BY RUSSELL PICKERING
PERTH On June 9-10, the Western Australian government of Labor Premier Geoff Gallop rammed through a draconian law evicting the Swan Valley Nyungah Community (SVNC) from their traditional land. The Reserves (Reserve 43131) Bill 2003 allows an administrator to prevent anyone from entering the area, and can eject anyone from it.
The new law includes clauses denying aggrieved parties access to the courts. It also allows those carrying out the law's directives absolute discretion and immunity from judicial review.
Pre-existing legislation can already eject people from the traditional Aboriginal camp site north of Perth.
The Greens have likened the reserves bill to "cracking a walnut with a sledge hammer". On June 25, they instigated a Legislative Council select committee to investigate the WA government's motives in rushing the bill through parliament.
Last December 3, in reply to the Gordon inquiry ("Inquiry into Response by Government Agencies to Complaints of Family Violence and Child Abuse in Aboriginal Communities"), Gallop stated that his government's policies were "a watershed" in protecting children and preventing violence and abuse in the Aboriginal community.
Six months later, the government issued an eviction order to the SVNC.
The SVNC was established in 1977. Then known as the Lockeridge camp, it provided an alternative site to the Aboriginal tent camp in Stirling Street, Guilford. The reserve is listed under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 and was run by the SVNC Aboriginal Corporation.
Headed by Nyungah elder Robert Bropho, the SVNC became the focus of intense media attention following the death of a young Aboriginal woman, Susan Taylor, at the camp in February 1999.
A coronial inquest into the death wasn't conclusive. However, in handing down its findings on November 21, 2001, the coroner canvassed allegations of sexual assault on Taylor and others living at the SVNC, and other concerns relating to substance abuse, access and the sexual abuse of young Aborigines.
The government's response and the media hysteria surrounding the SVNC led to the Gordon inquiry. In its 660-page "Putting the Picture Together" report, eleased on July 2002, more than 197 recommendations and findings were listed for the government and relevant agencies to consider.
A year later, little, if any, of the recommendations have been acted on.
The inquiry stated that while "the true prevalence of Aboriginal family violence is unknown", it had heard evidence that showed "many women and children experience family violence and child abuse at levels that are many times that of the non-Aboriginal community and are at a level that is completely unacceptable".
The inquiry stated that Aboriginal women were 45 times more likely to be the victims of domestic violence than other Australians, and eight times more likely to be victims of homicide. It said that Aboriginal children were significantly over-represented in the care and protection system, and that there was a serious under-reporting of incidents of child and family abuse.
It said multiple factors contributed to these circumstances. They included: entrenched poverty; marginalisation and dispossession; loss of land and traditional culture; breakdown of kinship systems and Aboriginal law; racism; drug, alcohol and substance abuse; the effects of institutionalisation and removal policies; the "redundancy" of the traditional male role and status; and trauma and violence over the last two centuries.
The inquiry found that "historical service delivery by governmental agencies has resulted in a climate of mistrust by communities and uncertainty from government agencies".
It pointed to an ongoing paternalism in welfare policy which, it said, created barriers to change. "Indigenous Communities must be afforded the opportunity to be the architects of their own solutions ... so that they can be active participants in initiatives that affect their lives, not silent recipients", it stated.
Premier Geoff Gallop's government has ignored the Gordon inquiry's recommendations, and instead focused on attacking the SVNC and Bropho.
The media, in particular the West Australian, has vilified Bropho and SVNC, alleging a number of unsubstantiated instances of misconduct by himself and others on the camps' residents.
The government claims that the difficulties its departmental officers have had accessing the SVNC are the reason for the lack of services. It also claims that access difficulties prompted the new SVNC-specific law.
But there has been no parliamentary undertaking to address the access issues, and department heads claim they were never consulted.
By contrast, the SVNC Aboriginal Corporation says it has been asking for assistance "from every department concerned" since September 2002.
"We have had no assistance (except police). There is an absence of services for support and assistance for women, children and families of the [SVNC] or anywhere since well before the inquest in 2000."
The SVNC Aboriginal Corporation has sought to counter the government's claim that "there is an unacceptable risk to women and children". It suggested that an independent team of "white experts from the University of WA medical school and social work department" assess the situation. The government has refused the offer.
Criticism of the Gallop government's lack of commitment to Indigenous people has been growing.
The attack on the SVNC came soon after the government's controversial Northbridge curfew legislation that targets Aboriginal youth. When the police minister also revealed that the curfew might be extended to other areas, Gallop beat a hasty retreat.
The WA Uniting Church has criticised the government for its approach to Indigenous people. In May, its WA Social Responsibilities Commission stated that "the state government's performance on native title has been extremely poor ... there has been a significant deterioration in performance since midway through 2002".
A full-page article in the Anglican Messenger cites example after example of unfulfilled government promises and concludes that the government's Office of Native Title "is seen as operating under a siege mentality and lacks the capacity to engage with the state's own agencies, let alone external interests".
[The Swan Valley Nyungah Community needs your support. The SVNC Aboriginal Corporation can be contacted at C/- Post Office Guilford WA, 6055. Phone (08) 9377 3550, fax (08) 9377 3559.]