Join MAIC for a SNAP ACTION as Andrew Bolt and Gary Johns Launch : “Aboriginal Self-Determination: The Whiteman's Dream”.
Send a message to Macklin: Market Assimilation and Destruction of Aboriginal Culture are the Policies that Really Failed
The evidence of the total failure of the NT Intervention mounts, but right wing ideologues are clamouring to defend its racist premise.
This Monday evening Andrew Bolt and Gary Johns will be calling for the destruction of Aboriginal culture and Aboriginal collective identity. They are launching “Aboriginal Self-Determination: The Whiteman's Dream”.
In the book, Johns argues that Aboriginal culture should be “relegated to museums and occasional ceremonies”, because he sees it as the root of Aboriginal disadvantage. He argues that Aboriginal communities should be dispersed and individuals should be forced to chase “market opportunities”.
But we have seen efforts to destroy Aboriginal communities and culture before- and never have they resulted in anything but compounded misery for Aboriginal people. From massacres to missions, from stolen generation right through to the NT Intervention- these are the policies that have created disadvantage and social disfunction- not the as-yet untested policy of self determination, or Aboriginal culture.
Walter Shaw, President of Tangentyere Council in Alice Springs, has described the Intervention as "one of the most significant disasters in the history of interaction between Aboriginal Australia and Government since colonisation".
Far from a ringing endorsement for the assimilation strategy, government statistics show incarceration rates have risen more than 20 per cent, school attendance has declined in many places, instances of suicide and self harm have increased and thousands of jobs have been lost as CDEP closes down. There are growing crises in urban centres such as Alice Springs as large numbers move in from the bush.
Join us at this snap action and let Macklin know that the “Concrete action” we want are jobs, houses, and funding for community controlled programs- not another failed assimilation policy.