Friends, Michael Mansell, well-known aboriginal activist: ""You take away a people's country, you dominate them on a day-to-day basis, you prevent them from running their own land, their own communities, and you are bound to get symptoms of alienation". There are certain skills that all Australians need to understand to live in their current society: these are handling money in the everyday sense, basic numeracy, and being able to read and write. In my previous post I alluded to the old adage: it is no use giving Aboriginal People wages, they will only spend it.' This is a typical piece of hegemonic 'common sense' or 'being practical' that has pervaded white/Aboriginal relations since invasion day. It is also a convenient excuse for bosses to not have to pay the People. Of course there were all sorts of means of covering up this slave or plantation attitude: they were charged for their 'board and lodging' or their money was held in 'trust' for them. Even in the seventies at Victoria River Downs the Store used to get the welfare cheques and each time the person made a purchase this was allegedly deducted from this amount. There was absolutely no accountability and the money was actually stolen from them. But even more of a sin was that the Peoples were given no chance to learn how to handle something we after ten thousand years still have trouble with. The same principle also applies to schooling, health and etc. When I was working in the Northern Territory we were building houses which were eminently suitable for a white family in Melbourne or Sydney. Despite the fact that I railed against this situation more were built. Later, with the aid of a chainsaw, some saplings, bark, bashed down white ant nests and loads of fun and Aboriginal People we built some houses that suited their needs at the time. They were airy, protected the occupants from the rain, and were spacious. I called them 'whirlies' you could stand up in. Of course they were not permanent which suited the clan as they moved around a bit. We just built some new ones as the old ones rotted. Whilst these places were in the Top End, I am sure that we could have organised something similar in the desert regions. During the seventies and eighties an argument raged in the Territory between the Catholic missions and the Uniting Church missions concerning the attitude to grog. The Catholic missions adopted the attitude that to declare their missions dry would deny the People the opportunity to get used to drinking. On the otherhand the Uniting Church declared their missions dry in an endeavour to minimise the damage to particularly women and children, seeing grog as the main cause of domestic violence. Later, their policies came closer in that the Catholics began to apply restrictions and the Uniting Church relaxed their 'dry' communities. Neither policy has really been successful, in fact some stupid bastard from the Uniting Church introduced Kava to East Arnhem Land to overcome the problems associated with grog and on Elcho Island they have been sleeping ever since. The elders have even implored the Government to deny the People 'welfare money' in an endeavour to rein in the damage. In my last post I spoke of Aboriginal Peoples needing sovereignty, the ability to make decisions for themselves. This was what ATSIC was supposed to do but it has been so plagued with audits, 'advice', and so on that the whole organization has become straight jacketed. It cannot move anywhere with effect. Initially it was supposed to have a small white bureaucracy which acted as advisors when requested. At the time of its implementation in about 1990 I was in Derby (W.A.) and there were dire warnings from Aboriginal Affairs, Aboriginal Development Corporation and the State bodies. These bureaucrats were all jockeying for a position and working out ways to undermine the organization even then in their own interests. They were even fighting among themselves. With the advent of the Howard Government their dreams came true. They too were looking for means to degrade the organization and they have done a pretty good job. As you can see each of these controls - and there are so many of them - the People have been hog tied at every turn. Their entire association with whites has been of similar vein. Just read the story of Namatjira, the way Tadawalli was controlled during the filming of Jeda. They even sent a bureaucrat with him to Sydney from N.T. to watch him to see that he did not misbehave. (Harry Giese has a lot to answer for.) To me what Pearson is saying is that Welfare should consist of the financial means and the freedom for the People to be able to make their own mistakes. ATSIC should be able to call on advisors if need be, even have them peruse budgets and make suggestions just like say the Northern Land Council, but the final decisions must be by the People. The same would apply to health and education. During my stay with the People on the Outstations I have never seen a more happy and healthy group of people anywhere. I know I enjoyed being with them. In the eighties (?) there was a private school set up in Alice for, and staffed by, Aboriginal Peoples. The N.T. Education dept. refused to register it until the attendance statistics became so embarrassing that they finally conceded registration. Basically it consisted of the three Rs in the morning and Aboriginal lore in the afternoon. I'm sorry I cannot remember its name and don't even know if it is still running but earlier it was a very fine example of what can be done. There are innumerable examples of other initiatives, mainly by women, for petrol sniffers in Yuendumu; women's story groups in South Australia; painting workshops at Balgo Hills and Utopia. In line with Pearson's suggestions the concept of Welfare needs to change. And there are three things that need to be done before any of this could work: firstly, a reconciliation statement needs to be agreed upon and accepted by all parties; second, an official apology needs to be extended in good faith to the Aboriginal Peoples for past wrongs and finally, we need a Government who is prepared to adequately fund these projects, and adopt the courageous policy of allowing the Aboriginal Peoples to make their own mistakes. Because of space requirements there are many other aspects of this situation that could be detailed: Land Rights legislation is one, but I think we should be taking a charitable look at what Pearson has said and instead of condemning him like we have been doing for over two hundred years, we should be trying to get this information out among the general populace. To quote a phrase from a thoroughly disreputable multi-national: Just do it! Ian Henderson. PS. I realise that almost all of my experience has been with the People of Northern Territory and northern Western Australia, consequently, I am not fully aware of the People in and around the cities and towns of Australia. I make no apologies for this perspective as there are obviously many who have close relations with these People, in fact who even are 'those People'. ______________________________________________ Ian Henderson Murdoch University 24 Harfleur Place Perth, W.A. Hamilton Hill Tel: 61-8-9418-3972 Western Australia, 6163 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ______________________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
