Protest against intervention

About 20 police officers stood in a row to separate the dissenters from the formalities as indigenous leaders took the stage on a nearby lawn.

"God save the Queen 'cos nothing will save this parliament if they don't pull out of the Northern Territory," said the president of the National Aboriginal Alliance, Sol Bellear, borrowing from the former prime minister Gough Whitlam.

"We have people who have served in the world wars having their pensions quarantined. It's like the stolen wages all over again."

It was Mr Bellear's group that organised the rally of thousands of indigenous and non-indigenous Australians in Canberra yesterday..

One woman, who identified herself as Aunty Valerie from Yuendemu, 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, vented her frustration with the intervention. "We know how to look after our kids," she said. "We don't want to be treated like animals. We want to be treated like human beings."

Frank Djirrimbilpilwuy, from Elcho Island, off Arnhem Land, was angry about the portrayal of indigenous people in the media. He spoke directly to reporters. "Get this down right," he said. "We came all the way to talk about what problems we are having out there because of the intervention."

Common complaints were the constraints put on indigenous welfare payments and the imposition of laws based on race.

The Greens senator Kerry Nettle said the Government needed to work with indigenous groups.

"You can't impose things," she said. "I don't want governments 10, 20 years from now having to say sorry again."

For Josie Agius, an Aboriginal woman who travelled from Port Adelaide in South Australia, the events of this week were worth the trip.

"It just makes you proud," she said, sitting in the afternoon sun.

Patricia Waria-Read, also from Port Adelaide, agreed. "It's a day we stand up and make changes for the better. When we say rights for one and all."

Source: www.smh.com.au/news/national/protest-against-intervention/2008/02/12/1202760301388.html