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

I hope he wasn't joking

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

I hope he wasn’t joking

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

Writing lettersto the Herald Sun

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

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

Who knows? Might be worth a shot!

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

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

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

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

Not remiss, complicit, Mr Howard

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

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

See the timeline here:

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

What can you do for $20 million?

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

A referendum? Don't make me laugh Johnny

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

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

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

New Look!

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

Clarke and Dawe's take on the NT intervention

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

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

Go back!

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

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

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

Rachel Willika, Sydney Morning Herald | October 2, 2007

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See: Sydney Morning Herald

Bureaucratic buck-passing

This is why nothing ever gets resolved...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The citizenship test

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

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

Apparantly some of the key 'Australian values' are:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Finding silence

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