Our Land Our Culture Our Sovereignty Indigenous Self-Determination Gathering http://aboriginalnewsgroup.blogspot.com/2010/04/our-land-our-culture-our-sovereignty.html

2010 is the Year of Indigenous People and we want to celebrate and honour indigenous people from around the world by holding a gathering in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia on July 9,10 and 11.It was decided to hold this year's gathering in Central Australia in response to the curtailment of the rights of the Indigenous communities of the Northern Territory embodied in the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), the de-funding of the homelands, the threats to bi-lingual education, and the compulsory takeover of the Alice Springs town camps.

The gathering will focus on the environmental impacts of mining, proposed uranium dumping, and tourism on indigenous communities in this region and Australia wide. The mining companies often seek to divide indigenous people by holding out false promises of jobs and the payment of compensation to pay for improvements to the infrastructure that should by rights be a governmental responsibility. There are many indigenous activists campaigning against environmental destruction and there will be plenty of workshops and forums at the gathering where they will be able to share information and strategies.