Performers from East Arnhem Land dance during the opening ceremony for the National Indigenous Constitutional Convention, a three day conference designed to come up with a consensus response on how indigenous people should be recognised in Australia's constitution, at Mutitjulu near Uluru in central Australia, May 23, 2017. AAP/Lucy Hughes Jones/via REUTERS
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Aboriginal Australian leaders are meeting at the sacred landmark of Uluru to decide how the country's first inhabitants, who date back about 50,000 years before British colonisers arrived, should be recognised in the constitution for the first time.
There are about 700,000 Aborigines in a population of 23 million but they suffer disproportionately high rates of suicide, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and imprisonment, tracking near the bottom in almost every economic and social indicator.
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