Aboriginal | The Australian Friend
Sailing into Country: Educator in Action
1603 March 2016 No Responses »
Mar
18
2016
David Carline, Queensland Regional Meeting
David Carline
I realised at last that I was an educator when I was 50. I got a job as a researcher working at the University of Queensland. We produced a little journal called The Aboriginal Child at School. What I thought everyone knew about Aboriginality it turned out they didn’t, but I was on the right track and was carrying the tradition. I found I knew a lot more than everyone else in the unit. My whole Aboriginal upbringing I had until then just taken for granted. I didn’t realise it was not that common to really know your heritage.
Mum, whose name was Jocelyn Carline, always encouraged me to be very independent. I had travelled the world, to Ethiopia, South America, and many other places. I was a cook/steward on merchant ships for 20 years. I got deported from Aden when they were throwing out the British. It was a mercy in disguise, because I came home to see my mother and she died three months later. She was so tired, she had been worked to death.
Mum was from the stolen generation, nine or ten when she was taken. When she started looking for her people, by good fortune there was one of the Aunties in Brisbane who told her she looked like someone down at the Tweed Head camps. She turned out to be my grandmother, Emma. However, otherwise Mum never really connected or bonded with her own blood family.
I was brought up in the Brisbane city camps, where we shared everything. Mum learnt traditional ways from the Aunties at these camps so she could look after us. She would go and pick medicine from our bush environment so we had never been to a chemist’s shop. There was a lot of traditional knowledge being passed on. We had an old Uncle, Willie McKenzie, who visited from time to time, known as the “last of the Brisbane Blacks”. He’d show us how to make fire rockets, use boomerangs and taught us to make spears. We’d use green saplings and shoot those spears at a thick door and they’d almost go through.
Neither Mum nor I learnt our language. . . by that time it had been lost. We use some Aboriginal English up here, and we have some words that we still remember. Dad was an American serviceman, he went back after a couple of years, at the end of the war. I don’t remember him of course, I was born in 1944. I was very premature, and then I got very sick. But Mum said even though I was born a little old man I just wouldn’t let go of life. The Great Spirit has looked after me all my life, I have always had a Spiritual leaning.
How did we avoid the authorities? Mum was very clever. We would be on the move, ducking and diving, until she got a job with a good white family. Judge Webb was the Australian representative at the war trials in Japan, very well respected. Forever after, if people caused her trouble she said, “I’m going to tell Judge Webb” and they would leave her alone.
I had to drop out of school during Grade 6 at the age of 13 so I could work, picking strawberries, tomatoes, shelling prawns. Kids are very nimble with their fingers. There were only two of us children; I have a sister ten years older. I did try once to find Dad in my teens, but no luck. I wrote to the Red Cross in Switzerland, I didn’t even know where that was then.
Much later I was on the board for the Independent Murri School in Brisbane. At that time they couldn’t get Aboriginal teachers so we gave direction about how we wanted our children to do their learning. So I was engaged in establishing curriculum guidelines on a day-by-day basis. Murri kids are notoriously difficult and teachers can’t cope with them for too long. It is the result of the policies and practices of the past. The family expectations regarding education were not great. Low attention spans were part of it. A family history of drugs and alcohol didn’t help many kids, for example foetal alcohol syndrome really affects their ability to focus and study. That discipline of learning in a classroom is not a natural thing. This goes on all the time. They’ve got brilliant recall, kids. They mostly learn by doing.
I came here to Cunnamulla with a leading to work with my own people, the Kooma/Gwamu. The old Aunties in Brisbane paved the way by connecting me with my own Kooma people. I am still under this leading. I ended up having a little school. I bought some shops that provided the building, and there was money from the National Numeracy and Literacy Programs, and our program was aimed at kids who were expelled or suspended for being disruptive. The regular schools often wouldn’t bother to find out why the children were having trouble. One boy was in the room when his father committed suicide, so he was very disruptive. The Catholic Education Department organised the teachers and such, a few books and furniture. We had computers, and there was a program called “Successmaker”. Each child was required to spend half an hour on numeracy and half on literacy each day. The program was great, it allowed you to enter wherever you are and then ramped you up. Those were our minimal academic requirements. Not too much book learning.
Examples of AKA, Aboriginal Kitchen Art, produced by young people in the Cunnamulla community to practice and build their confidence in painting. Examples of AKA, Aboriginal Kitchen Art, produced by young people in the Cunnamulla community to practice and build their confidence in painting.
The other activities we did were very hands on, living skills: I showed the girls how fix up fibro walls that had been smashed in, and do other carpentry, and the boys how to take up their jeans. We provided transport in both directions to make sure they came. Cooking breakfast and lunch was a big thing; the kids needed feeding, and there was no shame because we all ate the meals. We were a community, about 15 of us altogether including the teachers. We had a lunch roster where each student was responsible for preparing a lunch for the whole school by themselves. If a student could produce a lunch for under $15 for everyone then they would be able to have the leftover for a Coke. Soon they were teaching each other how to make nutritious and affordable meals.
We did a lot of travel, and the kids raised the money: cake stalls, car washes and QSA helped us. We went to Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney, we were treated like royalty. There’s a platform where you can walk up and look into a giraffe’s mouth. We couldn’t get them away. When we came onto the Harbour Bridge, one boy said “Holy shit, look at that!” They loved the ferry. These are kids who would have gotten lost in Toowoomba. This was seeing the world. I think it stimulated a natural curiosity for a whole lot more. There was an elder in Sydney called Uncle Max Eulo, he’s from up around here. Lots of the kids were related to him. He arranged a minibus, Aboriginal hostels, everything we needed. It was terrific to have that connection and the children felt really special for a change. That was a new thing for many of them.
We started with the Outstation Movement, and we had the Kooma Corporation for land. At that time there were many different new initiatives. Our property is now called MurraMurra and Bendee Downs, and our company is Gwamu Enterprises. This protects Kooma traditional owners from liability. It is a company that does agisting, and we have recently purchased our own small flock (600), which enables us to run a shearing school. We’ve got a third of the land protected under the Indigenous Protected Area Program (IPA). We employ a ranger, run a vehicle, and maintain the fences. We can have stock on the land for a limited time, depending on the rains. The stock are useful to keep the weeds under control. There are over 30 ephemeral lakes in our IPA, which makes it a distinct and fragile natural environment. This attracts much interest as there are many cultural sites of a wide variety.
I am a Recognised Elder and was acknowledged by the community as NADOC male Elder of the Year for Cunnamulla. We haven’t got any towns in the Kooma/Gwamu lands. We got our native title for some of our land last year, this is something I’ve been working on, with others, for 20 years. That was a great moment.
We have Emu Fest that goes on for a week. We’ve got three kids out there now. Kids who need to get out of town, we take them out there. If they are playing up at home or school, or mum needs a break, we get them out in time before things get out of hand. I would take kids out on the land, show and explain to them our cultural sites, work with emu feathers, beading, art and craft programs. Spiritual practice is also shared during these times.
The Ngarrindjeri people come up from Adelaide, since we are at the top of the Murray Darling, and we perform ceremonies together every couple of years. They then follow the river down and conduct ceremonies along the way to its mouth. This water is very sacred to us, it is our blood in our veins. To see what has happened to this river makes us nearly weep. The dry means the water holes don’t get flushed out. The weirs and dams just stop the whole natural flow of the river, and it gets so polluted. We talk to the young ones so they realise that everything that is living is sacred. You don’t kill for fun. If you kill it, you eat it.
Another branch of my educating life grew when I took on fostering Rhys, who is 22 now. He came to me when he was 14, and I was his 150th carer. I taught him about his Aboriginality, and living skills. Lots of educating there from every angle. I learnt a lot of patience in the process, it put me in touch with reality. There are a lot of kids who’ve got all this baggage. I’m glad he came into my life. It made me realise what a lot of women are putting up with. He’s doing quite well at the moment. He’s got a child and he’s being a good father, he’s really trying. He had some hard knocks along the way, but fortunately he’s bounced out of those rough times.
AF: So, it seems learning runs in the veins of Aboriginal men and women who are close to their roots. It is a responsibility, part of embracing who you are already. You don’t really belong to your country until you can share its wisdom, its secrets. The emphasis is as much on respecting that identity as demanding transformation. “Live the skin you’re in”, we might say. It sounds like a great way to think about any kind of education, leading us to be true to ourselves. Without facing that truth, our capacities for violence, for peace, for love and being loved, to allow ourselves to belong, we are lost. Would you agree there, David?
DC: Yes, honesty to yourself is at the centre of it, no matter who you are.
Caption: Examples of AKA, Aboriginal Kitchen Art, produced by young people in the Cunnamulla community to practice and build their confidence in painting.
Tagged with: Aboriginal, Education, Murri
Aboriginal Sovereignty
1512 December 2015 No Responses »
Dec
05
2015
David Johnson, Queensland Regional Meeting
David JohnsonRight relationship with the land and with Aboriginal people requires we acknowledge Aboriginal Sovereignty over Australia. This is not an easy thing for many to consider.
For Aboriginal people Sovereignty is, in the words of Kevin Gilbert[1]:
Now our Sovereignty
– let’s be clear what Sovereignty means –
Sovereignty means our ownership
our rights in the country
our true identification
as a separate People
from the colonisers
the English people who came over
and colonised our land.
We are a separate People.
We do have rights in the land.
Sovereignty asserts that the ancient, unchangeable law of the land, and that living in right relationship with the land has primacy over the changeable laws and decrees of the imported European culture. Caring for the land, caring for community, caring for each other are more important than allocating corporate business rights or personal possession rights over the land.
The law of the land guides how we are to live, and our responsibilities to the land, the plants and creatures, the waters and the skies. Humans do not have dominion, they have the responsibilities of stewardship.
Each culture expresses these ancient truths in its own language, and it is necessary but not sufficient to know these stories and cardinal rules, the do’s and don’t’s. The essence lies in obedience to the guiding Spirit.
In the words of Black Elk, last free-living of the Oglala Sioux medicine men:
We should understand well that all things are the work of the Great Spirit. We should know that [the Great Spirit] is in all things: the trees, the grasses, the rivers, the mountains, and all the four-legged animals, and the winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that [the Great Spirit] is also above all these things and peoples. When we do understand all this deeply in our hearts, then we will fear, and love, and know the Great Spirit, and then we will be and act and live as [the Great Spirit] intends.[2]
Any practical common sense or legal decrees can only arise from a spiritual acceptance that the Earth belongs to the Creator who made it and we hold it temporarily in trust. The land was first gifted in trust to the Aboriginal people who have never ceded that Sovereignty.
The Australian Mabo decision (1992) established the country was not terra nullius, empty of owners and ready for the taking. In fact English possession of the land has been illegal even under British law.
7. Saving of rights of tribes – Nothing herein or in any such Order in Council contained shall extend or be construed to extend to invest Her Majesty, her heirs and successors with any claim or title whatsoever to dominion or sovereignty over any such islands or places as aforesaid, or to derogate from the rights of the tribes or people inhabiting such islands or places, or of chiefs or rulers thereof, to such sovereignty or dominion, and a copy of every such Order in Council shall be laid before each House of Parliament …[3]
We cannot but admit that the European settlers came and despoiled the land. Certainly they made wealth, building a treasure that lies in earthly possessions. They made that wealth at the expense of the Aboriginal people, exterminating thousands, destroying culture, traumatising children, and sacrificing the plants, wildlife and natural waters. We know our newcomer culture has done wrong, though it pains many of us to admit it, and we may often retreat into rationalisations. The great struggles by many to restore the environment over the last 50 years, and to place value on the integrity of the land, its landscape, plants and wildlife is but one sign of our recognition of the damage done. Yet this is not enough.
We know our way of life is unsustainable, and that most Australians have become divorced from the land. We make small excursions into national parks and to beaches and walk along manicured riverbanks, and we do this because the Spirit inside is telling us we need it and our sanity demands it. Many find the prospect of full immersion in the bush, of sleeping on the ground, of listening only to the sounds of the land, just too strange or even frightening.
Kevin Gilbert speaking on 20th anniversary and re-establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, January 1992. Photo: Eleanor GilbertKevin Gilbert speaking on 20th anniversary and re-establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy, Canberra, January 1992.
Photo: Eleanor Gilbert
How will we find our way back into right relationship, and into a secure acceptance of our spiritual dependence on the land? It will come from accepting the truth of Aboriginal Sovereignty and it is the Aboriginal people who will show us the way. When we have followed this way we will come to a shared vision for this country and we will be much saner and more peaceful.
I believe if there is to be an Australian culture, it cannot be an imported, ersatz culture. Cultures and the people are developed from the land they occupy. Culture has to be developed from the heart, from the depths of human integrity, the depths of human passion, the depths of human creativity and I believe that, if there is ever to be a sound overall culture for this land, it has to involve everyone and it must involve everyone, and it must evolve and be based on those fine aspects of the human family – integrity, justice, vision, creativity, life , honour …[4]
We do not know exactly how this Sovereignty will work out and it will take time to travel this way together. We invaders and immigrants cannot just all go back where we came from. We know the country will still have to produce food and goods for living, and to provide education, medical care and transport systems in ways that are spiritually, environmentally and economically sustainable. The first step is to acknowledge the Aboriginal Sovereignty and then start living it. Like life itself, this is a step into the unknown. The land and the Spirit will show us the way.
If we take this step into Truth, then we can believe we will be shown the way – just as it was when people took steps to eliminate slavery, to give women and Afro-Americans the vote, or accept environmental limits on land use.
[1] Vince Forrester interviews Kevin Gilbert CAAMA Radio 1989
[2] The Sacred Pipe: Black Elk’s Account of the Seven Rites of the Oglala Sioux
by Nicholas Black Elk, Joseph Epes Brown. University of Oklahoma Press. 172pp.
[3] U.K. Pacific Islander Protection Acts 1872 & 1875, especially this quote from 1875, section 7. The Terms of these Acts notes they shall mean and include all the Australasian colonies of NSW, New Zealand, Queensland, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia at the time.
[4] Kevin Gilbert, speaking as Chairman of the Treaty 88 campaign. Quoted by Reg Pollock, Assistant Director General, NSW Department of School Education in Foreword to Jumna Milla Truth: Our Weapon/Our Shield ( Penrith, NSW: Lewers Bequest and Penrith Art gallery, 1993).
Tagged with: Aboriginal, First Nations, sovereignty
Fortieth Anniversary of The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, January 26, 2012
1206 June 2012 No Responses »
May
30
2012
Roger Keyes, South Australia Regional Meeting.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, adjacent to Old Parliament House in Canberra, achieved the milestone of 40 years in the political landscape. Erected on 27 January 1972 by Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Bertie Williams (known as Kevin Johnson) and Tony Koorie, the Tent Embassy has iconic political status and has inspired, educated and informed Aboriginal people and others from Australia and overseas. The first protest on the site was by Wiradjuri men, Jimmy Clements and John Noble, at the opening of Parliament House in 1927.
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy was re-established in 1992 and has been permanently occupied ever since. The sacred Fire for Peace and Justice in the centre of the site has been tended since being first made by Arabunna Elder Kevin Buzzacott and lit by Paul Coe Wiradjuri in 1998.
I went to Canberra not knowing what to expect. The website said there would be camping facilities, and we would self-cater. I purchased a one-person tent, self-inflating mattress and some cans of stew, and hoped there would be water and Porta-loos on site. I took the Greyhound coach overnight to Canberra and got breakfast after the cafe opened at 6:30 am. There were no showers in the National Capital’s Bus Station.
After 9:30 am I saw quite a number of Aboriginal people and supporters at the rendezvous not far away. I was glad to put my kit aboard a vehicle to be taken to the camp site. I was very tired, but glad to be asked to carry one of the Embassy banners. I spoke with Les Malezer (co-chair of National Congress of First Nations for QLD), and Congress members Brian Butler (SA) and Dennis Eggington (WA), who is the brother of Robert Eggington of Dumbartung Aboriginal Corporation who with his wife Selina spoke to us at YM in Perth of their work in the area of Youth suicide.
The March was non-violent and peaceful, which mainstream media neglected to report. Marchers expressed frustration and anger at 224 years of illegal and violent foreign occupation. The theme of the march was a call for the recognition of the dignity and sovereignty of the First Nations of this land. There was much anger expressed at the theft of resources and the alienation of the People from their Land.
As we approached Capital Hill it was decided by the marshals that we would divert our course to the Embassy opposite Old Parliament House then visit the present Parliament House. This was incident free and after a short stay we turned back to the Embassy. By this time I was feeling pretty worn, not having brought water, and after my less than perfect night’s sleep.
When we arrived at the Embassy hundreds of tents had been erected, some quite extensive. Most were small one- or two-person tents whose occupants relied on catering for at what might be called a ‘food hall under canvas’. The small number of volunteers were kept very busy with cooking, cleaning, dish washing, garbage and recycling tasks, watering the Porta-loos and so on. I had brought my own supplies. My ‘next-door-neighbour’ had had an Esky with bacon and eggs, so at her insistence, I fared a little better than I might have with only my tins.
I spent a good deal of time talking with Whitefella supporters, and trying to decide whether to attend the celebration. I felt that this might be something at which Whitefellas had no real place. Over the past 224 years we have so readily believed that we know what to do and how to do it. In the end I responded to the invitation that had been generously extended, but I was nevertheless reticent to do more than stand with the First Nations’ appeal for respect for their sovereignty. I had learnt this at Hindmarsh Island Bridge when Ngarrindjeri elders invited us to ‘stand with’ them. Problems arise when terms like ‘help’ or ‘advise’ gain currency. White supremacy is the underlying assumption but what was called for was respectful acknowledgement of First Nations’ Sovereignty.
There were numerous musical and rhetorical expressions of this aspiration from the main stage. I did not hear some of this as there was discussion in small groups and so much going on. There was much discussion on the second day, Friday 27 January, the actual birthday of the Tent Embassy, in the Big Tent. At one point a clear call was made by one, and agreed to by a number of the Nations’ elders, for a National Council of Elders without Federal or State Government involvement. Many among the First Nations see the newly created Congress, which is under the auspices of the government, as not sufficiently independent and self-determining. I felt increasingly uncomfortable sitting among the people in the tent, because I felt that Whitefellas presence might be frustrating or embarrassing to those who wanted to speak out strongly against our interference in Aboriginal life.
Other elders called for caution, patient waiting until they caught up with those who had been able to re-establish their cultures, their connection to Country, and their languages. There were many different aspirations. It was felt, I believe, that a Council of elders from around the Nations, away from the Federal Minister, might well address the problems being faced in the Big Tent.
At length there was a request that non-Aboriginal people should leave the gathering, so that First Nations people could feel freer to make their statements.
On the same day an incident at the Lobby Restaurant Cafe was portrayed by mainstream media as violent. I was not nearby, but I am assured that there was no violent protest; nobody was in any danger. Federal Police have laid no charges. Burning a flag by young people was not good public relations and regrettable. That is not the first time that the Australian flag has been maltreated, and it was symbolic, not causing actual harm.
I was frustrated that the mainstream media did not cover the celebration as a whole, with meaningful interviews with people attending the corroboree. This could have brought the basic soundness of the whole event into the light and informed Australian people of good things that happen in the Aboriginal community.
I was also disappointed (but not surprised) at media response to the frustration of some of the people at the now notorious cafe rendezvous between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Why do we not understand that Aboriginal protesters become impatient when our leaders are insensitive to injustice? What a great opportunity they neglected when they failed to go down to the Embassy and sit down with the Elders.
The Tent Embassy has survived police brutality, politicians’ ridicule and general popular ignorance. My hope is that there will come a day when there is no need for the First Nations to have an Embassy in their own land.
For more information visit the Aboriginal Tent Embassy web site and 40th Anniversary pages. For positive media stories visit New Matilda.
Tagged with: Aboriginal, corroboree, flag, Lobby Restaurant Cafe, non-violent, tent embassy
Going remote: working in the Kimberleys
1112 December 2011 1 Response »
Nov
29
2011
Brian Harlech-Jones, Canberra Regional Meeting
John Baker with Marie and Brian Harlech-Jones
In mid-July 2011, Marie and I arrived in Billiluna to take over as the new managers of Mindibungu Aboriginal Corporation. ‘Billiluna? Where is that?’ ask most people. It’s in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, about 170 kms by road south-east of Halls Creek on the Tanami Road.
Billiluna is an Aboriginal settlement of about 200-250 people that used to be called Billiluna Station until it reverted to Aboriginal occupancy and control in 1978. Of course, before the land was appropriated by white people, it was the traditional country of Aboriginal people who, when dispossessed, became domestic workers and stockmen on the stations. (See http://billiluna.org.au/history.html to find out more.)
Today the land is not actually owned by Aboriginal people but rather is held in trust for them. Anybody with legal interests and a lot of time to spare who would like to investigate the arcane processes of leasehold over Aboriginal land can read up on official organisations such as ALT and ORIC. However, I don’t advise ordinary mortals to set off down that path.
Marie and I are the co-managers of the corporation. As such, we are directly responsible to the board, which consists of eight directors who are elected annually at a community meeting. Space does not permit me to list all of our functions; in fact, our job description covers more than one typed A4 page. Some of the functions include:
supervising and allocating jobs to the ‘municipal workers’ (when there are any workers!);
acting as the Centrelink and Corrective Services agents;
keeping the airstrip serviceable;
supervising the telecentre;
organizing the Home and Community Care program, which currently mainly entails support for the elderly via Meals on Wheels as well as some limited aspects of home care (observation: most of Billiluna’s ‘elderly’ inhabitants are younger than we are!);
trying to keep the corporation’s vehicles going (these include two busses, one grader, one backhoe, two 4WD utes, one Toyota 4WD ‘troopie’, and two Kubota run-abouts, all of which are in various stages of decrepitude);
liaising with donors and grant-giving agencies;
despatching, receiving, sorting, and distributing mail;
ordering fuel and recharging or creating the fuel cards (as well as managing the chaos that ensues when the software on the fuel computer goes awry, as it did recently);
collating accounts for the book-keeper and accountant;
doing the wages.
We also act as hosts and ‘middlemen’ for the numerous representatives of government departments and NGOs who visit Billiluna regularly in pursuance of their mandates. In fact, outsiders have to apply to us for permission to visit the settlement.
It is a wide brief. For instance, if a community member can’t understand a letter written in legalese, we are asked to explain it. To give another example, when ‘Johnson’, Billiluna’s mentally challenged giant with a passion for going naked and playing with water, removed a tap and left a fountain of water spraying into the Friday evening sky a few days ago, we were the ones who groped around in the dark in a muddy pool to replace the tap. (Memo to self: find the stop-cock for the taps so that we won’t be working blindly in a fountain of water next time it happens.) Here is another example of the breadth of our responsibilities: when a lawyer in Kununurra, 500 kms distant, wanted to interview a person in Billiluna via video-conferencing, we were the ones who made the contacts and set up the link via webcam. (Memo to self: try to get the video-conferencing equipment working. I have heard that it functioned properly some time during the comparatively recent past even if currently it’s merely a screen and a tangle of cables and electronic parts.)
A lot of people think that we are here ‘to do good’, like missionaries or philanthropists. This is an erroneous impression. Although the advertisement to which we responded did state that the job would suit a ‘volunteer-minded couple’, our main reason for being here is a selfish one, namely that we wanted to experience a different culture and a different environment. Also, we should be clear about the fact that we are paid quite well for doing the job. In addition, the fringe benefits include highly subsidised housing and two months leave per annum (three weeks of the leave are in lieu of overtime pay). Also, it’s a great place to build up your savings, because there are no diversions such as restaurants, cinemas, theatres, malls, and weekend get-aways on which to fritter away your income. Of course, when we do get to ‘civilization’—which, for us, so far has been Kununurra—we do spend a lot of money in the supermarkets and then return with a ute packed to the gunwales with supplies. We also pick up supplies and articles for the corporation, because transportation to Billiluna is expensive.
Marie and I are 67 years of age and we reckon that a side-benefit of the job is that it will probably delay the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s. On the other hand, sometimes when I’m multi-tasking in the office, answering the phone, looking for a file, and answering questions from two or more residents at the same time (this is a very immediate culture), I sometimes wonder if over-stimulation strengthens the brain, or wears it out!
Let’s end on a reflective note. (Here, I am repeating what I said in a recent letter to some F/friends.) Some Australians stereotype Aboriginal people as drunken, careless, disorganised, lazy, and generally unsuited to modern life. And unfortunately many aspects of life in Billiluna seem to support this stereotype: there is violence, there is rubbish almost everywhere, there are filthy houses, there are poor hygiene practices, the rate of absenteeism at school is high, work practices are irregular, and there is almost universal welfare dependency. However, there is another side to the story. The Kimberley region was amongst the last in Australia to be settled by pastoralists, who only started to drive cattle into the area during the 1880s. Ranchers were fighting battles with dispossessed Aboriginal communities until the 1910s or even later. Indigenous people came out on the losing side of this violent confrontation and were only ‘pacified’ by being killed or by being absorbed as workers on the stations where their options were severely limited: the women were employed as domestic workers, and the men as stockmen. To illustrate: recently, I asked one of the older residents how he liked being a stockman on the old Billiluna Station and he replied dismissively, ‘There was nothing else that we could do.’
So, while people in the rest of Australia could move about freely, get educated, choose career paths, choose how they were governed, and generally contribute towards, and enjoy, the prosperous country that Australia is today, Aboriginal people in the Kimberley and in similar situations elsewhere were limited to being domestic workers and stockmen on land that they had once called their own country.
To show how this history affects people, let me tell you about the notorious Sturt Creek Massacre of 1922, which took place at Billiluna and a neighbouring station. Here is how one local artist describes the event:
People came from the south along the Canning Stock Route to Kaningarra. They stole a camel, then killed and ate it maybe this side of Kaningarra. Police on horseback found them there and began shooting them because they killed the camel. They rounded up others, tied them together and walked them on to the old station Kilangkarra, then on to Nyarna (Lake Stretch). [Note: Lake Stretch is 15 kms from Billiluna.] From there they took them to the place where the Jaarni tree stands (south of Billiluna) and kept them there tied up for a few days. Then they walked them up to old Sturt Creek Station. They lined them up between two trees tied together with wire around their necks and with their hands and feet tied with wire.
Two policemen stood together on each side and shot them one by one from the ones at the end to the ones in the middle till they were all dead. Then they dragged some of the bodies to the goat yard, dumped them there in a heap and set fire to them using kerosene. They dragged the rest to the well, threw them in and set fire to them too. (Narrative by Daisy Kungah; the illustrative painting and narrative can be viewed in the section ‘School Heritage Collection’ in the web site http://billiluna.org.au)
To put this event into the context of human memory, the massacre took place when our fathers were ten or eleven years of age. In other words, if we had been born and raised in Billiluna, it is very likely that our parents would have told us a lot about this traumatic event. And of course, it wasn’t the only violence committed against Aboriginal communities during the 19th Century and early 20th Century. The Sturt Creek Massacre is especially notorious only because it was so cold-blooded and because so many people perished within such a short period of time.
How would we live and behave if we, our families, and our communities had lived through these experiences?
Finally, any F/friends with skills in areas such as mechanics, carpentry, general handiwork, electrics/electronics, and IT (actually, any useful skills will do!) who want to experience something different, are welcome to contact us about the possibility of volunteering for a while in Billiluna.
Note: a range of photos available from http://billiluna.org.au/ and http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.284640378236112.73175.100000704567079&type=1&l=4cae0b0f00
Tagged with: Aboriginal, social action
QUNO assists Darwin Aboriginal leaders to meet UN Hugh Commissioner
1012 December 2010, 1109 September 2011 No Responses »
Oct
07
2011
Michelle Harris, Concerned Australians (http://www.concernedaustralians.com.au/)
In 2010, two Northern Territory elders visited the United Nations in Geneva. They returned to Australia rejoicing about their personal experiences. Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM from Galiwin’ku and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM from Utopia shared with others their reactions to the experience of having been truly listened to. It was an important visit because it gave them strength to go on fighting and believing that justice was achievable. At a personal level they had had an opportunity to unburden themselves in an environment of support.
Many aspects of that visit, including important meetings with other UN agencies, were brought about through the considerable support of the Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) led by Rachel Brett and of her assistant, Holly White, who will soon be returning to Australia. Rachel has remained a source of advice and assistance to ‘concerned Australians’ ever since, especially as we try to find our way through the sometimes daunting task of locating the correct channels to contact various United Nations bodies.
When we heard that Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, would visit Australia, we knew how important it would be for her to spend time with other Northern Territory leaders so that they might also have the opportunity to experience the support of the international body first hand. Once again, advice from Rachel contributed as we successfully lobbied for the High Commissioner to visit Darwin.
It is rare for Aboriginal leaders to be able to come together and to have the opportunity of sharing their feelings with each other. The opportunity to come together and meet with Navi Pillay was a very special event. Leaders travelled from all parts of the Territory to share with the Commissioner their concerns about their loss of rights and their fears for the future. After the meeting, several of those who attended referred to the experience as ‘very strong’ and ‘very emotional’.
Later Navi Pillay said, ‘I could sense the deep hurt and pain that they have suffered because of government policies that are imposed on them.’ She also expressed reservations about the inflexibility of the policies themselves:
I also saw Aboriginal people making great efforts to improve their communities, but noted that their efforts are often stifled by inappropriate and inflexible policies that fail to empower the most effective, local solutions.
The Intervention is now in its fifth year. There is little doubt that Navi Pillay held grave reservations not only about the policy but also about what she had seen and heard. Her final media statement said:
I would urge a fundamental rethink of the measures being taken under the Northern Territory Emergency Response. There should be a major effort to ensure not just consultation with the communities concerned in any future measures, but also their consent and active participation. Such a course of action would be in line with the UN Declaration.
Sadly, the current consultations taking place in the Northern Territory are happening without communities having been asked to give their consent, and sadly, community leaders were not invited to engage in the planning of an agenda that would prioritise the issues that are central to their future lives.
There is a very long way to go if Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory are ever going to be able to pursue self determination. They will need an enormous amount of active support and a determination to keep fighting for their rights.
Without the guidance of Rachel Brett in Geneva, concerned Australians would not have been so successful in reaching the right people to assist in re-scheduling the commissioner’s visit to include a stop in Darwin. Without the support of some nine different organisations, including Quakers, here in Australia, we would never have been able to assist the costly transport of over 60 people from 20 different communities to reach Darwin. Airfares are expensive and distances considerable. Without the assistance of the Uniting Church we would never have been able to organize overnight accommodation.
We are grateful to all the organisations that came together at short notice and we are especially grateful to the QUNO officers who, through their guidance, continue to greatly increase our chances of gaining support in areas where human rights are being so wantonly disregarded. AF
Tagged with: Aboriginal, politics, QUNO
QSA Notes
1109 September 2011 No Responses »
Oct
07
2011
QSA Notes hdr
Cambodia clip_image005
One question QSA staff and Management Committee members are often asked is – how do you know the projects work? The answer to that is not only in the reports and statistics supplied by the project partner, though they do give an interesting perspective on what is happening. But the real impact is understood from the project participants themselves, when they tell you their story, which is such a privilege to learn. Here are two from women in Cambodia who have taken part in the program being run by Cambodia HIV/AIDS Education and Care (CHEC), an independent NGO being run by Kolnary, its energetic director. This project has been providing training in skills which will enable the family members to earn an income. Their stories explain the impact this training has had for them all.
In addition to her four sons, Mrs Phat Cheu now has around 40 chickens to raise. The 44 year old from Kandal became aware of her HIV status last year after both she and her husband became ill. She qualified for the CHEC chicken-raising project based on her existing farming skills.
“When I first found out that I was HIV positive I wanted to die. But then people from CHEC came and explained to me that HIV wasn’t a death sentence. ”
In addition to being part of the chicken raising scheme, CHEC’s home-based care team visits her family once a month to offer health and business advice. Now with the knowledge and means to access proper care and livelihood support Mrs Phat Cheu says the CHEC project has greatly improved the quality of her life and that of her family members.
“I just want a healthy and happy life for me and my family and I am very grateful to CHEC that they help us to have these things” she says.
With skinny body and hollow eyes, a sick woman in debt due to the cost of treatment lay on a mat with her two- year-daughter nearby in a small house. This was the situation for Pong Onn 5 years ago. After she has received the service of CHEC Home Based Care, her life seems to be turned around and her living conditions are much better through support such as training in chicken raising and receiving some chickens to set up a farm for income generation from CHEC.
Living in Trapaing Tong village, Prey Veng province, 34 year-old Pong Onn remembered her past with sad face. She got HIV infection from her husband who was a soldier. Her husband died in 2006 and left her with a one year old child. “Luckily, my daughter was not infected by HIV.” said Pong Onn with smiling face.
clip_image003
Holding a bowl of rice to feed the chickens, Pong Onn said that after delivering the baby and the death of her husband, her health became very terrible and she was not able to work. From day to day, her living condition became worse and there was no left money for health treatment.
She sold her land to get money to cure her disease. Therefore, now she does not have any of her own land to live on but lives on her relative’s land. However, money from selling land could not cure her disease. “That was a hardest period ever in my life.” said Pong Onn. Nob Sambath, a member of CHEC’s Home Based Care Team commented that when the team first approached Pong Onn, she was not able to walk and her body was very skinny.
Pong Onn said that her health and living conditions got better after she received support and home visit by CHEC Home Based Care team as well as encouraging her to be local CHEC Home Based Care member. She added that her family also gets support of 30 kg of rice, a litre of vegetable oil, a half kilo of salt from World Food Program through CHEC every month.
Pong Onn said that in order to get extra income she started chicken raising after she attended the technical training course on chicken raising and a small loan to set up her chicken farm. The money that she gets from chicken raising makes her living condition better and her daughter can now go to school like other children.
Kapululangu Aboriginal Women’s Association, in Balgo, West Australia
In their recent report to QSA, there was a great spirit of energy and excitement. In April the Kapululangu Women celebrated Easter by holding a ceremonial Women’s Corroboree at which 11 Women Elders shared stories about their families travelling through their country and meeting the missionaries who came to Balgo over 70 years ago. 17 Middle generation and 10 young women also attended.
clip_image007clip_image009
The Elders painted up the young girls and shared dance and songs that their ancestors have passed on to them. Photos: Kapululangu Women’s Association.
Famine in many African countries
is cause for great concern, with many agencies providing relief and humanitarian aid as best they can under some very difficult conditions. QSA has also been receiving emails from our partners in Uganda and in Zimbabwe indicating that food prices have risen sharply and supplies are getting short there too. If Friends would like to donate funds to support the efforts of our partners in Uganda and Zimbabwe , we would be happy to pass these funds on. Donations for famine relief in other countries can be sent direct to organisations such as Red Cross and UNHCR.
Living Gifts catalogue
will be available on our website (www.qsa.org.au) by September and from your clerk, or the QSA office, so please do consider using this to support our projects in Australia, Cambodia, India, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Thank you Friends.
ACFIDCode
QSA is a member of the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), and is a signatory to the ACFID Code of Conduct. The purpose of QSA is to express in a practical way the concern of Australian Quakers for the building of a more peaceful, equitable, just and compassionate world. To this end QSA works with communities in need to improve their quality of life with projects which are economically and environmentally appropriate and sustainable.
119 Devonshire St Surry Hills, NSW 2010 Australia • administration[at]qsa.org.au
PHONE +61 2 9698 9103 • FAX: +61 2 9225 9241 • ABN 35 989 797 918
Tagged with: Aboriginal, Africa, Cambodia, gift
