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UNPO – Aboriginals of Australia: Climate Change Threat

Aboriginals of Australia: Climate Change Threat  Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) 11 May 2009 Climate change will further marginalise Australia’s Aboriginal communities, forcing them out of their traditional lands, destroying their culture and significantly affecting their access to water resources, indigenous rights advocates warn.

from IPS News:  Climate change will further marginalise Australia’s Aboriginal communities, forcing them out of their traditional lands, destroying their culture and significantly affecting their access to water resources, indigenous rights advocates warn.

“As coastal and island communities confront rising sea levels, and inland areas become hotter and drier, indigenous people are at risk of further economic marginalisation, as well as potential dislocation from and exploitation of their traditional lands, waters and natural resources,” said Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma.

Indigenous people have been living in close affinity with nature for thousands of years, preserving the environment and protecting the biodiversity. “Dispossession and a loss of access to traditional lands, waters, and natural resources may be described as cultural genocide; a loss of ancestral, spiritual, totemic and language connections to lands and associated areas,” said the Human Rights Commission’s 2008 Social Justice and Native Title reports launched this week [May 2009]……………………….“The cruel irony is that indigenous people have the smallest ecological footprint but are being asked to carry the heaviest burden of climate change,” Commissioner Calma added. …………..Indigenous rights to water are not adequately recognised by Australian law and policy.

UNPO – Aboriginals of Australia: Climate Change Threat

May 12, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized