong. A number of speakers addressed the launch including Senator Tierney representing the Attorney General and the Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Judy Monk of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission, Jack Beetson, the Director of Tranby College and a number of the consultants who worked on the team.

Many of the speakers paid tribute to the work of the outgoing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. Commissioner Dodson identified local governments as one of the 'great untapped resources' in the country and urged them to take up their 'latent role' as a powerful instrument of social justice. He also emphasized the danger in Indigenous peoples developing dependencies upon others in solving their problems. Rather, he stressed their need to gain a sense of their own competence and authority by developing skills from 'inside'.

Hopefully, the package will enable them to do so. Much credit goes to Nerida Blair, the project co-ordinator, Ginny Muldowney and Debby Adams and the many others involved for this inspiring piece of team work.

The package is available from HREOC

Phone 02 92849600 or write to GPO Box 5218 Sydney NSW 1042.

Toni Bauman is an Editor of the Indigenous Law Bulletin.