Equity is
equal opportunity. It is social justice.
"Social
justice is what faces you in the morning. It is awakening in
a house with adequate water supply, cooking facilities and
sanitation. It is the ability to nourish your children and
send them to school where their education not only equips
them for employment but reinforces their knowledge and
understanding of their cultural inheritance. It is the
prospect of genuine employment and good health: a life of
choices and opportunity, free from discrimination". -
Mick Dodson
Equity is the entitlement of the
same civic and human rights and access to services no matter who you
are and no matter where you live on the Island.
Equity
means freedom from discrimination based on gender, language, ethnicity,
religion or disability; and of differences arising from a person's
socio-economic background or geographic location.
Equity is
the rights of the individual. These rights are enshrined in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN) and in the
UN Convention of the Rights of the Child and must
always be ratified into law as a Bill of Rights.
EQUITY
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With
equal rights comes equal responsibilities. Such responsibilities
include, upholding the sovereignty of the
Hela Culture: its language, values
and traditions.
A
grave misconception about Equity
A grave misconception about Equity
is that it can apply equally among cultural groups as it does
among individuals. This is not so. Subverting the notion of
Equity by proclaiming that non-indigenous cultures should have equal
status to the indigenous culture in the indigenous environment is socially unjust and creates
conflict.
Every
indigenous culture has an inherent
right of sovereignty in its land
of evolution. This right of
sovereignty serves to preserve and protect the
indigenous culture in its own land. If a non-indigenous culture
succeeds in gaining 'equity' in the indigenous environment, the result is a cultural
invasion that eventually wipes out the indigenous culture.
Equity,
enshrined in civic rights and human rights that apply to the individual should
never be confused with the right of sovereignty that applies to the
indigenous culture. In Heladiva, the indigenous Hela Culture has the
right of sovereignty over all other vibrant ethnic cultures (as it
is in Sweden, France, Japan,
Tamil Nadu etc.). Undermining this right of sovereignty leads to
conflict.
