Human Rights Oration 2007 | Mr Tom Calma

Don Dunstan Human Rights Oration will this year be given by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, Mr Tom Calma.

Currently also Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Mr Calma says aspects of the Government’s intervention in 74 Indigenous communities are “racially discriminatory and a reversal of those communities’ hard won rights”. He will also discuss some of the negative mental and physical health impacts of these actions.

The Oration is entitled: ‘Can the end ever justify the means? Achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples and the Northern Territory intervention’.

Mr Calma is an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan and the Iwaidja tribal groups whose traditional lands are south west of Darwin and on the Coburg Peninsula in Northern Territory, respectively.

He has been involved in Indigenous affairs at a local, community, state, national and international levels for more than 30 years and was appointed Social Justice Commissioner for five years in 2004.

Joining Mr Calma at the Human Rights Oration is support speaker Dr Tamara Mackean. Dr Mackean is an Aboriginal woman, medical practitioner and Indigenous Health Lecturer at Flinders University and will be speaking on best practice in delivering health care to Indigenous people.