Language and Culture

I was with a group of impressive Warlpiri women this week who have recently been told by Politicians that they are not allowed to teach their own children in their own language. They were angry and frustrated. Their culture and rituals are fundamental to them and their language is the vehicle for that. They said to each other and to the rest of us who were there "We ask the kardiya (non-indigneous people) Where is your culture? You got no culture!" It was hard to argue with them. When the only rituals I feel these days are singing Happy Birthday to someone, or reciting the Lord's Prayer at funerals I attend. I wonder what meaning these really have for me. My culture does feel empty and I once again am forced to cringe at government acting against indigenous people to diminish the things that mean the most to them.

How dare we! This and the intervention is what future generations will be saying SORRY for.

Obama

It's surprising to me how invested I have been in the US election. I found myself anxiously awaiting the results on Wednesday and then feeling increasingly optimistic as the votes gradually came in. Then it became clear that Obama had won and I was overcome with excitement and relief. I think I was buoyed by the fact that for so long the USA had been stuck in lowest common denominator politics - appealing to the worst aspects of human nature - division, fear, hatred, bigotry; but here was Obama - a voice that was saying something different. A voice that appealed to what is best in human nature - hope, community, optimism, cooperation. I read something the other day which talked about the human instinct to help others. I believe this to be true and have, in the past, been made to feel abnormal because of this belief. What a watershed for millions of Americans to finally collectively say that they too believe in the same spirit. What an historical moment to witness, the moment where a majority of people in a powerful western nation say that they are more interested in the collective rather than looking out for their individual needs.
Obama might not be the Messiah that he is being heralded as in some quarters, but he has been a rallying point. A leader who has dared to suggest that we can be more than we have been in the past.
When the election result was announced a friend sent me a text message say "Phew, that feels better". That sums it up for me. The world just feels better, more possible, more whole, more communal with Obama as US President than has ever been the case in my life time. And i for one am glad to have lived in a time when it has happened.

small things

I was in my front yard this morning planting up some new garden beds. A number of neighbours walked past. Many of them said hello. A father walked past with his daughter walking next to him and son riding a bike along side. They said hello. I said hello back. The daughter made a comment to her father in their language. She was looking intently at the work i was doing in my garden. About half an hour they returned from their walk to the store. The daughter was carrying a plant.

The stock market explained

Once upon a time in a village, a man appeared and announced to the
villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, seeing that there were many monkeys around, went into
the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He further announced that he would now buy monkeys at $20 for each.
This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching
monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people
started going back to their farms.
The offer increased to $25 each, and
the supply of monkeys became so small that it was an effort to even
find a monkey, let alone catch it! The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now buy on behalf of him.

In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers. 'Look at
all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected.
I will sell them to you at $35, and when the man returns from the
city, you can sell them to him for $50 each.'
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys.
They never saw the man nor his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!
Now you have a better understanding of how Wall Street works.

Lawn Sale

I had a lawn sale this morning. For those of you who live elsewhere in Australia, that's a garage sale. For those who live in parts of the world where that is an unknown concept the idea is that you clean out your house and shed, finding items you no longer need or want, place them in your garage or on your lawn on a saturday morning and strangers come around and buy them from you.
It's a strange idea, but one that I love.
There were a few benefits to doing this for me:
I got rid of some stuff that had been hanging around since I moved into my house
I made a bit of extra cash
I got to experience the crazy world of the lawn sale
I have basically decided there are three types of lawn salers:

1. Hard core - these people have week's that revolve around their lawn sales. They read the paper with a fine tooth comb on a Friday to examine exactly how many lawn sales are on offer the following morning and they chart a course between them that will maximise the bargains they desire. They are the ones who turn up before the advertised starting time in the hope that they will beat or undercut all of the other hare core salers. They offer you advice on how a lawn sale really should be run and they spend a maximum of 5 minutes on your lawn before they are off to their next appointment. many of them carry around a tin containing a quantity of coins and small notes specifically ear marked for lawn sale purchases. I got paid $10 for something this morning all in 10c and 20c pieces!

2. The specific purpose lawn salers - these people come in search of a specific item or object. They come in and scan what's on offer. If they see the item they want they grab it, if not they ask directly. Often they will see the item they were seeking with a SOLD sign already written on it and look at you pleadingly, hoping you will go back on your agreement with the previous purchaser and do them a deal instead.The specific items asked for this morning were most furniture - shelves, chests of drawers, wardrobes, beds ad mattresses. But i also had a surprising number of requests for pot plants. I'm thinking of doing some propagating before my next lawn sale!

3. The lazy bones - these are the johnny-come-lately lawn salers who have good intentions about going lawn saling on a Saturday morning and then have a big night on Friday night and decide that a sleep in is more important than bargains. They still go out and do over the lawn sales but not until about 3 hours after everyone else has swept through. When they arrive they ask sheepishly "Is this all that's left?" "Yes" you reply and they smirk and shrug their shoulders. "It's our own fault I suppose. maybe we'll try to get up earlier next Saturday!"

Remarkable women of the desert

I started a new job a few weeks ago. I couldn't be happier (well maybe that's not true, but I'm pretty happy!). In this job my role is to support indigenous teachers in their learning and training. What I really get to do is talk and spend time with a group of remarkable women (and a couple of men). Some of these women have been teaching at the school in their remote community for up to 30 years. This in a system where 'whitefellas' come and go like pieces of rubbish blowing across a dusty football field.

I asked one of them how long she had been teaching for. 28 years she replied. And how many Principals had come and gone in that time? "Oh" she laughed "too many...maybe 15 or 20, I can remember'. But I bet she does. i bet she remembers each and everyone of them. i bet she remembers the ones who gave her hope and the ones who took all her power away. I bet she remembers the ones who treated her with respect and acknowledged her wisdom and knowledge, and the ones who judged her as knowing nothing based on her broken English.

And her story is all to familiar to the rest of the women in our little group. They have seen so many Principals and Teachers come and go, come and go. But they are still there. They are still putting up their hands to do more study, to become even stronger advocates for their children's education. They are still the ones who try their best to 'orient' new whitefellas into their schools. They are the ones who talk to me now with great concern about the next generation of teachers. 'Who is gonna teach in the school when we get too old? We have to mentor those young ones'.

And hey are grateful to me for any small help I can offer them and i feel inadequate sometimes, but they are immanently gracious and i will do my best not to let them down.

Photobus & digital storytelling

I recently discovered digital storytelling. I was introduced to it by a man called Daniel Meadows. He spent quite a lot of his youth driving a bus around England taking photos of people. He has a great website:

www.photobus.co.uk

On it you can also watch some of the digital stories he has created.

Digital stories have a strict format:
1. a script of no more than 250 words
2. no more than 20 images
3. no more than 2 minutes

You'd be amazed how profound a story can be when told within these boundaries.

the BBC got him to do a project in Wales called Capture Wales:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/audiovideo/sites/galleries/pages/capturewales.shtml?page=1

The idea was that everyone has a story and Daniel and his team went around to towns and villages and ran workshops to help people find their story and then tell it using the digital story telling structure. The results are funny, emotional and surprising. Most of all though they are familiar.

daniel finished his presentation to the conference by saying 'By now you will have realised that this in fact is not something new. It is a new way of doing something that we have been doing since the dawn of time.'

Our humanity lies in the stories we choose to tell.

addicted to Facebook

For months I haven't been focusing on my blog and I realise now that it's because I have the IT equivalent of a new man in my life - Facebook. Now, stop rolling your eyes and letting out that disapproving grunt. I've heard them all and I dont care. I love getting peoples status feeds and getting a brief sense of how they are day to day. I love playing scrabble with friends on the other side of the world. I love how quickly things get turned into groups and speed around the globe. I love discovering that a friend who i haven't spoken to for ages is online as the same time as me and having a 5 minute or two hour chat session with them.

I know all of the arguments about not everyone having access to the internet, and it replacing actually spending time with people, and that it is just another thing to create a username and password for. Yes it is all of that, but I still love it. I was at a conference a couple of months ago where I heard someone talk about the things educators feared about the internet - that students would use it to cheat on essays and tests. in fact the vast majority of people use it for social interaction.

My world is global. I have friends, great friends, who i love, who live on the other side of the world. I have family and friends who live in another state. I wish we lived closer and had the opportunity to catch up face to face more easily, more often. But until they develop teleportation, I'm going to stick with Facebook because it means that at least my Facebook friends can be part of my everyday life.

A drive in the desert

I began last week with a head ache and a bad attitude. I knew I had a bush trip to do during the week and wasn't looking forward to the long drive there and back. But to my suprise a six hour drive in the desert turned out to be just what my head, heart and soul needed. By the time I drove six hours back two days later I felt calm and happy and like my head had been cleared of the fog I had been in for weeks. I listened to my favorite playlists on my iPod, sang loudly and made plans in my head. Anyone who thinks of the desert as a vast nothing has completely missed the point.

House photos

For those who are interested (especially those who have asked repeatedly to see photos of the house!)

Click on the link 'my photos' on the right and choose the 'new house' album.

Taking down fences

I bought a house in March this year. It's the first house I have ever owned and I suppose I dont actually own much of it yet, but for all intents and purposes it's mine. When I first looked at it it felt right. It's not a fancy house, in fact it's quite ugly in places, but it's simple and easy and it feels good. It has quirky features like a 'sewing room' off the main bedroom.
The previous owners had a 'minimalist approach to gardening - there were maybe 3 living plants on the property when i took possession. Friends would come over and look at my yard and say 'a blank canvas!'
The one the the house had in abundance was fences. There was a high green fence along the front of the property - so that no one could see in and no one could see out. It also had another fence closing in the front lawn meaning that I had to go through a gate to get from my front door to the letterbox. For the first month or so it drove me crazy. Then I realised that everything on the property was mine so if I didn't like something I could take it down, change it, put something else there that I liked better.
I took down the internal fence first and what a difference just doing that made. I could walk freely around my front yard without having to navigate fences and gates. Retrieving the mail had never been so easy!
The front fence posed more of a challenge because i was not only taking down a fence but needed to put something in it's place.
I changed my mind a few times. Finally the decision was made easier by a friend giving me a roll of fencing wire. It was simple, waist height, recycled, free - perfect!
So one weekend, not long ago, a couple of friends and I started taking down my front fence. The panels came off remarkably easily and before I knew it I had invited the world into my front yard again. Little did I know how true this would become. In the course of the weekend working on my fences in my front yard I basically met my neighborhood. First there was the woman in the 4WD who drove past and gave me a smile and a nod. Then there was the couple with the baby in the pram who walked past a number of times before the husband and I finally made eye contact and he simply said 'Nice'. Then there was Meg across the road who took the opportunity to come over and introduce herself. 'Love what you've done. I'd love to get rid of our high fences' she said. 'Oh and by the way my boys are having a party in a few weeks time. It'll be really loud. When you hear the music come over and have a beer with us'.
The next day when we got to the harder tasks of hanging and wiring the new fence in place I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. But the universe sent me Alan. 'Do you ladies need a hand?' came the voice from the other side of the road. 'I know a bit about fencin'. I do alot of work out bush and I can give ya a hand if ya like'. In the blink of an eye, with Alan's expertise and a few tricks of the trade the fence was up and in place and ready to be wired. As Alan and I sat back with a beer and admired our handiwork, another voice from across the road called out "looks great". Cath, an older lady from around the corner who was out walking her dog, stopped by for a chat. 'We were all so disappointed when that big green fence went up. I mean I understand, what with the neighborhood and all, but it looks much better the way you have it now.'
Over the next couple of days I even noticed a couple of cars slowing down to have a look. People in cars continued to wave hello when they saw me in the front yard. Children riding past on their bikes called out 'hi' or 'I like your fence'.
It seems i hadn't been the only one bothered by the fences and the simple act of taking them down brought the people of my street into my life and brought me into theirs.

Coincidence? I think not...

The Federal Government's NT emergency intervention became law in August 2007. This legislation included, amongst other things, amendments to the Aboriginal Land Act and the removal of the permit system which had up until then required that people who wanted to go onto Aboriginal land sought permission in the form of a permit. The justification was that the removal of this 'cumbersome' requirement would remote communities easier to police, more easily accessed by the media, and would encourage businesses to establish themselves in remote locations.

One wonders what types of businesses the Federal Goverment had in mind.

According to a website belonging to mining giant 'Deep Yellow' the following mining developments have been touted for Aboriginal Land in Central Australia:

Napperby - NW of Alice Springs, commenced drilling Sept 2007

Reynolds Range - North of Alice Springs - exploration agreement signed November 2007

Nonuouba - 70kms SW of Alice Springs - tenement granted 17 August 2007

Mt Liebig - NW of Alice Springs - negotiation of access took place 21st Nov 2007

Angela-Pamela Uranium deposit - 25kms SW of Alice Springs and with the water catchment area for the town of Alice Springs - application made late 2007, awaiting decision early 2008.

And these are only a few of the sites in central Australia. I haven't even begun looking into the Top End.

So the haste with which the legislation was introduced and passed through the two houses of Parliament in the middle of last year may have had more to do with granting mining permits than it did to do with protecting children.

Surprise! Surprise!

apmarr

It is march already. I dont know where the first quarter of the year went. Actually, looking back, I do. It has been a hectic time settling back into life in Central Australia. I arrived back here at the end of January ready to begin a new job and ready to embark upon the search for a new home. The home thing happened quicker than expected and I moved into my first ever mortgaged property on the 7th March. It is lovely to be able to walk around my own place and plan things that I might do - where to hang my pictures, what to plant in the garden, how to arrange the furniture. It's also nice to feel as though i dont have to do all of this at once as I will be here a while.

The job took a little longer to work out. The problem with a newjob is that no one knows you're in it for the first 5 weeks or so so you sit around wondering what it really is that you are supposed to be doing. Then, as i discovered, things pan out and people discover you may be of use to them and things start to get busy. Despite the change in focus for me, eg. I'm no longer in a classroom, working in one particular school, but rather am working across schools in town and out bush in a curriculum development role, I think it will be a really positive move and will help me to operate within and comprehend the educational system at a different level. Plus i get to work with some really good people and build new networks.

One of my fears was that this would mean I might loose touch with the Mulga Bore mob. No danger of that!! They are very excited about my new house, in particular the 'swimming pool akwerk" (the spa!) out the back!! I have seen them on a weekly basis almost and they often drop in at home or work just to say hello or to inquire when mum and dad will be here.

Mum and Dad in fact arrived today and literally within minutes of them arriving a couple of cars pulled up and there were cries of 'atwampwe' which is the name dad is known by. After spending Christmas with them, it was lovely to have the reunion up here. They're all coming over for aBBQ tomorrow. Being back here and having them drop in all the timehas made me realise how much I missed having aboriginal people in my life last year. There is a character to life when they are around that I really treasure.

All in all it feels realy good to be back. It feels like my 'apmarr', my country, my home.

Coercive Reconciliation

For anyone who is interested in reading some good analysis of the policies, agendas and politics leading up to the NT Intervention I HIGHLY recommend the collection of Essays entitled "Coercive Reconciliation" edited by Jon Altman and Melinda Hinkson. There are essays by over 30 prominent Indigenous Australians and academics, including the likes of Mick and Pat Dodson, and Rex Wild, one of the co-authors of the "Little Children are Sacred" report upon which the intervention is supposedly acting.
It is published by Arena publications and should be available in all good book stores (or give them details and they will be able to order it in for you).

Read it and make others you care about read it too!

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