DAVE THOMAS and JULIA PERKINS spoke with Aboriginal activist ROBERT BROPHO about a planned October 11 Aboriginal community demonstration outside the WA police headquarters. Bropho has been the leader of the Lockridge Aboriginal community, in the suburbs of northern Perth, since its inception 21 years ago.
The rally was called following a meeting of Aboriginal groups to discuss a police car chase in which Aboriginal youths were killed. The rally will protest against high speed car chasing, the ongoing harassment of the Aboriginal community and government cuts to ATSIC.
Bropho told Green Left Weekly that Aboriginal children are the true homeless children of today, with little access to support services. "There is nothing for Aboriginal children. Since they have no centre to call into, Aboriginal children become the real baddies.
"Violence is bred by the actions of the police, as they have no respect for the Aboriginal community. The kids see and remember incidents like the police banging open doors, yelling and intimidating."
Bropho described how racist attitudes can scar young Aborigines, citing an example of a young Aboriginal woman who got a job and took care to be well presented. "She put on nice clothes, made herself smell nice, perfume." The next day she was fired because she supposedly smelled like an Aborigine.
These experiences are tragically repetitive. Bropho recalled in 1988, at the height of the protests over the redevelopment of the Swan Brewery site, that a police tactical response group raided the Lockridge community. His son was ordered to lie on his stomach with a gun at his back. Another son, watching the TV with a young child at his shoulder, was forced to kneel by the butt of a gun to his head.
A young woman was ordered out of the shower with no clothes on. "Till this day she asks me, 'When are we going to get some justice, grandpop?'. It's still going through the courts ... The harassment of Lockridge community has not ceased since."
The WA media are currently discussing conventional schooling's failure for Aboriginal children. Those suggesting Aboriginal education camps to force schooling are perpetuating the second class citizenship of black Australia, Bropho said.
This approach differs from the black community's attempts to educate young people according to their culture. Lockridge community has its own school, which teaches the basic competencies as well as the Nyungar Dreamtime.
Bropho is convinced that the racism against black Australia today is the worst he has known in his 66 years. "This government is trying to make an impression on the white public as to how to handle Aborigines. They're real eager to mould Aboriginal young people into line 'cause they see the old folks as too bloody hard. And Kim Beazley's now fallen into line with John Herron over the Adelaide Hindmarsh site."
Bropho recalled his grand-daughter's recent death. This young woman hung herself after trying to convince her mob not to go down to the city because they were just going to be harassed by police, he said. "This state is a copycat of South Africa", said Bropho. "Western Australia is a police state."