Judi, Thank you for your message. However, I believe that you have made an
assumption; and that is that I am white. I am not. I am a Koori man.
This may be an opportune time to properly introduce myself to the list as
well. Following is a short description of who I am and what I do.
Born in Redfern and raised in Parramatta
Current:
Student, UTS, B.A. Adult Education and Community Management. This is a
course of studies particularly devised for Aboriginal students.
ATSI representative co-worker) for the UTS Students Association
Mentor in the Juvenile Justice Aboriginal Mentor Programme, having two young
people as clients.
President and co-founder of the Indigenous Social Justice Association
Director of the Yurringka Aboriginal Youth Education Programme
Member Academic Board, NAISDA
Former:
Lecturer in Community Organizations (Aboriginal Intensive), UTS
Member of the Management Committee Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch
Committee (NSW)
Aboriginal Liaison Officer for NSW Probation and Parole
Coordinator Aboriginal Deaths in Custody Watch Committee
Tutor in Modern Aboriginal Studies, University of NSW
Lecturer in Cross Cultural Awareness at Corrective Services Academy
Founding member of AIDS Care Inc., Melbourne
Assisted in formulation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander National
Students Union in Melbourne
Member Advisory Panel, Treatments Working Group for PLWA
Treasurer, Inner South Support Group, Victorian Aids Council
Member St. Kilda Council IV Drug Use, Hepatitis C, HIV Advisory Group
Since many of you would not know of the Indigenous Social Justice
Association I am also posting a description of that organisation and its
aims.
The Association
The Association was formed to advocate and represent Indigenous people in
areas where the State has custodial control over the lives and well-being of
those people who may come into contact with the it.
The State is defined as any state or federal institution where control is
"not in the hands" of the individual due to illness, incarceration, or being
in an institution where there is a State-led power hierarchy.
While some of these groups do have representation, we believe that a
holistic approach that encompasses hospitals, mental institutions, schools,
housing, universities, as well as prisons and juvenile detention centres,
and so on, will be more effective.
Many Indigenous people have felt discrimination from various government
departments and have not had anywhere to turn to in order to gain justice.
We believe we will be able to fill that gap.
Our statement of purpose is:
1. Monitoring the circumstances surrounding the death and injury of
Indigenous people in custodial and other State institutions;
2. Responding to cases of abuse of the human rights of individual Indigenous
people;
3. Initiating change to aspects of the State and Federal legal systems which
cause, or contribute to, the abuse of human rights of Indigenous people;
4. Acting to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous people in
custodial and other State institutions;
5. Investigate and advocate for the abolition of abuses of human rights of
individual Indigenous people and their families;
6. Assisting other Indigenous Services in the achievement of their
objectives where they coincide with those of the Indigenous Social Justice
Association;
7. Providing educational material and initiating campaigns for the promotion
of the above objectives;
8. Carrying out research relevant to the above objectives;
9. Seeking funding from appropriate sources to further the above objectives;
and
10. Establishing connections with national and international groups and
individuals in order to widen support for the Indigenous Social Justice
Association and its purposes.
Our structure could be called ‘reconciliationist’ in some ways. This is due
to the idea that we do have to work with non-Aboriginal people and many of
those people have great insights and respect and sensitivity to Aboriginal
issues. The structure will be based on the following:
· We intend to, and in some instances have, set up Sub-Committees to look
at particular areas of Aboriginal issues. For instance a Sub-Committee on
youth issues, prisons, mental health, disabilities, education, etc.
In all Sub-Committees, as part of the reconciliation process, all members -
black or white - have an equal say. The person who heads up any
Sub-Committee can be of any race. The only requirement is that they be
elected by members of the Sub-Committee. The Sub-Committee will research
and advocate on their particular issue. They will send recommendations to
the general committee.
· The general committee will once again have an equal say for all members.
When a Sub-Committee brings up a recommendation it will be open to
discussion by all members of the group. Yes, this idea of equal say will
sometimes have people of all colours saying things that may not be
considered ‘appropriate’. However, we feel this is the only way for people
to learn and grow.
· Any recommendations which have been sent up by the Sub-Committee to the
general committee for their consideration will then go before a Management
Committee. This is where a position or recommendation will be adopted.
The Management Committee will have a majority of Aboriginal people sitting.
We will have a non-Aboriginal and an Aboriginal Vice President, we will also
have a non-Aboriginal person representing the non-Aboriginal members as a
general Management Committee member.
However, in the interests of Aboriginal self-determination, the majority of
the Management Committee will be Indigenous. If, at any meeting there is
not a majority of Indigenous Management Committee members present; then
non-Aboriginal members of the Management Committee will absent themselves
from the vote, but not general discussion, until that majority is reached.
This will be done in that most Management Committees have a ‘seniority
hierarchy’. The ‘less senior’ non-Aboriginal Management Committee member
will absent themselves from the vote until Aboriginal majority is reached.
Current Programmes
We are currently:
· Advocating and assisting individual inmates of Corrective Services
whenever they require assistance. This assistance could take the form of
visiting and taking depositions from inmates, negotiating with Department of
Corrective Services personnel from prison governors to senior people within
the Department.
We are currently negotiating to gain accreditation to enter prisons at
will - with proper reference to authorities. Since this is not a fact as yet
members of the Association accept reverse-charge phone calls in order to
allow inmates to contact us and travel using our own money. And we always
get permission to enter prisons from Corrective Services.
· With the Department of Juvenile Justice we are accredited for members to
enter detention centres, once again to advocate, negotiate and assist
detainees, and their families.
· We have submitted an application to ATSIC Regional Council for funds to
arrange a consultation process with the community, government organizations
and individual inmates and ex-inmates on the viability of running a
‘Transitional Housing Programme’. This application was refused due to our
being a "too new" organization however we are still pursuing this programme
and have gained considerable support for its set up and running.
The programme will incorporate individually tailored programmes for each
person taking part. It will also have a mentoring factor built in.
· We are discussing with the Australian College of Applied Psychology and
the NSW College of Community Psychologists to develop a Diploma of Community
Counselling for Aboriginal people. The course will take 12 months full time
and two years part time.
The development of the course will enable Aboriginal people to utilize
modern psychological methodologies combined with their own innate knowledge
of the Aboriginal condition and culture. We hope to develop the individual
modules so they are transferable in order to have non-Aboriginal people to
take on modules which they believe may be helpful to them in their own
careers.
· We are auspicing a project in the Western Suburbs, the Yurringka
Aboriginal Youth Education Programme, to teach literacy and numeracy to
Aboriginal young people - even those with intellectual disabilities -
utilizing various computer software. This programme has been granted
funding for one year. We have gained considerable support from the
community in that area and have also gained extremely good initial success
with those who have enrolled.
We will be contributing our administrative abilities and also our knowledge
of teaching for further development of this course. Experienced members
will be called on to teach modules either on a formal basis, or life skills
programmes which will assist young people in their lives. We also have a
need to volunteers to just visit and be with the kids and assist wherever
they feel comfortable doing so.
We are currently taking the programme into local schools in conjunction with
local ASSPA Comittees and Aboriginal Education Officers due to the success
we have gained with young people.
· We are gaining a reputation for hosting public meetings on various aspects
of Aboriginal life and problems. To the point that our last public meeting
but one, "Interrupted Lives" had responses from as far afield as the TVW
Telethon Institute for Child Research at the University of West Australia.
· We have had dealings with the Department of Housing, medical and
psychiatric authorities in advocacy for individual parties. We are also on
a committee to advocate a change in the treatment of bodies by the Coroner
and are to be on an advisory committee with the departments which control
the Coroner’s office.
We do have other things going as well but this is already getting too long
and my apologies for that.
Don
-----Original Message-----
From: Judi Monticone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Monday, 3 May 1999 4:32
Subject: [recoznet2] misunderstandings
>To Nukkan and Don and Karyn,
>Thanks for your conversations regarding Kevin. I have met Kevin Buzzacot
and I appreciate his utter
>frustration at us white people as we have come and taken, and we are
destroying this land. He has a reason
>to be short with people but I have listened to him a lot and agree that we
(white) people have not honoured
>the First Nations people in coming onto this land. I marched up the hill on
the Thursday morning with the
>Aboriginal people after their spears were stolen, quite gladly, to the New
PH. We (Anglos) have broken just
>about every promise we ever made and still we are pursuing a genocidal path
that ultimately will lead to our
>self destruction as a nation if we don't stop and listen. Please forgive us
as we are very quick to judge
>and act with our own selfish motives. I support Kevin and the work for
Justice that he is doing. This is a
>long and lonely road but one day it will happen with support and
encouragement from those who are real with
>our history. Thankyou Karyn for trying to understand and I want to
congratulate you on this journey that you
>are on, please continue and grow as you do. Thankyou Nukkan for being so
patient with us and I hope that
>more of us (whities) take your advise and use our ears and eyes more than
our mouth. Listening to Elders who
>have wisdom is something that us Anglo's have lost the art of and I hope
that one day this will return.
>Regards
>Judi
>
>
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