Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

News

Aboriginal voices of the 70s: The peoples' struggle continues

A case for Aboriginal political representation through an Aboriginal government was made by Aboriginal activist, Michael Mansell at this year's Hyllus Maris Memorial lecture.

The contentious area of Aboriginal relations following the recent decision to abolish ATSIC, the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islanders Commission, provided the focus for this year's lecture, held at La Trobe University in late May.

Named in memory of Aboriginal leader, writer and educationist Hyllus Maris, the lecture was titled 'The Peoples' Struggle Continues: Aboriginal Voices of the 70s'.

It was delivered by four key Aboriginal activists - Margaret Wirrpunda, Michael Mansell, Naomi Mayers and Gary Foley.

In hosting this keynote lecture series, now in its fourth year, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Access and Equity, Dr Kerry Ferguson, said La Trobe acknowledged the historical lack of voice for Indigenous issues in universities and sought to confirm Indigenous issues as essential to the public agenda.

Mr Mansell, a lawyer and land rights activist who has worked with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre for more than 25 years, said with the demise of ATSIC, the key question was what form Aboriginal political representation would take.

Any new political body needed to be secure from external interference and had to have meaningful powers, he said. This raised the broader issue of whether Aborigines were destined to govern themselves, or be forever subordinated to the will of white people.

Existing arrangements for Aboriginal representation were well-known, he said: advisory bodies at local and national levels, and individuals stood for parliaments. What was not so well known was the option of Aboriginal government.

'Putting up candidates in the current political process means we are going to get more of what has been available to us for last 100 years - and it has just not worked. This is an opportunity to talk about new ideas, about political representation of Aboriginal people that are both secure and meaningful.'

Details of how Aboriginal government would work were not important at this stage, Mr Mansell added.

'The key question is whether we are prepared to talk about the idea because as a people - not as individuals - we have stagnated to the stage where we don't have leadership. The structures have been dismantled by the Howard government.'

Mr Mansell said the two main arguments advanced against Aboriginal government were that there can be only one country and one government - and that such a government would be divisive.

'That's not the case in Australia. There is a national government, state ones, territory ones and hundreds of local governments. Places like Norfolk Island have their own government. And the federal and state governments argue every day about their jurisdictions. Yet despite those differences that have existed for over a 100 years, those governments live side by side.

'So why can't an Aboriginal government operate side by side with them?'

Dr Mayers, Chief Executive Officer of Sydney's Redfern Aboriginal Medical Service for more than thirty years, said Australia was once seen as the 'South Africa of the Pacific' and that much had been achieved by many people since 1967, 'seemingly against all odds'.

However, she said: 'Sometimes you get worn down by what seems to be a repetition of failed policies. You participate in reviews and surveys and think something is going to happen, and it really doesn't.'

She said reviews relating to Aboriginal issues kept bureaucrats in their jobs in Canberra, where there was a belief that the results of those reviews could be imposed on Indigenous people.

Discussing problems in the Sydney's Redfern area, she said there were only 10 Aboriginal-run organisations in the area - out of a total of about 80 organisations dealing with Aboriginal issues.

'Instead of funding Aboriginal organisations that were already running programs there for 30 years they have set up all these white agencies and hired Aboriginal people.'

Ms Wirrpunda, former ATSIC Councillor, co-founder of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal and Health Services and delegate to the World Health Organisation's Committee on Indigenous Health, also took up the point of autonomous decision making.

'This so-called Government is making impotent decisions for all Australian people, and especially my people. We are sick of this sort of attitude, making decisions over people. That shows a lack of respect. That's not part of our culture.'

She called on decision makers to display 'intelligence and respect for all the people they are supposedly working for'.

'They can't talk about education or reconciliation unless our children are given a proper and equal opportunity of getting an education and training and a secure future. We can't put a demand on our own children if there is no demand on the government to support them in a financial manner with economic equality.'

Referring to the demonstrations during the Whitlam era which focused attention on Aboriginal causes, Ms Wirrpunda concluded:

'Looks like we are going to have to do the same old things, going back to grass-roots community activism to teach decision-makers about the rights of Aboriginal people and what they can and can't do.'

Mr Foley, Aboriginal writer, actor and activist who played a key role in major political protests including those against the 1971 South African Springbok rugby tour, spoke about Aboriginal activists of the 1970s. 'We were demonised because it suited the white Australian media at the time to do that to us, to marginalise us and isolate us. When they isolated us, generally a new generation of Indigenous leaders emerged.

'We need to get rid of those who compromised themselves and sat on the fence for the last 25 years of Aboriginal politics. The next generation of Aboriginal political leaders need to look very hard at the lessons that can be learned from the Aboriginal struggle since the early 1970s and late 60s.'

Mr Foley said: 'The only good thing John Howard has done recently is that he's actually radicalised some of the conservatives among the Aboriginal leaders.'

He agreed with Mr Mansell that little could be achieved by devoting limited resources to running Aboriginal candidates for federal parliament 'unless by some miracle that person ends up with the balance of power'.

He was also extremely critical of achieving anything for Aboriginal people under an ALP government. For example, he said the Hawke Labor government had promised national uniform land rights legislation but 'we ended up with Native Title - the most inferior form of lend tenure under British Law'.

Pro Vice-Chancellor, Dr Ferguson, said that Higher Education Minister, Dr Brendan Nelson had noted improvement in participation rates for Indigenous students but lower progress and completion rates.

'At La Trobe University Indigenous students have high levels of success and retention, but our participation rates need to be advanced. We are continuing to examine the structures or "the old ways of doing things" that do not facilitate inclusion.'

She said the University had made a commitment to furthering Indigenous employment and, in conjunction with the Department of Workplace Relations, planned to increase the Indigenous staffing profile across the entire University during the next three years.

'We have also recently established a senior position for a Director of Indigenous Education and are addressing transition needs for potential Indigenous students.'

The Hyllus Maris Memorial Lecture is a collaborative effort involving La Trobe University, Koorie Women Mean Business and the Ngarn-gi Bagora Indigenous Centre. Additional sponsors were the Department of Justice, Victoria, and Darebin City Council, sponsors of the Molly Dyer Essay Prize.

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