Things I have learnt while on study leave

1. A year is a long time to be away from your job
2. A lot can change during that time
3. Just becasue you live in a big city doesn't mean your social life improves
4. I dont want to live in a city unless it's New York City!
5. There are friends to be found everywhere but ultimately you should live where your heart feels at peace
6. The plans you had for the year very often dont work out
7. Having time out to think and learn is a wonderful thing

A Prime Minister called Kev

In this week's Saturday Age there was a column by Warick McFadyen criticising our new Prime Minister on his name and its lack of grandeur. He suggests that while Howard bore 'a name strewn along the historical timeline' the name 'Kevin' holds 'absolutely no prominence at all'. The basic premise seems to be that the name Kevin has never been big in European historical terms. Even more the writer is disparaging about the fact that a Kevin is more likely to be a cricket or footy watcher, a tradesman or something else equally everyday and humble.

My response - it's about bloody time! What is wrong with a little humility in our leadership?

The first people I think of when I think of the name Kevin are:
1. Kev Carmondy - a true poet of Australia who writes songs of honesty and compassion. An Aboriginal man who calls for justice and understanding in a quiet voice and who has influenced many of the songwriters and artists of his generation. He has been called Australia's Bob Dylan.
2. Kev from Sea Change - by far my favorite character and the glue that holds Pearl Bay together. In fact my favorite Sea Change episode of all time is the one where all of the old people in the district start having road accidents and it turns outthey are being forced to drive becasue Kevin's van has broken down and he is the one who usually runs their errands for them. He is a man of simplicity and compassion. He cares about his family and his community and holds no delusions of grandeur.

One can only hope that the characteristics on display from these well known Australian Kevins will hold true in our new Prime Minister!

Ding dong the witch is dead!

I feel like there should be singing and dancing in the streets this morning. After 11 years of Howard the voters have come out in favour of something other than the economy. Finally social policy and progressive politics have been given a voice. Before yesterday my bottom line for success was that we return some balance to the Senate. That will happen. Neither the Liberals or the ALP will be able to ram legislation through the Senate without negotiation. It will return to being a house of review. My next criteria for success was the ALP winning the Lower House. this happened in record numbers in some VERY interesting places. Analysts are saying it is the biggest swing against a sitting government in the history of Australian politics. The icing on the cake for me was the fact that it is likely that Howard will loose his own seat of Bennelong. Ultimately his arrogance and ego have been his undoing. He could have retired 18 months ago at the top of his game, but the idea of one more victory was too much for him to resist. Pride goes before the fall Mr Howard and for those of us who have been wanting your fall for some time, it is sweeter that it has happened like this. The cherry on top of the icing for me came in the defeat of Mal Brough, Minister for Indigenous Affairs. His was considered a safe seat and the voters once again proved that theory wrong. I'm quite sure that Brough saw himself as doing the 'right thing' in the NT intervention and already he has talked about his 'fears' of the ALP undoing his 'good work'. Let me remind people that while many Australians living in urban Australia might have agreed that the intervention was a good thing, for those it most affected, the Indigenous people of remote NT, it was a disaster. And it was a disaster for one main reason. It was a one size fits all solution for a complicated context. Yes changes are needed in the NT but they MUST be locally appropriate, the MUST be achieved in consultation with the local people and they SHOULD reflect a contemporary philosophy, not one that is stuck in the paradigm of 40 years ago. So I am overjoyed that Brough is gone and his style of leadership in the area of Indigenous affairs has been rejected.

Rud and the ALP government are not the silver bullet as far as I'm concerned but it feels like the straight jacket i off for the first time in 11 years and now there is at least room to move forward.

Democracy is a wonderful thing!

Election Day

I hear lots of Australians grumbling about election day but I love it. I have just arrived home after a morning of handing out 'how to vote' cards for my preferred party and I have to say that it really is a great thing to be part of. After weeks of TV ads and sound bites and political pot shots and pork barrel promises today is the peoples' day. It's the day where the high powered end of the political spectrum have to hand over to the grassroots workers and volunteers. Today is about the people who for at least this one day every few year are willing to wear their political hearts on their sleeves and say 'Vote for my person because I think they are what the country needs'. It is about a person to person interaction - me offering my 'how to vote' to the average punters coming to vote at that polling place. And there were those who refused mine, those who took one of everything, those who took nothing and those who only took mine. There were reps from many of the other parties but we did not argue or sling mud. We at the grassroots level operate from the perspective of 'I may not agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it'. There were inevitably moments where I thought to myself 'I can't believe that person's vote is worth the same as mine' particularly when I overheard conversations that demonstrated a clear ignorance of the Australian democratic process. But the thing I am always reminded on on days like today is that the laws and freedoms that give them their vote also protect my vote, and ensure that everyone has an equal say in the decision making and that is surely a thing to be treasured.

Of course I am hoping for a particular outcome today and will be unbelievably saddened if Australia lets me down. But for now I am content in the knowledge that the cogs of democracy are once again turning and today is a day where hope is real and change is possible.

NT Intervention Damages Sacred Site

From the Women for Wik Group. For more information click on the link on the right.

Monday, 12 November 2007

The grassroots organisation Women for Wik, which has been monitoring the Federal intervention in the Northern Territory, expressed dismay at the revelation that a pit toilet has been built on a sacred site in the Aboriginal township of Numbulwar, one of the 73 communities directly affected by the intervention.

"This has occurred despite repeated assurances by Prime Minister Howard and his Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough, that sacred sites would be protected", said Olga Havnen, CEO of the Combined Aboriginal Organisations of the NT. "This is an example of how the whole approach to the intervention is fundamentally flawed. The desecration of sacred sites is not something that can be repaired."

In his 25 June Address to the Sydney Institute, the Prime Minister stated that 'The permit system for common areas, road corridors and airstrips for prescribed communities on Aboriginal land will be scrapped. Private residences and sacred sites will continue to be protected.'

"What a mob of idiots! Where is the consultation process?" said Eileen Cummings, former Policy Advisor to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory. "You don't just go in and build something without talking to people. How can people know what is sacred and what isn't if they don't ask?"

"I am not surprised that this could happen, given that the Federal government is employing a deliberate policy of not consulting with Aboriginal communities. Even Telecom wouldn't put a line down without talking to the traditional owners."

"The Northern Territory has some of the most important archaeological sites in the world, and this government has put in place a process that is damaging sites, when it should be protecting them. This government is not fulfilling its duty to the Australian people, or to the international community." said Claire Smith, President of the World Archaeological Congress.

"We are now in the bizarre situation whereby sites of global significance are under threat by the actions, and inattention, of an Australian government," said Associate Professor Smith. "Independent contractors are engaged to conduct work without being given any proper cultural training or supervision. This is due a failure in oversight."

"This blatant disregard for Aboriginal women's culture shows the flaws in the heavy handed and insensitive approach taken by this intervention. Mal Brough said that sacred sites would be protected. He lied." said Larissa Behrendt, Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney.

"This shows that we were justified in our concern that the abolition of the permit system would result in damage to sacred areas." said Ms Cummings, "Warren Snowdon expressed concern about this some time ago, but Mal Brough assured us that this would not happen. Well, Snowden was right, and Brough was wrong."

This government is showing a complete lack of respect. They would not dare do this with any form of property owner ion the country", said Ms Havnen. "Try telling someone else in suburban Australia that you are going to erect a shed in their backyard, or rip down their carport, or remove their clothesline. They would not tolerate it. And these are hardly sites of significance."

It's time to go John

One of the highest viewed You Tube videos in Australiathis week is a song detailing 11 years of John Howard's rule, listingall of the broken promises and immoral actsduring that time. It's great! Have a look here:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=MVzO017lcA4

I hope he wasn't joking

Despite my previous post, I find myself still reading and writing letters to the Age. Here's a letter I wrote in response to the Peter Garrett 'GAFFE' and the subsequent political milage seized upon by the Liberals:

I hope he wasn’t joking

The campaign shock this week, a politician indicates that decisions made once they gain office will be different than the promises they make in their campaign. Well that comes as a real surprise! Honestly, how naive do they think the voters are? After eleven years out of office, and with a right wing conservative Liberal Government to beat, the ‘me too’ campaign is, in my opinion, the only way Labor can get elected. They need to not push ‘Middle Australia’ too far, too fast and need to appeal to enough of them to get power back. But Howard and his cronies jumping on Peter Garrett this week after his supposed GAFFE just made the outgoing Government seem even more pathetic to me. You see there are quite a few voters out there, myself included, who are desperately hoping that Labor will ‘change it all’ once in power, and frankly are staking our vote on it! We have lamented life under Howard’s lack of social policy and social conscience for long enough. We want our country to be about more than interest rates and border security, white nationalism and self-interest. We want this time of unprecedented prosperity in Australia to also be a time of unprecedented hospitality, generosity, social responsibility and justice. Garrett’s comments were dismissed as a joke, but I hope he wasn’t joking. I just wish the Labor Party had enough faith in the voters to address us directly rather than through off handed comments to radio presenters.

Writing lettersto the Herald Sun

My brother told me yesterday that he got a letter published in the Herald Sun. I almost choked. What the hell was he doing writing into the Herald Sun, bastion publication of right wing conservatism in Melbourne (I dont care if it does havepretty pictures!)? He informed me that he was following Kevin Rudd's suggestion.

My sister in law met Kevin Rudd acouple of months ago at a conference. Being the forthright woman that she is she approached him and asked him a few questions. He, sensing that he was in a milieu of people he judged to be 'the twopercent of the population who listen to Radio National' suggested to them that rather than ringing in to RN or writing submissions to their local member, would be better off writing letters to the Editor of the Herald Sun. That's what so called 'Middle Australia' reads and if all they arereading is right wingcinservatism with nothing there to make them questionthen that is the what the Government will be aiming for. Kevin suggested that if we offer a more balanced view, or at least voiced an alternate view in papers like the Herald Sun,those voters might actually start to change their tune.

Who knows? Might be worth a shot!

I told you so - the link between the NT intervention and Uranium

I have just been advised by people know and trust that there has recently been an announcement for a Uranium mine to go ahead just outside of Alice Springs. This in addition to exploration already underway in the Napperby region, which is home to the Indigenous Community of Laramba, one of the 61 communities thave their permit revoked by the NT intervention. The exploration isbeing done by Toro Energy Limited. Their website had this to say about Uranium and the current political environment:

"In the last ten years, there have been important positive changes to Commonwealth government policies relating to the mining and export of uranium, headed by the abolishment of the "Three Mines Policy" in 1996.The current Australian Federal government's objective is to encourage the development and growth policy is to develop the export potential of Australia's uranium industry by allowing mining and export of uranium"

I was foolish enough to think that they would wait a little longer before letting the mining companies in, but I guess Howard and Brough are worried time is running out for them!

Not remiss, complicit, Mr Howard

For anyone out there who thinks after John Howard's little "Reconciliation" stunt last week, that actually he's a reformed man and maybe we should give him another go, please think again.

On the Women for Wik site there is a fantastic timeline that someone has put together listing all of Howard's action in relation to Indigenous Australia. It is not the case that he has simply been remiss in not doing more for Indigenous Australians.He has in fact been the direct cause of many of the problems currently being experienced.

See the timeline here:

http://www.womenforwik.org/timeline.html

What can you do for $20 million?

Experts suggest that we could eliminate trauchoma (a curable eye disease that still exists in remote Indigenous communities) from Australia for $20 million. This is about the same amount the Federal Government plans to spend on illicit drug testing for Football players.

A referendum? Don't make me laugh Johnny

John Howard has perhaps reached a point of no return on the ridiculous scale of having no fucking idea about Indigenous Affairs. His latest idea - after 11 years in office he is now promising, if re-elected, to consider, after 18 months of careful deliberation, possibly holding a referndum on including acknowledgement of the Indigenous peoples of Australia in a preamble to the Australian constitution. No apology mind you, 'cos that wont help anyone!

Well I've got news for you Johnny, neither will your bloody referendum about a preamble! Aboriginal people live on average 20 years less than non-Aboriginal people, they still suffer from basic health problems such as trauchoma (the only group in the world who live in a 'western' country who still suffer from this disease), the number of Aboriginal inmates in NT jails is 3 times that of non-Aboriginal and only 40% of all Aboriginal students finish high school nationwide - much fewer if you just look at statistics for places like the NT.

For 11 years you have at best sat on your hands, and at worst, consistently removed funding that was trying to deal with these real issues. So don't even think about coming at the Australian public with a pre-election, last minute, pansy arsed, half baked, ill-conceived, useless suggestion about "Reconciliation". You're not really interested. Never have been. Move over and make room for people who want to deal with the reality of Indigenous Australia.

New Look!

Don't panic! You haven't gone to the wrong page. I have wanted to overhaul the look of my blog for a while, mainly so that it reflected the desert colour more. Not sure if I have achieved that really but am all for changing things around a bit. There are a couple of new features at the bottom of the page namely a link to videos from You Tube about the NT Intervention, as well as a list of resources about indigenous Australia which I will add to over time.

Clarke and Dawe's take on the NT intervention

I just watched the John Clarke and Brian Dawe skit from the 7:30 Report on the NT intervention. It's good stuff. Find it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eapgTNkU-Vw

Go back!

This article came to me via the Women for Wik movement but was recently published in the Sydney Morning Herald. It was written by an Indigenous woman who lives in a remote Indigenous Community in the NT and works at her local school.

Reading her words made me feel like any one of the women I work with would have said the same thing. Please remember that this issue is still happening, that these people will be affected for a long time by the decisions made by this Federal Government.

Go Back. You Are Intruding On Our Lives And Our Safety

Rachel Willika, Sydney Morning Herald | October 2, 2007

I live at Eva Valley in the Northern Territory. It is one of the communities affected by the Federal Government's intervention. I am a single mother. I look after my family, and I support my family. I have six children, some grown up, but we still live together in the community.

I was living at Barunga when I first heard about the intervention. I was told by mobile phone. It was on the news. When we found out, everyone was worried. The girls wanted to go to hide in the bush. When we saw the army on TV, I felt frightened. Some people, not just children, but adults, too, thought they might come with guns.

I have been thinking about those words "Little children are sacred". Who are the little children? Are they talking about all the children? Black children and white children? That's what it says to me. We should be protecting all the children. Aren't white children sacred, too?

I work at the local school, tutoring. I love the children, and teaching them to write and how to sound the alphabet and how to read books. After school, I prepare for church. Our church is a little shed on a cement slab. No power, no water. We use an extension cord from a nearby house so we can have lights and play music. We pay for our electricity with power cards. We try to make sure that there is enough money on those cards so we have electricity all the time, but when it runs out we go outside and make a fire.

When I was a young woman I used to drink. I'm a Christian person now. Christianity helps people to fight bad things, like alcohol. My belief in God gives me courage.

Eva Valley is a dry community. Before the intervention the drinking people would sit at a community place, along the road to Barunga. All the drinking people sat there together, and it was a safe place. Now, they are drinking along the highway. The roads are dangerous and I'm worried there might be an accident.

We don't know what the Government is planning to do. At Eva Valley, we have got no email, no internet, no newspapers. Most people don't have a TV or a radio, so we can't keep track of what's going on. You need a big outside antenna to get TV reception. Only four or five houses have this. We don't have mobile coverage and we have to use a pay phone - but to use the pay phone we have to drive 100 kilometres into Katherine to buy a phone card. We haven't got a bus. Our bus is too old now, so we have no transport to go into town to get food. We all put in whatever money we've got to pay for a taxi. That costs $190, one way.

The permit system made me feel safe. People could only enter the community with the permission of the traditional owners, so we knew who was coming in. Anybody can come in now. We don't like to have strangers come in. They might bring in drugs and alcohol, and we don't want that.

This Government intervention is making life harder for Aboriginal people. I am worried we might lose our land, our rights. I feel like the Government is attacking our culture, and that it wants to change everything. The Government should be helping to make families strong, but what is happening now is hurting us.

These are really serious matters, and we need to deal with them seriously. We are talking about the future of Aboriginal children. Everything needs to come out in the open. We need to be honest if we are to make better lives for our children. I want to work with Aboriginal organisations, because I feel comfortable with them. The Federal Government has lost our trust.

I am writing this because I want to stand up and protect Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. We don't want to go back to the days when we got paid in rations, and every community had a white superintendent. We want to move ahead. We want to live and work on our own land. We're not going to let them come and run the show. We're going to stand up. We have rights.

See: Sydney Morning Herald

Bureaucratic buck-passing

This is why nothing ever gets resolved...

Source: abc.net.au/news/tag/indigenous

"The push for temporary accommodation in Alice Springs has reached a new stalemate, despite one of the locations being given a sacred sites clearance.

Northern Territory Planning Minister Delia Lawrie approved a Commonwealth proposal in March to establish two demountable accommodation sites to ease overcrowding in town camps.

The Dalgetty Road site was then scrapped over a sacred sites issue, but the Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority has now given the go-ahead to the other site at Len Kittle Drive.

The Federal Government asked Ms Lawrie's Department to find a replacement site for Dalgetty Road, but she says it has been unable to find one.

"We've got no Crown land sites that would be suitable for such a purchase and that really does leave the open market for the Commonwealth to pursue," she said.

But a spokesman for Indigenous Affairs and Community Services Minister Mal Brough maintains it is up to the Territory Government to find the second site."

Meanwhile, there's still overcrowding, people still don't have accomodation, plus the sites they are talking about are on the outskirts of town creating other problems in terms of transport and accessibility of town based services. What they're proposing is a band aid for a compound fracture!

The citizenship test

I was thinking it would be an interesting exercise to get a hold of the new citizenship test and do it with the students up at Utopia - you know, test out how 'Australian' they really are! I have just been looking on the website:

http://www.citizenship.gov.au/test/

Apparantly some of the key 'Australian values' are:

"Equality under the law
All Australians are equal under the law. This means that nobody should be treated differently from anybody else because of their race, ethnicity or country of origin; because of their age, gender, marital status or disability; or because of their political or religious beliefs. Government agencies and independent courts must treat eveyone fairly."

I guess this means that everybody except Aboriginal people. They can be treated differently. We recently repealled the Racial Discrimination Act to ensure that!

"Equality of Opportunity
Australians value equality of opportunity and what's often called a 'fair go'. This means that what someone achieves in life should be a product of their talents, work and effort rather than an accident of birth. No one should be disadvantaged on the basis of their country of birth, cultural heritage, political beliefs, language, gender or religious beliefs"

I guess everyone has equal opportunity but it's the kind of 'Animal farm' logic at work. All Australians have equal opportunity but some have a more equal opportunity than others. If you're white, middle class, English speaking and from an urban area, let's face it you're more likely to have access to and make the most of your 'opportunities'. Not alot of educational programs being delivered in Aboriginal languages even though the UN says children have a right to be educated in their first language!

I guess it's just as well we dont ask Indigenous people to sit the citizenship test given that it's only given in English and it's computer based. Not alot of computers in remote communities last time I checked!

Still I wonder what we would do if Indigenous people did sit the test and fail. Would we tell them to go back where they came from?

Finding silence

I was woken up this morning by a semi-trailer idling below my bedroom window. This set the tone for the day. Once the truck left, the hydrolic lift being used on the renovations next door beeped its way up and down delivering noisy sheets of tin to the rooftop. All of this, combined with the usual noise of living on a main road where the trucks going by literally make the house shake, set me over the edge today. I decided to abandon the house in favour of a swim. Usually, even if I cannot find quiet and calm anywhere else, I can find it under the water while swimming laps. Usually, but not today. Today a workman decided to repair something with a hammer right next to the lane I was swimming in. Disappointing to say the least! It made me homesick for the desert, for the space and the stillness, for the silence that allows you to really hear things both around you and within.
Oscar Kawagley, my favorite Alaskan author, talked to me when I was there about how we need to make an effort every day to 'quiet the mind'. He suggested that it actually takes us about 20 minutes of silence to quiet the mind and focus on thought, to allow yourself to 'wander into the inside of ecology'. I think that's what I was doing all of those mornings and afternoons in the desert when I went walking. I think that's what happens when I swim (usually!) So on days like today when finding that silence seems impossible I feel horribly out of balance with myself and the world.

That one day in September

I'm not really into football. Never have been. I grew up following a team but went to maybe one game a year and only knew what was going on because I had brothers who liked the game. It's a long time since I've been in Melbourne for a football season. This year has been a good reminder to me that even though it's not that important to me, football is very important to some people. Before each big Collingwood match over the past month, regular as clockwork, I have received call from the Mulga Bore mob. They just want to include me in the excitement that surrounds the game for them. Then today, as I watched the Grand Final from Federation Square (hosting a Swiss friend who hadn't seen a Grand Final before) I was struck by all the people who had obviously comeover from Adelaide especially for the game. I was delighted to watch a former student of mine from Alice Springs score a Grand Final Goal, whihc I know for a fact is literally a dream come true for him. As I caught the tram home during the fourth quarter (my friend and I gave up and went for cofee at half time!) I noticed Port supporters in groups of twos and threes shuffling away from the MCG, disappointed that their team had not been able to do more on the day and I felt for them. Their hopes had been so high. But then watching images from the streets of Geelong where there was literally not a soul on the streets becasue in unison the whole town was inside watching the match, hoping to break a 44 year drought.
And the game prompted me to get in touch with a couple of friends, Cats supporters, who I had not spoken tofor a long time, and I realised how much i miss them. And then, as I walked from the tram stop to my house, the MCG behind me, I heard the cheer of 100,000 people go up as the final siren sounded and it made me smile. That was enough football for me for one year, but I do understand why it means so much to so many others and that's where the enjoyment of football exists for me.

Women for Wik

This is a site supprted by women from around Australia and around the world who are speaking up against the current intervention in the NT. If you're interested why not check it out, sign their petition and read the latest news and views.

Also look out for further information about a day of action on October 19.

http://www.womenforwik.org/index.html

Artists speak up about NT intervention

Here's a link to a short video on Youtube made by the people who work at Keringke Arts at Santa Teresa Community south of Alice. They talk about who they are what they do, their work and how the recent intervention will impacton them running their business. This is an Aboriginal owned and run Art co-op, one of very few in the NT. The sound is a little tricky but please watch it anyway. It take incredible courage and stregth for traditonal people to speak out in ENGLISH!

http://www.youtube.com/keringke

Love

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

~rumi

Generational change and chickens

I got some photos back the other day that I took during the few days I spent in Perth (or more specifically Belmont "City of Opportunity"!) My favorite photo is one of a chicken being held by a little girl. My friends the Teros, who live in Belmont (which is really close to the airport!), have chickens and ducks in their backyard, and they LOVE them. Really! Poultry is a big part of their life. In fact at a recent trivia night there was a question about Indian Runner Ducks and I lamented the fact that the Teros weren't on our team that night. I made the comment while I was there that I didn't know anyone else who took their poultry so seriously, I mean they know names and breeds and the differences in temperaments between the different breeds. They KNOW poultry! I made the mistake of making this comment in front of a friend of theirs who also had chooks and he informed me that I needed to get out more because in fact quite a lot of people (him for example) know all about the different breeds of chickens and ducks. This then made me question why i didn't know that stuff. I mean I actually have the pedigree for it, after all my grandfather ran a poultry farm. My Mum grew up surrounded by chickens most of her childhood. We had chooks in the backyeard for all of my childhood too, but I never loved those chooks the way the teros love theirs. Maybe having a poultry farmer in the family was the problem. My enduring memory is of Grandad coming around to chop the heads off the baby chickens who grew up to be roosters. I dont know that I ever associated that with him being a farmer and having the right skills. At that age he just seemed like a rough old man who knew how to wield an axe. He died when I was 19. All of my memories about him revolve around gardening - his retirement profession, or playing 500, or the tall tales he would tell from his childhood. I always knew that his side of the family were farmers and learned somewhere along the way that they didn't care too much for Aboriginal people. It strikes me as somewhat odd that I do what i do now in complete ignorance of the knowledge he had, about poultry and other things, and he lived his life in ignorance of or prejudice towards the people who I spend so much of my time working with.
Sometimes generational change seems to take forever, but in fact alot can change in just two generations.

Universal Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous peoples

Here are two of the articles in the recently adopted declaration. Howard certainly wouldn't have been able to pass his legislation if we'd been a signatory!

Article 18

Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision-making in matters
which would affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in
accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own
indigenous decision-making institutions.

Article 19

States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples
concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free,
prior and informed consent before adopting and implementing legislative or
administrative measures that may affect them.


The full document is a magnificent affirmation for Indigneous peoples the world over. Follow the link below to read the whole declaration:
http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/indigenous/docs/draftdeclaration.pdf

The World says YES but Australia says NO

New York - September 13, 2007 - At long last, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a reality. It was adopted today by the United Nations General Assembly by a vote of 143 to 4 with 11 abstentions.

The declaration spells out the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples including their right to their traditional lands and resources; their right to give their free, prior, and informed consent before governments take actions that negatively affect them; their right to be free from genocide and forced relocation; and their rights to their languages, cultures and spiritual beliefs. At long last the world's native peoples have a valuable tool for regaining some of the cultural and physical ground they have lost over the past 500 years.

"Today, by adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we are making further progress to improve the situation of indigenous peoples around the world," stated General Assembly President Haya Al Khalifa. "We are also taking another major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warmly welcomed the adoption, calling it "a triumph for indigenous peoples around the world." He further noted that "this marks a historic moment when UN Member States and indigenous peoples reconciled with their painful histories and resolved to move forward together on the path of human rights, justice and development for all."

Today's happy moment did not come easily. The declaration underwent a longer period of debate and negotiation--25 years all told--than any other international agreement in United Nations history. During those years, hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples were routed from their homes, massacred in their villages, had their sacred sites defiled, and their lands and resources appropriated. Even with the declaration now adopted, many of these problems will continue unless nations live up to the principals in the document.

Unfortunately, the United States stands to be one of these problem states. It was one of the four countries (along with Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) that voted against the declaration. Its vote sends a message to Native Americans and to the world that once again the United States is not prepared to take action to support human rights, even when those rights benefit American citizens.

The four "no" votes did not dampen the enthusiasm of Indigenous Peoples for today's outcome. As Indigenous Peoples Caucus president and Cultural Survival Program Council member Les Malezer stated in his statement following the vote, "The Declaration gives [Indigenous Peoples] the platform for addressing the continuing abuses of human rights against Indigenous Peoples and for shaping a future where it can be realized that all peoples are truly equal."

Source: http://www.culturalsurvival.org

Giving in

I feel like I have been fighting off a cold for a while and last night a wise woman said to me 'Sometimes it's just better to give in to it'. It made me question why I was fighting it so hard. Why do we fight things? I guess sometimes there are good reasons we fight because we believe we should, we fight because it is important. But what about the times we fight because we're proud, or fight becasue we are scared of what will happen if we dont. Maybe we fight out of habit, or duty, or we fight without realising we are fighting. But when we stop fighting, when we give in and allow things to happen, to roll over us and run their course we discover that the thing we were resisiting isn't so bad afterall. For example giving into my cold today means that I'm sitting on the couch reading the paper and drinking a cup of tea which is actually pretty nice.

Going back

I woke up this morning with a voice in my head saying ‘you can never go back’. I’m not sure if it was part of a dream or my subconscious trying to send me a message, or maybe I was overhearing a voice outside the room!
Whatever it was that voice has been ringing in my ears all day. Partly that’s because I’m back in Alice Springs after an absence of nine months and cant get over the change that has happened in that time. Almost all of the banks have changed locations, some restaurants that have always been there have closed and others have opened in their place, there’s a Gloria Jeans coffee shop and friends tell me Target is about to open in a couple of weeks!
All in all it’s a little disorienting. What feels even worse is that the tone of the town has changed, and those who have watched it happen say that it has been in the last 6 weeks that it has been most noticeable. The town itself is noticeably quieter. Streets are empty and shops and restaurants sparsely populated. But it is a surreal quiet, a law abiding, scared quiet. A quiet that speaks of other things under the surface. For example, last night I walked to the house of some friends, and for the first time perhaps ever used the Todd River footpath at night, by myself. I knew it was OK to do this because I had been hearing loud boasts from locals about how clean and safe things are now. Before, the Todd River used to be a common place for Aboriginal people to gather and camp around fires if they had nowhere else to go. It’s fair to say that a lot of drinking also accompanied these gatherings and there was quite a lot of broken glass and rubbish left in the riverbed and on the surrounding banks. Apparently mounted police were brought down from Darwin a few weeks ago and they have been patrolling the riverbed ever since. What no one is able to tell me is what has happened to all these people. They have obviously been rounded up and moved on somewhere else and these are rumours of groups gathering at the town limits. No one seems to care too much about this though because on the surface everything is ‘better’.
The story at Utopia is no better. Finally seeing my friends for the first time yesterday gave them an opportunity to tell me about all the changes that have taken place. There are now three police officers posted out at Utopia. The local joke is ‘two Federal police and one local to make sure the other two don’t get lost!’ Apparently they have decided that their main job out there is to do licence, rego and grog checks for every car that passes. I’m sure that on the surface this seems like a reasonable use of their skills and resources. In a context like Utopia though, where the population is dispersed and the people rely on (often un-roadworthy) cars to get to the Health Clinic and the one and only Store for food, the implications are more severe.
And at the school the new Principal is jumping through the hoops being set before her by the powers on high and is step by step undoing all of the programs and routines we put in place over the course of 5 years. The Community teachers don’t know what they are supposed to be teaching and the introduction of a second Visiting teacher at Mulga Bore has only led to conflict between the two ‘whitefellas’ and absolutely no consultation with the Indigenous staff about what they want for their school.
So I end my time in Alice Springs questioning my decision to ‘go back’, knowing how much the people out there would love me to ‘go back’ but knowing that if I do I stand a good chance of ending up bitter and sad at the futility of all of my efforts.
The only thing that hold me steady is that no matter how much Indigenous people may want to ‘go back’ to a time when they were not poor and dispossessed and patronised and alienated, ‘go back’ to a time when they lived as they pleased on their own country without anyone telling them they couldn’t, no matter how much they may want that, it is not an option. They have only to move forward. My question then becomes how do I help them do that with integrity and self assured identity, without loosing myself in the process?

Graduation

Today was a proud day. I travelled back to Alice Springs to see the Mulga Bore School teachers graduate from their Certificate IV in Indigenous Education Work. I had seen them graduate from their Certificate III a couple of years ago. I remember at that time it was such a proud moment. Families had come in to see the ceremony and celebrate the very first members of the community EVER to graduate a Tertiary course. Their first question after that Graduation – what’s next? What can we do now? Certificate IV seemed the next logical step but it was with some trepidation that we enrolled them. This course would require a lot more written work and a lot more abstract thinking. It would be a much bigger challenge for a group of women who had not gone past a few months at year 9 level. I should have known better than to underestimate them! In a little less than 2 years, with lots of hard work and dedication from them, the school staff and the Batchelor Institute Staff, four teachers from Mulga Bore and one from Perrawaw (Clinic) homeland had completed all the requirements and today was the final step in their journey. To watch them in their yellow graduation gowns and sashes, process down the aisle and take their places next to all of the other proud graduants left a lump in my throat. All of the Senior students from the two schools were brought in to witness the occasion and seeing the looks of pride and hearing their clapping and cheering made me hopeful for more occasions like this in the future.
In our academic world of PhDs and Masters Degrees a Certificate IV might not sound like much of an achievement, but I know and they know what it took to get here today and I am so proud that I have been able to walk that journey with them.

Timing

Why is it that the thing you have always wanted tends to present itself at the most inconvenient time?

Something other than anger

I have just been reading back over the last dozen or so posts made during August and I realise how much anger and sadness and frustration they contain. I think those three emotions acurately descrbe my reaction to the actions of the Federal Government during that time and I know that people were asking me for my opinions on the NT intervention and writing stuff on the blog was one way to express my opinions, so i make no apology for anything I wrote. But it's exhausting carrying that kind of anger and despair around and I find now that I seemed to have moved on to something beyond anger, something positive and possible, something that looks more like hope. Surely, without it, i would not have the strength to go back and continue working where I do, knowing that the actions of Government will contradict me. Surely, without it, I would admit defeat and lament the fact that I'm just one person in the face of something daunting.
So after feeling such passionate anger in August, my question is where did this hope come from?

Some more photos from Communities in the Centre

Parting gift

As Ray Jackson (from the Indigenous Social Justice Association) says, "The NT intervention is John Howard's parting gift to the Minerals Council of Australia".

Bob Brown Parliament speech

"The Govern-ment has turned it back on the
indigenous people of Australia over the last 10
years. Now we have 600 pages of legis-
lation brought here and the Government says,
`We will suspend standing
orders to ram it through the Senate'.
This is government by the executive and
Parliament is being sidelined. This legislation
goes to the core of what this
nation is, how we relate to the first Australians...
"And what is the Opposition going to
do about it? Nothing. Not a thing. It is an
opposition in name only. This process is
wrong. This process is corrupting this
Parliament. This is Prime Minister
Howard corrupting proper democratic
process, which means we must be informed.
When you are dealing with
people whose lives, future, and culture
are at stake, then you must be informed."

Oxfam's verdict on the legislation

07 Aug 07

Oxfam Research: Land Rights Act changes detrimental and will not reduce child sex abuse

An Oxfam Australia-commissioned assessment on the proposed amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 provides compelling evidence that the proposed changes have no connection with the incidence of child sexual abuse, are likely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the Government’s emergency response in the Northern Territory and are detrimental to the development of Aboriginal communities.

“I could find no evidence of the proposed measures being connected in any way to child sex abuse, and concluded that there may even be some risk of exacerbating the situation if the permit system is relaxed,” said the author of the report, Professor Jon Altman, from the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at The Australian National University.

“It is baffling to see the apparent unwillingness to subject the proposed reforms to appropriate community consultation and parliamentary review, especially given the very significant impact that these reforms will have on the human rights, well-being and day-to-day lives of Aboriginal people,” added Prof. Altman.

The report, titled ‘“National Emergency” and Land Rights Reform: Separating fact from fiction’, also concludes that two proposed land rights reform measures - the compulsory acquisition of an undefined number of prescribed communities (Measure 5) and the partial abolition of the permit system (Measure 10) are at direct loggerheads with a number of other measures and are consequently likely to jeopardize the effectiveness of the overarching National Emergency Response. It further argues that the permit abolition is based on an ideological position rather than any factual basis, given there is no evidence of child abuse being any higher in areas where the permit system exists.

“We feel that the compulsion associated with these measures will erode property rights and the economic position of an already severely marginalised community. We are in turn recommending that a Senate Inquiry should be held so that all key stakeholders can have their views heard, and that Aboriginal communities need to give their support and backing to any proposed changes”, said James Ensor, Director of Public Policy and Outreach with Oxfam Australia.

Oxfam further proposes that the first step should be to rigorously asses the workability of the land rights amendments made in 2006 before any further reforms are introduced, and if none of the steps mentioned above are taken that the proposed amendments should be vigorously opposed and not passed by the Parliament.

“It is extremely disappointing that there are very clear, inherent inconsistencies in the overall National Emergency Response. These two measures are completely incompatible with other proposed measures, and they can only add to the underlying distrust and the perception of a ‘land grab’ by some land owners – sentiments that can eventually result in diminishing the success of the actual national emergency response and subsequent reduction of child abuse,” concluded Mr Ensor.

Invited to the table

During the mid 1600s the colonisation of Indigenous North Americans was in full swing. Then after about 320 years, there was a shift in paradigm, and Anglo-Americans representing their governments and institutions began to invite Indigenous people to their table; the idea being that there might be something to learn from what Indigenous people had to say. It is thus interesting to note that once invited to the table, those who made the invitation were never quite patient enough to really hear the message that was being learned.

…we are still treated as if we do not know our own business and must therefore be either led or told what to do.

On those occasions when we find ourselves at a table of our own making within Anglo created institutions, there are times when we are subjected to people coming to our table only to walk away before our story has fully been told, which many times is due to finding Indigenous paradigms too different from their own.


I would hope that those who would seek to invite indigenous people to their tables can also see merit in not interfering or becoming judgemental when Indigenous people create environments that we can see as culturally proper. I would also hope that when people are invited to come to such places of learning they will sit at our tables and be able to hear the lessons to be learned.

Stephen Greymorning
Arapaho Indian and University Professor

Fred Chaney speaks out again

Fred Chaney, head of Reconciliation Australia, spoke to Fran Kelly on ABC radio this morning. He, once again, succinctly and wisely outlined the nature of the problems with the legislation that will go through the house today.

It can be found here: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/breakfast/stories/2007/2004310.htm

If you get the chance plese have a listen to what he said. Also, the ABC New pages is keeping on top of pretty much all that is being said on the issue.

Here is the link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/tag/indigenous/

For their protection

The following is an excerpt from the Aboriginal Protection Act of 1869, commonly thought to be the first in a long line of poilcy documents that led to the removal of Aboriginal 'half caste' children from their families 'for their own protection'. It seems the themes haven;t changed much since 1869 - land, welfare, education and child protection.

Remind me again, how did it work out the first time?

Aboriginal Protection Act 1869 (Vic)

It shall be lawful for the Governor from time to time to make
regulations and orders for any of the purposes hereinafter mentioned, and
at any time to rescind or alter such regulations (that is to say) :—
(I.) For prescribing the place where any aboriginal or any tribe
of aborigines shall reside.
(II.) For prescribing the terms on which contracts for and on
behalf of aboriginals may be made with Europeans, and upon
which certificates may be granted to aboriginals who may be
able and willing to earn a living by their own exertions.
(III.) For apportioning amongst aboriginals the earnings of
aboriginals under any contract, or where aboriginals are located
on a reserve, the net produce of the labor of such aboriginals.
(IV.) For the distribution and expenditure of moneys granted by
Parliament for the benefit of aborigines.
(V.) For the care custody and education of the children of
aborigines.
(VI.) For prescribing the mode of transacting the business of
and the duties generally of the board or any local committee
hereinafter mentioned and of the officers appointed hereunder.

Some 'traditional' welcomes

These signs have been put up at the entry points to two Central Australian Communities, Santa Teresa (South East of Alice - lots of family connections to Mulga Bore) and Willowra (North West of Alice Springs - we play against their school in our school sports).

Delegation from Central Australia

Gina Smith
"We’re a group of Central Australian delegates that represent our constituents back home in the Central Area. We just wanted to say that we welcome the child abuse report and intervention of child abuse, but we don’t want our permit system removed because it means so much to our protection of our lands and sacred sites and knowing who can and can’t go there. We had to get permits to come into parliament house – we’re bound by their rules, and our permit system works the same as this. We come here, we have rules that we have to follow, they come to our country they should have to do the same."

Harry Nelson
"We came down here to lobby to the Government about our rights and we’re not too happy about what the Government has done, bamboozling us with the army and the police. People were misled in a way. The presence of the army and the police upset many of our communities and we hope that our message of the last few days that we’ve been staying here in Canberra has been heard by the bosses. Our rights were taken away."

Walter Shaw
"This year’s supposed to be a commemorative year for Aboriginal people in Australia considering the 1967 referendum and NAIDOC. We’re down here in Canberra now fighting for our future existence. We want to be the third party as an equal partner with the Federal Government and the NT Government."

Valda Shannon
"We are particularly offended by the exclusion of the Racial Discrimination Act. We do support some changes to welfare like linking payments to school attendance and child neglect, but the proposal to hold back 50% from everyone is discriminatory and doesn’t encourage positive behavior, and there’s no plan beyond quarantining.
With the permits removed there going to be a lot more problems entering into the community. Who’s going to police the law, the people wandering into the places where they’re supposed to have a permit?"

Gilbert Corbett
"I’m a delegate that will stand by my people to stay on behalf of them, talking about all regions in the Central Land Council. We came here because of the permits. We need to keep strong for ourselves and our sacred sites so we can look after our country so that we can pass everything to our children so that they can carry on."

Lindsay Bookie, Chair of Central Land Council
"With the Land Rights Act everything started, doing land claims to get our land back. We had to go to prove that Australia was our country. We had to show our sacred stories to these governments. We only show that to our young people, not to white men, white women. Now the Government’s pulling it from under our feet and taking it from us again. What are we going to do? They took it away from us in the first place, then we had to prove that it was our country. And the new laws come in, now it’s all going to be taken away from us from under our feet."

What Aboriginal Community Leaders are saying...

Below is an excerpt from a speech given by Peter Garrett in Parliament House last week. He referenced comments made by Aboriginal Community Leaders from the NT. It should be noted that while at least these Community leaders were from the NT (not Cape York like Noel Pearson is) the leaders represent the Top End, not the people of Central Australia where I live and work.

Aboriginal community leaders, health professionals and other concerned Australian community leaders who met at the Garma Festival health forum at Gulkula, Arnhem Land, call on the Australian government to abandon this legislation. They point out that there has been ‘no negotiation, courtesy or respect shown to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal community members and health professionals’. They are ‘particularly concerned that there are no evidence based reasons given for the changes to the land permit system and the Northern Territory Aboriginal land rights act’. They specifically say that the government does not have to destabilise communal rights to land to effectively address sexual abuse, social dysfunction or poverty. These Aboriginal leaders point out that the proposed measures bear no resemblance to the ‘Sacred Children’ report that the minister has referred to and that, as such, they have no confidence in their effectiveness. Finally, I note the authors of the Little children are sacred report itself said, ‘The thrust of our recommendations is for there to be consultation and ownership of the community.’ These views then are entirely understandable, given the way that this legislation has come into the House and the reaction from Aboriginal communities to such a heavy-handed process.

Beds are burning

Make no mistake. We are about to witness a very dark day in the history of our Nation. Legislation is before the Senate that will effectively see Aboriginal people loose their right to control what happens on their land for the second time in history. In the name of 'saving children' Mal Brough, John Howard and tehir cronies have prepared 500 pages of legislation that make sweeping changes to the Racial Discrimination Act and the Land Rights Act. They have also proposed changes to allow Federal Police unheard of powers to act in Northern Territory Communities. All of this in response to the "National Emergency" currently being experienced in the NT. All of this in response to the "Little Children are Sacred" Report, the authors of which are now speaking out very vocally against the proposed legislation, insisting that it does not reflect ANY of the 97 recommendations in the report.

So why is the legislation being put forward. What possible motivation could there be?
1. Subterfuge - be seen to be doing SOMETHING and white middle class suburban Australians wont actually care what the something is. After all Aboriginal people are a long way away to most Australians
2. It's a foot in the door to regain control over Aboriginal Land - not really such a big deal, I mean it's not as if the story of Vincent Lingiari and countless others who fought for the right to their own land all those years ago are all that important on the greater context of our National History.Oh but wait, perhaps it was only fine to give the land back to them when we thought there was nothing to be gained economically? Perhaps now that the World is turning Nuclear again there's something to be said for controlling land rich in Uranium, or at least having access to land that can be used to dump Nuclear waste!

Maybe, just maybe John Howard and Mal Brough are not at all sure that they will have a job after November? How much do you want to bet that either or both of them turn up on the Boards of large Mining Companies with interests in teh Northern Territory?

But let's not just sling mud at John and Mal. They are easy targets. Where the hell is the so called Opposition? How can Warren Snowden, the Federal Minister for Lingiari sit idely by and watch this happen. How the hell is Peter Garratt sleeping at night - how can he sleep while his bed is burning?

The time has come to say fair's fair! This legislation is racist and opportunistic and if we as a Nation allow the Government to get away with it we will hang our heads in shame when questioned by future generations.

To know who you are

To know who you are, what your place in the world is, and that you strive to seek life, is what self-awareness is all about. It is the highest level of human knowledge, to know oneself so intimately that you are not afraid to tell others of life and to help those who need help with compassion without being dragged down by the troubles of those being helped.

Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley
Yupiaq Elder

Sorry Business

I was just speaking to Rosie up at Mulga Bore. She told me there's a funeral on tomorrow. One of the old ladies from Angela's Community has passed away. I knew her pretty well. She was one of the women who first took me hunting. She was the one who put my brother and his friends to shame when it came to using an axe to get sugarbag out of a tree. She was a wise, well respected woman. She was a staunch supporter of the school and of me. She was the holder of many stories, stories that I will now no longer be able to hear her tell. I will miss her. I will notice her absence next year when i go back. I am sorry I will not be there for her funeral.

The power of story

Angayuqaq Oscar Kawagley is a Yupiaq man from Alaska. He has written a great deal about the world view of the Yupiaq people and has been very influential in helping to reclaim what education means to Alaska native people. Here is what he has to say about the importance of storytelling as a teaching tool:

Mythology is an invaluable pedagogical tool which transcends time. As the storyteller talks, the Yupiaq listeners are thrust into the world of imagination. As the story unfolds, it becomes part of their present. As you imagine and visualise in the minds eye, how could you not become a part of it and it a part of you? There is no separation. The story and words contain the epistemological webbing…..to the outsider attempting to understand the meaning of the experience, it may appear to be merely a story, but to the insider it becomes reality leading to a spiritual orientation in accord with nature. This is quality knowledge whose end is happiness and long life.

Photo albums

I spent alot of today putting photos of my recent overseas trip in photo albums. I find it funny that often something I didn't enjoy much at the time becomes a fond memory when I look at the photo of it. Perhaps we only remember the good bits? Perhaps the real enjoyment of an experience is in the retelling of it?

Lonely for that country

I arrived back from overseas having decided at some point during those three months that I will go back to the desert next year. I thought this would free me up to enjoy my six months in Melbourne. To some extent it does. I still seem to spend a large part of everyday feeling 'lonely for that country'. Here's what I miss:
1. The quiet (that may be reflective of the fact that I am living right on Hoddle St at the moment!)
2. The stars
3. The cold nights and warm, clear days
4. The sunsets
5. Sharing a joke with the women at Mulga Bore
6. My job
7. The pattern of my days up there - a walk first thing, simple breakfast, full day of work, yoga, a walk at sunset, cooking good food for dinner and knitting in front of the TV before bed
8. Going 'out bush'
9. Sleeping in my swag
10. Talking Anmatyerr
11. Knowing where everything is in Alice and not having to spend 40 minutes in traffic to get there
12. the big sky and the perfect combination of colours
13. Not being identified as different or strange for what I do for a job - up there it's actually a common job to have!

I'm sure the next few months will pass quickly and when I'm back there I'm sure I'll have moments where I will wonder why I missed it all so much. But still, it's nice to know where home is.

Letter to the Age

There was an opinion piece in the Sunday Age today written by Terry Lane. I was outraged by pretty much everything he said but in particular I was dismayed by his suggestions that "we may be as sentimental as we like about indigenous culture, but it is simply incompatible with real life and must change or be changed....Realistically there is no alternative to assimilation". I have written a response and sent it to the Age. Here's what I wrote:

The real world?

Exactly what part of the ‘real world’ does Terry Lane want Aboriginal Australians to assimilate to? The ‘real’ world where 8 people get stabbed when they go to a party? Or the ‘real’ world which is obsessed with Terrorist threats? Yes Terry, obviously the ‘practices of traditional marriage’ need to change. Better that they join the ‘real’ world where one in three marriages end in divorce. And Aboriginal parents really should join the ‘real’ world on parenting practices too. Better they get full time jobs working ridiculous hours to pay for a mortgage and lifestyle they can’t afford while their children go home to empty houses and spend their time playing computer games and injecting crystal meth.
How is it that an educated man, in the year 2007, honestly believes that ‘there is no alternative to assimilation’? I know you are trying to be controversial Terry; you’re baiting the hook. But you know what? I’m biting, because I can’t in good conscience let anyone spout such vile, poisonous statements without saying “You are wrong!” The Aboriginal people who are part of my life do not want or need to be assimilated into the ‘real’ world. They are strong, traditional people who look after their children, send them to school and think carefully about the sort of future they want. The idea that they would be better off assimilated is a lie, it is ignorance. I can’t believe The Sunday Age is giving you space to spread your ignorance as fact.

Lisa Hall
School Teacher
Remote Central Australia

Aunties are scared

I spoke to some of my friends from Mulga Bore yesterday. We hadn't spoken recently because I have been overseas for 3 months, so most of the conversation was catching up with any news or gossip they had. About halfway through the conversation Tanya asked me if I had seen the newspapers or on TV? I told her yes and asked her if there was something specific that was worrying her. She said "All that stuff what John Howard is saying". I told her it was big news down here too and I asked her how her family and the Community was feeling about it. She basically told me that there was alot of confusion and misunderstanding about what was happening. She said "i try to read those newspapers and watch the TV and then explain it to people but it's little bit hard". Tanya speaks English VERY well. She has no problems expressing herself and understands everything that takes place in a normal English conversation. If SHE is having trouble understanding what is being reported, I can only imagine the fear and misunderstanding recent event have caused for others.
I tried to explain what was happening as best I could. She understood that it was about sexual abuse, but didn't understand why they were talking about welfare payments and the Army and Police coming out to Communities. I couldn't fin d a good reason either.
A little while later I asked if she and Maggie (her sister) were still planning to visit me down here in Melbourne. For ages they have been talking about coming down for a visit and going to see Collingwood play at the MCG. They have been quite excited about it. When I raised the subject Tanya said "Maggie don't want to go now". When asked why not she replied, "She's scared to leave those kids. They might get taken away when we're gone."

Someone who knows what he is talking about

Taken from page 21 of the "Little Children are Sacred" report

Mr Fred Chaney, in retiring from the
National Native Title Tribunal, was asked why successive
governments have failed so comprehensively to turn the
story of Aboriginal deprivation around. He was being
interviewed on the ABC’s 7.30 Report on 19 April 2007
and replied:

And one of the things I think we should have learned by
now is that you can’t solve these things by centralised
bureaucratic direction. You can only educate children in
a school at the place where they live. You can only give
people jobs or get people into employment person by
person. And I think my own view now is that the lesson
we’ve learned is that you need locally based action, local
resourcing, local control to really make changes.
But I think governments persist in thinking you can
direct from Canberra, you can direct from Perth or
Sydney or Melbourne, that you can have programs
that run out into communities that aren’t owned by
those communities, that aren’t locally controlled and
managed, and I think surely that is a thing we should
know doesn’t work.
So I am very much in favour of a model which I suppose
builds local control in communities as the best of those
Native Title agreements do, as has been done in the
Argyle Diamond Mine Agreement, as is being done in
Kununurra. Not central bureaucracies trying to run
things in Aboriginal communities. That doesn’t work.

They’re locked into systems which require central
accounting, which require centralised rules and
regulations. They’re not locally tailored. The great thing
about working with a mining company in an
Aboriginal community is that the mining company has
the flexibility to manage towards outcomes locally with
that community.
The great thing about the education projects in which
I’m involved is that we can manage locally for the
outcomes that we want to achieve locally. Once you try
and do it by remote control, through visiting ministers
and visiting bureaucrats fly in, fly out – forget it.

What the report really says

The recently published "Little Children are Sacred" report is a good document. At over 300 pages long I am not going to claim to have read the whole thing, but I have read through most of section 1 and have gone over the 97 recommendations fairly thoroughly. The only thing I can think is that the authors of this report must be wondering which report John Howard is reading because his actions and the actions of Mal Brough's Department in no way reflect the sentiments, emphasis or direct wording of the actual report.

For example no where can I find a recommendation that requests, suggests or even alludes to bringing in the Federal Police or the Army.

The report does recommend, however:

28. That the Police actively recruit more Aboriginal police
officers, Aboriginal Community Police Officers and
Police Auxiliaries and to station more female officers in
remote communities with a preference for Aboriginal
female police officers.

I wonder also about all of these Federal Police and Army personnel who are being generously donated from all the Southern States, how much cross-cultural training do you think they have received in preparation for their 'ongoing' work in remote Communities? Especially when the report specifically states:

91. That compulsory cross-cultural training for all
government personnel be introduced, with more
intensive cross-cultural capability training for those
officers who are involved in service delivery and
policy development in respect of Aboriginal people.
Specifically, government to introduce:
a. a comprehensive Aboriginal culture induction
program for all new teachers to the Territory and
for existing teachers about to take up positions in
remote schools (it is recommended this program
run for three weeks full time)
b. training in Aboriginal language concepts for
those teachers already teaching in or about to
commence at remote schools to promote an
understanding of the nuances of Aboriginal
society.

92. That government personnel who are working closely
with Aboriginal people be encouraged to undertake
relevant language training and such encouragement
should be accompanied by appropriate incentives.

I can't find the recommendation(s) in the report that in any way refer to revoking the permit system and thereby diminishing Native Title. I'm sorry John, explain to me why that is wrapped up in the issue of Child sexual abuse? (I'll try to avoid any analogies about Iraq, Oil and Weapons of Mass Destruction!)

I did however, find these recommendations related to Aboriginal law being respected and upheld, which I think hold alot of merit:

71. That, as soon as possible, the government facilitate
dialogue between the Aboriginal law-men and law-
women of the Northern Territory and senior members
of the legal profession and broader social justice
system of the Northern Territory. That such dialogue
be aimed at establishing an ongoing, patient and
committed discourse as to how Aboriginal law and
Northern Territory law can strengthen, support and
enhance one another for the benefit of the Northern
Territory and with a specific emphasis on maintaining
law and order within Aboriginal communities and the
protection of Aboriginal children from sexual abuse.

72. That, based on the dialogue described in the
recommendation above above, the government gives
consideration to recognising and incorporating into
Northern Territory law aspects of Aboriginal law that
effectively contribute to the restoration of law and
order within Aboriginal communities and in particular
effectively contribute to the protection of Aboriginal
children from sexual abuse.

73. That the government commit to the establishment
and ongoing support of Community Justice Groups
in all those Aboriginal communities which wish to
participate

No where did I see a recommendation calling for the compulsory health screening of all Indigenous Children. In fact the only reference to screening that I could find related to the screening of staff being employed to work with Indigenous Children.

No where do I see recommendations saying that welfare payments should be taken away or replaced by food vouchers. No where did I see it recommended that the Government should step in and tell Indigenous people how to spend their baby bonus, when they would not dream of doing this for a white parent!

Time and again though I saw recommendations acknowledging how under funded services to remote Communities are and requesting money to enable the continuation of programs that are already working but struggling due to bureaucratic red tape in Canberra and Darwin.

Perhaps the most important recommendation of all, I thought was:

3. That the Northern Territory and Australian
Governments develop long term funding programs
that do not depend upon election cycles nor are
limited by short-term outcomes or overly bureaucratic
reporting conditions and structures.

When will the Goverment stop making decisions that make sense in a Canberra Office, but no sense in a Community in the middle of the desert?

Really John, really Mal, which report are you working from?

Read the report for yourself: http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/inquirysaac/pdf/bipacsa_final_report.pdf

This is no Hurricane Katrina!

There has been alot of attention in the media recently directed towards remote Indigenous Communities in Central Australia. This is a subject close to my heart, as many people know. Having lived in Central Australia for 8 years and spent almost 5 of those teaching on a remote Indigenous Community, the issues, circumstances and people being focused on by the media are personal to me. I am unashamedly emotionally invested in the debate. The Aboriginal men that I know, almost as well as I know my own brothers, are not sexual abuse offenders. They are not drunks. They look after children as much as the women do. The Community where I teach is functional. The school where I teach had an average of 45 students attending each week last year. The Senior men have just negotiated an agreement to develop a fruit farm and an arts centre to provide employment for members of the Community (see Centralian Advocate, Friday March 23, 2007). But you will struggle to hear that story in the media. It's not controversial enough. But it DOES exist.
Yes, Indigenous Communities in Central Australia have problems. These Communities are located in the middle of the Australian Outback. They are remote, they have limited essential services and the services they do have are maintained by a revolving door of 'whitefella' workers who rarely stick around long enough to achieve real development or empowerment for the Community members.
The Northern Territory is a complicated place. There is a North/South Divide, and then within the South an East/West divide and a Town/Bush divide/ I have lived in the place 8 years and am only beginning to understand the complexity and how to respond to it.

Mal Brough was in Central Australia this week. He arrived on Wednesday and left on Saturday and in that time visited at least 3 seperate remote Communities. He would have spent at least half that time travelling between them! Time well spent? What makes John Howard or Mal Brough think that they can go in, or worse still send others in, for only a few days at a time and hope to come away with any kind of understanding of what is going on there?

The recently published "Little Children are Sacred" Report was researched and written over the past 8 months. During that time the Committee visited and met with an impressive list of remote Communities, people and organisations. By their own admission they did not go everywhere and they rightly make no apology for this. With their timeline it would have been a geographic impossibility. On page 38 of the report it states:

"The Inquiry made a number of visits to Alice Springs
to meet with various organisations and individuals.
Remote communities visited by the Inquiry included
Yuendumu, Papunya, Kintore, Docker River, Mutitjulu
and Hermannsburg."

Exploration the contact history of these Communities would reveal a great deal about the reasons why these types of Communities are suffering greater problems than others. (For more info read "Crossed Purposes" by Ralph Folds) The problems are not recent or new. They are the result disconnection with country and culture which is effectively disconection from yourself. Tradtional Indigneous people don't see themselves as seperate to the land but as part of it. It is something we 'whitefellas' will never fully appreciate. So when you get forcibly removed from a part of yourself, all you are left with is a painful hole and for many the best option is pain relief in whatever form is closest to hand.

No these problems are not new. This is no Hurricane Katrina! This is the 200 year drought!

Home

The Age, Saturday 30th June, 2007

Well, I'm back in the country! After 20 fights, 17 cities, 6 countries and countless different beds and showers, I'm back in Melbourne and happy to finally have my own space. Agter what can only be described as a turbulent first six months of the year, i am taking pleasure in the little things - being able to hang my clothes up in a cupboard, being able to leave all of my toiletries out on the bathroom bench, being able to cook for myself, having a place of my own to come and go from. I am looking forward to being able to invite people over, and entertain. I am looking forward to having visitors to stay. In short I am looking forward to the routine and stability of having a home.

But then, I have come back to a political climate that is full of news about the place that is more my home than here. I have come back to Politicians creating 'solutions' for a situation that they cannot possibly understand in the space of their fly by night visits. i have come back to an urban population of friends and aquaintances who expect me to be able to summarise in the time it takes to eat dinner, what it has taken me 5 years to learn.

Yes I am 'home', i am back in the country, but I will not really be home for a few months yet!

Update on Sam

For those of you who know Sam Charlesworth, i am happy to report that she is doing well in India. In true Sam style she has spent time discovering her favourite cafe, favourite restaurant and favourite weekend getaway town. She is universally adored by all of the Indians I met and she's made lots of friends!!! People literally run across beaches to meet her!

Seriously though, without wanting to exaggerate, she is doing really well in what is a pretty full on environment. She has learnt to haggle with Auto rickshaw drivers and shop keepers. She can reel off expressions in Tamil that impress the locals and she is well known and liked by all of the Chirch of South India staff. I for one am looking forward to the stories she will have to tell when she gets back and am gladd that i have been there to see some of the things she will be talking about.

Hidden in plain sight

India seems to be a fairly conservative country in terms of male/female relationships. Arranged marriages are still occurring and public displays of affection are almost non existent – except on the beach it would seem! We walked down to Marina Beach one day to see the longest beach in Asia. We were quite conspicuous I have to say – a couple of white girls tramping along in the sand! At one point a whole family came up to us just to shake our hands! But what struck me most about the beach was that dotted all over it were couples sitting together, talking intimately, even kissing. They were there in plain sight, but because the expanse of beach is so huge it was the perfect place to ‘hide’ The following day we were driven along the road next to the beach and Rebecca, who is the Principal of the Deaf School, described it as a ‘lovers paradise’. When I asked her if she knew this from personal experience she let out a big chuckle and said “OF COURSE!”