OXFAM - LAND RIGHTS

Jon Altman, Craig Linkhorn and Jennifer Clarke assisted by Bill Fogarty and Kali Napier have produced the Oxfam publication "Land rights and development reform in remote Australia". Recent Indigenous policy debate has centred on whether encouraging private individual land ownership might increase economic development and address acute housing needs in rural and remote Indigenous communities. Proponents suggest it will.

Oxfam Australia commissioned the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at the ANU to examine this issue. The report confirms deeply entrenched Indigenous disadvantage on NT Abooriginal land, including housing. Yet it finds no evidence to suggest that individual land ownership is either necessary or sufficient to increase economic development or housing construction. The publication can be downloaded at:

http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/indigenous/docs/landrights.pdf

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Activity of National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander   Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC)

The Light of Australia events in 2005
In 2005, NATSIEC is organising a special series of

'The  Light of Australia' talks, to help in trying to bring Indigenous issues back to the centre of Australian attention. The talks will reflect on the last 20 years since Pope John Paul II gave his speech to Indigenous people at Alice Springs in 1986, and will share some reflection about ways forward for Church and Nation. These events will be held in every capital city and some other major centres across Australia between March-May 2005

(For details in your own area click here)

The keynote speakers will be:
Bishop James Leftwich (Chair of NATSIEC, Aboriginal Bishop for the Anglican Church of Australia, and Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of North Queensland)
Graeme Mundine (Executive Secretary of NATSIEC)
Dr.Jill Tabart (former President of the Uniting Church in Australia, and Chair of the Decade to Overcome Violence initiative of the National Council of Churches in Australia)
Vicki Walker (Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne

Combined activity of NATSIEC and W.I.S.E. (Women in Solidarity Ecumenically Committee)

Workshops for Women
These workshops have been designed specifically for Christian women (from any denomination) to provide a way for Reconciliation to be addressed by women in the church.
It is a chance for Indigenous and non-Indigenous women to sit down together and share their stories about being women in the church and how to move Reconciliation forward.
The program will include worship, a session on reconciliation, a time for sharing and finally a call to ACTION.
A basic children’s program will also be provided. Currently we have organised workshops in NSW.

(Click here for details)