Antinuclear

“Stronger Futures” legislation, an indignity to all Australians, not only to Aborigines

They are policies that have been shamelessly trialled on the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory and that are now to be imposed on other so-called areas of disadvantage across Australia. The degrading trail of internal colonisation continues, discriminating one moment on the basis of race and the next moment on the basis of class.

The ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation might strengthen the futures of the powerful but it is an attempt to weaken the dignity of those who are subjected to its control.

Picking the scab of colonisation, Eureka Street JOHN FALZON MARCH 01, 2012

There’s a deep wound in Australia.

There’s a gash in our story.

It is a wound that is known by different names:

Colonisation.

Dispossession.

Coercion.

Control.

It is still with us.

The wound is fresh. It is not yet healed. It is not even yet a scar.

The wound of colonisation is a wound in the heart of the First Peoples
of this land.

To the people in high places who say that the wound does not exist, we
say we know it does exist.

To the people in high places who say that the wound is an Aboriginal
problem, we say that the wound is not an Aboriginal problem. It is a
wound in the heart of Aboriginal families but it is not an Aboriginal
problem. It is an Australian problem. It is our problem.

The policies that the Government wishes to enshrine as legislation
today are policies built on the falsehood that the wound does not
exist or that the wound exists but that it is an Aboriginal problem.
They are policies that treat Aboriginal people as if they are the
problem. They are policies that are imposed from above rather than
coming from the wisdom of the people on the ground……

They are policies that have been shamelessly trialled on the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory and that are now to be imposed on other so-called areas of disadvantage across Australia. The degrading trail of internal colonisation continues, discriminating one moment on the basis of race and the next moment on the basis of class.

The ‘Stronger Futures’ legislation might strengthen the futures of the powerful but it is an attempt to weaken the dignity of those who are subjected to its control.

As Elaine Peckham put it: ‘We don’t want the Basics Card. We want basic rights.’

I would add: we don’t want social control. We want social
justice…… http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=30272

March 2, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics