Cablog

Great Legacies

In 2002 historian Keith Windshuttle published The Fabrication of Aboriginal History. A history which charged colonial Australians of a policy of genocide and warfare against aborigines. Windshuttle's scholarly Fabrication took this view apart,

When it is closely examined, much of the evidence for the claims about massacres, terrorism, and genocide turns out to be highly suspect. Most of it is very poorly founded, other parts are seriously mistaken, and a good deal of it is outright fabrication.

The book sparked furious debate amongst historians, academics, politicians and activists in what became known as 'the history wars'. In the ensuing ‘debate’ it’s evident Windshuttle was proved correct in refuting the politicising of aboriginal history by a generation of revisionist historians.

Until Windshuttle’s expose this black-armband view of aboriginal history took root and, sadly, served to influence much of our current, socially-engineered, aboriginal policy.

In today’s Australian, Windshuttle has written an article titled, Manhood Whitewashed. In it he provides the most cogent explanation to date for aboriginal child sexual abuse,

The root cause is that white Australia has deprived Aboriginal men in remote communities of their manhood. The instrument we used was social welfare: giving handouts that did not require them to work. The social policy of the past 30 years is the principal culprit...

...The social consequences of this should have been entirely predictable. No matter what their race or where they live, men who do not work have no social status, no sense of self-worth and little meaning in their lives.

Windshuttle closes the article (which deserves to be read in full) by encouraging Indigenous Affairs Minister, Mal Brough to remain resolute in his desire to make a difference in his new portfolio. And more power to him.

Which has me thinking - what Minister Brough now needs is personal support from the highest level, the Prime Minister. With the increasing likelihood John Howard may retire by years end, he couldn’t go out on a better note than wholeheartedly addressing our aboriginal crisis. And yes, it is our crisis, as much as their's.

For a man already regarded as one of Australia’s best Prime Ministers, the parlous and unresolved status of our indigenous is one area blotting Howard's copybook.

If an Australian Prime Minister achieved nothing else during his tenure but the successful rehabilitation of indigenous Australians, then it would surely rate as the greatest legacy an Australian leader could wish for.

UPDATE : Letter writers respond

UPDATE 2 : Archbishop laments closing of missions

UPDATE 3 : Sense and Nonsense in Australian History

They Knew

During last nights peak hour at North Sydney a middle aged fella requested I take him out to Concord Hospital, in the western suburbs. ‘No worries’, I exclaimed, ‘anything to get away from this City traffic’. The joint had gone into gridlock ahead of the big boxing match at Moore Park.

‘So you going to visit someone or to work ?’, I asked him. ‘I have a meeting there tonight’, he replied. ‘Do you work in the health industry ?’. ‘Yes’, he said, ‘I’m a doctor with an aboriginal health service’. Talk about coincidences.

My passenger had just flown in from Kempsey, one of the largest aboriginal populations in the State. ‘I’m here for two days of conferences’, he explained. ‘It’s a regular event with my counterparts from around the State. Unfortunately this meeting tonight is something which arose at the last minute, as I was planning to see a movie tonight’.

He was born in Syria and come to Australia twenty-five years ago to work with the Fred Hollows Foundation. After a stint in Redfern he moved around western NSW ministering to the aboriginal communities.

‘Mate, compared to your homeland’, I suggested, ‘it must have felt like another planet out west’. ‘Sure did’, he agreed, ‘and it was pretty lonely too. Finally I took a position in Kempsey and I just love it up there’.

The heavy traffic gave us plenty of time to explore the crisis within aboriginal Australia. Initially he used standard leftie rhetoric to suggest the Howard Government had failed aborigines - not enough money and resources; the dissolution of ASTIC; reconciliation.

Yet he quickly realised I was up to speed with aboriginal politics after I gently countered some of his claims. Thereafter we danced around the contentious issue of physical and sexual abuse with enough mutual respect to avoid a confrontation.

For he knew as well as I that if anyone was cognisant of the plight of aboriginal women and children it would be a dedicated health officer such as himself. He was an softly spoken and intelligent bloke and I felt it would’ve been impertinent to challenge him on sensitive issues such as,

Community organisations say a culture of silence is fostering the problem, with claims health workers are often discouraged from reporting cases of abuse.

It’s obvious that those working in the aboriginal support industry are overwhelmed by these problems and how to solve them. Undoubtedly they witness on a daily basis the consequences of ‘black on black’ crime, yet often adopt politically-correct notions of 'cultural sensitivity' to justify and excuse the violence.

They know all right, but as individuals what can they do short of bucking the reigning orthodoxy, which would amount to professional suicide ?

In the end, my passenger and I found common ground on two issues. Namely the general lack of interest from commercial media in positive aboriginal affairs and, the lamentable lack of senior aboriginal role models for their community. They need more Mundines to remind the media and authorities of the ongoing aboriginal catastrophe.

Who Knew ?

Sexual violence against women is often considered a weapon of war. In aboriginal Australia, sexual violence against children is often considered secret men’s business,

ABORIGINAL culture was to blame for endemic levels of sexual violence against children in central Australia, according to a Northern Territory prosecutor who cited a case in which a four-year-old was drowned while being anally raped.

How then does one truly classify sexual violence against children and babies ? It’s so depressing to contemplate, it’s taken me twenty-four hours just to pose the question. In short, it's inhuman.

To ponder any form of abuse against minors is akin to putting one’s head in a bucket full of shit. Yet given the choice most would readily do that, if only to save one child.

This is the unenviable task now facing concerned Australians, with the overnight news paedophile rings are operating amongst rural aboriginal communities. So claimed the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Mal Brough last night on ABC’s Lateline,

...there are examples of people who've been operating at a very senior level within Indigenous communities that have such power over those communities and use children at their own whim and they've been dealt with in some cases.

This, after the previous evening’s sensational news of widespread sexual violence perpetrated by aboriginal men against aboriginal children and babies.

Even more telling is the media’s apparent reluctance to report and expose this deplorable issue, which has been prevalent for years across aboriginal Australia.

In a general media policy, I know of one regional television network which routinely ‘spikes’ submitted news items detrimental to aboriginals. Whether this is the result of mis-guided, reverse discrimination or pure squeamishness, such censorship must end.

That aboriginal women and children are in a perpetual state of domestic ‘war’ - black on black - is a shameful indictment of Australian society. That’s all I can say on the matter. Now I'm returning to bed and putting a pillow over my head. How bloody depressing.

UPDATE : Beyond belief; Blind eye 'shameful'; Crusader's battle; Send in the troops;

UPDATE 2 : Herald finally reacts, tangentially. Age does better, marginally. Tele on time.

What Works

ABORIGINAL parents who do not send their children to school will be punished under a radical welfare experiment to be trialled in remote communities.

The idea, floated by indigenous leader, Noel Pearson, is to be voluntarily trialled in four remote communities. It's also designed to encourage Aborigines to seek work and get off the dole. Plus provide incentive payments for good behaviour. More power to them.

Meanwhile, Labor finally gets it,

LABOR will unveil a fundamental shift on Aboriginal policy today, abandoning its focus on land rights and other "politically correct" issues in favour of achieving pragmatic, "evidence-based" results.

Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman Chris Evans,

"Above all, the approach that Labor takes from here on will be driven by the evidence of what works and what does not."

Maybe Evans has been surfing the Indigenous Media Centre and simply can't deny the positive press releases heralding real progress for Aborigines. One can't argue with that.

Kooris Step Forward

When it comes to positive developments in indigenous affairs, the media’s silence is pathetic. Whilst there is a groundswell of hope and appetite for change amongst indigenous peoples and governments alike, the media just won’t acknowledge the fact. Consider this list of 17 indigenous media releases for the month of December, 2005.

Yet did we hear of these ? Apart from the indigenous site, Message Stick of ABC online and their weekly Sunday night half hour radio spot, Speaking Out, one could be forgiven for thinking there is nothing going on in indigenous affairs. Well, there is plenty going on, especially in the area of Shared Responsibility Agreements.

Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRA) based on mutual obligation, are just one of the tools the Government has for working with indigenous communities. And they are making these agreements in ever increasing numbers. As of 24 November 2005, 121 SRAs had been signed with 98 indigenous communities around Australia.

So far the Federal Government, States and Terrorities and communities have been entering mainly into simple, single-issue SRAs that are meaningful to communities and show what SRAs can achieve. Over time SRAs will become more comprehensive, building towards a community’s long-term vision for the future.

So yes, there are positive developments happening in indigenous affairs, as with SRA's. Let’s have a look at one of these programs in my state of New South Wales. The central west town of Dubbo has been in the news this week for all the wrong reasons. Despite this, things are moving in the right direction concerning it’s indigenous youth : 

• The Dubbo Aboriginal community want to improve the lives of their young people by getting them involved in sporting, recreation and other community activities.
• In response to this need, all levels of government, sporting associations and the corporate sector are working with the community to implement a comprehensive Aboriginal Youth Strategy.
• This strategy forms the basis for an SRA developed in partnership with the Dubbo Aboriginal Working Party. The SRA will improve sporting and recreational facilities, build the community’s capacity to participate, and support a wide range of activities.
• The Aboriginal community will be active partners in the strategy. Community members will manage the facilities, including making sure the oval is locked/unlocked at the appropriate times, coordinating security to protect the oval against vandalism, and ensuring equipment is maintained and accounted for. They will also organise community fund-raising activities.
• Parents will support their children’s involvement in sporting teams by providing transport, maintaining equipment, and doing training to become sporting officials, coaches and club administrators. They will also make sure their children obtain and wear appropriate sporting clothing, abide by sporting competition rules, and help to support the coaches in their roles.
• The Australian Government will help to upgrade facilities, and employ activity coordinators, coaches and administrators. Where necessary, the Government will subsidise participation costs for children from low income families.
• The New South Wales Government will provide funds for equipment and programs. Dubbo Council and the corporate sector will get involved by helping to upgrade the West Dubbo Oval.
• Local, State and national sporting associations will help with skills training and accreditation through Sports Development Officers.

Kempsey was another town on televsion last night concerning wanton violence and vandalism by indigenous youth. The town has been virtually lawless and depressed for too long. Yet their indigenous community is yet to sign an SRA. The sooner the better, I say. Check the Aussie map or look up your state to see which local communities are entering agreements and the issues involved.

Finally it's worth recalling Paul Kelly's hit tune, From little things, big things grow. A wonderful ballad just as applicable today as it was to the era which inspired it.

Race Politics

State Government minister Frank Sartor goes on Koori radio and takes some liberties with Koori language. In calling for Aboriginal Housing Company boss Mick Mundine to get 'his black arse' down to see him, Sartor stupidly, yet without malice, invoked a local familiarity which upset all and sundry.

Of course what Sartor should have said to Mundine was, 'Get your slack arse down to see me because the Aboriginal Housing Company couldn't organise sex in a brothel. Your mob has been workshopping a Master Plan for The Block for over 5 years and what have you got to show for it - zilch. Either you do the job, or I will'. Needless to say the AHC would strongly reject such a charge.

Given this appears to have been the implicit threat underlying Sartor's indiscreet comment, it's no wonder Mundine and his mates have now taken offence and decided to play the 'ol race card. Anything to deflect attention from the real issue of redeveloping The disgraceful Block.   

Future-proofing

Mandy Vanstone got up in the Senate yesterday and spoke of a concept adopted by rural indigenous communities, 'chuck in, chuck in'. Which basically means shared responsibility and mutual obligation between community and government.

They have coined the term to reflect the regional partnerships Federal and State Governments are forging with those communities keen to defeat some chronic problems. Can there be anything sadder then the scourge of petrol sniffing. Vandstone reported on initiatives by one community,

In petrol sniffing it is interesting to see what has happened in the Warburton area. In the eighties and nineties there was a very big petrol-sniffing problem in this area. The community leaders have worked very hard to do what they can about it. They introduced their own by-laws in this area, I am told, in 1992 to provide penalties for trafficking and sniffing. They ensured that the by-laws were enforced. They introduced diversionary programs. They converted to avgas in 1996. And now the petrol sniffing problem has dramatically improved from what it was.

When I was told about this over the weekend—because this information came, obviously, from my staff who were at this function —I asked, ‘How many people? Do they put one or two in jail?’ I was told that one week they put 30 people in jail. They do not back away from it as a community. They say, ‘We’ve got to do something about this.’

Whilst it's laudable applying proactive policies to help rural indigenous communities, in the end one wonders how these communities survive. Will their kids gain the education necessary to escape the welfare trap ? Or is it a given these kids are destined for a life of welfare in rural communities ? Hopefully regional partnerships also cover this important aspect.

The Block Update

Last night I carried some Melbourne visitors from St. Peters to Kings Cross. Passing through Redfern I was asked what I thought of The Block. One passenger was under the mistaken impression The Block was the hugh towers around Pitt Street.

Last century whilst studying a Town Planning module, I visitored these towers. Thirty years later I can still remember the stats - 17 storeys tall with 314 units per tower. Children living there drew pictures of cars from the plan elevation, i.e. looking down !

However these towers ain't The Block, which is located near Redfern station and slated for the development of 62 homes. Whilst owned by the Aboriginal Housing Company, The Block has now become a hot property with both the State Government and Sydney City Council vying for control.

Coincidentally, I've justed received a response from Peter Valilis, Project Manager of The Block. Last year I posted on The Block after its bad press from the Redfern riots.

Valilis kindly provides an update on The Block and why it's taken so long for the Master Plan to be implemented. In doing so, he forecasts what he sees as a form of ethnic cleansing implict in the Government's designs over The Block,

...a blatant Machiavellian attack on the most vulnerable in our society..

Poor bugga them

Last night at work I listened to a couple of telling interviews on ABC local radio. First up on Inside Profile was John Howard who gave an insight into what he considers a good interview,

I think the good interviewers of political figures anyway, are those that recognise that on occasions you are entitled to give the person you are interviewing a hard time, because that's your job. But there are other occasions when really you owe an obligation to your listeners to let him or her have something to say because the public's interested in what they've got to say. Now the interviewers who strike the right balance between those two things are both the best interviewers, and also the interviewers I like talking to.

Balance, what a novel concept. In a wide ranging interview, what did presenter Monica Attard really grill the PM on ? Two sick puppies, Mandouh Habib and Cornelia Rau. Yet in my cab of late, I've heard no unsolicitored views on either...

Good News Kooris ?

IT'S amazing how rarely new ideas emerge where Aborigines are concerned.

So commences another excellent article by Michael Duffy in yesterday's Daily Telegraph. Well, I have a new idea concerning aborigines. An idea I've canvassed with a few bloggers from time to time.

Namely, is it possible to produce a series reporting good news on aborigines ? Something similiar to Arthur Chrenkoff's wildly successful series, Good News Iraq.

To rely on Mainstream Media for such information, one could be forgiven for thinking good news on aborigines doesn't exist. But it surely does. It's just we're rarely told about it. If I wasn't so busy, I'd do it myself as it's an issue crying out to be blogged. Anyone...?