On July 23, Indigenous leaders from around the country were invited to Canberra to attend a round-table discussion on Indigenous violence. While Prime Minister John Howard has received praise from the mainstream press and sections of the Indigenous community for his apparent "re-engagement with black Australia", others have met Howard's latest "initiative" with skepticism and caution.
The meeting's attendees had been hand-picked by Howard. Not surprisingly, Noel Pearson was among the few chosen to represent Indigenous Australia in advising the government on tackling domestic and sexual violence, which has reached crisis point in many rural and remote Aboriginal communities.
Pearson has long been criticised by other Indigenous leaders and grassroots activists. He has blamed "welfare dependency" and "victim mentality" for much of the appalling conditions his people live in, and spoken of the need to move away from "progressive" attitudes and the "black arm-band" view of history. Small wonder that he receives so much praise from the Howard government and the Murdoch press.
Pearson came to the meeting with a six-point plan, which he (unsuccessfully) planned to present, signed by the other Indigenous representatives at the meeting.
While the plan does make some pertinent points such as the need to make the connection between substance abuse and violence it doesn't examine the causes of substance abuse.
For example, the plan mentions the role that substance abuse plays in "suicide, violence and social and economic marginalisation". Surely a more appropriate analysis would be the role that social and economic marginalisation play in substance abuse, suicide and violence?
Pearson also argues that it is important to "avoid overemphasis on 'inherited and personal trauma' as a causal factor". The government must be rapt to hear this coming from an Indigenous person if Howard said it, he would be howled down for racism.
Pearson seems to be suggesting Indigenous people should simply get over their trauma. But the trauma of Indigenous people is not a thing of the past. The murder, discrimination and oppression of Indigenous Australians is happening right now, and arguably getting worse, not better.
While Howard and his invited guests sat around the cabinet table discussing the Indigenous domestic violence crisis (that has been known of for over a decade), people in Aboriginal communities survive in the face of incredible pain and adversity, and grassroots organisations try to support them with limited funds.
In parts of the Northern Territory, children sniff glue and solvents simply to dull their hunger and cold. Recent reports on Indigenous communities in central Australia have found that all families are affected by violence, either directly or indirectly.
Despite prime responsibility for violence falling on state and federal governments, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission has done more than any other government agency to tackle this problem. ATSIC spends more than $63 million of its inadequate annual funding on programs to combat domestic and sexual violence.
ATSIC has commissioned endless reports detailing the extent of the problem. The constant funding cuts the organisation faces, however, have jeopardised this work, leading to the abandonment of some programs.
In June, ATSIC established a Standing Committee on Issues Impacting on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women. The 11-member committee will play an important role in developing ATSIC policies and programs.
Indigenous women often play a strong role in cultural preservation, and are frequently the driving force behind community-based projects to tackle violence and substance abuse. In some communities, women organise night-patrols to tackle violence, and the NPY Women's Council (working in the cross-border region of central Australia) is well-respected for its community-driven Domestic Violence Project.
ATSIC and other Indigenous-led programs, however, just continue to be attacked by Howard.
A report prpeared by the federal attorney-general's department entitled Violence in Indigenous Communities was released in February, 2001. Little media coverage, however, was given to the central point of the report although newspapers reported on how bad the violence was.
Brian Johnstone, writing for the June 23, National Indigenous Times argued that the report was in fact "a prescription for self determination... It clearly shows programs originated, controlled and administered by Indigenous communities tied to proper housing and health can stop domestic violence."
The report concluded, "the authors believe that the highest priority in any campaign against violence in Indigenous communities is the implementation and resourcing of many more community controlled violence programs, rather than research."
Maybe Howard's "re-engagement with black Australia" will include a willingness to support the initiatives coming from a people desperately trying to save their culture and their future. We should demand that it does.
From Green Left Weekly, August 6, 2003.
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