For some reason, I find myself yet again writing about this referendum. Why can’t people comprehend the simplicity of it? Is it because Aboriginal people solely occupied Australia before white people came along? “They didn’t own the land: The land owned them” (as our editor would say).
Two contrasting Redfern occasions
On the occasion of the “International year for the world’s indigenous people,” Paul Keating delivered a speech that later became known as the “Redfern address” (delivered on 10 December 1992) and is considered one of the finest political addresses ever. It was 1992.
Here is a short extract:
“Isn’t it reasonable to say that if we can build a prosperous and remarkably harmonious multicultural society in Australia, surely, we can find just solutions to the problems which beset the first Australians, the people to whom the most injustice has been done.
And, as I say, the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians.
It begins, I think, with that act of recognition, recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing.
We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life.
We brought the diseases – the alcohol.
We committed the murders.
We took the children from their mothers.
We practised discrimination and exclusion.
It was our ignorance and our prejudice.
And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.
With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds.
We failed to ask how would I feel if this were done to me?
As a consequence, we failed to see that what we were doing degraded all of us.
If we needed a reminder of this, we received it this year.
The Report of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal -Deaths. in Custody showed with devastating clarity that the past lives on in inequality, racism and injustice.
In the prejudice and ignorance of non-Aboriginal Australians, and-in the demoralisation and desperation, the fractured identity, of so many Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders.
For all this, I do not believe that the Report should fill us with guilt. Down the years, there has been no shortage of guilt, but it has not produced the responses we need.
Guilt is not a very constructive emotion.
I think what we need to do is open our hearts a bit.
All of us.
Perhaps when we recognise what we have in common we will see the things which must be done, the practical things.
We have to give meaning to “justice” and “equity” and, as I have said several times this year, we will only give
them meaning when we commit ourselves to achieving concrete results.
The Mabo Judgement should be seen as one of these.
By doing away with the bizarre conceit that this continent had no owners prior to the settlement of Europeans, Maba establishes a fundamental truth and lays the basis for justice.”
Yes, it was delivered 31 years ago. It was Keating’s address, of course, but his speech writer Don Watson deserves credit for his finely attuned words that were so very much in tune with the truth.
That truth is as indisputable today as it was then. We have been trying to recognise that our First Nations people are just as good at sorting through problems as we are. We have failed because we have not grasped the thinking of the heart.
Some white people want Aboriginal people to live with us under our thinking without recognising that they, not us, are the rightful custodians of this land. They have life and death invested in it. We are but bystanders to their history.
All they desire is for their unique credentials to be recognised in our constitution. It is a cry from the heart for their own voice.
In practicable terms, we, the whites, have failed to improve their lot. For decade upon decade, we have imposed on them a philosophy of superiority. We know what is best for you. And we have spent billions on our “knowing best.”
Our First Nations folk want any opportunity to have a say in the future of any government decision that affects them or, indeed, to raise matters that do. To have a voice in their concerns is a paramount right for any First Nations people. So far, we have failed them and, in so doing, told them that we are righteous. Know your place.
[textblock style=”4″]
Are you doing what is essential? What you believe in, or have you just adjusted to what you are doing?
[/textblock]
Even though Aboriginal leaders are still finalising their crucial advice to the cabinet, the government plans to progress two bills to set up the Indigenous voice referendum in this two-week sitting:
“The referendum working group was expected to confirm its advice to government on the exact wording of the question and the constitutional amendment on Thursday. But a communique from its meeting in Adelaide, issued by Indigenous Australians minister Linda Burney’s office, said the process was still ongoing.”
And as is familiar with conservatives, minor issues are being raised to delay, frustrate and confuse humanely genuine people.
[textblock style=”4″]
In our humanity – the concoction of who we are. The most crucial ingredient is hope. Together with love, they make the perfect recipe.
[/textblock]
My concern, however, is related to the original headline of this piece:
“Denying our first nations folk a voice might bring about consequences of a new militancy that would worsen matters.”
I am concerned that saying no by a large majority or a small minority or one state voting no might open the door to a new militancy that might eclipse the 2004 Redfern riots in its fury.
Those who remember the “Redfern riots” will remember the thousands of people who assembled in Redfern, which was described by the Sapien website as an:
“… impoverished area, with a relatively high concentration of public housing, where the local Aboriginal community has been commonly associated with criminality and violence.”
The Redfern Riots began with the death of a teenage boy being pursued by police. His name was “T.J.” Hickey. He was riding his bike, being pursued by police, when he hit a gutter, was flung into the air and came down on a fence. Another view is that he was being followed. He was impaled on the fence, causing penetrating injuries to his neck and chest. He was a first nations lad of 17. The date was Saturday 14 February 2004.
Would a no-vote be accepted with calm indignation, or would the more militant show their rejection in an avalanche of unwelcomed rioting like Redfern? Only history knows.
[textblock style=”4″]
Never allow racism to disguise itself in the cloak of nationalism.
[/textblock]
No doubt our First Nations people will start with high expectations. Why shouldn’t they? They have a government that wants the yes vote to prevail as much as they do. Most people do, I think.
The thought of what the Leader of the Opposition might do leaves me looking for my Valium.
[textblock style=”4″]
My thought for the day
When you push people beyond their capacity to understand their victimisation, you can hardly expect them, during demonstrations, to behave with any form of sound judgement.
[/textblock]
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
