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.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
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
Friday, September 21, 2007
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
http://www.youtube.com/keringke
Thursday, September 20, 2007
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
~rumi
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
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.
Monday, September 17, 2007
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
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
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
Sunday, September 16, 2007
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.
Friday, September 07, 2007
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?
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?
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