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!”

Beep Beep

Have just spent the last week in India visiting my friend Sam. Hats off to her for committing to be there for a year. I found one week exhausting enough! To say I have been in India is really overstating it. I have been to two cities in one region of the southern half of India. What that taught me was basically how huge and diverse India is and I think you would possibly need many years to say that you've 'seen India'. I can understand why people go back again and again. It can be a hard place though. In the city of Chennai the traffic is horrendous. I just kept thinking 'my Dad would HATE this!' The one road rule is that there are no road rules. One Indian woman said to me that Indian drivers are the most skillful in the world and that if you can drive in India you can drive anywhere. Frankly I'd be scared to attempt driving in India. But traffic is the order of the day in Chennai and EVERYONE uses their horns ALL THE TIME!! Mind you for al the craziness there seemed to be some order to it and people actually got where they needed to go. In fact they did so in some amazing ways. People seem to be quite skilled, for example, at riding a motorbike whilst talking on their mobile phone or even text messaging. Sam and my favorite moment was when it rained and we witnessed many people riding bikes and motorbikes while at the same time holding an umbrella to keep the rain off. The women seem to be able to elegantly ride side saddle on the backs of motorbikes in Saris. It is not uncommon to see three or four people on a single bike. I watched with horror as a father rode his motorbike with his THREE children balancing effortlessly in various positions (none of them wearing helmets!) They even posed for a photo for us. Our main means of transport during the week was the 'Auto-rickshaw'. This is a sort of 3 wheeled motorbike with a little covered bench seat at the back - just big enough for two passengers, but often chauffering more than that. By the end of the week I had decided that the way to deal with traffic in India is simply to see it as part of the fun, sit back and enjoy the ride!

Avenue Q

I went to see a show on the West End the other night. Was it Chicago? Phantom of the Opera? The Lion King? No none of the classics. Nothing predictable. In fact I went and saw a puppet show. But not just any puppet show. This was Avenue Q; an incredibly funny, extremely adult spoof of Sesame Street. Honestly I saw puppets doing things I never imagined possible! But it was hilarious and I have to admit remarkably touching in places. I highly recommend it as a show to see if you are in London (or New York for that matter!)

The Toilet Museum

Spent a couple of days in Manchester visiting my friend Cath. Based on her recommendation and that of her brother Cameron, I paid a visit to the Toilet Museum (AKA the Museum of Science and Industry). It is located underneath an old 1830's warehouse and comes complete with a reconstructed 1800's sewer (model rats and fake excrement included!) which pumps out appropriate odours to give you the authentic experience of the day! As if that wasn't enough, there are also working models of toilets through the ages. My personal favoite was the one pictured - the first water flushing toilet, invented in Halifax. There are other good things to see at this museum but this is definitely the best bit!

The culinary delights of Ireland

Who would have thought that the culinary leg of my journey would take place in country Ireland. I have eaten the most amazing food during the course of the last week. I was treated to an absolutely gorgeous meal at the Nuremore Hotel near Carrickmacross in which the wine complimented the food more perfectly than I had ever experienced. The delight of that meal however was made more enjoyable by the fact that I was with my friends Sarah and Sarajit who have themselves opened a fantasic restaurant in nearby Ardee. Sarajit is arguably one of the best chefs in Ireland and with Sarah's expertise in food, wine, cheese and her understanding of what makes restaurants work, they have definitely got a success story on their hands. The menu is varied to suit all tastes but I find the curries to be the real highlight, aswell as the Indian bread which is out of this world. The Bailey's cheesecake is also to die for. Anyone living in or planning to visit Ireland would be well advised to make a visit to this restaurant a must. The name is The Fushia House and it is located 5 minutes from the M1 just near the Ardee by pass road. If you have to come out of your way to get here, do it! You will not regret it.

Laughing in French

Anyone who has learnt another language knows that one of the true joys is when you finally get the jokes, or learn how to tell a joke in that language. There is so much comedy to be had also in the mispeaking and and the minunderstandings. The French woman who doesn't understand that the French word 'Vierge' can be interpreted in English as both 'Virgo' the astrological sign and 'Virgin' and accidentally uses the wrong one to describe herself. The Australian woman who mispornounces the word for queue and accidently says that she was making an 'arse' in the bank. If you are able to laugh at yourself then there is much fun to be had with language.
One of the things that made me sad when Jerome died was that we had so many jokes together. Jokes that only he and I laughed at most of the time. Without him those jokes died too.
But last week, staying with my friends Magalie and Arno in Normandy, I rediscovered my ability to laugh in French. We laughed alot but there was one night in particular when we were laughing so hard about the untranslatability of certain idiomatic expressions, it actually started to hurt! Side splitting laugher is such a gift and I feel as though a little piece of what i lost when Jerome died has been given back to me.

Le temps passe

I can’t believe it’s been 14 year since I lived in Lyon. I stepped out of the airport shuttle and into Part Dieu station and it felt like yesterday that I was here. The smells of the boulangeries, the taste of the bread, the dog poo on the ground everywhere and the smell of cigarettes all pervading; these are the things that make Lyon feel, taste and smell like home. It’s an ugly city really, full of pollution and urban sprawl. But when I was 18 it felt like the most exotic place on earth. The old cobblestone streets of Vieux Lyon (which are still beautiful), la Place Bellecour, Cathedrale Fouviere, Parc de la Tete d'Or, and the two rivers La Saone and Le Rhone, they all bring back such memories of a magical year which, perhaps more than any other, helped shape the direction of my life. The friendships I made that year are some of the most enduring of my life. I don’t see those friends often as they are spread across the far reaches of the world, but when we do see each other the bonds that began here in Lyon hold strong. As I was taking the metro today I saw a group of 4 or 5 girls, maybe 18 or 19 years old. They were mimicking the metro announcement in French just as my friends and I used to. Then they started chatting and laughing aloud in English, just as we used to. I wonder if they will still be friends in 14 years? How will their lives have changed and what memories will they still hold dear when they return?

Jerome

It’s a sunny spring afternoon and I am sitting in a familiar backyard. It is the backyard belonging to my friend Jerome, or rather his parents. It is the backyard where we swam and had BBQ’s. It is the backyard where I put Jerome to sleep with a shoulder massage. It is where he first kissed me and where I fell in love with him. It wasn’t real love I suppose. I was a wide eyed 18 year old Australian girl on her first trip overseas and he was a charming French man; of course I would think I was in love with him. No, I wasn’t in love with him, but I did love him very much. He made me laugh, he teased me, he rescued me on more than one occasion and we just loved being in each other’s company. We had our favourite tape that we would play whenever we drove somewhere and there was one song that was ours and no one knew it except him and me. It is strange to sit in his backyard and know that I wont see him. I will stay here with his mother and I’m sure we will talk about him and perhaps she will be able to shed some light on why he did it. Maybe it doesn’t matter why. He’s gone and being here is sad because of that. I wish many things – that I hadn’t left it so long before I came back, that I had told him how much he meant to me, that I had known he was unhappy. Perhaps I have come here simply to tell him goodbye.

Th...th...th...th

Friends of mine recently showed me a video on You Tube. It is the very funny encounter of a 'translator' dealing with people from several different linguistic background. I highly recommend it

(here is the link: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/301400/the_translator_catherine_tate/)


Anyway, once you watch this video you will appreciate why I have been walking around Madrid and all I can think of is "th..th..th..th.." It's true my lack of Spanish has not helped the situation but I always feel that i experience a place less when I dont speak the language. I always wonder what people I may have met, what experiences I may have had, if only I had been able to communicate with people better. That said, Madrid is a beautiful city and perhaps one day, once I have taken the time to learn Spanish, I will return and discover what I missed out on during this visit!

Lanzarote

I can't say that i would ever have had a notion to visit the Canary Islands if i didn't know someone who lived there. Having said that I am glad that I had the excuse as the one Canary island that i visited, Lanzarote, was fascinating and strangely beautiful. Form substantially by Lava flows throughout the last several thousand years, the island has a rugged, brittle surface to it. Most people cling to the edges and enjoy the crystal clear aquamarine waters and the volcanic sand beaches. But if you take the time to venture inland you see the artistry that a river of fire can leave in its wake. There are giant lava bubbles just below the surface of the whole island. Huge caverns of air creating elaborate and often colourful rock formations. Thanks to the genious of Lanzarote's most famous artist , Cesar Manrique, aswell as the islands most unappreciated artist, Jesus Soto (Elana would want me to mention Soto!) these lava bubbles have been transformed into restaurants and concert halls, art galleries and homes. These artisits sought to integrate Nature, art and architecture so that the natural beauty of the place was accessible, but more than this, was a part of everyday life. Cesar Manrique's own house was the perfect example of this. Built on top of a lava field containing 5 lava bubbles, the structure moves and flows in, around, through, on top of the caves and the landscape and the house meld into one integrated being. i cannot speak for the other Canaries, but this one is certainly worth a visit.

Old friends

Dont you just love the kind of friends who are like an old pair of shoes. You may not have worn them for a while but they feel comfortable straight away!

Shooter

For fans of Happy Gilmore, look who i bumped into in New York!

The whitest girl on the planet visits the Bronx

Remember that song they used to sing on Sesame Street 'One of these things is not like the other one, one of these things just doesn't belong'? Well that was what was going through my head yesterday as I caught a subway into the Bronx Borough of New York. Tom, who I am staying with, works as a Maths Consultant for about 10 schools located in the Bronx and he had invited me to come with him and visit a school. On the ride there I became increasingly aware that I was the palest skinned, blondest person in our subway car. This became even more obvious as we left the subway and walked down Fordham Rd, the main Strret of the Bronx. I was conscius of how I looked, how I walked and how I spoke. I was accuetely aware that I had stepped out of my comfort zone. Once we got to school and made it through the metal detectors I was signed in and introduced around. Staff members were very friendly and welcoming and were happy to have me visit their classes. Inside these classes I witnessed some of the best teaching I have seen in my career. Great practictioners who have created fantastic learning environments for their students and believe me the students are rising to meet the high expectations being set. One of the campuses of the school I visited was called 'The West Bronx Academy for the Future'. What a great name for a school!
When I finally left the school and walked (by myself) back up Fordham Rd to the subway station I did not feel as awkward or out of place. I moved beyond my own sense of strangeness and instead saw this as the community of those children, the Community that they will grow up in, the community that they will help to shape in the future. Suddenly it didn't seem so foreign any more.

Interesting MoMA installation

There was an interesting installation at the MoMA which involved an artist drawing directly onto one of the walls of the museum. The result was some pretty interesting socio-political graffitti. Here's a sample. More photos on the 'my photos' page.

MoMA

This afternoon was magical. I spent it in the company of Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse, Kandinsky, Klimt and Picasso at the Museum of Modern Art. Up until now my favorite gallery in the world was the Musee d'Orsay in Paris but the MoMA has certainly equalled it in my mind. It is hard to express exactly what it feels like to stand in the same room as Vincent's 'Starry Night', or Monet's 'Water Lillies'. These paintings that have somehow been part of my soul for so long, standing before them and seeing the contours and the texture and the size of them, it's like walking around in heaven.

Let's Go Yankees!

Yankee Stadium has got to be one of the great sporting venues of the world and despite all of the nay-sayers I really enjoyed my first baseball game. I think I would really get into it if I lived in New York. Unfortunately the Yankees lost the night I went but I got to see the A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez bat, and I saw bases loaded a couple of times and a home run (by the other team, to win them the game!) I have decided that Johnny Damon is my favorite player!