Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Update Part One August 1994: Obituary -- Irene Moores; UN Declaration on Rights; Indigenous Initiative for Peace; Paris Studio; Torres Strait Regional Authority; Australian Prison Trends" [1994] AboriginalLawB 37; (1994) 3(69) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• Update-Part One August 1994
• Obituary – Irene Moores
• 1912-1994
• Un Declaration On Rights...
• Indigenous Initiative For Peace
• Editors' Note
• Paris Studio
• Torres Strait Regional Authority
• Australian Prison Trends

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Update - Part One

August 1994

Obituary – Irene Moores

1912 - 1994

Irene Moores became known to many Australians in her 81st year as the author of Where is Wungawurrah? (Butterfly Books, 1992), the story of her friendship with a Wiradjuri warrior named Billy Cleary. He enriched her life in episodes spanning half a century, but was taken from his people in the early 1970s after being bashed by Redfern cops.

Irene, born in Hugo Street, Redfern, first met Billy in Canbelego near Cobar when, as a young child, she was evacuated to escape a diphtheria epidemic. She learnt of his culture of respect for the land, and saw the awful conditions he and his people endured when they met again at Dubbo and Narromine. Decades later they met and talked regularly for seven years in Redfern, until Billy's death.

Irene lived by the spirit of Mum Shirl's rule that "everybody really owes everybody", that people "do have to be helping each other to pay back for when they took help from somebody else." For her last seven years Irene spent a great deal of her time and her little money supporting the families who lost loved ones, by her tireless work for the Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee.

Irene "retired" many times, but attended Watch Committee meetings until shortly before her death. She was a dear friend to Leila and Arthur Murray in all their times of trauma before, during and after the Royal Commission, attending court countless times. Irene was famous for her fund-raising stalls at rallies and other occasions. On Invasion Day this year she was at Yarra Bay Oval, La Perouse from early till late weaving patriotic black, red and yellow bracelets for Koori kids.

After the success of Wungarourrah, Irene moved quickly to complete the project she began in 1987, compiling a volume of Voices of Aboriginal Australia: past, present and future, to raise more funds for the Watch Committee. She was unable to see this anthology published. When it appears later this year it will be a tribute to her efforts for justice and her example in listening to Aboriginal experiences.

Roderic Pitty

(Watch Committee Member who discovered Irene through meeting Leila Murray and her family).

UN Declaration on Rights...

Adoption by the UN of a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People has been given a boost by the US Government's strong support of the initiative.

In a statement to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva on 26 July 1994 the Clinton Administration confirmed that it "supports the basic goals of the Draft Declaration".

This support adds a significant new impetus to the consideration of the Draft Declaration by the UN. The Clinton Administration is now on the UN record confirming that there are no insurmountable obstacles to the adoption of a strong Declaration.

Mr Robert Tickner, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, saw the US Government support as confirmation that it "is determined to work with other Governments to ensure a strong and useful Declaration that recognises the rights of indigenous people and promotes dialogue, negotiation and cooperation between Governments and indigenous people."

Indigenous Initiative for Peace

The Indigenous Initiative for Peace is an international, permanent and independent indigenous entity constituted in Mexico City, 9-10 May, 1994 at a First Assembly convened by Rigoberta Menchu, former UN Goodwill Ambassador for the International Year of the World's Indigenous People. In line with a commitment to work for the complete acknowledgement of the rights of the World's Indigenous Peoples, and to contribute to the establishment of legal instruments to make such rights effective, the Indigenous Initiative for Peace was envisaged as an indigenous body for mediation and solution of conflicts in any country in which Indigenous Peoples live.

The new Indigenous body intends to participate actively in the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, in order to

create appropriate conditions to establish a new order of relations in all societies in which indigenous and other sectors of the population live together, based on mutual respect, cooperation, negotiated solutions to conflicts, effective communication, justice and equity.

Specific proposals to be forwarded to the UN include that the Decade promote recognition of rights such as self-determination, land and resources ownership, education, health care and ecologically sustainable development in accordance with Indigenous Peoples' interests and world vision.

In accordance with these goals, the Indigenous Initiative for Peace resolved to present an Agenda in the next Technical Meeting of the UN, held on 20 July this year in Geneva.

The following are the Indigenous Initiative for Peace Plan for the Decade Agenda items:

• Strengthen international cooperation to confront problems of Indigenous Peoples, especially regarding economic development, environment, health and education.
• Conclude deliberation and approval of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples to the level of the UN General Assembly.
• Begin the process of elaborating a Convention to Eliminate Discrimination.
• Ensure participation of representatives of Indigenous Peoples at UN and the Organisation of American States (OAS).
• Undertake a broad publicity campaign about indigenous issues.

Editors' Note

This issue of the Aboriginal Law Bulletin was produced with the financial assistance of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. The AboriginalLB wishes to thank Sue Zellinker in particular for her generosity and support.

Paris Studio

The Australia Council, the Federal Government's arts funding and advisory body, is offering an overseas study award to an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander visual artist, craftsperson or writer to practise their artform in a classical artistic environment in France.

The studio, in the Cite Internationale des Arts will be available between 1 January and 30 June 1995. It is suitable for a single artist or a couple without children. There are approximately 600 artists at any one time in the Cite and the complex includes facilities for musicians and performers, a printshop and a photography darkroom.

The closing date for applications is 30 September 1994. Applicants must have five years experience in their artform to be eligible.

For further information and application forms please contact J Barbara Pilot on [phone] or tollfree on [phone] or write to: Australia Council, PO Box 788, Strawberry Hills, NSW, 2012.

Torres Strait Regional Authority

A ceremony was held on Thursday Island in June 1994 to officially launch the Torres Strait Regional Authority (TSRA). With a 1994-95 budget of $31 million, the TSRA will administer and have local control over those national and regional programs for indigenous people in the Torres Strait which were previously administered by ATSIC. The TSRA states, in its 1994-95 Corporate Plan, that it will

seek to have devolved to it funding for Torres Strait Islander and Aboriginal peoples in the Torres Strait region currently administered by other Commonwealth and State Departments. The TSRA will examine models for self-government in the Torres Strait taking into account similar arrangements that exist between the Commonwealth and Norfolk Island and with the Cocos (Keeling) and Christmas Islands. The Authority represents the first time that the indigenous people of the Torres Strait will have their own unique representative elected body to administer Government programs.

For further information contact Robert Tickner, ph [phone] (office), (018) 62 5058 or (0418) 62 5058 (mobile); or Diane Hudson, ph [phone] (office), [phone] (home) or (018) 62 8430 (mobile).

Australian Prison Trends

This publication is based on data obtained from the first 200 issues of Australian Prison Trends, which has been published monthly by the Australian Institute of Criminology since May 1976. The data are presented in this publication as a time-series for each jurisdiction, with imprisonment rates (daily average number of prisoners per 100 000 Adult and Total population), Aboriginal rates (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners in custody on the first of the month per 100 000 Adult and Total population) and remand rates (remandees in custody on the first of the month per 100 000 Adult and Total population) revised to reflect the latest estimated resident population data published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Consequently, these rates differ slightly from those published previously.

Australian Prison Trends is available at a cost of $20.00 from the Australian Institute of Criminology, GPO Box 2944, Canberra, ACT, 2601, ph [phone]; fax
[phone].