The Australian Jewish News EDITORIAL : 26 January 2002
Australia Day: time to right the wrongs AUSTRALIA celebrates Australia Day 2002 as a nation of 19.5 million people. The life expectancy of a newborn male is 77 and of a newborn female 82; on the other hand, the life expectancy of an Aboriginal male is 56 and of an Aboriginal female 63. The discrepancies between those figures is symbolic of the tension between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. It is a tension which manifests itself in the fact that 539.8 indigenous Australian children out of every 100,000 were in juvenile detention, according to 1996 figures; the figure for non-indigenous Australian children was 25.3. It is a tension which is evident in the overwhelming disproportion between the percentage of prison inmates who are Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, and in the number of Aboriginal deaths in police custody. It is a tension which erupts in alcohol binges in Outback towns. It is a tension which is visible in the percentage of Aboriginal students who drop out of school, and of Aboriginal adults dependent on welfare handouts. It is a tension which is a painful legacy of the trauma of 10-30 per cent of Aboriginal children being torn from their parents, their homes, their culture and their communities between 1910 and 1970, when families were subjected to loss of native title, loss of opportunity, loss of language, labour exploitation, racial discrimination and sexual abuse. At the end of the day, it is a tension which took root on 26 January 1788 - when the 11 vessels of the First Fleet, carrying an estimated 1487 convicts, marines and family members, weighed anchor in Sydney Cove. Among that number were about 14 Jewish convicts. Governor Arthur Phillip, who had commanded the fleet on its eight-month voyage from Portsmouth, England, to the Canary Islands, Rio de Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope and Botany Bay, before finally docking in Sydney, raised the Union Jack, formally marking the arrival of the continent's first non-indigenous inhabitants and the tentative beginnings of the nation which came to be known variously as New Holland, New South Wales, Terra Australis and, eventually, Australia. THE theme of this year's Australia Day is "National Spirit", urging all Australians to embrace the national spirit and reflect on what it means. Ours is a country of which to be proud. One of the great democracies of the world, we enshrine civil liberties and social justice, we protect the vulnerable, we comprise 180 ethnic groups, not only represented in the rich fabric of society, but free to express their cultural and religious differences while still being seen to belong. Within that tapestry is a vibrant Jewish community, one which has acquired a place in the sun in this great land by committing itself to this country's development, its defence and its standing among the community of nations. Australian Jewry's sons and daughters have risen to positions of leadership across the full spectrum of society, indicative of an acceptance for which we are grateful and of an achievement of which we are justly proud. Yet - if we are to make the Australia Day theme genuinely meaningful - it is imperative, when embracing the national spirit, that we give thought to how it applies to the minorities within our society, for that is the test of a truly great democracy. Last year, for example, was the worst on record for physical antisemitic attacks in Australia - part of a figure of 320 antisemitic incidents in 2001. While the proliferation fits the pattern of increased anti-Jewish vilification and violence around the world since the outbreak of the intifada in September 2000, it also points to heightened intolerance and racism among elements of our society - elements which take advantage of the umbrella provided by anti-Israel reporting, talk-back radio jockeys and the silence of society leaders in the face of such attacks. Despite the firebomb, arson and vandalism attacks on Jewish institutions, not one person has been arrested. In giving expression to the Australia Day national spirit, the Prime Minister and all state premiers should be publicly condemning such acts as unacceptable to the values which our society upholds. Similarly, Australia Day organiser and former NSW premier Barrie Unsworth has noted that several Aborigines have been selected among the ambassadors of goodwill being dispatched all over the country. The gesture is appropriate, but when Australia Day is over, it will remain little more than that - a gesture. If the national spirit is to be fully embraced by all sectors of society, as it should, the issues which impede reconciliation should be addressed fearlessly; if not, it cannot be a completely honest appraisal of the significance of 26 January. It was the first 26 January in Australian history which led to Aboriginal disadvantage; it is therefore appropriate that Australia Day should be the occasion when we reaffirm our commitment to righting those wrongs. If not, the call to embrace the national spirit will have a hollow ring, for it will not speak to one of the most vulnerable sectors of our society. Source: The Australian Jewish News, EDITORIAL, 26 January 2002 http://www.ajn.com.au/driver.asp?page=main/contents/opinion/editorial-1 ************************************************************************* 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." --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/ until 11 March, 2001 and Recoznettwo is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznettwo%40green.net.au/ from that date. 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