When I saw this article in the Guardian recently and the comments that accompanied it, I felt compelled to respond. The article is written by an Aboriginal woman, Kelly Briggs who is expressing her fear that her children could be taken away with the announcement that the Government will employ ‘truancy officers’ in remote Aboriginal communities.
With the discovery of new lands such as Australia came the subjugation of indigenous peoples that inhabited the land and eventual colonisation in the case of Australia, the United States, Canada and New Zealand amongst other states. At Federation in 1901, the Australian constitution was enacted which did not recognise or in fact even mention indigenous Australians. In the 1930s and 1960s, Aboriginal people in Australia who were traditionally nomadic were ‘settled’ or assimilated into stationary communities on missions, settlements and large towns in the Northern Territory (NT). ((Marland, S., (2012) The need for homelands: Living on traditional, ancestral lands is critical for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Australian Quarterly Vol. 83, No. 3, July-Sep 2012, p.16))
Problems and conflict ensued with assimilation due to the close proximity of different clans, family and language groups. As a result, Aboriginal peoples decided to move back to their homelands in the late 1960s, a move that was referred to as the Aboriginal Homelands Movement. ((Marland, S. (2012) op. cit., p.17)) What was reflected in this movement was a connection to ‘home’ – the land where their ancestors were from and where the dreamtime stories continue to live as part of the landscape. Marland, when discussing the homelands movement describes how,
This is an important point and one which many people do not recognise. Aboriginal peoples in Australia have a lived experience of inferiority, oppression and subjugation at the hands of the state. The fact that children were taken from their families by the authorities on the false premise of neglect or to create a ‘better life’ for the child is a scar that runs deep. I cannot even begin to imagine how painful this must have been and the fear of history repeating as Briggs describes in the article is understandable.
Anaya’s report states that improvements in accessing food and safety for women and children had been reported by the Government, presumably due to the quarantining of welfare payments which prevented the purchasing of alcohol. However, there was no evidence to suggest that the discriminatory and ‘rights impairing’ nature of the Intervention has been necessary. ((Ibid, p.32)) It should also be pointed out, that in order to implement the Intervention, the Government suspended the Racial Discrimination Act 1975. However, this has since been reinstated, albeit with amendments that fail to end the racially targeted aspects of the Intervention.
The oppression of Aboriginal peoples in Australia is not unique, although it has been sustained and continues to this day. The Intervention was particularly brutal in further eliciting an opinion of indigenous peoples in Australia as being inferior. Indigenous views on the Intervention vary however it appears that the consensus on the discriminatory nature of the Intervention holds. Other ways in which indigenous people are oppressed is through the labels that are applied to indigenous knowledge and worldviews, such as backwardness which is synonymous with the oppression of indigenous peoples globally.
I have provided some context and history in this article to make the point that unless you have the lived experience of an Aboriginal person in this country, please do not judge. The point that Kelly Briggs makes is a very important one that needs to be heard and respected. Aboriginal people have a history in this country: A history and a worldview that prior to colonisation did not include genocide, oppression, shaming and the taking away of children at the hands of what has been and continues to be a dominant power. The continued oppression of Aboriginal peoples is not only historical, something that happened in the past, it continues to the present day in the form of the Intervention, deaths in custody and in policies that suggest Aboriginal peoples are second class citizens that cannot be trusted.
Personally, this Australia day I wish to celebrate the survival of Aboriginal peoples in this country and I truly hope that more people begin to understand the gifts, knowledge and collective wisdom that indigenous peoples all over the world have to teach us.
Maureen Boyle holds an MA in International Relations from Flinders University. Her research interests include renewable energy, energy access and the effects of large scale land acquisitions on communities in developing countries.