Antinuclear

220 years on, Australia’s Land War against the Aborigines still goes on

This is The Great Divide, this is the illness that sits on the nation’s psychological and social landscape. Despite all achievements in the past 220 years since the arrival of Captain Cook, it is still a Land War. 

Australia is still fighting a land war and it’s the country’s great divide The Conversation, Ali Cobby Eckermann   22 May 14, In Australia there are many different views about the historical and current role of Aboriginal people in the national landscape.

This view fluctuates. ……..The diversity of Aboriginal people is an achievement we could all be proud of. From the traditional ways to the modern we now boast doctors and lawyers, nurses and teachers, builders and designers, and actors, authors, film makers, musicians of world class standards. We can even celebrate opera singers!

Most Aboriginal people work to give back to our community. We work to improve all aspects of life for our children and grandchildren, and to promote a better understanding of our cultural values. We work endlessly to cross the divide. And for us, culture is the key.

Of course there are some people who are not community focused, as in any society. From my personal experience, I can only calculate that this minority comprises those who have rejected culture. This is as confusing for Aboriginal people as it is for mainstream. But I reiterate, this is a minority of our mob.

However, the less enticing stories such as racism in sport, educational failures, and the refusal to include the Aboriginal historical wars in the Australian War Memorial quickly show a divide between black and white Australia. This is The Great Divide we need to address. This is “closing the gap” on a national psychological and social agenda………

The lack of proper consultations with Aboriginal people is a national shame. And even in my later years, when I am less able to travel for work, I will probably have to regress back to a system that does not value me, to die.

The Intervention is one example of all of the above. This was a Federal Government initiative that was conceived in 2007 with little consultation with Aboriginal people, and no regard to our psychological or social welfare.

The National Emergency Response, as it is formally known, required an exemption from the Racial Discrimination Act to allow its procession. I believe this law was passed in the middle of the night in Parliament by John Howard and a covert few, and had landed on our doorsteps before the newspapers had reached our front doors.

The justification was pinpointed to an inquiry into child abuse in 2007 titledLittle Children Are Sacred Report. There are always concerns regarding child abuse in Aboriginal and mainstream Australia. Some 97 direct recommendations were made, stipulating the need for local based action to protect Aboriginal kids. Yet only two out of 97 recommendations were upheld. No-one agrees with child abuse, only the very depraved. If the governments were serious about this issue, surely more recommendations would have been forthcoming………

Approximately 600 soldiers were used to deliver the “bad news” – that local Aboriginal Councils were to be disbanded, that wages and welfare would be quarantined, that all Aboriginal children were required to undergo medical checks by strangers to their community and community development employment projects (CDEP) reduced to a minimum.

At the time, I was living on the edge of the Simpson Desert and saw the arrival of the army with my own eyes. There was much confusion and fear, especially in remote communities where English is often the second language. At Titjikala no local interpreters were employed to lessen this fear and confusion.

Political arguments favour the Intervention, for welfare provision, law enforcement, and land tenure. For me, in my regular visits back to see family and friends in central Australia, I can only interpret welfare provisions equal lack of meaningful employment, law enforcement equals increased incarceration rates and land tenure equals continued theft of land for mining.

This is The Great Divide, this is the illness that sits on the nation’s psychological and social landscape. Despite all achievements in the past 220 years since the arrival of Captain Cook, it is still a Land War. Ali Cobby Eckermann is an Aboriginal author and poet. She is currently the Artist in Residence at the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney. She will be speaking with Henry Reynolds about the Northern Territory intervention at the Sydney Writers Festival on May 23. http://theconversation.com/australia-is-still-fighting-a-land-war-and-its-the-countrys-great-divide-26977

May 22, 2014 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL