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!
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
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!
"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
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
Monday, October 15, 2007
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.
Friday, October 12, 2007
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.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
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.
Sunday, October 07, 2007
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
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
Friday, October 05, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, October 04, 2007
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?
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.
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.
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