Still riding for freedom 40 years later

Gaps in our legal system around human rights protection continue to have a real and devastating effect on the life chances for Aboriginal people in Australia more than 40 years after Aboriginal leader Charlie Perkins first undertook the freedom ride, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma said tonight while delivering the 2008 Dr Charles Perkins Memorial Oration at the University of Sydney.

Commissioner Calma said the current federal government’s commitment to working in partnerships with Indigenous peoples rather than treating them as ‘passive recipients’ made the next few years critical in the struggle for equality.