Northern Territory Emergency Response – a response
Participants at the NATSIEC forum
In early June 2009, NATSIEC hosted a forum of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Church leaders to discuss the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) also known as the Intervention. The aim of the Forum was to develop a common voice from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Church bodies and to develop a common platform for action.
The meeting was attended by NATSIEC members and included representatives from the Salvation Army, the Churches of Christ, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council (NATSICC), and the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC). Also attending the meeting were representatives of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Alliance (NATSICA) and the Evangelical Alliance (EA). NATSIEC also invited people from the Northern Territory to help inform our discussions and were pleased that Bishop Greg Thompson, the Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory, Mrs Didamain Uibo, an Aboriginal educator as well as Dr L. Lee Levett-Olsen, the Principal of Nungalinya College in Darwin were able to attend.