by ray jackson, president, indigenous social justice association
i wish all of you a happy new year and hope that 2011 will be all that you want it to be and you can then add social justice for all to that list as well.
there are some important issues coming up in the next few months and simply as an advisory they are invasion day on the 26th january 2011 were the majority of people gathering at the music festivals will be gently persuaded by the music that all is well and that reconciliation is not only plausible but possible. the non-aboriginal reconciliation movement is, to most of us, merely another term for assimilation. but i digress.
i am sure i do not have to remind you that all is not well and that we still have a long long way to go. all i ask is that the significance of the day for our mobs is kept in mind. it is not a day of celebration for us, it is a day mourning as was raised at the day of mourning site in sydney in 1938.
the next nsw date of significance is the 14th of february, this being the 7th anniversary of the death of tj hickey by the redfern police. further information on what is planned for this day will be sent out closer to the date.
another date of nsw importance will be the coronial inquest in april of this year, monday 4th/tuesday 5th at the nsw coroners court at glebe. further notice on this event will be sent closer to that date.
for those who may be unaware veronica baxter, an aboriginal transwoman, was found hung in her cell, march 2009, at the metropolitan remand and reception gaol at silverwater nsw. as you will see it has taken over two years for the coroner to get around to investigating the reasons for her death. it appears that the nsw cops took some 18 months to investigate the 'facts' of the case.
this time lapse, whilst not unusual, is still disgraceful and a slap in the face to the family who sits and waits for over two years to, hopefully, find out how and why their loved one died.
the post we now look at comes from another federal ex-politician and again from the labor party. barry cohen served in the then hawke government, retiring prior to the 1990 elections which were won by paul keating. in 2007 he was given an order of australia gong for his services to parliament and assorted community groups.
barry begins by giving his view of the 1967 referendum. he was at that time nsw asst. campaign director for the yes vote. on the result he places a much rosier outcome than i would. whilst agreeing with his points on the census and the empowering of the federal government to make positive laws for aborigines, i disagree that australia wished to raise the living standards of our mobs.
for that to have happened would have meant that we were removed from the racist laws of the states and territories; we were not and the rest is history. and a black black history at that. none of the racist laws of the states/territories were changed, our children continued to be taken from us, as were our wages, among other criminal acts.
all condoned by the federal politicians of the time until whitlam made several positive changes in taking office in 1972 and onwards. whilst stopping the taking of the children he did not however take control of aboriginal issues, mainly leaving that responsibility to the states and territories.
whilst expressing horror at the appalling living conditions for aborigines in outback nsw i can only argue that he now needs to visit some communities in the n.t. to find that nothing has changed except for the worst.
aboriginal child health remains a significant issue as of course does education.
barry recognises that there are still problems and i can only agree with his view that society owes much to our people and both governments and our communities have contributed to the wide gap in australian living standards. i do not agree one iota however with his infantile accusation that we somehow live in a 'mythical paradise.'
one can only imagine where the source of his analysis has come from but to argue that the pre invasion life style of aborigines included living 50 years less is absolute rubbish and bears no consideration whatsoever. our pre-invasion lifestyle would have been nothing less than a 'paradise' compared to the horrors and the genocide post-invasion. horrors and genocide that still bedevils us to this day.
he is right that we must decide our own future but that possibility has never been granted to us. the argument that our current state is caused by a failed model of self determination bears no argument at all. never have we been giver that opportunity, we have always been over-lorded by the governments and their bureaucrats (including chogm that is nothing but bureaurocracy on steroids), churches and their missionaries, among other social disasters. the church groups did realise their collective mistakes; governments never.
barry's opinion on education and the building of schools does, i believe, have some merit but i disagree again that this will somehow destroy the bonds of the students with their families and communities. this is not another stolen generation. these children will still be made aware of their language, their culture, their country, their laws and everything else that goes with it. i see no alienation of children in attending boarding schools to those who don't attend school at all.
during the 43 years since the 1967 referendum the failures of governments and the communities have become a disaster. this, at least now, has been recognised but the nt intervention is not the answer. changes to the australian constitution to better recognise aboriginal history and our proper place in that history is not going to change much at all but it is more than just mere symbolism. if the federal government really wants to show us that it cares then it can start by properly recognising our place in this nation. to do that we must have an endorsed sovereignty and treaties. i see absolutely no value at all in the granting of parliamentary seats whether by allocation as in the maori example or in the granting of winnable seats in both houses of federal parliament. such appointments will be made by the politicians of the day and they will appoint only those who have already accepted their assimilationist model. i have no faith in warren mundine or noel pearson in representing the true aboriginal view. they have never spoken for me.
whilst it is true that only three aborigines have been elected to the federal parliament that says more for the preselection practices of the parties than to our own resources. many times have our activists stood but have never been voted in. we do have aboriginal politicians in wa and the nt.
barry states that the time has come to end the symbolism and the politics of the warm inner glow. i can only concur. all governments of australia must stop their generally useless symbolic, warm inner glow gestures and really come to terms of the injustices arising from the 1788 invasion. we dot possess the resources nor the power to make such change.
the only gap that really must be narrowed is the gap between white governments and the original owners of this country. we must be treated as equals not as some subservient peoples that have been defeated.
we will never be defeated.
as barry ends his article, quote "lets end the symbolism and get on with the job." unquote
yes, lets.
Barry Cohen
From: The Australian
December 27, 2010 12:00AM
ON May 27, 1967, a referendum was held to change the Constitution.
It meant Aborigines would be counted in the census and to empower the federal government to make laws for members of the Aboriginal race.
Although all political parties supported the changes, those involved in the campaign were staggered by the yes vote of 90.77 per cent. It meant that Australians wanted the federal government to make a supreme effort to raise the standard of living of Aborigines.
The campaign had highlighted the appalling conditions under which most Aborigines lived. How bad became obvious to those of us who made the effort to visit the outback areas. As a member of the federal ALP caucus Aboriginal affairs committee, I toured western NSW to see how bad things were.
Arriving at Collarenebri in February 1970, we were taken by a local doctor to a settlement on the banks of the Barwon River where humpies made of corrugated iron, hessian and scraps of linoleum housed the local Aboriginal community. It shocked us to the core.
The doctor told us, "The children are fine while being breast-fed. When that ceases, mothers, knowing little about nutrition, feed them rubbish. They get sick with a range of illnesses that have them in and out of hospital so often that by the time they're five they are a couple of years behind their white contemporaries, physically and mentally. Their parents are invariably unemployed, heavy drinkers and gamblers with a limited vocabulary.
"This cultural backwardness invariably flows on to the next generation. When the children go to school they can't compete. When at home they don't have electricity to enable them to study. We have to break the cycle of poverty."
That was 40 years ago and, despite considerable improvement, too many still live like this. We would never permit this if they were non-indigenous children.
Those who argue that nothing has changed since 1967 weren't there. One example of improvement will suffice. In 1965 the first two Aborigines to graduate from university were Charles Perkins and Margaret Valadian. Now there are more than 20,000 with university degrees and tertiary qualifications.
That's little consolation to the tens of thousands who live in abject poverty, with appalling accommodation, poor health and no jobs.
It's worse if they suffer from physical and sexual abuse and are addicted to alcohol or drugs. Too many Aborigines have a much lower standard of living than the average Australian.
Whatever the cost, we owe Aboriginal people the best possible health care, nutrition, accommodation, education and employment opportunities.
Since the referendum, despite the best efforts of Labor and Coalition governments, the gap between the standard of living of Aborigines and mainstream Australia is still far too wide.
While governments must bear responsibility for that, the Aboriginal community must also recognise that it, too, has contributed to the huge gap in their standard of living.
They must cease living in a mythical paradise that they imagine existed before the arrival of Europeans. They are angry that their lifespan is 20 years less than non-Aborigines, but in their nirvana it would be 50 years less. They have the right to choose any lifestyle they desire, but they cannot expect governments to provide the essential facilities to hundreds of tiny remote communities.
They must decide their own future. If they want a semi-nomadic life in a netherworld then they will have to do it with minimal government help. We are fooling ourselves if we pretend otherwise.
Opportunities are opening up for employment for Aborigines, particularly in northern Australia in mining, cattle raising and tourism, but not enough. Aborigines must relocate to areas where they can obtain employment and where they can also find accommodation and receive adequate health care.
We must provide them with the best education possible. There are schools in remote areas but they vary in quality from ordinary to awful.
If hundreds of top schools can be built for Australia's wealthy elite then surely we can provide a dozen top-quality schools in outback Australia for the most underprivileged Australians.
As many will have to be boarding schools, some will ask: will this alienate children from their parents? It's very likely, but there is nothing new about that.
Every wave of immigrants to Australia has had the same experience. We must stop pretending that Aborigines can live in two widely diverse cultures.
They must choose between a modern Western lifestyle and primitive subsistence similar to that which they enjoyed before the arrival of Europeans.
Some will argue that it will destroy their heritage and culture, but it doesn't have to.
They can preserve both while advancing their education in a range of areas.
That's what's happening throughout the rest of the world. It has been happening among the 20,000-plus Aborigines who now have tertiary qualifications.
It is 43 years since the referendum provided the incentive for governments to narrow the gap between the living standards of Aborigines and the rest of Australia. Unfortunately, much of what followed was mere symbolism. We had reconciliation and street marches followed by Sorry Day.
Now the Prime Minister is proposing a referendum to change the Constitution to acknowledge Aborigines as the first Australians.
It's a noble gesture but, regrettably, it will have the same impact as earlier gestures.
If Labor wants to show Aborigines it cares about them it can start by doing something it has failed to do since Federation: endorse Aborigines for winnable seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Only three have made it in 110 years: two Liberals and one Democrat. Labor could start with former president of the party Warren Mundine, an outstanding talent.
The time has come to end the symbolism and the politics of the warm inner glow. It may salve the conscience of non-Aboriginal Australia but it will do nothing to narrow the gap between Aborigines and the rest of Australia.
Unless this happens, Australia will be having the same debate in 2067.
Let's end the symbolism and get on with the job.
Barry Cohen was assistant campaign director (NSW) for the vote yes team in 1967.