Halo all,
Is it plagiarism if you quote yourself?
Nine months ago (as long as it takes for a human embryo to gestate) I wrote:
In Kieran Finnane’s book, ‘Trouble (On Trial in Central Australia)’ In the Introduction she describes the Alice Springs Courthouse. This from page 2:
“…Lately graffiti has appeared on the footpath in front of the entrance stairs, small letters stencilled in black: ‘This is the front line.’ It says. It’s discreet enough for nobody to bother scrubbing it out. I’d like to know who did it, and what kind of battle they think is going on inside…”
A Dispatchee responded with:
“There is another graffiti that much interests me around Alice. It says REBUKE – it is written vertically in shaky black capital letters on small spaces e.g. metal pole near Bradshaw School and there’s one on the western side of the railway line too. There are several of them around town and have been in place for a few years now”.
I’m back at the Front Line, only to find that the backlog of administrative matters has grown significantly.
I’d love to find the time to write something interesting and amusing (if only to myself). Instead I’ll send you the speech I gave at RMIT on 29th June. It was gratifying to see quite a few of my friends having bothered to turn up.
There is a bit of the Ancient Mariner in me:
He holds him with his glittering eye
The Wedding guest stood still….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptla1xYd2cc
Those who know me are aware that I’m forever, as they say in Dutch ‘van de hak op de tak springen’– digressing until the wedding guest’s eyes glaze over and he starts looking at his watch, or these days at his mobile phone.
This is why I’m taking refuge in reading from my notes.
When Jakamarra first asked me to come along to this event, I declined. I have no intention of being yet one more opinionated white fellow pontificating about what Aborigines should or shouldn’t do, I said to Harry. No, he said, you have to come, you’re my cultural advisor!
The delicious irony of this, is not lost on either of us, but if you think about it, that this is ironic illustrates the power imbalance that exists.
Aboriginal Australia is severely hampered in its efforts to withstand the ethnocentric assimilationist interventionist assault which started in 1788.
The vast resources, cultural advisors, legal, sociological, education and fiscal experts and a well oiled propaganda machine and a not so well oiled bureaucracy which are available to the authorities are denied Aboriginal Australia, except to Intervention fellow travellers and quislings.
When you search the internet, that adage ‘A lie told often enough becomes the truth’ is attributed to both Vladimir Lenin and to Joseph Goebbels. No need to go back as far in history on the other side of the world, to see this in action. The Intervention and its euphemistically named sequel Stronger Futures are based on oft repeated lies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n03a7cLf0M
Bruce Pascoe, in his brilliant book ‘Dark Emu’ wrote “then all of us must be alert to that greatest of all limitations to wisdom: The Assumption…”
That is what drives the assimilationist imperative- lies and assumptions.
I’d now like to read out a quote from a speech Patrick Dodson made at University of New South Wales:
“The strategy for assimilation of our peoples is not a mistake made by low-level bureaucrats on behalf of successive governments who didn’t know better. It was and continues tobe a deliberate act orchestrated at the highest levels in our society, and no amount of moral posturing can hide that reality. This Assimilation I talk of has not been evidenced by equality, but by further control, incarceration and subjugation to norms and values without our consent.”
The longer I live at the present day front-line of the assimilationist assault the more convinced I’ve become that Patrick Dodson has hit the nail squarely on the head. It very neatly dovetails with what Mahatma Ghandi said when talking about the British Raj in India:
“ …a subtle but effective system of terrorism, together with an organized display of force on the one hand, and the deprivation of all powers of retaliation or self-defence on the other, has emasculated the people…”
I’d now like to speak about what my wife calls the ‘Massacre Mentality’.
One or a few people commit a crime and a large number are indiscriminately punished. History is full of examples of this.
In 1928 a mere 50 Km from Yuendumu at Yurrkuru, Fred Brookes took liberties with Bullfrog’s wife. Bullfrog with some help killed Fred Brookes. The murder triggered a series of punitive raids led by Gallipoli veteran Constable Murray. The raids became known as the Coniston Massacre in which around one hundred or so men women and children were killed. The exact number of people killed is unknown, nor are the victims dignified by having their names recorded in history.
Constable Murray was subsequently exonerated in an enquiry which found that the “killing of blacks” had been justified. Bullfrog lived to a ripe old age and died in Yuendumu.
In 2007 the ‘Little Children are Sacred’ report included allegations of sexual abuse of children. This was then seized on to justify punishment of all residents of Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory by the imposition of the Intervention. And make no mistake a punishment it is. As Pat Dodson said no amount of moral posturing can hide that reality.
The Massacre Mentality in action.
Alexis Wright in an essay published in Meanjin mentioned that the Northern Territory has three times the ratio of police to population than the rest of Australia. The largest single amount ever spent on Yuendumu was the $7.6Million spent on building a police complex. Three days a month, court is held in Yuendumu. Over fifty cases are heard. With rare exceptions, the defendants are Aboriginal. This, in a town with an Aboriginal population of less than one thousand. Aboriginal legal aid provides two overworked lawyers. Most accused plead guilty just to get matters over and done with. Kindergartens and primary schools manage to operate around a timetable. No such consideration appears to be given to alleged offenders in Yuendumu. The accused with their families and supporters, sit outside the court all day lest they get charged with “failure to appear”. All organisations that rely on local workers are short staffed on those days and not properly functioning, whether it be garbage collection or the education of the children.
When the Northern Territory Government imposed the “4-hours English only” policy some years ago, at Yuendumu School there were some white teachers who had been happily working within and were part of the school’s bi-lingual programme who suddenly thought they had the right to act as the “language police”. Insist no one should speak Warlpiri, sing Warlpiri songs or read Warlpiri books during the first four hours of the school day. Such is the power of government sanction.
NT police have the power to enter a home without a warrant. I’ve had such raids that took place in Yuendumu described- Heavily armed police dressed as black clad Ninjas surround and charge into people’s homes in the middle of the night. The residents are made to stand in line against the wall whilst the police search the house for a person whohas an outstanding arrest warrant or drugs or alcohol or unregistered rifles or whatever. All of this in front of terrified children. In one case I’ve been told about, a mother was forbidden to pick up her crying baby on the other side of the room. I suppose one can say the situation has improved since 1928- no one has been shot – so far.
A couple of weeks ago an Aboriginal man slapped his 9 year old daughter in front of Yuendumu Clinic. A non-Aboriginal clinic staff member saw it as their duty to report this incident to the police- which strictly speaking is their legal duty under the NT’s mandatory reporting legislation. Subsequently two Alice Springs police accompanied by a lady from child protection went to Yuendumu school and removed the child from grade 4 for questioning. The father is now required to show up in court. The mother at no point was advised or consulted. This is far from being an isolated case. It is indeed as Ghandi said “a subtle but effective system of terrorism…”
The Intervention was touted and indeed continues to be defended because it was supposed to protect women and children.
Instead it has seriously damaged and continues to damage the social fabric of communities. It has been and continues to be an attack on free people’s most precious possession. Their Identity.
Nothing short of an admission that the intervention was wrong and unjust , and a repeal of its laws can even begin to repair the damage and give hope of a Bran Nue Day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiShXMojKfY
The next Dispatch is gestating….
Cheers,
Frank