Chief amongst those powers was the control over access to grog.

Brough told the House of Representatives that:

“The authors of the Little Children are Sacred report described alcohol abuse as the ‘gravest and fastest growing threat to the safety of Aboriginal children‘.

…

To dry up the lethal rivers of grog, this bill will enable the government to introduce a general ban on people having, selling, transporting and drinking alcohol in prescribed areas. At the same time, our measures apply tougher penalties on people who are benefiting from supplying or selling grog to these communities.”

The primary anti-grog measure introduced by Brough was contained in section 12 of the NTNER Act – which replaced the previous regime in section 75 of the NT’s Liquor Act of offenses and penalties relating to “restricted areas” with a regime relating to “prescribed areas“.

Brough’s “prescribed areas” expanded the area subject to the alcohol bans by several orders of magnitude to include all Aboriginal freehold land in the NT – about 42% of the Territory landmass.

And, as I explained in Crikey back in 2007 in relation to another contentious part of the NTNER legislation, the Devil would always be in the detail.

And Vince Kelly, now President of the Police Federation of Australia and in 2007, as he remains, also President of the NT Police Association, told the SBS program Living Black just prior to the introduction of Brough’s “tough on grog-runners” legislation:

VO: But only days away from the ban coming into effect, Northern Territory Police may not be ready to tackle this latest Government plan.

VINCE KELLY: I do envisage difficulties with prosecutions because of the way legislation is drafted. There has been limited training or no training provided to the NT Police on the practical implications of the legislative changes that are coming about because of federal legislation. So all these difficulties will flow through, ultimately, to prosecution.

In March this year the NT News reported that one particularly useless part of the NTNER legislation would be scrapped:

Under a rule introduced by the previous federal government, anyone who spends more than $100 on takeaway alcohol must have their ID recorded and say where they plan to drink it. NT Licensing Minister Kon Vatskalis yesterday said the law was “a waste of time, a waste of paper and a waste of ink”. He said he had discussed it with Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin and he expected the laws to be removed “soon”. “The Minister agreed with me that it was not the brightest idea of the intervention,” he said. The scheme was said to be an attempt to stop grog-runners but it doesn’t stop anyone buying booze – or taking it to alcohol-free communities.

Almost two years after the introduction of the NTNER scheme current Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin was asked about the effectiveness of the NTNER legislation in stopping the “rivers of grog”.

As Macklin told journalists at a press conference in Melbourne on the 5th of August 2009:

“…certainly all the evidence shows that that particular measure has not been effective. That said, I just want to reiterate how critical it is that we have strong alcohol controls on the supply of alcohol…one of the things that we have to do to control and reduce that violence is to see stronger alcohol controls.”

And, as the Fairfax Press reported last Friday, the rivers of grog are apparently flowing faster and wider than before:

“In the communities targeted by the intervention…there was a 34 per cent increase in alcohol-related crime, the report, titled Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory, said.

The last spike could be due to the criminalisation of alcohol possession in some remote communities. The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, attributes the increases to higher police numbers.”

“An increased police presence in remote Northern Territory communities, particularly in places that previously had limited or no police, has resulted in more reporting in a number of offences, including violence, alcohol and child abuse,” a spokeswoman said.

For some time The Northern Myth has been aware that several NT Magistrates have been less than pleased that their sentencing options with regard to grog-running – particularly for serious and repeat offenders – have been seriously compromised by the supposedly tougher regime instituted by Brough and maintained by Macklin.

The Northern Myth also understands that many police – particularly those in remote areas that have to deal with grog-runners face-to-face on a daily basis – are particularly pissed off at this situation – they know that if they get a repeat offender “bang to rights” that they will only face a fine at most when the matter is dealt with by the Courts..

Before September 2007 a prison sentence was available as a sentencing option for a Magistrate dealing with a person convicted of a basic “restricted area” offence under the Liquor Act – an option increasingly attractive in respect of repeat or particularly serious offenders.

Since then, under the “prescribed area” provisions of the NTNER-modified Liquor Act, the maximum penalty available is a fine.

A prison sentence can now only be imposed for an aggravated version of the basic offence that relates to “transporting” more than 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol with the intention to supply.

The pre-existing regime under the NT Liquor Act, at section 124A, always allowed (and still does) for Police officers to state or “aver” that seized grog was alcohol.

But there is no equivalent averment provision in the NTNER Act in respect of the 1,350 millilitres of pure alcohol situation.

The consequence of this is that if Police seize enough grog to trigger an aggravated offence and charge accordingly they will have to chemically analyse each item if the defendant opts to go to hearing.

The Northern Myth understands that the NT Police Forensic Lab in Darwin is not geared up to conduct such testing, and would have to send the seized alcohol interstate for testing.

The practical result of this snafu is that the vast majority of charges – including those that would clearly be classed as aggravated “grog-running” offences – are now processed by the Courts as basic “prescribed area” offences, and the only sentencing option is a fine.

Three weeks ago Marie Nudjulu stood before Court at the troubled community of Wadeye charged with a number of “prescribed area” offences.

The Northern Myth has seen the Court Transcript of Proceedings against Ms Nudjulu.

The Prosecutor read the following facts – admitted by Ms Nudjulu’s Defence counsel – into the public record:

Your Honour, the facts are that approximately 5:55 am on Thursday, 10 September 2009, Marie Nudjulu, the defendant, was the rear passenger in a green Holden Vectra sedan, registration: 536 888, driving to Wadeye from Darwin.

The defendant was travelling with Sebastian Cumpuda(?) and Terrence Parmbuck both rear passengers and Matthew Cumpuda driving. At that the defendant’s vehicle was stopped by police in the vicinity of Woodyculdiya Outstation turn off from Port Keats Road. The search of the vehicle apprehended nine bottles of spirits and 29 unopened 375 ml of cans of Victoria Beer on the floor at the defendant’s feet.

When asked who owned the unopened 29 cans of 375 ml of beer the defendant replied, ‘The VB is mine, I bought it for myself’, the two unopened 700 ml bottles of Bundaberg rum were located at the feet of the defendant were claimed by the co-offender Terrence Parmbuck. The remaining bottle of spirits was claimed by the co-defendant Sebastian Cumpuda.

The vehicle was seized and conveyed to Daly River Police Station. Both the defendant and co-offender, Parmbuck, were conveyed to the residence of Wadeye in a marked police vehicle. The defendant was advised she will receive a summons in relation to the matter.

At the time of the offences the whole of the Daly River land trust area is a prescribed area under the Liquor Act as amended by the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Act. The defendant was not the holder of a liquor permit in order to provide a lawful excuse for the liquor in question.

According to the transcript Ms Nudjulu had previous convictions for possession of alcohol contrary to the Liquor Act – and was currently subject to a suspended sentence. This meant that, in ordinary circumstances under the previous regime, she would be a prime candidate for a custodial sentence.

But, as Stipendiary Magistrate Melanie Little told the Court:

“Her Honour: Well she…I mean this just demonstrates how this legislation is not completely – look at this lady’s record, it’s inevitable she would have gone to gaol for this offence, absolutely inevitable, $2200 maximum penalty now. I wonder – I don’t understand Canberra, it just totally bewilders me.

…

Her Honour: Look at the record, look at it. How many, look, one, two – this is now her fourth bring liquor and she was on a suspended sentence. I wonder – it just – it seems to have accelerated and the message is out, isn’t it, there’s absolutely no deterrence anymore.”

And in sentencing Ms Nudjulu, Magistrate Little made her views on the practical effects of the NTER Act modifications to the NT Liquor Act clear as possible:

Her Honour: Ms Nudjulu, on 10 September you were in a car at 6 o’clock and the police stopped the car and there was other people there and quite a lot of alcohol was found. You said that 29 of those cans were beer, 29 375 ml cans of beer were yours, and you pleaded to guilty to bringing liquor into the community. The liquor and the vehicle was seized. You had no permit to have alcohol here. You said you bought it for yourself and you were in the – what’s called a prescribed area.

We used to call them restricted areas and the penalties were very significant, Ms Nudjulu, and as I mentioned had they been – under the old penalties and old regime you would be looking at a period of imprisonment today. The maximum penalty today is $2200 and I take that into account.

I take into account that you were told to keep out of trouble. This offence is not punishable by imprisonment so it’s not a breaching offence. I take into account that this now the fourth bring liquor, plus you’ve got other offences on your record. So it’s clear to me that you’re not taking any notice whatsoever of the rules, Ms Nudjulu.

I accept you have been trouble for some time since I put you on that suspended sentence, and I take that into account. You pleaded guilty the very first time in court so I take that into account as well. It’s not a small amount of alcohol, having said that it’s certainly not at the – completely at the upper end, but I take that maximum penalty to – to mean that – well I know that it covers all offences, control liquor, possess liquor, bring liquor, and I regard bringing liquor is at the upper end of the types of offences that are covered by the maximum penalty.

You’re convicted and fined $400, $40 levy, 28 days to pay. You’ll get a piece of paper explaining how to pay that money and – and how to get more to pay if you need that extra time. (emphasis added)

Canberra – weak as piss on grog and grog runners in the NT.

Wadeye township

I’ve written here recently about the fantastic (in the original sense of that word) approach that The Australian and its dwindling number of northern correspondents take to just about anything to do with Aboriginal affairs here in the NT.

This past weekend The Weekend Australian continued this dubious tradition when it ran this piece from its northern correspondent, Nicolas Rothwell.

Rothwell examines apparently new economic and governance developments at the troubled remote township of Wadeye, in the west of the NT’s Top End.

And Rothwell, after many years in the NT, has apparently finally realised what anyone with any experience in remote Australia would have found out a long time ago – that Wadeye, like most small townships in the NT, and elsewhere – is a town that is “mostly ordered and peaceful”.

If you take the assertions in Rothwells piece at face value you would think that the good citizens of Wadeye had turned their backs on all forms of Australian mainstream governance and were boldly charting a course of their own, free from the controls imposed by Australian governments at all levels.

As Rothwell says:

“…what bureaucracy gives, it can also take away. Not only did the federal intervention of mid-2007 sweep through Wadeye; the Thamarrurr local council was wound up as the Northern Territory unveiled its new regional shires. The council, though, gave birth to a new Thamarrurr Development Corporation, which was bolstered by strong support from the Rudd government. The upshot of this administrative upheaval was a deepened desire among the Wadeye leadership group to pursue their own path.
…
“The idea aims to assert control over their own region and in time to supplant the long-established Northern Land Council, which is widely seen as a moribund arm of the Territory Labor Party. “We will set up our own council,” Nganbe says bluntly. TDC’s Berto says: “There’s a lot of people here not happy with the NLC and its complete lack of service, and its standing in the way of progress. We want to set the political agenda from the ground.”

And notwithstanding the brief reference to “strong support” from the Rudd government, Rothwell reckons that the people of Wadeye:

“…don’t like the deal on offer from mainstream Australia’s authorities. They want to keep their own culture, they want economic development and they want it on their own terms, under their control.”

What Rothwell is of course talking about here is localised Aboriginal self-determination, an aspiration that he has frequently, and as recently as six weeks ago, condemned to the dustbin of Australian political history:

“For some time it has been clear Aboriginal self-determination has had its day.”

Due credit should be given to the good citizens of Wadeye for getting their act together in what are incredibly difficult circumstances. By all accounts they have established a range of business enterprises that will provide real jobs and offer economic opportunities to locals.

Rothwell implies that the people of Wadeye have achieved these successes in spite of the bureaucratic and administrative barriers set up by governments at every turn. But it may be that a few inconvenient facts – for Rothwell’s thesis at least – might explain a somewhat different basis for some of Wadeye’s recent successes.

The bureaucracies that Rothwell says have taken so much from the people of Wadeye with one hand have been very busy giving bucketloads of money to the recently-established Thamarrurr Development Corporation Ltd (the TDC) with the other.

The TDC is a non-profit commercial operation limited by guarantee with no shareholders – just members that represent the 20 clan groups of the Wadeye region.

In the 2008/2009 round of funding for the Indigenous Heritage Program announced on 7 July 2008, the TDC was given two grants to a total of $62,704 for “the investigation and management of cultural heritage” of the Thamarrurr region.

On 8 October 2008 Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin announced that TDC would receive $500,000 as “an establishment grant to deliver a range of business services” to the Wadeye region.

At it’s meeting of 10 February 2009, the Victoria Daly Shire Council (the Council), the local government body that replaced Thamarrurr’s predessor, the Thamarrurr Regional Council, passed the following Motion:

“That Council agrees to lease for one dollar ($1.00) to Thamarrurr Development Corporation for the period from the 10th of February 2009 to the 7th of December 2009 all non – fixed assets.”

At the following meeting on 7 April 2009, the Council, in the course of the Confirmation of the Minutes of the previous meeting, amended that Motion:

“The minutes of the ordinary meeting, item (8) TDC were amended with a further dot point
added, saying that if all the above conditions were met the vehicles would then be sold to the TDC for the sum of $1.00. The minutes were  then taken as read and accepted as a true record of the Meeting.”

The value of the assets leased to the TDC for $1, according to the Report provided to Council, was $760,073.

According to the same report, the insured value of the vehicles to be sold to Tharmarrurr upon it meeting Council’s conditions was $482,273.

You can read the Minutes of Council meetings and the Report from Council staff for yourself here.

On 4 March 2009, by joint press release Minister Macklin and Member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon announced that TDC would receive a total of $650,000 to provide painting services and the purchase of civil construction machinery.

On 11 June 2009, in another joint press release, Snowdon and Macklin announced that TDC would receive a total of $1.422 million to purchase a mobile concrete batching plant and to provide accommodation for “key staff” at Wadeye.

As the ABC reported last month, the Thamarrurr Association, (also based at Wadeye but a separate entity to the TDC) following representations from then NT Indigenous Policy Minister Alison Anderson, received a $250,000 grant from the NT government in circumstances yet to be fully explained:

“Ms Anderson secured $250,000 of taxpayer funds for a corporation run by the powerful Yunupingu family in Arnhem Land, including Galarrwuy Yunupingu. The only other organisation to get $250,000 for community consultation is the Thamarrur Association at Wadeye, which has never declared an income before. The Government has not announced the payments and is yet to explain how the companies were selected. It says the money will pay for consultation on the Working Futures policy to help the Government get its service delivery right.”

I’ve not yet been able establish any direct connection between the TDC and the Thamarrurr Association – other than that they both do the same kind of business in the same small town.

On my back-of the-envelope reckoning the TDC has received control over $760,000 worth of assets for the bargain basement price of a single dollar from their local Council and, including the grant to the Thamarrurr Association, close enough to $3.5 million from the NT and Federal governments.

Not bad for a group that Rothwell says, “…don’t like the deal on offer from mainstream Australia.”

And what of the assertions in Rothwell’s article by TDC’s John Berto of the Northern Land Council’s “…complete lack of service, and its standing in the way of progress” at Wadeye?

John Berto should know all about the NLC and service delivery at Wadeye. After all, he had been a long-term employee of the NLC and for a period up to late 2006 he was the NLC’s Deputy CEO.

But Rothwell and Berto would also be aware of the benefits to the Traditional Owners of the Wadeye region (and beyond) resulting from the NLC’s negotiations on their behalf over the Blacktip gas plant and pipeline.

The deal negotiated by the NLC has given, and will provide into the future, significant economic and social benefits to the traditional owners and residents of the Wadeye region.

Indeed, there is every appearance that Rothwell consciously excluded these well-known and readily available facts from his piece because they did not support his oft-repeated spurious claims about the NLC. I found all of the material noted above after about ten minutes of searching on the web and a bit of scurrying about in the backblocks of various websites.

Rothwell ends his piece with a dubious comparison between Longreach in far-western Queensland and Wadeye, implying that Wadeye should be accorded the same services, government support and facilities as Longreach.

Longreach is a service centre in a region with a long history of extensive & highly productive mining, pastoral and agricultural activity. It is also has roads that lead from somewhere to somewhere else.

Wadeye services only itself and a few small homelands. It is at the wrong end of a long and rough road in a region with no history of pastoral, agricultural or any other significant development – apart from the above-mentioned Blacktip gas project.

Pity about those annoying facts getting in the way of a fantastic story.

Declaration: Bob Gosford has worked for the Northern Land Council as a legal advisor, most recently in 2008. He had no involvement in matters at Wadeye apart from a single meeting with an early version of the Thamarrurr council in about 2000.

Image from Getup

This a guest post from John Greatorex who worked as a teacher at Galiwin’ku on Elcho island off the coast of Arnhem Land for 27 years. He now is a part-time teacher of the Yolngu studies at a Darwin University.

He has now resigned from teaching to work with his Yolngu families on projects of importance to them – including the wonderful Arnhem Weavers group – you can find out more about the Arnhem Weavers and the food co-operative project they have recently started at their website.

Recently I was profoundly moved when I heard Richard Downs, an Alwayarra elder, seek refugee status for his people whose homelands are in the central east of the Northern Territory, Australia.

The Alyawarra were refusing to accept the impositions of the Federal Government through the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER), and as part of their action they have requested the United Nations (UN) register their people under the international refugee convention as internally displaced persons.

The ABC reported (26 August 2009):

“Mr Downs says people of the Alyawarra Nation have been left with no choice because the federal intervention in the Northern Territory has taken away their rights.” “We’ve got no say at all,” he said. “We feel like an outcast in our community, refugees in our own country.”

This was followed the next by another report on the ABC where Richard Downs said:

“We no longer have any rights to exist as humans in our own country and are outcasts in our own community”

On the 3rd September Richard Downs wrote:

“Your government’s so-called measures under the intervention go far beyond this [protecting women] to take away our dignity, our self esteem, and land control, disempowerment, human and indigenous rights.“… Your system is about creating divisions, hate and racism and control over people who are already struggling under oppression.”

When I read these statements I thought: “These people are making a stand in a climate of constant and negative stereotyping by governments and media; a difficult step for anyone.”

The Alyawarra, by refusing to be redefined, are taking active steps to take control of their lives.

Don’t we all want to be in control of our lives?

I would like to tell two stories which I hope will provide insight into why homelands are of crucial and critical importance to their traditional custodians.

The following stories attempt to represent what I have heard and learnt from Aboriginal mentors in east Arnhemland over several decades.

Not only does it make common sense, but it has been clearly demonstrated that the happiest and healthiest people in any society are those who are able to control the most important aspects of their lives.

Control over our lives is proportional to how we feel about ourselves, how society sees us, and our status within society.

In the Northern Territory the people with the least control over their lives are the First Nations peoples.

Disturbingly, recent Australian and NT Government policies, including the NTER, have further stripped away at Aboriginal people’s rights to control their lives in the Northern Territory. Traditional (nation) estates on which ‘prescribed’ communities are located have been compulsorily acquired by governments without negotiation.

Every Black Territorian living on ‘Aboriginal’ land receiving Centrelink or other welfare payments is compulsorily ‘Income-Managed’ (including old-age pensioners).

Black Territorians are negatively stereotyped as child abusers and alcoholics, poor school attendees and perpetrators of domestic violence.

Recently-announced policies now envisage forcing families off their custodial estates (away from their homes) into ‘growth towns’ for the convenience of government bureaucracies.

Public statements that redefine all Black Territorians in a negative way can only have a negative and debilitating impact. While governments, supported by the media, continue to negatively stereotype all Black Territorians, the health and well-being of these peoples will continue to decline.

In east Arnhemland where the Yolngu peoples live, and where I have spent much of the past 30 years, I can say for a fact:

“…there are homelands where school attendance is higher than anywhere else in Australia; where children are safer than in white towns and centres and where substance abuse and youth suicide are non-existent.”

So what is it that is so important and special about homelands for their traditional custodians and that underpins such successful outcomes?

The following two stories may provide some insight into these questions.

Story One.

Recently the Yolngu Studies lecturer, Yingiya Guyula, delivered the last class for the semester. He spoke about the first contact between his families and White settlers.

He told how fear of Whiteman first entered the lives of his families after his grandfather was shot by cattlemen. Before this incident his families had heard reports from further south that White men were scalping Black men; just like his families were skinning crocodiles.

Now they had to be ever vigilant and wary. They could no longer live peacefully, safely travel and hunt on their custodial estates; lands they had inhabited since the beginning of time.

Towards the end of the class a student added to Yingiya’s story.

She explained that when the Elcho Island missionaries called the twenty or so Yolngu nations to ‘the Light’, they didn’t understand. These missionaries failed to recognise the existence of strong and complex governance structures, where nation boundaries, established alliances and political structures were understood and respected.

By calling these diverse peoples into the Elcho Island mission, and onto the land of one nation, the missionaries were disempowering all the non-landowners.

She explained it like this.

“We Yolngu people are connected to our ancestral estates like a tree is rooted deeply into the soil. When the roots of a tree and the soil recognise each other, the roots will grow ever deeper and stronger, and the tree grows strong and bears good fruit.”

“The missionaries pulled us up by the roots and placed us in the mission and onto soil that was foreign. Our roots could not grow into the mission soil, that soil does not recognise us, and our roots do not recognise that soil. Our roots would only stay in the surface soil. A tree may stay alive on unfamiliar and alien soil, but it will not find nourishment, it will be stunted and will not bear good fruit. We can be only strong and independent on our homelands; not in the mission; not in the “town”.

Story Two.

In 1984, with the best of intentions, the Northern Territory Government developed a constitution for the community council on Elcho Island. The new constitution made provision for members to represent the 20 or so nations who lived on the mission (in 2009 residents still use the term mission).

An old man and I were talking one day. He had been elected chairman of the council. He described how he felt in conflict, he did not feel comfortable talking about the land where the mission stood, it wasn’t his land. He understood why some council members didn’t attend council meetings. He explained that it was disrespectful for non-landowners to discuss the mission land. So how could the council work?

I could see what he was saying. I grew up on a family owned farm. We would have been very upset if the government had decided that our neighbours had the right to make decisions about our farm.

I noticed that although he attended council meetings, he didn’t make public council announcements, he always deferred to the land owners for such matters.

When a Yolngu man or woman speaks of the critical importance of land, I now know they are not talking about land in general. They are referring to their very own homeland.

If you are motivated to do so, please have a look at the online homelands petition, and consider supporting this cause.

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Homelands

John Greatorex

7th September 2009

Note: The quotes in these stories are used with permission.

Mundine didn’t hold back and his voice was but one of a chorus – from both sides of politics – of those that shouted down the good Professor and his findings.

Maybe for the good Professor it is a case of when everyone disagrees with you then you must be getting it right!

Here is what Warren Mundine told the ABC’s Samantha Hawley:

Aboriginal leader and former ALP president, Warren Mundine says that’s the right action to take. But he’s outraged by Professor Anaya’s findings and says his views should be completely ignored.

WARREN MUNDINE: I think this Rapporteur’s report should be dealt with the same as every other Rapporteur’s report; just drop it in the bin and actually get on with the job. What is detrimental about the protecting of children, the protecting of women against sexual assault, physical assault?

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: He has found that elements of the intervention are racially discriminatory; but are you saying that that’s okay given the problems that were in those communities?

WARREN MUNDINE: When Aboriginal women or Indigenous women I should say, are being raped then we need to have policies in place that deal with the rape of those women.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: The Rapporteur also said there is entrenched racism in this country; would you agree with that statement?

WARREN MUNDINE: (laughs) Look, I think Australia is a great place. I think Australians are great people and decent people. We are one of the most modern, human rights, civil societies in the world.

SAMANTHA HAWLEY: Okay but, so there’s not an entrenched racism in your view in this nation?

WARREN MUNDINE: There are issues in this nation and there is racism in this nation, anyone would be a fool to say there’s not. But there is racism and there’s problems in all nations. We are actually, in Australia, working towards resolving those issues.

MARK COLVIN: The former ALP president and Aboriginal leader, Warren Mundine ending Samantha Hawley’s report.

Richard Downs will be familiar to readers of these pages from recent posts about the fight that he and the Alyawarra people of Ampilatwatja north-east of Alice Springs from recent posts here and here.

For mine, if you wanted to speak to or hear from a real “Aboriginal leader” and you had a choice between Richard Downs and Warren Mundine then I would take Richard Downs without a blink.

Richard Downs and his people sit out in the dust and heat at their bush camp after walking off from the township of Ampilatwatja in protest at the abject failure of this and previous Federal governments to accord his people their dues as Australian citizens – they want back what the government stole from then when the NT Intervention rolled into town.

They want the government to give them back their equality, their dignity, their freedoms and their right to live their lives as they decide – not as decided by some shiny-bummed bureaucrat in far-away Darwin or Canberra.

And Richard Downs isn’t just a man of action – he is also a man of words – and I for one would give good money to see a stand-up debate between Richard and Warren – I reckon Warren wouldn’t stand a chance.

Maybe that is why Warren and the other so-called Aboriginal leaders don’t dare take a step inside the Territory – if they did they would find themselves outclassed by the many people of Richard Down’s calibre who live their quiet lives in ever increasing desperation – not due to their own failings or the failings of their people – but a desperation caused by the manifest failings of governments that reckon they know how Richard and his people should live their lives and fail even in that task almost absolutely.

Here is what Richard Downs and his people said to Warren Mundine this afternoon:

STATEMENT
PRESS RELEASE FROM RICHARD DOWNS
WARREN MUNDINE

On behalf of my people I am calling on you to heed the advice of the UN special rapporteur on Indigenous rights and support your people demanding an end to the NT Intervention.

In your statement against the rapporteur you say the Intervention is protecting of women against sexual assault, physical assault. But this is not true – you need to focus on the big picture of what is happening to us. Your governments so called measures under the intervention go far beyond this to take away our dignity, our self esteem, and land control, disempowerment, human and indigenous rights.

More oppression, more young people in goals, we have no say in the justice system, which is failing. Your system is about creating divisions, hate and racism and control over people who are already struggling under oppression.

Get out of your air-conditioned office. You need to visit the people on ground, see and listen to them or are you afraid to find and learn the truth. You are an outsider, an outcast, a nobody just like us. The governments have taken away all our indigenous and human rights in this country. We are now are separate from rest of Australian people. Otherwise I urge you to show aboriginal people evidence and proof that we are all equal.

Show me where you and your government have had consultation, meetings with my people. Show us where this great law is protecting women and children, give us the evidence on how many convictions there has been with sexual child abuse, rape, murders, where is this indigenous pedophile ring your governments statements stated at the beginning. We don’t need any controls and measures and taking away of our land to negotiate to come to an agreed partnership arrangements with governments and others.

Make your stand Warren, Human Rights for all people of different cultures. Support your peoples United Nations DECLARATION on the Rights of INDIGENOUS PEOPLES.

Start your journey on discovery of yourself, your people, humanity our brother, open you mind and let your spirits guide you. Focus on the whole issue not on particular points to pull the wool over our general public friends.

Tell the general public the truth don’t hide the rest.

A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred; he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else’s freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity. Nelson Mandela – Freedom – Compassion

Richard Downs
Ampilatwatja Community walk off spokesperson
Contact: 0428611169
www.interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com

Richard has been a vocal spokesman for the Alyawarra people living at the township of Ampilatwatcha, 350km north-east of Alice Springs.

As the Green Left Weekly reported a few weeks ago:

But on July 15, with 25-year-old pipes broken and sewage running through the streets, residents left the township and set up a camp outside of the boundary of Ampilatwatja. They said the NT intervention had done nothing to solve their problems and had actually made things much worse.

Richard Downs, spokesperson for the camp, told Green Left Weekly: “Nothing has happened in the community in the last three or four years. There’s no consultation. People are pushed to one side and not involved in any of the discussions. We realised that the government is just ignoring people and we realised that this was just a waste of time.

“We’ve got no response from [Aboriginal affairs minister Jenny] Macklin, she hasn’t shown any interest or shown any courtesy or respect towards us. Discussions with her have become a waste of time so we said ‘bugger it’ and set up a permanent camp out there.”

Richard and his people have been at that camp ever since.

I asked him if he had heard back from Jenny Macklin:

Richard North: (laughs) No, nothing – I mean we got a letter about 5 or 6 weeks after we wrote to her but the letter clearly had nothing in it. And we had a consultation meeting with FaHCSIA staff but we virtually said “No, you people are not listening to us – so we are going to keep going with our walkout”. That was it.

And when they came to talk to us about that lease – the Commonwealth has that compulsory five-year lease that they didn’t even ask us about – but now they want to make a forty year lease. The lease they showed us was not a good deal at all – it was like a blackmail. Just a total blackmail. We just told them that we would not be renewing that lease.

We reckon that she should resign as Minister – she is just not suited to the Aboriginal Affairs portfolio – she has no results, she doesn’t – or doesn’t know how to – listen. I mean, she ignored the Review of the Intervention that Peter Yu did and we don’t think she will restore the Racial Discrimination Act. She should go, and the sooner the better.

And, as I’ve noted previously, Richard and his people weren’t very impressed with the no-show of his local member, Alison Anderson, up until recently a Minister in the NT Government and now an independent MLA.

But that has all changed since Anderson visited late last week:

Yes, we wanted to talk to her and to give her a wake-up call. Alison needed to listen to the people out here and we thought that she was on the wrong pathway. Alison needed to be bought back in and embrace us. The fight we are putting up here is the Aboriginal way, the traditional way, through the country, the dreaming and through the ground and so on and Alison needs, as a traditional woman, to come back on that line.

Alison has made a total 100% commitment to the traditional Aboriginal way. And we told her that if she goes off that line – that would be a big embarrassment that she’s gonna have to live with for the rest of her life.

It is our history you know, and she is seeing what is happening. We just aren’t seeing the results on the ground and its all controlled by the Federal government under the Northern Territory Emergency Response legislation. That’s what Alison was saying to us – “I watched it, and I seen what’s happening and and now I’m ready to go back to my people“.

I asked Richard about what he thought might have led people like Alison Anderson, and many other people who previously supported the NT Intervention, to change their minds:

Many Aboriginal people, even people like Galarrwuy Yunupingu, Alison Anderson and myself, we said “OK – this [the Intervention] could be good for our people“. So we said “Well, maybe we’ll see how it develops in the first eighteen months or two years“.

But what we are saying now is “We’ve given it a go – we’ve given the government’s a chance under the NTER measures to solve a lot of the housing and health issues and two years down the track now we’ve seen that there is nothing. It has just gone backwards.” That’s why people like Galarrwuy, Alison Anderson and me have changed our thinking about this Intervention. We’ve changed our minds and said “No, it’s not working so we need to be a lot harder on the governments.“

I’m not surprised that Alison Anderson has changed. It is just that after two years Alison hasn’t achieved any results within the Labor party in the NT. She hasn’t seen any fruitful outcomes from the NTER measures in the two years and now she is seeing that. And that is why she is one hundred per cent behind us. When she was sitting down with us she said “This is the happiest day of my life since 1982“.

I asked Richard about some of the Aboriginal people that are given space and time in the media and are generally accepted as “speaking for Aboriginal people”:

Nobody else speaks for us – we are taking control from the remote areas and our homelands. I started it, then Rosalie Kunoth-Monks came on board and then Alison Anderson came on board. Because all the Aboriginal leaders sound like they have shut up shop. They are hiding in hollow logs and nobody is saying anything anymore, nobody is pushing the issues to bring it to attention. We need to work on a two-way partnership between the Aboriginal people across the Territory and the government.

We don’t want any other Aboriginal leaders like bloody Warren Mundine or so on. This is gonna come from the grass roots here in our own country. And poor Warren, I don’t know what planet he is on! He needs to realise that he is isolated, he is on the Rudd side and Warren, and people like him, are going to be pushed out of there. Rudd and Macklin aren’t going to be supportive of Warren as soon as we start attacking him because he’s on our list.

I know Bess Price. [the Chair of the NT Indigenous Affairs Advisory Council] I haven’t spoken to her but I think she is all for the Intervention. Her and her husband Dave Price. That is fine…But it is a false vision from the Government and others like Bess Price. I don’t know what that NT government Indigenous Advisory Council does or what it stands for but they should come and tell us what they stand for.

I asked Richard what the group of himself, Roslaie Kunoth-Monks and Alison Anderson would be doing.

He explained that:

We are all going to get together in mid-September on our land, on Alyawarra land, and we will have anything from about two to three thousand people coming here from all the language groups.
Alison has been out bush and I’m going to try to contact her today because I’m back in ‘phone range and the same with Rosalie Kunoth-Monks and give them the dates that we’ve agreed on – the dates for the 16th to the 20th of September when we are going to get together and sit down out bush here at Ampilatwatja.

And the main thing is, we don’t want any other Aboriginal leaders speaking up for us on our behalf – if they do then they must go through us. This is from the grass roots.

I’ve spoken to people at Yuendumu over the past few weeks – they have their own problems there with the Intervention and I told them that we need to start getting together.

I explained to Richard that earlier today I’d called Alison Anderson’s office in Alice Springs and had spoken to an electorate officer there. I’d called her office on Friday last week to speak to her about the media release but she wasn’t available to answer my questions then so I called back earlier today but was told she was “out bush for the rest of the week.”

Alison’s electorate officer also told me that Alison:

“…now has concerns about the media release and would make no further comment”.

Her electorate officer also said that he was not sure about which part of the media release Alison had concerns with.

I asked Richard if Alison Anderson had said anything to him about any concerns that she may have with the contents of the media release?

No, no. She shouldn’t be because we, that is Alison, Rosalie and me agreed on doing that media release. Yes, between the three of us. We sat down and agreed, before we put out anything this is what the media release should include. And we ended up doing that one page media release. Alison was there just by herself. She went out there with Rosalie and me and we had a meeting looking at things. We agreed on where Alison stands and where we stand and where we are all going to go in the future.

Earlier in the interview, Richard had told me that:

Alison will be independent now. She realises that she is coming on board, which is really gonna give her that strength from the grass roots. Not only from the Aboriginals – but from the white people. So she is really gonna be a strong player there, more so than that Gerry Wood, that independent that is there now. If she steps out of that, if she goes off that line – she has automatically lost it.

Well, if Alison does that [goes off that line] she won’t get that support from me and my people. And that is why we are 100% behind Alison now with the way she is speaking. And she is going to be consulting with me, and Rosalie pretty well every week.

Definitely [we are confident she will stick by us]. Like I said, this is Aboriginal way we are doing now and she knows all the traditions and the customs and she will follow that line.

I thanked Richard for his time.

He told me that he and his people were trying to raise funds to buy and install a bore at the Alyawarra Intervention Walkoff camp so that they wouldn’t have to cart water from town.

If you want to donate some money to the cause of Richard and his people – or want to find out more about the reasons why Richard and his people have walked away from Ampilatwatja to their remote bush camp then you can read all about it at the group’s website at Interventionwalkoff.

Further to this post and the one following I have highlighted the relevant comments from Alison Anderson that seem at odds with comments made by Richard Downs.

I’ll ask Richard about Alison’s comments a bit later today:

“Death by consultation.” By KIERAN FINNANE.

For the Intervention Rollback Action Group (IRAG), led by Mount Nancy town camp resident Barbara Shaw, it must have seemed like a coup: here supposedly was a joint statement from MLA Alison Anderson, well known supporter of the Intervention, and Richard Downs and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, well-known opponents. It was calling for Aboriginal nations “to stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the intervention measures”.

Ms Anderson has rocked a few boats lately – was this another one? She was still on the road back from Ampilatwatja where she had met with Mr Downs and Mrs Kunoth-Monks when she told the Alice News: “Those are Richard’s and Rosie’s words. “I’m not going against the Intervention, but they are because they haven’t seen any good come out of it.”

She says the joint statement was put together by a white woman on the community and she had not checked it before leaving to return to Alice Springs.

“At no stage did I say that I didn’t support the Intervention, but we can’t have a continuous Intervention – we need human and social development.

“At Ampilatwatja they’ve seen nothing come out of the Intervention except for a police presence at Alpara. “They’ve sat there for two years thinking something will happen and nothing has. I’d rather live in the bulldust than in the houses out there.” What about Income Management, one of the strongest initiatives of the Intervention – does that not also apply at Ampilatwatja? Says Ms Anderson: “I still think Income Management is a good thing – when I’m travelling around I can see the faces of the kids shining because they’re getting enough to eat. “But some people at Ampilatwatja don’t like it, they want to be able to manage their own money.” She says the Eastern Plenty has been failed by government policy, including the Working Futures policy which she launched while still Minister for Indigenous Policy with the Territory Government.

Update – Monday 31st August – I have now been able to establish that the media release considered below is in fact genuine.

In a following post I’ll put up an interview that I held with one of the signatories, Richard North, earlier today that sorts out a few of the questions I posed below.

Well, a few of them anyway.

Earlier today I again tried to contact Alison Anderson through her electorate office in Alice Springs. The mobile of one of her electorate officers was switched off but at the office itself I was informed by one of her staff that “Alison Anderson has concerns about the Media Release” but that staffer refused to elaborate on those concerns other than to say that Ms Anderson would make no further comment.

Ms Anderson would be “out bush” for the rest of the week. I pointed out to Ms Anderson’s staffer that she must surely be within mobile range (thanks Telstra) sometime soon and that I would be happy to speak to  her at any time and merely sought some answers to a number of obvious questions that arose from her apparent dramatic change of heart concerning the NT Intervention.

It is also a reasonable expectation that a politician that puts their name and contact details on a media release that reveals a fundamental change of philosophical and political direction would make themselves available to respond to the many questions that arise from those revelations.

But the usual rules of political behaviour don’t necessarily apply in the NT and also, apparently, to the conduct of our newly independent member for Mcdonnell.

That’s all by way of an update here – wander over to the next post for a look at the interview I conducted earlier today with Richard Downs, a co-signatory of the Media Release with Alison Anderson and Rosalie Kunoth Monks.

If there was one issue on which Alison Anderson has maintained a consistent position over the past two years of her turbulent tenure as MLA for the remote NT seat of Macdonnell it was her voluble support for the NT Intervention.

Just a month ago she was quoted in the NT News, praising former federal indigenous affairs minister Mal Brough and criticising her own party’s equivocal support for the Intervention:

“The fact is that Mal Brough had the guts to trigger an intervention. I think the man had guts,” she is quoted as saying. “I think what federal Labor has now done is the opposite.
“It is killing off the intervention without killing off the intervention. “We are killing people by consultation.”

As former chair of the NT Intervention Task Force, Sue Gordon told The Australian three weeks ago, Anderson:

“…is a very passionate lady, and she does put Aboriginal people first,” retired West Australian magistrate Sue Gordon said. “She was the only member of the NT government who stood up and supported the emergency response.”

In the same article the architect of the NT Intervention, Howard’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough also supported Anderson’s resolute support for his Intervention:

“Alison Anderson, to her enormous credit, has been consistent on these issues now for a number of years,” he said. “She has stood up to the bullies in the Labor Party and has now finally made the ultimate sacrifice. That is true principle…”

But it seems that consistency those “true principles” have been ditched and Anderson has joined the ranks of the “urbanised saviours” that she has so vehemently criticised in the past who:

“…know nothing about living amongst the poverty and abuse in remote communities have condemned the intervention,” Ms Anderson said. “My people need real protection, not motherhood statements from urbanised saviours. I live my law and culture and I will represent my people regardless of what’s fashionable. My people need the help and want the help from this intervention.”

Yesterday – according to the Media Release attached below – Anderson joined the widely respected and outspoken Chairperson of the Barkly Shire Council, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks (who would be more familiar to many Australians as the female lead in the ’50’s film Jedda) and Richard Downs, a spokesperson for the hundred or so residents of Ampilatwatja that walked off from their township to a remote bush camp a months ago.

As recently as two weeks ago Richard Downs was scathing of Anderson’s performance as the local member representing his community.

As he told the ABC’s Alice Brennan, his community was:

“…disappointed they have not heard from the politician. “Nothing,” Richard Downs said. “It just shows to me what sort of a person she is. “She doesn’t have concerns enough to give us a call and say, ‘Look, I’m going to visit with you, I’m going to listen to you and see what we can do.’ “You know the rules, you should have stayed in there and looked after your constituents – that’s both black and white. “Look, do what you want to do but we certainly ain’t gonna support you no longer.”

Downs has been a savvy user of the internet and the media and has established the InterventionWalkOff blog and website to give voice to his community’s concerns.

In a recent post, entitled “We are refugees in our own country”, the residents of Ampilatwatja made clear their views about the NT Intervention:

“The NTER legislation constitutes serious, substantial and persistent racial discrimination against Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, multiple violations of the Race Convention and other international human rights covenants, to which Australia is signatory.
Aboriginal people had no other option but to walk off the Prescribed Area, thereby removing them from being subject to the NTER legislation, and which additionally accords them the status of being internally displaced refugees.”

So, to The Northern Myth at least, it is more than passing strange that Anderson would join with such strident critics of the Intervention which she has, perhaps with equal vigour, supported.

But in the weird world that passes for NT politics right now surprises are coming thick and fast. And just maybe Anderson took the trenchant criticisms from her constituents at Ampilatwatja to heart.

Yesterday Anderson, Kunoth-Monks and Downs co-signed what appears on its face to be an extraordinary press release (see text below), with the following as a joint statement:

“Richard, Rosalie, and Alison stated that “Aboriginal people are depressed and cannot see the light for the future, after experiencing decades of marginalisation, decades of being treated as second class citizens in their own country and the absolute racist oppression.”

Anderson is quoted as saying:

“…the failure over decades of health, education and basic infrastructure, has been an attempt to keep Aboriginal people unhealthy, uneducated and locked in poverty”, to weaken the people so they cannot fight.”
…
“this is the proudest moment of her life; to be here, with Alyawarra people, to hear and see them saying: “enough”.

The Northern Myth had some concerns that the joint Media Release may not be genuine, in part because of the extraordinary nature of what appears to be a world-class backflip-with-double-pike from Anderson to withdraw her consistent support for the Intervention and also because it was riddled with spelling, grammatical and syntactical errors.

Downs, Kunoth-Monks and Anderson give their contact phone numbers at the bottom of the press release as media contacts.

The Northern Myth called Downs several times but his phone was switched off.

Kunoth-Monks is “in town” and staff at the Barkly Shire don’t know her mobile number.

Anderson’s contact number on the media release is for her electorate office in Alice Springs.

The Northern Myth called late last night and eventually spoke to Anderson’s electorate officer, John Rawnsley, who is also a blogger, Deputy Mayor of Alice Springs, and was, at least as recently as last month, Anderson’s “anointed” successor for her seat of MacDonnell.

Rawnsley was unaware of Anderson’s comments in the media release, saying only that as far as he knew she was “out bush and beyond mobile range”.

The Northern Myth spoke to Anderson’s electorate office this morning and was again informed that she was “out bush and out of mobile range” but that would try to pass a message to her.

As at the time of posting Anderson has not responded to The Northern Myth.

All a bit strange for the co-signatories to a Media release trumpeting an event that Anderson described as “the proudest moment of her life”.

But Anderson has been promising a lot lately.

Just three weeks ago, after walking away from her position as the most powerful elected Aboriginal woman in the country, she told the ABC that events of the first day of sitting of the NT Parliament in the following week would be:

“…the biggest day in Territory history,” she said. “Let’s all wait until Tuesday. I think it’s going to be the greatest gift to Territorians. “It will be the greatest surprise to Territorians. I’ll leave the surprise as a whole package.”

There was no “big day”, no “great gift” and no “great surprise. It all ended in tears, with Alison’s grand plans in tatters thanks to the deal done between Gerry Wood and NT Chief Minister Paul Henderson.

And it remains to be seen how Anderson implements the call made in yesterday’s media release to:

“…stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the Intervention measures.”

The Northern Myth still cannot confirm whether the Media Release is genuine…if you know otherwise, please pass on a comment to that effect.

For present purposes we are assuming it is genuine.

Here is the text of the Media Release – make of it what you will.

MEDIA RELEASE – The First Australians call for an end to oppression

Aboriginal people are standing up and calling on all the leaders from all the Aboriginal nations, to stand united against oppression and dictatorship

Statement from Richard Downs, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, and Alison Anderson,

27 August 2009.

This is a very significant day…on this day, Richard Downs, community elders and members from Ampilatwatja, and Rosalie Kunoth-Monks met with Alison Anderson, Independent member for Macdonnell.

A resolution was made to call together the Aboriginal nations, from across the Territory, to unite under one banner to stand up against the absolute racist oppression, forced assimilation and attempts to destroy Aboriginal people being caused by the intervention measures.

Richard, Rosalie, and Alison stated that “Aboriginal people are depressed and cannot see the light for the future, after experiencing decades of marginalisation, decades of being treated as second class citizens in their own country and the absolute racist oppression.”

Alison Anderson stated that “the failure over decades of health, education and basic infrastructure, has been an attempt to keep Aboriginal people unhealthy, uneducated and locked in poverty”, to weaken the people so they cannot fight.

Aboriginal people have been patient for too long; but no longer – enough is enough. It is time for the people to come together…with one voice.

Alison said “this is the proudest moment of her life; to be here, with Alyawarra people, to hear and see them saying: “enough”. Alison has now made a commitment to rally her peoples across the following nations and language groups: Pintupi, Walpiri, Pitjantjara, Yangantjara, Arrernte (Eastern and Western), Lowitja, to join with the people from Ampilawatja on Alyawarr land, in their struggle against oppression.

Rosalie will rally people from the Utopia region; Anmatjarra, Kateytye and Waramungu to come together over the next weeks.

Aboriginal people come from a noble lineage; Mother Earth holds us to this land – we belong to this land; the land underpins everything that we are. Our language, our laws, our culture, and our rituals are an expression of this belonging, which has been in place since time immemorial. The land and law is us – no one can separate that.

From that place of safety and strength, we call on all the Aboriginal nations to unite with us and call on all levels of government to stop dictating the terms to Aboriginal.

The “Aboriginal industry” is worth billions of dollars, which is squandered by never ending layers of bureaucracy. Aboriginal people call for control of their own affairs – through direct funding from the federal government for our plans and visions for the future, rather than being squandered by the Northern Territory government on things like wave pools and convention centres.

“Let us set the flames alight”, said Richard Downs – let us remove ourselves from the governments’ oppression and unite and strengthen each other, in our resolve to no longer be dictated to.

For more information: www.interventionwalkoff.wordpress.com

Media contacts:

Richard Downs – spokesperson Alyawarra nation

Rosalie Kunoth-Monks – spokesperson Utopia region

Alison Anderson – Independent member for Macdonnell

There is a lot more to come in this matter.

Here is an update from the ABC late this afternoon:

Parliament was this afternoon adjourned for a three day “cooling off period”, after which the two independents, Alison Anderson and Gerry Wood, will either keep the one-year-old Henderson Government in power, or deliver it to the Terry Mills-led Opposition Country Liberal Party. The CLP had hoped to keep Parliament open until the no confidence motion came before Parliament so that it could grill the Government over a controversial Aboriginal housing program. But with the support of Mr Wood, the Government successfully moved a motion to adjourn Parliament, rejecting the Opposition’s claims it was trying to stifle debate. The Chief Minister Paul Henderson said there would be a “long, drawn-out debate on Friday”.

Today at 4pm an extraordinary sitting of the NT Legislative Assembly will begin the inevitable process of knocking Paul Henderson’s sorry failure of a Labor government on the head.

Clare Martin took Labor to glorious victories in 2001 and again in 2005. In November 2007, in an extraordinary week that saw Kevin Rudd elected as PM and the most powerful black organisation in the NT, the Northern Land Council, replace its CEO and refresh its Executive, Paul Henderson tapped Clare on the shoulder and took over as Chief Minister of the NT.

It’s been all downhill since then. He went to an early and unnecessary election a year ago and reduced Labor to a single seat majority.

As Crikey noted in June, the fall of Henderson’s government was a matter of when, not if:

Henderson, after yesterday’s dummy-spit by Scrymgour, now has two very poor choices — try to keep his failed government alive by dancing to Scrymgour’s increasingly erratic beck and call or hold a fresh election 10 months after the last one and more then three years before the next one is due in 2012.

Henderson has held on by the skin of his teeth for a couple of months — but that all went very pear-shaped when ex-Minister Alison Anderson spat the dummy and left Labor in high, and very curious, dudgeon last week.

On Friday last Terry Mills, leader of the Country Liberal Party opposition, wrote to the Speaker of the NT Legislative Assembly, Jane Aagaard, proposing that an extraordinary sitting of the Legislative Assembly be held today at 4pm.

That letter was signed by 13 members of the Assembly — presumably Mills and his CLP members, the long-term independent Gerry Woods and Anderson. Mills proposed that after today’s sitting the parliament will rise until Friday of this week, when it will sit again.

As Mills said yesterday on his Facebook page:

Terry Mills is ready for what may come. The question to decide the fate of the Labor government will be asked tomorrow and answered on Friday.

The question of want of confidence in Henderson’s Labor government will be asked today, and, in order to comply with section 24 (1) of the NT Electoral Act , will be voted on at its next sitting on Friday:

Extraordinary general election — motion of no confidence

24. Extraordinary general election — motion of no confidence

(1) The Administrator may issue a writ for a general election at any time if:

(a) a motion of no confidence in the Government is passed by the Legislative Assembly (being a motion of which not less than 3 clear days notice has been given in the Legislative Assembly)…

That much is clear — if a motion of no confidence in Henderson’s government is passed off we go to an election to allow the people to decide who they want to govern them.

But — and in the current context this is a very big but — section 26 of the NT Electoral Act allows for the (inevitable) political fix:

Criteria for deciding whether to issue writs

26. Criteria for deciding whether to issue writs

In deciding whether a writ for a general election should be issued under section 24 or 25, the Administrator must consider whether a viable alternative Government can be formed without a general election and, in so doing, must have regard to any motion passed by the Legislative Assembly expressing confidence in an alternative Government in which a named person would be Chief Minister.

If the CLP and Labor can agree to a motion that a “viable alternative government” can be formed without going to a general election following the passage of a motion expressing confidence that in the CLP can form a new government, then Mills will be in the big chair at the end of this week, thanks to a bloodless coup.

No doubt that motion has already been drafted.

For the CLP and Labor such a fix has its separate attractions — each have their own very good reasons for avoiding the public scrutiny of a general election.

For Labor the primary attraction of the gift of government to the CLP on the floor of the Assembly would be to avoid the inevitable and deserved flogging they would receive at tan election. Labor has been conducting opinion polls around Darwin over the past two weekends and will hold focus groups mid-week — by which time its future may already have been determined.

Crikey understands that the polling results are appalling — if an election were held now Labor could end up with as few as three seats in the Legislative Assembly … maybe. Such a result would condemn Labor to at least a decade in the same political wilderness which it inhabited for 27 years of CLP rule in the NT.

The chief attraction, to Labor, of a section 26 fix would be that it would retain the eleven seats it has left and that the CLP would have to rely on fractious independents to govern until the next election in three years time.

For the CLP, getting power — however it comes and whatever odious deals it has to do with Anderson and Woods to get it — will be enough reason to avoid an election.

Other reason for the CLP to avoid an election include that right now it is effectively broke and couldn’t afford to run an election.

And the legislative requirements for the timing of an election would be highly inconvenient — assuming that Terry Mills went to NT Administrator Tom Pauling QC next Monday, August 17 seeking a writ for an election, nominations would close on Friday 21st and an election would have to be held by Saturday September 5.

With the next general elections not due until 2012, Crikey is not aware that either major party has completed preselections as yet — this may see the CLP repeating its embarrassing failure to find candidates to contest the seats of Anderson and Malarndirri McCarthy at the last election — allowing them to be re-elected unopposed.

And the most important reason for the major parties to avoid an election — and for mine the best reason for having one — is that the Greens and independents could very likely spring a few surprises, win more than a few seats and — surprise, surprise — hold the balance of power.

The term “indigenous“, as it is used in relation to “the Intervention” and all that is associated with that term – is not about people, and its not even about paedophilia. Instead it is about programs, policies, power, politics and (personal) promotion and profit.

It is also about exploitation, abuse and failure.

Exploitation, abuse and failures at the hands of successive governments as each pursues its ‘politics of disadvantage‘, or should it be named ‘politics of incompetence‘?

Maybe government could get a few pointers from Peter Sutton’s Politics of Suffering. Whatever politics it is, it has been hurting and disadvantaging Aboriginal people for a couple of centuries now and has,  moat recently thanks to the Northern Territory Emergency Response (the Intervention), hit a new high under the new brand name “indigenous“.

Perhaps “the politics of profit” or indeed “the prophets of profit” might be good titles to consider as well.

Once upon a time I criticised the term Aboriginal – and the imposition of that stylised identity by the colonisers as a collective identity for mainland Aboriginal Australians. And while the terms ‘Aborigine’ and ‘Aboriginal‘ are still among the most disputed in contemporary Australian language, the all-encompassing term “indigenous” and its current use is not only unsuitable but inappropriate and extremely misleading.

From where I sit and listen and observe, “indigenous” does not relay a true sense of the meaning as is embraced and understood by Aboriginal or Indigenous peoples themselves.

The real meaning of the term indigenous is best expressed by Chris Cuneen and Terry Libesman:

Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies…consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing in those territories…They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples. In accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal systems. (Cuneen & Libesman, Indigenous People and the Law in Australia, (1995)

The emphasis should be on the latter part of the definition and the term should not be used simply as a brand name for a government product.

While the terms “Aboriginal Australian” and “Australian Aboriginal” are wholly consumptive terms by which Anglo/Other Australia goes about integrating a range of different aspects of diverse Aboriginal clans, their ideals, aspirations, philosophies, knowledges, politics, religious and cultural tenets and ceremonial practices, I believe the term holds far more credibility than the term “indigenous” right now.

Admittedly both terms are colonial constructs of what westerners decided are appropriate identity markers or classifiers of the Other, and Aboriginal people have had to face a never-ending re-defining of Aboriginality almost since the term was first adopted – now they are being forced to re-define that again, under the new name and category of “indigenous”.

A while ago Marcia Langton stated that:

“Aboriginality…is a field of intersubjectivity in that it is remade over and over again in a process of dialogue, imagination, of representation and interpretation – [and that] Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people create “Aboriginalities”… in the infinite array of intercultural experiences…” (Langton, Representations and Indigenous Images, Global Diversity Conference, Sydney, 1995.

I cannot imagine that even she would believe that this same type of dynamic is taking place in the current western construction of “indigenous“.

The current practice and use of “indigenous” which has been adopted as yet another Australian way of grouping together of Aboriginal people they know and understand little about, simply so as to accommodate their limited understandings and out of their laziness and disinterest, speaks loudly of continuing paternalism (and maternalism) and of expediency and the continuing government knee-jerk reactions of band aiding instead of fixing.

Australians may have got away with the pan-Aboriginal identity thing in the past but the pan-indigenous identity categorisation of peoples leaves a broad and wide-open scope for almost anyone to take advantage of. Yes, it is true there were huge problems with the previous government and ATSIC definitions of Aboriginality, but they were much clearer to understand and negotiate in comparison to the catch-all use of the term “indigenous“.

At least the colonists who assisted in the creation of the term Aboriginal and therefore ‘Aboriginal identity’ did so in part to satisfy their own understandings of the Other. Aboriginal Australians, in the most part, accepted this identity too. However, nothing can take away the point that, whether this adoption of new identity was both clearly determined and determining [See: Bain Attwood, The Making of the Aborigines (1989)] the term Aboriginal/Aborigine has dispossessed these peoples of their separate identities.

Placing Aboriginal people now in the neat little homogenous group known as “indigenous” further dispossesses and disadvantages them – regardless of the multiculturalism that supposedly thrives in the broader Australian community, or the “spirit of reconciliation” which supposedly unites Aboriginal and mainstream Australia. Disadvantage, regardless of the flashy new identity of “indigenous” continues.

The term “indigenous” continues to strip, indeed further rob, Aboriginal people of their basic human rights as citizens of Australia and it prevents them from being equal participants in the overall Australian social contract.

I listened to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Darwin TV recently talking about “overcoming indigenous disadvantage“.

PM Rudd, Minister Macklin, NT Chief Minister Henderson et al – including all the same olds (Aboriginal and Other) were sitting at the big round tables with their various “indigenous” hats on, rabbiting on about their “indigenous” solutions and giving their “indigenous” expertise. They all keep missing the main point that disadvantage will only begin to be relieved when all Aboriginal Australians are granted full citizenship rights and privileges. These rights include the right to self-identify and to be in charge of their own futures.

Aboriginal people must have an Aboriginal Minister. Its time!!

It is time too, for Rudd, Macklin et al to realise they are talking to the wrong black “leaders” and that they will always be advised by the wrong white “experts“. It is one thing to talk about Aboriginal dependency and welfare but I don’t hear anybody criticising the co-dependency that exists between “indigenous advisers” and non-indigenous “experts“.

I’m tired of people stating that there is no Aboriginal leadership – there are many strong and good leaders – and I’m not talking about the consultants and advisors and the Australian Government’s “community managers” and other tyrants – or the carpetbaggers and “southern specialists” that have waltzed into the Northern Territory of late – or those who may be the belles and beaus at the NAIDOC ball.

Most Aboriginal people affected by the NT Intervention are disadvantaged, effectively homeless and are refugees within their own country – Australia. They don’t attend NAIDOC balls and other activities and I bet most have not even heard of Reconciliation and probably don’t care if Rudd said “sorry” because it has changed nothing for them.

I bet the majority of them don’t even know they are named “indigenous”.

My suggestion is that government has to address Aboriginal disadvantage the same way such problems are addressed in relation to international refugees and migrants especially in relation to re-settlement, social security, jobs, health, education, equity, restoration of rights and dignity. The levels of support services for  the Aboriginal refugees and disadvantaged, internally-displaced peoples are poles apart from what is offered to international refugees and other new arrivals.

You only need to be standing in a line at Coles and Woolies in Darwin or any other city or town in the NT to hear Australians make awful racist remarks while comparing the two groups of peoples – praise and sympathy for one and abuse and denigration for the other.

The sadder part of that story is to hear international refugees and migrants parrot their Australian counterparts in demonising Aboriginal people. It is a sad state of affairs that Aboriginal people have to compete for space within such a hostile environment. What hope have they got?

Lastly, PM Rudd acts almost shocked to hear about the level of Aboriginal disadvantage – what rock did he live under in Queensland for all those years?

He obviously is not aware of conditions at Palm Island, or has not followed the recent happenings there between Police and residents. If he does not have time to visit a few Aboriginal communities in Queensland perhaps he should spend some time reading about the state of affairs in his home State.

He could start with Rosalind Kidd’s The Way We Civilise: Aboriginal Affairs – The Untold Story (1977). Described as “…one of the most chilling and thorough studies of the governmentality of Indigenous people…[Kidd's] investigation of previously inaccessible government records reveals the moments of ‘eternal optimism’ and ‘congenital failure’ that fashioned government relations with Aboriginal people in Queensland between 1840 and 1988.”

His reading list should include:

Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians: Black Responses to White Dominance 1788-2001 (2002);

Rosemary Neill, White Out: How Politics is Killing Black Australia, (2002);

Michael Meadows, Voices in the Wilderness, (2001).

He obviously has never read C. D. Rowley’s The Destruction of Aboriginal Society (1970) – perhaps Minister Macklin and his government are looking in there for hints and suggestions?

If Rudd read Rowley’s book maybe he might just figure out what is going on and what could and what should be done to halt the current destruction of Aboriginal society.

My final book suggestion for Rudd, Macklin, Henderson, et al is the Australian classic by Xavier Herbert, Poor Fellow My Country (1970). I’m sure even they would appreciate the poignancy of the title – as well they should heed and comprehend Herbert’s message:

Until we give back to the black man just a bit of land that was his and give it back without provisos, without strings to snatch it back, without anything but complete generosity of spirit in concession for the evil we have done him – until we do that, we shall remain what we have always been so far: a community of thieves.

Here Miliwanga talks about the NT Intervention and how the Intervention – for good or ill – has affected them. Miliwanga also told how she feels about the continuing suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act in relation to Aboriginal people in the NT, and has a look back at how conditions where for her family when she was growing up, what life is like now, and the hopes and fears she has for the future.

We also talked a lot about law – the laws that are made in Parliaments around the country and the original laws that still run in much of Aboriginal Australia.

Miliwanga Sandy, Wugularr, NT. June 2009

Miliwanga Sandy: And you know, many, many people – particularly Munanga [white] people – they don’t understand that our law, Aboriginal law, still operates in this country.

Our law is very strong and it doesn’t change – it is flexible when it is applied – but it has always been the same law that we know from when it first started right up to this modern generation today.

That western law – it changes all the time – it is very confusing for us to try to fit into that law – but our law, Aboriginal law, it holds strict control of whatever things we must not do, including like in the western law if someone goes to court and has committed a very severe crime then they have to be sentenced.

MS: And Aboriginal law – what many people don’t understand is that we still abide by it – without it we wouldn’t be living close to our country and with our people and families up close. We have our laws for violence, for domestic violence, for child abuse, laws for respect between man and women and between people.

And we have laws for marriage and for food as well. Everyone here at Wugularr  knows about our laws – but many outside people they don’t know how strong it is – until somebody breaks that law.

They might be able to see a little bit about what happens…but we don’t have laws for alcohol, or for drugs, like that western side does – those things don’t exist in our culture – but we have rules for how people have to behave properly.

TNM: And your daughter Laureena – she is an ACPO (Aboriginal Community Police Officer) in the Northern Territory Police Force – so she works in the law – but on the western side?

MS: Yes, and I am so proud of her – my older daughter Andrea was also the first ACPO for this area – Barunga, Beswick, Eva Valley, Bulman and Mountain Valley and she did all this before the other Police came. They had Aboriginal Police Aides here before but now my daughter Laureena and Valerie Lane – they are two strong, young Aboriginal women – and they get respect from people – from drunken men and all that.

MS: They have to stand up in the position they have – they have to stand up in the positions they have and they have the power and authority and people give them respect for that.

But they they must also remember their customary laws and have that respect for their kinship relationships towards others – especially men. So when they come to lock up their cousins and poison cousins – especially men, and brothers and cousin-brothers [classificatory kinship relationships requiring avoidance or restricted verbal and physical contact]. I’m really proud of those young women – their job is an important link between the community and the normal police – they have both-way duties to do.

TNM: What about the future of Wugularr – what do you think the future holds? Are the recent changes for the good or bad?

MS: Well, we have this Shire thing [recent local government reforms] and we are not familiar with that yet – we are still trying to see how it works for our community and – we also have that Intervention – which I don’t agree with at all.

TNM: That was my next question…

MS: There was a lot of people upset about those early days of the Intervention – that, whatyoucallit – compulsory health check business – that was just really silly!

All of us women here, when that news was going around that they were going to come around and check all the children – including the babies – by strangers, who we’ve never seen – us women, we met and said “Oh, yeah – on that day when they come to check the children we will go over to the [Beswick] waterfall, 20 kilometres out of town, and we’ll stop there until they all go home. Then we’ll come back.” So we had planned, we planned everything beforehand, before they came.

TNM: And what happened when they came?

MS: When they came it was totally different. If it hadn’t been for Phil, who was our senior health nurse – Phil got up and told those people from the Intervention – “These kids, we screen these kids all the time – we know these kids and we would know for sure if they were being abused. We do the school screening, and for babies – you know, when they have their immunisation and weight checks.”

So Phil stood up to them so they didn’t have to go ahead with that. And the Sunrise Health Service that run our clinic they are very strong – and I work with them too. Yes, I’ve helped them promote that Closing the Gap thing.

MS: And nowadays – two years almost after that Intervention – well, there are a lot more Munanga [white people] here now and they took over the store here.

We wanted ALPA (Arnhem Land Progress Association) to help us to run that store. But the Intervention mob they wanted Outback Stores – and I see they finally joined that Outback Stores – that Intervention mob – that FaHCSIA mob. And the government owns that Outback Stores.

Now we have to waste all our money on that stuff here – normal things in that Outback Store cost a big mob of money – it is much more expensive than ever before here or than in town – there is powdered milk there for… that Black and Gold one for $12.50 and that Sunshine milk powder for $13 something – and I could get that for $5 at Woolies in Katherine.

MS: And yes I have a BASICSCARD – and it is bad – so I’m saving up my own money in my own bank account – because they don’t leave me any money in there to save.

The money that is left in my Keycard account I have to buy food, Powercard, fuel for vehicles, clothing – and what do I have left? Nothing.

MS: And that new way – where they are going to make every Aboriginal person do a test to get off that Income Management – that just makes me wild. When I first heard about the Intervention, I became very furious – because it reminded me of when I used to line up with my parents for ration days – the government took control of my parent’s money and they used to have like…there wasn’t enough money for food from the store so we would go hunting for bush tucker a lot in those days – to have enough food to survive on.

So when this Intervention came along, I thought “I don’t want my grandchildren and my children, to live like how my parents and I used to live in the ration days – we shouldn’t be going back to those old days – life should be getting better for us – not like those hard days before.”

We want to have that freedom of choice, freedom to do this – freedom to spend our money on whatever we want.

MS: In those early days of the Intervention, the way they were talking about Aboriginal men, you know, saying that they were all doing child abuse and sexual molesters and all that.

A lot of our men became shamed when the Government said that about them and a lot of them were angry and upset – and it hurt us – not just the men but the women too – to have our husbands and sons and nephews talked about like that.

In the olden days we never had things like that – if anyone did anything like the old people would deal with them through that Makarrata – which was a matter of life and death – with the spear throwing – and if ever we had people doing that kind of thing in our community we would ban them from our community – they would be exiled away from their family to another place.

In our law, that person has to go to the Makarrata and that person has to face a lot of these men with spears flying at him – and if he is good at protecting himself from these spears then in the end they will all agree to jab his thigh – but it won’t be with an ordinary spear – it will be with a barbed-wire spear – it is different from the other spears – it has a lot of hooks in it and when it goes into the thigh it is very hard to get it out.

TNM: There is another law that came in with the Intervention that where before the Judge could take Aboriginal customary law into account for sentencing but now they cannot…

MS: Well, that discriminates against us and I disagree with that – for example – with children, we have to discipline them. And this is like the rest of that Intervention – the Government can’t make the Intervention any better until they come and sit down and talk to us in person and they have to come out and see things and listen. Thats how we hold our meetings – we don’t hold our meetings in secret or somewhere else – you have to come and each person has to face each other to see what we need or see what our problem is.

And we are still being treated unfairly – and that is why I’m fighting, still fighting for my people and their freedom and for getting jobs and freedom to have to spend our money in our own ways and where we want to have the freedom to be able to control our own situations.

Another thing is that I think that taking away the Racial Discrimination Act was a very cruel thing – we are all human and shouldn’t be treated as slaves.

We’ve lived here longer than anyone – this is our country and we should have the freedom and the right to be treated properly – by any person – but we are fighting against them for taking that law away from us – we sent a letter to the United Nations – and they agree with us that we should have those rights and freedoms back – particularly that Racial Discrimination Act.

Miliwanga Sandy will speak at the AIATSIS Symposium “Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory: Principles, policy and practice” at the Visions Theatre, National Museum of Australia, Canberra today, 26 June 2009.

Miliwanga Sandy, Wugularr NT

This is my long-time friend Miliwanga Sandy, who lives at the Wugularr (formerly Beswick) township 100 or so kilometres outside of Katherine in the NT.

Right now she’s in either a car, bus or plane travelling to Canberra to attend a one-day seminar at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) to speak on a subject very close to her heart – the rights of her, her family and the people she lives with to speak, learn and be taught in your own language.

This bundle of rights have recently been sadly neglected in Australia generally and here in the NT in particular – especially following the decision in October 2008 by the then NT Education Minister Marion Scrymgour to require that the first four hours of each day in NT schools be taught in English. Initially this was to commence from the first day of school in 2009 and it has been given effect in most of the nine bilingual schools in the NT, with official rollout scheduled for 2010.

Late last year Miliwanga spoke at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference: Education 2008 in Melbourne to a tearful and emotional standing ovation – tomorrow she’ll be in a cold Canberra with a number of educators and fellow community members from the NT to speak at the “Bilingual Education in the Northern Territory: Principles, policy and practice” seminar conducted by AIATSIS and to be held at the National Museum.

That seminar will examine bilingual education policy in the NT:

At the start of the 2010 school year, the number of hours of bilingual teaching in Northern Territory Two-Way schools is set to decrease by more than half. The public debate that followed the announcement of this policy change revealed a need for further research on the models, achievements and challenges of bilingual education in Indigenous communities. Acknowledging this research gap and recognising that the new policy represents a significant shift in educational practice, AIATSIS will hold a one day symposium to debate and discuss the policy change and its implications. Issues to be discussed include: the historical role of bilingual education; the status of research into its efficacy and practice; implications of the policy change; and bilingualism and language rights.

The symposium will bring together Australia’s leading experts in bilingual education and practitioners in Northern Territory Indigenous schools. Bilingual educators, linguists, educationalists, policy makers and prominent Indigenous specialists will be invited to discuss this recent policy initiative thus providing a timely forum for debate.

Late last week I was at Wugularr to speak to Milwanga and others about my book project on Australian Aboriginal bird knowledge. Miliwanga and  I spent some time talking about her own bird knowledge from her Rembarrnga language and her country in central Arnhem land to the north of Wugularr.

But over a big pannikin of hot, sweet tea it became clear that Miliwanga still had strong views about the Federal government’s NT Intervention and the NT government policies on bilingual education.

Miliwanga agreed to an interview and here follows some excerpts from our discussion – mainly on the AIATSIS conference and bilingual education – I’ll have a closer look at Miliwanga’s concerns about the NT Intervention and other policies she has strong views about soon.

TNM – You’ve been a strong fighter for people’s language and culture rights.

Miliwanga Sandy – Yes – I was the first woman chair of the AAPA (Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority) – for a long time it was all men – right back from the seventies – it is very important to have women on that board. Nellie (Cam Foo) she was vice-chair for a long time.

I went to Melbourne for that indigenous education world conference and I spoke there about the issues with the bilingual education here in the NT and the decision by the NT Education Minister that all schools in the NT have mandatory 4 hours of English education every morning.

And here at Beswick we got left out – we only had two hours a week – before she announced that policy – of language education every week – and all the rest – we didn’t have any language program – everything was in English.

TNM – Most of these children here – English would be their second, third or fourth langugae?

MS – Well, these kids here – they would have Miaili, Rembarrnga, Ritarrngu, Ngalakgan, Dalabon, Jawoyn, some people speak Mara and Alawa – and all children – all people – we would speak language on our mothers side and on our father’s side as well – and grandmothers and grandfathers side as well.

TNM – And then there is Kriol…

MS – And Kriol is spoken differently – we have different dialects of Kriol – we would speak different Kriol to people at Ngukurr, and over west at Halls Creek in Western Australia is different again and at Torres Strait in Queensland is different too.

TNM – So when a kid comes to school at Beswick, how many languages might he already have?

MS – That kid might have three or four Aboriginal languages already – but when he goes to school his teacher is only speaking in English. Well, we know that education is important and you need to understand English to understand the subjects they teach like Maths and Science – and whatever they have there. That is only in English at the school – but at home – that children and their family only speak in their Aboriginal language. Now, what we want is both-way teaching in the school – not only for two hours a week but everyday there should be both-way teaching. That would be much better – they could pick up English very well and they could do their work and study a really good way.

TNM – Is that policy they have here – do you think it is the right way or the wrong way?

MS – That policy of speaking English only at school is the wrong thing – it is not good for our children, because if they put, if the children are only taught in English – they will forget their language.

TNM – And their language is their culture?

MS – Yes – it is part of their culture – it is a part of their life.

TNM – Are you worried that if your children here lose their language that they lose their culture?

MS – Yes, and they will lose their identity. They won’t know who they are.

TNM – Some people have said that this new policy is the right way to go because it is really up to parents to teach their children their language at home. Other people have said – “Look, you don’t understand – if our children are at school all day – then that is the right place to teach their language along with English.” The NT Education Minister said that “If people want their children to speak their language they should do it at their home.”

MS – No, thats not right. Our languages should be in all all different places – in Centrelink, in all Government agencies, like the Hospital, and Legal Aid and in the school, in the shop – that both-way teaching. There are people that go in the shop that can’t read English, and for example we should put up pictures beside the healthy food so that the ones who do not read English they can tell by the pictures – because our way of teaching has always been by observing – and in our art forms and dancing and singing. So pictures put up in the shop would tell that right message.

TNM – Many Australians – most really, only speak and read English – it is hard for them to appreciate how rich people’s knowledge is – they might think that people are silly or ignorant because they don’t speak a high level of English…they don’t realise that people might have two or three languages that they speak and others that they can hear – understand. How many languages do you know?

MS – I can speak Rembarrnga, and Miaili – my version of Miaili – a different dialect, it is called Gurrubih – spoken in central Arnhem Land, and Dalabon – and I can understand Burrara – my grandmothers and grandfather’s language – and Gunwinku – spoken at Oenpelli – and Djambarpungu – and English – yes, I forgot English (laughs) and Kriol as well.

TNM – And a lot of people hear and speak many languages…

MS – Yes. And Ian Thorpe’s Foundation for Youth has been a good help to me and other people supporting our fight for the rights of us Aboriginal people and our children to our language. I met him when I was living at Manyallaluk (Eva Valley) – he came out there and we taught him everything. We shared a whole day teaching him all our cultural activities and he bought one of my paintings – and he never knew, you know – about us and our people and our culture and how strong it is and that we still kept it with us to this day. He never knew about all that until he came there and when he saw it and knew about and heard about it he was amazed. And he himself saw it “I didn’t know that I could be so naive about thinking about all these things.” And it was there that we taught him about our languages and cultures and ever since he has been involved with us now. And when I moved to Beswick – he has helped support our local art & craft centre (Djilpin arts) and his foundation has helped to pay the travel and accommodation for us to travel to this conference in Canberra next week at AIATSIS on bilingual teaching and education.

TNM – And is this an important conference? Will it be just about bilingual education in Australia? And you will be going to speak there?

MS – Yes, yes – I’m going to go and speak on behalf of our schools – that we should have a full bilingual program – first of all when I was teaching at Barunga School, we first started our bilingual program there – that was in the Kriol language – but a lot of people – particularly in the education – they didn’t agree that Kriol was a language. And people like Margaret Sharpe and John Sandefur – two linguists – they showed that Kriol was a real language.

BG – One test surely is that you can put your whole world in a language…

MS – Yes, see, when they first put all the different language groups together in these settlements around here – they didn’t understand each other – and they put together these English words together and they came up with another language – that became Kriol – so that all the different language groups could communicate with each other. And they started speaking one another’s languages too. Kriol is a language that came about because of the colonisation of this country here. And if the white folks say that Kriol “Oh, that is not a language” – they should know that Kriol has half of that English language and also parts of our traditional languages as well. And Kriol now is a link between our traditional languages and English – and it is all over, where the white people started up all these settlements.

I’ll follow up with Miliwanga and others who will be speaking at the AIATSIS seminar over the next few weeks – stay tuned.

And if you have a comment about bilingual education or any of the other issues Miliwanga raises please feel free to leave a comment.