Kevin Rudd Quotes

I'm a member of the American Indian Movement, and I'm from the indigenous nations of the Western Hemisphere.

And Americans realized that native people are still here, that they have a moral standing, a legal standing.

The federal government needs to make it clear that recognition of Indigenous rights means that when Indigenous bands and their leadership approve projects, we listen.

Food sovereignty is an affirmation of who we are as indigenous peoples and a way, one of the most surefooted ways, to restore our relationship with the world around us.

I personally really sympathise with the Maori cause - what's gone on historically and their struggle today as a culture, and how they hold on to that identity and stand up for what's rightfully theirs.

Under Howard, federal government support for black Australia slowly dried up. Services were slashed, native title restricted.

We are seeing healing among the stolen generations, and initiatives which are enabling Indigenous people to make their distinctive contribution to our national life.

We are lagging far behind comparable countries in overcoming the disadvantages Indigenous people face.

I support the indigenous people anywhere in the planet.

Most governments in Latin America have failed to recognize the rights of indigenous people and their right to their own traditional territories.

Sorry Day falls on the eve of Reconciliation Week, giving us the chance to ask whether we are making progress in the wider challenge of reconciling Indigenous and other Australians.

I think we have to keep working enormously hard to see that every single Indigenous child - every Australian child - has true equality of opportunity. We've got to work harder at it. I think, you know, the heartland issue for us is the gap; the gap in life expectancy in this country.

As it has for America's other indigenous peoples, I believe the United States must fulfill its responsibility to Native Hawaiians.

Convinced of its soundness, I feel it consistent with pure morality to lead the Indians towards becoming citizens, to familiarize them to the idea that it is for their interest to cede lands at times to the United States, and for us to procure gratifications to our citizens from time to time by new acquisitions of land

The United States will never ask for your land there. This I promise you in the name of your great father, the President. That country he assigns to his red people, to be held by them and their children's children forever.

The conscience of the people demands that the Indians within our boundaries shall be fairly and honestly treated as wards of the Government and their education and civilization promoted with a view to their ultimate citizenship.

The proper treatment of the original occupants of this land—the Indians is one deserving of careful study. I will favor any course toward them which tends to their civilization and ultimate citizenship.

I do not talk English very much… I go down Washington… Government wants to open the Indian country. Indian he no ready yet, maybe half of it, they ready. That’s what I come for. That’s what I tell commissioner.

The utmost good faith shall always be observed towards Indians; their land and property shall never be taken from them without their consent

Brother when we came here to relate our grievances about our lands, we expected to have something done for us .... You are not to expect to hear of me any more, and brother we desire to hear no more of you.

Canada can't be preaching about human rights and democracy elsewhere until it starts dealing with its aboriginal people in Canada.

This is one victory that Canada cannot deny to aboriginal people.

I am afraid that the talk of "freeing" Indians and making them full citizens is a cloak to make it possible to take a little more away from them. Indians are citizens! They have a right to vote! They serve in the armed forces, and they pay income taxes and other taxes except on their land. This land-tax exemption is usually part of the agreed price received from the Federal government for larger areas given up. All the Indians ask is that they be consulted and that they give their consent as to the proper time for "termination" of certain agreements, and that each tribe be consulted separately.

You cannot turn the clock back, you cannot give the island of Manhattan back to the indigenous, but on the other hand, you can ensure that the indigenous can maintain their way of life.

Economic inequality is not about food stamps and homeless shelters. It is about being a devotee of social justice and equality.