Western Australian rednecks govern – stop the dumb-ass racism, leave the homelands alone

By Gerry Georgatos - courtesy of The Stringer - Nearly two years ago I wrote about the potential closure of up to 180 remote communities – homelands – of First Peoples. My insiders’ claims were rubbished and labelled fanciful and conspiratorial. Late last year, the Western Australian Government announced the potential closure of up to 150 communities. The South Australian Premier followed soon after with a similar announcement, threatening to close up to 100 communities in northern South Australia. Tomorrow, in a national day of action 13 marches and rallies will take place across the country.

I will not insult readers with the narrative that all these looming closures are about some crappy argument about who should pay the pittance municipal bill – whether it should be the Federal or State Governments. It is not about this. It is about a land grab, it is about clearing the vast interior and the top end for miners, developers, commercial interests. Assimilation and racism are being exploited to serve the interests of robber barons and wild west frontier mentalities.

One of the rallies will start with a march from Aboriginal Tent Embassy to Federal Parliament with speakers having flown in from all over the continent. They will be joined by Senator Nova Peris and Senator Rachel Siewert. The closure of homelands is one of the major issues of this generation and will be damned by the future in the ways many today damn the Stolen Generations, damn the apartheid practices of the past, damn the bent for assimilation (which continues).

There will be rallies in Perth, Broome, Halls Creek, Beagle Bay, Hedland and Geraldton – Western Australia has the highest concentration of Aboriginal homelands. In the Kimberley lay the majority of the State’s homelands. I have been to many communities – and the residents are terrified, there is heartbreak and uncertainty. The children are asking what is all this talk about, what does it all mean? It is as if Australia has learned little, very little, maybe nothing at all, from the past, of the relatively recent past. The horrific atrocities and racism of the recent past are remembered and felt by Elders today whose childhoods are of memories of forced relocation, of dispossession, of their abduction from their families, of indenture, of institutionalisation, of their criminalisation, of the vilest racism. After the vile dispossession of the brutal past, of the vile eugenics and of the cruel and horrific discrimination of peoples in every layer of life, it should be unimaginable for the Australia of today to once again dispossess peoples of their homelands, of their communities, of the right to be who they want to be.

Australia’s racist bent to close communities, to steal their land once again, is seeing them do again what inherently was promised would never again occur after the 1967 referendum. Australia’s disgrace has picked up international attention but nevertheless not an iota of conscience has struck the Western Australian Government.

Australia is indicted as the racist mess many of us know it to be. It is no surprise to many that the Western Australian Government is leading this land grab. Western Australia is an insular place – where some of the worst atrocities against the First Peoples were committed; where to this day it continues to struggle with any form of genuine conciliation and redress. It is the richest jurisdiction of Australia, with the nation’s highest median wages, where mining companies have become filthily wealthy, where the robber baron cries foul if First Peoples try to defend the custodianship of their Country. They are hounded by cruel stereotypes, damned to shanty towns – third-world akin – made refugees on own their lands. They speak up and they are criminalised. One in 13 of the State’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander males are in prison. Where else do you get this in the world? Western Australia is the mother of all jailers of Aboriginal people. From a racialised lens this is the world’s most horrific jailing rate. The more west we journey across this continent the worse it gets for First Peoples – arrest and jailing rates, homelessness rates, extreme poverty, suicides.

Western Australia has more than its fair share of rednecks. Western Australia has more than its share of exploiters and robber barons. Western Australian Governments are the nation’s cesspit, a morass of immoralities.

Rallies will also be held in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Lismore, Bendigo and Bellingen.

Matargarup (Heirrison Island) has re-established its refugee camp, its respite for the homeless. Perth’s homelessness is extensive – with children and large families on its streets, in squats, traps, alleyways, living in tents in bush hideaways just off major highways. This nation’s shame is best described by the fact that 20,000 children under the age of 12 are homeless. This nation’s shame is reinforced by the fact that seven per cent of the Kimberley is homeless, with nearly all of this homelessness comprised of First Peoples. Australia is the world’s 12th largest economy, 2nd wealthiest nation per capita, and ranks number 2 in the world according to the United Nations Development Program’s Human Development Index – but when I disaggregated this continent’s First Peoples from the rest of Australia’s population, in reference to the Index they rank 132nd.

The Western Australian Government does not want to hear that it is racist, but by hell and high water they know they are racist. You would have to be an idiot to not see racism when you dish it out. When you punch someone you would have to be a dumb ass to not realise an act of violence. If the Western Australian Government cannot see what it is doing then we have dumb asses in parliament. They have done enough damage for nearly two centuries. It is about time Australians rose in numbers and attended these rallies and sent a message to Governments – stop the bloody racism, leave the homelands alone you damn nutters.

 

This article was first published in The Stringer and for more reading go here - http://thestringer.com.au/western-australian-rednecks-govern-stop-the-du...

 

Promotion: 
Geography: 

Comments

WGAR News: Aboriginal Australian Communities Send a Powerful Message to Government: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities

https://indymedia.org.au/2015/03/24/wgar-news-aboriginal-australian-comm...

Contents:

* Analysis / Opinion: Gerry Georgatos, The Stringer: Here is part of the list of threatened Homelands - "remote communities"

* Media Release: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia: Aboriginal Australian Communities Send a Powerful Message to Government
* News Analysis: Miranda Wood, Red Flag: Thousands join nationwide rallies against community closures
* News Analysis: Alex Bainbridge, Green Left: Resistance builds against plan to close Aboriginal communities
* News Analysis: Calla Wahlquist & Helen Davidson, The Guardian: Close the Gap day: Colin Barnett tells protesters to 'put yourselves in my shoes'
* Audio Interviews: Cassandra Tim & Warren Barnsley, National Indigenous Radio's 'Weekly News-in-Review':
Proposed community closures in Western Australia [Featuring Graham Merritt, Irene Davey, Nigel Scullion & Kirstie Parker]
* Audio: Lucy Martin, ABC News: Thousands rally in protest of remote community closures
* Video: SBS News: Barnett shouted down at Indigenous rally
* Video: SBS News: SA crowd protests remote closures
* News Analysis: Brendan Foster, SMH: Aboriginal community closure: intense rally at Parliament House
* News Analysis: Nicolas Perpitch, Bonnie Christian & Andrew O'Connor, ABC News: Colin Barnett pushed as anger erupts at protest over remote communities closure

* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA

WGAR News: International exposure: Rallies throughout Australia protesting closure of Aboriginal homelands / remote communities

https://indymedia.org.au/2015/03/25/wgar-news-international-exposure-ral...

Contents:

* Video: NITV News: Support for WA Remote Communities is Going Global
* Open Letter: Sovereign Union Letter to United Nations - SOS Forced closure of Aboriginal homeland communities in WA
* Photo: Sovereign Union facebook: "Here is Sovereign Union founder and convenor Ghillar Michael Anderson speaking on a Russian TV program on Thursday night by Skype."
* News Analysis: Charlotte Chabas, Le Monde: En Australie, la colère des Aborigènes face au « mépris » de leur culture: "The World: In Australia Aboriginal People's anger faces the 'contempt' of their culture"
* News Analysis: teleSUR: Australians Rally against Closure of Aboriginal Communities

* Media Release: Sisters of Saint Joseph: Josephites express profound concern at proposed Government plans to withdraw basic services to Aboriginal communities
* Media Statement: Bishops Commission for Relations with Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders: What Choice? Aboriginal peoples have the right to decent services where they live

* Joint Urgent Appeal: Franciscans International & Edmund Rice International: Forced Displacement of Aborigines in West Australia
* Background: Franciscans International - a voice at the United Nations: Indigenous Peoples
* News Analysis & Video: Heeni Brown, Maori Television: NZ MP's support Aboriginal protest over proposed closure of indigenous communities
* Analysis / Opinion: Royce Kurmelovs, Al Jazeera: Shutting down Australia's Aboriginal areas
* News Analysis: Alan Austin in France, Independent Australia: Abbott trashes Australia's reputation abroad - again
* Analysis / Opinion: Marie McInerney, BBC News: Australia's remote indigenous communities fear closure

* Facebook: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia
* Background: Diet Simon, sourced from WGAR, Linksunten Indymedia: Aboriginal Australian communities send a powerful message to government
* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA

WGAR News: SA Indigenous leaders seek urgent meeting over community closure concerns: Natalie Whiting, ABC PM

Featuring Haydyn Bromley, SA Aboriginal Lands Trust & Tammy Franks, SA Greens MLC

https://indymedia.org.au/2015/03/31/wgar-news-sa-indigenous-leaders-seek...

Contents:

* Audio: Natalie Whiting, ABC PM: SA Indigenous leaders seek urgent meeting over community closure concerns [Featuring Haydyn Bromley, SA Aboriginal Lands Trust & Tammy Franks, SA Greens MLC]
* News: ABC News: Indigenous elders meet at Port Augusta as federal funding cuts threaten to close remote communities [Featuring Elder Mima Smart]
* Video: NITV News - 30 March 2015: Threats to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in SA
* Video: NITV News: Remote Closures - SA Communities Call Emergency Summit to Fight 'Cultural Genocide'

* Poster: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia, facebook: "We would like to confirm that that 2nd National Call of Action will be held Friday 1st May 2015."
* Facebook: Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities in Australia

* WGAR Background: Plans to close Aboriginal homelands / remote communities in WA and SA

WGAR News Public Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB#!forum/wgar-news
WGAR News - Working Group for Aboriginal Rights (Australia)

http://www.oakleysunglasses.ar.com/
http://www.oakley--sunglasses.com.co/
http://www.oakleysunglassesoutlet.us.org/
http://www.oakleysunglasses.us.com/
http://www.cheapoakleysunglasses.us.com/
http://www.raybansunglasses.us.com/
http://www.raybansunglasses.ar.com/
http://www.rayban--sunglasses.org/
http://www.polo-ralph-lauren.in.net/
http://www.poloralphlaurenoutlet.us.org/
http://www.burberry-outlet.us.org/
http://www.burberryoutletstore.com.co/
http://www.michaelkors-outlet-online.us.org/
http://www.outletonline-michaelkors.com/
http://www.michaelkorsoutlets-online.us.com/
http://www.michael-korsoutlet.in.net/
http://www.michaelkorsoutlet-store.in.net/
http://www.michaelkors-handbags.in.net/
http://www.uggs-outletboots.in.net/
http://www.uggboot.in.net/
http://www.uggs-outlet.in.net/
http://www.cheapuggboots.in.net/
http://www.cheap-uggs.in.net/
http://www.louisvuitton-outlet-online.org/
http://www.louisvuitton-outlets.org/
http://www.louisvuitton.ar.com/
http://www.louisvuittonoutlet-store.org/
http://www.louis-vuittonhandbags.org/
http://www.redbottoms.in.net/
http://www.christianlouboutin-outlet.in.net/
http://www.christian-louboutin-shoes.in.net/
http://www.christian--louboutin.co.uk/
http://www.rolex-replicawatches.us.com/
http://www.replica--watches.com/
http://www.air-jordanshoes.net/
http://www.nikeoutlet.us/
http://www.toryburch-outletonline.in.net/
http://www.guccioutlets.com.co/
http://www.prada-handbags.in.net/
http://www.prada-outlet.in.net/
http://www.longchamp-outlet.in.net/
http://www.longchamphandbags.us.com/
http://www.longchamphandbagsoutlet.us.com/
http://www.tiffanysandco.in.net/
http://www.tiffanyjewelry.net.co/
http://www.nikeairmaxinc.net/
http://www.nikeair-max.net/
http://www.nike-freerun.com/
http://www.chanel--handbags.in.net/
http://www.katespadeoutlets.cc/
http://www.katespade-handbags.in.net/
http://www.coachoutlet.jp.net/
http://www.coachfactory-outletonline.in.net/
http://www.coachoutletstoreonline.jp.net/
http://www.coachpurse.in.net/
http://www.truereligionsale.in.net/
http://www.true-religion-jeans.in.net/
http://www.truereligionoutlets.in.net/
http://www.truereligionoutlet.biz/
http://www.nike-airmax-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.nikeair-max.fr/
http://www.airjordanpas-cher.fr/
http://www.nikefreerun.fr/
http://www.nike-roshe-run.fr/
http://www.sac-longchamp-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.sac--longchamps.fr/
http://www.poloralphlauren-pascher.fr/
http://www.louboutin-pas-chere.fr/
http://www.sac-michaelkors-pascher.fr/
http://www.sac-burberry-pascher.fr/
http://www.lunette-oakley-pascher.fr/
http://www.lunette-rayban-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.hollister-abercrombiefitch.fr/
http://www.sachermes.fr/
http://www.vanspas-cher.fr/
http://www.timberland-paschere.fr/
http://www.newbalancesoldes.fr/
http://www.converse-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.the-north-face.fr/
http://www.niketnrequin-pascher.fr/
http://www.polo-lacoste-pascher.fr/
http://www.nikeblazerpaschere.fr/
http://www.nikeair-force.fr/
http://www.sac-guesspascher.fr/
http://www.sac-vanessa-bruno.fr/
http://www.scarpe--hoganoutlet.it/
http://www.rayban-sunglasses.me.uk/
http://www.michaelkorshandbags-uk.org.uk/
http://www.michaelkors-outlet-canada.ca/
http://www.michaelkors-outlet.ca/
http://www.lululemon-outlet-canada.ca/
http://www.hollister-sale.org.uk/
http://www.thenorth--face.co.uk/
http://www.mulberryhandbagsoutlet.me.uk/
http://www.ralphlauren-outlet-uk.co.uk/
http://www.nike--airmax.co.uk/
http://www.nike-air-max.me.uk/
http://www.nike-freerun.co.uk/
http://www.abercrombieand-fitch.co.uk/
http://www.nike-roshe-run.org.uk/
http://www.nike-trainers.org.uk/
http://www.nike-air-huarache.co.uk/
http://www.longchampbags.org.uk/
http://www.hollister-abercrombie.es/
http://www.vans-shoes-outlet.com/
http://www.nikerosherun.net/
http://www.maccosmeticsoutlet.in.net/
http://www.abercrombie-and-fitch.in.net/
http://www.hermesbirkinbags.com.co/
http://www.thenorthfaceoutlet.in.net/
http://www.northface-outlet.in.net/
http://www.newbalance-shoes.in.net/
http://www.reebok-outlet.in.net/
http://www.lululemonoutlets.in.net/
http://www.cheap-nfljersey.in.net/
http://www.cheap-weddingdresses.org/
http://www.beatsbydrdre-headphones.in.net/
http://www.montblanc-pens.xyz/
http://www.ferragamo-shoes.net/
http://www.giuseppe-zanotti.in.net/
http://www.instylerionicstyler.us.com/
http://www.babyliss.in.net/
http://www.mcmhandbags.net/
http://www.chiflatiron.cn.com/
http://www.insanityworkout.in.net/
http://www.ghd-hair-straighteners.org.uk/
http://www.bottegaveneta-handbagsoutlet.com/
http://www.valentino-shoes.in.net/
http://www.herveleger.us/
http://www.asicso.com/
http://www.soccer--shoes.net/
http://www.soccerjerseys.com.co/
http://www.celine-handbags.org/
http://www.p90x-workout.us.com/
http://www.jimmychoo-shoes.in.net/
http://www.hollister-clothing-store.net/
http://www.nike-airmax.nl/
http://www.baseball-bats.us/
http://www.iphonecases.com.co/
http://www.timberlandboots.us.org/
http://www.occhiali-oakley.it/
http://www.christian--louboutin.it/
http://www.poloralph-lauren.it/
http://www.abercrombiehollister.it/
http://www.nikeair-max.it/
http://www.vansscarpe.it/
http://www.converse-allstar.it/
http://www.borse--gucci.it/
http://www.rayban--occhiali.it/
http://www.converse--shoes.com/
http://www.lancelpascher.fr/
http://www.toms--shoes.net/
http://www.montrepas-cher.fr/
http://www.karenmillen-dresses.me.uk/
http://www.supra--shoes.com/
http://www.juicycoutureoutlet.jp.net/
http://www.juicycoutureoutlet.com.co/
http://www.marcjacobs.us.org/
http://www.cheapweddingdresses.org.uk/
http://www.replica-watches.me.uk/
http://www.hollister--canada.ca/
http://www.pandora-jewelry.in.net/
http://www.pandorajewelrys.us.com/
http://www.pandora--charms.in.net/
http://www.pandora--charms.org.uk/
http://www.linksoflondon.me.uk/
http://www.thomas-sabo-uk.org.uk/
http://www.swarovski-jewelry.in.net/
http://www.swarovski--uk.co.uk/
http://www.bottesugg-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.ugg-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.ugg-boots-uggs.org.uk/
http://www.ugg--australia.it/
http://www.uggs--canada.ca/
http://www.louis-vuitton-pas-cher.fr/
http://www.louisvuitton-sac.fr/
http://www.louis-vuitton-handbags.co.uk/
http://www.louisvuitton-canada.ca/
http://www.borse-louis-vuitton.it/
http://www.dolcegabbana.us.com/
http://coachofficialsite.blog.com/
http://www.canadagoose.net.co/
http://www.canada-goose-jackets.org/
http://www.canadagooseoutlet.us.org/
http://www.canada-goose-jackets.ca/
http://www.canadagoose-paschere.fr/
http://www.canada--goose.me.uk/
http://www.moncler.org.uk/
http://www.moncleroutlet.com.co/
http://www.monclerjackets.us.org/
http://www.doudoune-monclerpascher.fr/
http://www.barbour-jackets.org.uk/
http://www.moncler-sito-ufficiale.it/
http://www.canada--goose.se/
http://www.moncler-onlineshop.de/
http://www.moncler.org.es/
http://www.moncler.co.nl/
http://www.canada-goose.co.nl/
http://www.barbour.us.org/
http://www.michael-kors-handbags.us.com/
http://www.michael-kors-outlet.us.org/
http://www.michaelkorsoutletonline-sale.us.com/