What is ANTaR?
for Native Title & Reconciliation (ANTaR)
ANTaR Victoria (Inc) focuses on activities and issues specific to Indigenous people in Victoria, while also supporting national campaigns and priorities.
Statement of PurposeTo generate in Australia a moral and legal recognition of and respect for the distinctive status of Indigenous Australians as First Peoples. Recognition of Indigenous Australians’ rights, which include self-determination, their relationships to land and the maintenance and growth of their cultures, is essential to creating a just and fair society for all Australians.
The Sea of HandsThe Sea of Hands is central to ANTaR’s activities.
The Sea of Hands, recognised by hundreds of thousands of Australians as a symbol of the people's movement for rights-based reconciliation, was ANTaR’s first public event, staged to protest against the Federal Government's proposed changes to the Native Title Act when 70,000 plastic hands in six colours, each one carrying one signature from a petition in support of native title and reconciliation, were installed in front of Parliament House in Canberra in October 1997. It was the largest public art installation in Australia. Since then, over 250,000 Australians have signed their names on one of 120,000 plastic hands that make up the Sea of Hands, to show their support for Native Title and Reconciliation.
The six colours of the Sea of Hands represent the colours of the Aboriginal flag (red, black and yellow), the Torres Strait Islander flag (blue, green and white), and the Australian flag. Each Sea of Hands is a unique event, and wherever possible is designed by a local Indigenous artist, using symbols and themes appropriate to the Indigenous traditions of that region.
ANTaR (Victoria)'s activities include: