The end of ‘big men’ politics - Page 6
From Griffith REVIEW Edition 22: MoneySexPower
© Copyright Griffith University & the author.
Written by Marcia Langton
WE CANNOT AFFORD TO IGNORE the much-weakened hold of cultural values and norms of social behaviour, and the descent into anarchy and lawlessness in many Aboriginal communities from time to time. Appeals to Aboriginal culture will not prevent this. Without denying that, there are many aspects of Aboriginal culture that are crucial to the maintenance of healthy norms, such as the kinship system and the bonds it creates. The fundamental problem in the appeal to recognise Aboriginal culture – when this is used to deflect attention away from lawlessness and criminality or, sadly, as a kind of displacement activity to uphold a fragile identity – is that the evidence has been mounting for three decades that even the most stalwart upholders of Aboriginal laws feel powerless to deal with new plagues of alcohol and drug abuse. Even senior Aboriginal people, who cling to a largely imaginary past, find some solace in the belief that Aboriginal society was peaceful.
Common sense should tell us that this was not the case. How could Aboriginal tribes hold out for so long against the marauding settler enemies if not with extreme violence? The sexual abuse and assaults in Aboriginal communities, and the general violence, are the result not simply of the traditions of violence in Aboriginal society, but of the terrible violence inflicted on Aboriginal people by colonial officers, police, missionaries and the general citizenry in the long orgy of race-hate. The result is not an uprising of angry Aboriginal people against their oppressors, but lateral violence – violence committed against each other. This is why children suffer so much: they cannot avoid the bursts of fury and rage that erupt on a nightly basis. They cannot escape. This is the most insidious aspect of lateral violence.
The right-wing warriors use the term ‘rescued generations' rather than ‘stolen generations' because they cannot imagine Aboriginal family and community life as places of love, where strength and good values were nurtured. This is simply because of their fundamentally racist views of our society. If we do not acknowledge the faults in our own society, we give succour to the racists. If we acknowledge them frankly, we can overcome racism with workable solutions.
In the late 1990s, Noel Pearson recognised that many Australians shared the hysterical and baseless politic that held that Aborigines were the enemy within, a sentiment Ghassan Hage labelled ‘paranoid nationalism'. Determined to challenge this, he withdrew from native title and reconciliation arguments and embarked on a campaign to convince the handful of rational thinkers on the right that it was possible to bring Aboriginal people in from the cold. Rather than old colonial enemies, who had speared cattle and remained camped around homesteads, perhaps the stalwarts of the old Country Party could begin to perceive Aborigines as neighbours and friends facing the same challenges as others in remote Australia. Perhaps they could be persuaded to think rationally about the large and exponentially increasing Aboriginal populations that lived next door to them as human beings with whom they shared the fate of living in regional Australia, with all its blessings and hardships.
Noel Pearson's lectures and essays changed the way people thought about Aboriginal people and their future in the nation. In recent months, I have caught glimpses of the profound change that this national conversation instigated. There has been a change in white attitudes, and a change in the way that Aboriginal people contend with racism. Pearson was accused of ‘informing the Howard agenda'. This is true, but for twelve long years, while his critics wrung their hands and sniped, the Aboriginal world has been divided into even starker camps of the extremely disadvantaged and less disadvantaged. Pearson developed a comprehensive response that is evidence-based and builds on development economics, and uses policy levers that have worked elsewhere in conjunction with research and consultation so that policy is grounded in community aspirations.
Noel Pearson's conversation with the nation presaged the focus on child neglect, abuse and suicide that is now, thankfully, part of the policy debate. He brought the frontier white men into the discussion and enabled the proposition for a bipartisan approach. It is up to Malcolm Turnbull and his colleagues in parliament now to take up the challenge. He should not engage in schoolyard brawls in Parliament while Aboriginal issues are at stake. By doing so, he is endangering the one great opportunity that we have for bipartisanship and cooperative federalism to become the underlying principles in how we tackle these problems. We are all responsible for bringing to an end the fruitless arguments – no one has all the answers, and no one has the moral high ground.
It is also time for the old politics to end, for a cessation of the bitter sniping from ideological corners, the lateral violence to silence those with different views. The lives of children are at stake – this generation, and several more to come. Aboriginal families need houses to live in. Secure titles, such as long-term leases, are required for housing projects. Children need to grow into satisfying livelihoods and careers. Only some of them will be able to choose the life of a part-time hunter-gatherer. The majority will need to be educated, skilled and capable of participating in the workforce. Therefore, they must attend school regularly. Their domestic lives must enable them to go to school every day, clean and well fed, and then do homework in the evening. If they face violence, sleepless nights, empty cupboards and extreme poverty, they will have lives such as those described by the Western Australian Coroner in his report on Fitzroy Crossing. I reject the false libertarianism of those who are willing to apply it to our family and community circumstances, but not to their own.
Developing institutions and opportunities for Aboriginal citizens will mean the end of the old protectionist and assimilationist thinking, which had little to do with human development and everything to do with exercising the power of incarceration and humiliation. Land titles, permit systems, Aboriginal non-government organisations – all will require rethinking and rebuilding in order to allow Aboriginal social and economic development.
We are faced with unprecedented opportunities to close the gaps in the over-whelming levels of disadvantage suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait people in life expectancy, educational attainment, employment, housing and economic development. Prime Minister Rudd has acknowledged the burden of history that makes the efforts of so many people to change these circumstances particularly difficult. The impact of the apology on behalf of the Parliament of Australia on February 13, 2008 is incalculable in this regard.
IT IS POSSIBLE NOW FOR A MORE sophisticated approach to these problems than occurred in the last decade. The Prime Minister's call for co-operative federalism offers the greatest strategic opportunity for changes to Indigenous affairs: to expect accountability for the large financial transfers to the state, territory and local governments intended to overcome disadvantage among Indigenous populations; to obtain the cooperation of the state and territory agencies to implement national approaches in health, education, employment and economic development and to monitor the progress made among Indigenous populations with a national approach to monitoring and evaluating programs. For too long, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders have been held to ransom in an ugly state-federal war over finances, and the ‘race card' has been played to shift blame for dereliction of duty and divert funds aimed at disadvantage for other purposes.
It is critical that strong women and men join the debate and tell the truth. I have been refusing more and more lately to attend meetings with bullies. This is a personal preference, but our work would be so much easier if we could insist on enlightened standards of behaviour and demand evidence of outcomes and progress. In the present climate of goodwill and enthusiasm for tackling these difficult problems, it is incumbent on us to readjust the policy settings and ensure that there is an end to the ‘big bunga politics' – the political and theatrical use of lateral violence in Aboriginal politics – and a resurgence of good values for family and community living as shown by the Inteyerrkwe Statement and apology. This must start by rejecting the standover men and women who have benefited so much from the misery of our people. It also means engaging in policy development in a sophisticated way to enable us to measure change and evaluate our successes and failures.
And it means that non-Aboriginal people need to be better informed and engage in a rational debate with us, and overcome their preference for the ‘big bunga' Aboriginal political representatives and the guilt infused romance with the exotic. I have observed that many of the people working in the Aboriginal industry are not seeking alliances with ordinary, hard-working effective people, but the black woman in the plain dress with the soft voice will usually work far harder and be more effective. It is time to listen to her, and her quietly-spoken sisters and brothers, rather than the noisy bullies. ♦
September 16, 2008
[i] An excellent website providing advice to Aboriginal people suffering grief has been published by the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research and Ministerial Council for Suicide Prevention, for Western Australian communities at www2.mcsp.org.au/community/resources/bereavement/aboriginal.html, accessed September 10, 2008.
[ii] Lloyd Robertson, Hawkeye Associates, ‘Lateral violence assaults our mental health' at www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/articles/C081.htm, accessed September 10, 2008.
[iii] http://books.google.com.au/books?id=Mfp9Igu95g0C&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=lateral+violence&source=web&ots=Q3Y8h5nGrF&sig=0Qg4LuvWl9QleN6liWlHJLJrsW0&hl=en,accessed February 3, 2008; Lloyd Robertson is a La Ronge-based psychologist. His articles, previously published in The Northerner may be found on his website: www.hawkeyeassociates.ca/articles/C081.htm.
[iv] Full statement available at www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/John-Liddle-speech-Summit-Press-release-_2_.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[v] Theo Vos, Pridgett Barker, Lucy Stanley and Alan Lopez, The Burden of Disease and Injury in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples 2003 (University of Queensland Press, 2007), p. 45.
[vi] M.J. Chandler and C.E. Lalonde, ‘Cultural continuity as a moderator of suicide risk among Canada's First Nations', Transcultural Psychiatry, 35(2) (1998): 191-219; also L. Kirmayer and G. Valaskakis (eds), The Mental Health of Canadian Aboriginal Peoples: Transformations, Identity, and Community (University of British Columbia Press, 2000); see also Michael J. Chandler and Christopher E. Lalonde, ‘Cultural continuity as a moderator of suicide risk among Canada's First Nations', http://web.uvic.ca/~lalonde/manuscripts/2004Transformations.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008; and Michael J. Chandler and Christopher Lalonde, ‘Cultural continuity as a hedge against suicide in Canada's First Nations', http://web.uvic.ca/~lalonde/manuscripts/1998TransCultural.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[vii] The full statement is at www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/John-Liddle-speech-Summit-Press-release-_2_.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[viii] The full statement is at www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/John-Liddle-speech-Summit-Press-release-_2_.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[ix] The full statement is at www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/John-Liddle-speech-Summit-Press-release-_2_.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[x] The full statement is at www.crcah.org.au/communication/downloads/John-Liddle-speech-Summit-Press-release-_2_.pdf, accessed September 10, 2008.
[xi] Larissa Behrendt, ‘Rethinking Indigenous policy', published version of her keynote address on Saturday at the Melbourne Writers Festival, www.theage.com.au/opinion/rethinking-indigenous-policy-20080824-41ce.html?page=-1, accessed August 26, 2008.
[xii] http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24345218-16382,00.html
[xiii] Melanie A. Manning and H. Eugene Hoyme, ‘Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: A practical clinical approach to diagnosis', Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 31(2) (2007): 230-38.
[xiv] Manning and Hoyme, ‘Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders', p. 230.
[xv] Manning and Hoyme, ‘Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders', p. 230.
[xvi] MJA Volume 186 Number 10 May 2007: Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children in remote Far North Queensland: Findings of the Paediatric Outreach Service.
[xvii] See www.icmec.org; and www.globalmissing.com, accessed June 16, 2008.
[xviii] See www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/index.htm, accessed June 16, 2008. See also www.amnestyusa.org/Children/Child-Soldiers/page.do?id=1051047&n1=3&n2=78&n3=1270, accessed June 16, 2008. The YouTube site is www.youtube.com/dontyouforgetaboutme, accessed June 16, 2008; the Facebook site is www.facebook.com/login.php, accessed June 16, 2008.
[xix] See Media Release from the Office of the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, April 25, 2008 at www.fahcsia.gov.au/Internet/jennymacklin.nsf/content/helping_protect_children_25may08.htm, accessed June 16, 2008.
[xx] R. Manne, ‘How Tampa sailed into 2002', The Age, December 30, 2002, www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/12/29/1040511254630.html.
[xxi] The Report of the ABC's Independent Review Panel is available at www.abc.net.au/corp/pubs/documents/feb_23_08_mutitjulu_final_report.pdf, accessed September 10', 2008.
[xxii] Janice Reid, ‘Health as harmony, sickness as conflict', in K.R. Henderson (ed.), From Earlier Fleets 2. Hemisphere. An Aboriginal Anthology 1981 (Curriculum Development Centre, 1981).
[xxiii] Victoria K. Burbank, Fighting Women: Anger and Aggression in Aboriginal Australia (University of California Press, 1994); ‘"The lust to kill" and the Arnhem land sorcerer: An exercise in integrative anthropology', Ethos, 28(3) (2000): 410-44; ‘Fight! Fight! Men, women, and interpersonal aggression in an Australian Aboriginal community', in Victoria K. Burbank (ed.), Sanctions and Sanctuary: Cultural Perspectives on the Beating of Wives (Westview, 1992): 33-42; V.K. Burbank, ‘The mirriri as ritualised aggression', Oceania, 56(1) (1985): 47-55.
[xxiv] G. R. Davidson, B. Nurcombe, G.E. Kearney and K. Davis, ‘Culture conflict and coping in a group of Aboriginal adolescents [from Elcho Island, NT]', Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry, 2(4) (1978): 359-72.
[xxv] David Biles and David McDonald (eds), Deaths in Custody Australia, 1980-1989: The Research Papers of the Criminology Unit of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (Australian Institute of Criminology, 1992); Mary Edmunds, ‘Doing business: Socialisation, social relations, and social control in Aboriginal society - a review of the literature relating to cultural and social aspects of Aboriginal societies in relation to the issues underlying Aboriginal deaths in custody', prepared as a discussion paper for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (RCIADIC) on behalf of the Department of Prehistory and Anthropology, Australian National University, and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, Canberra, 1990.
[xxvi] J. Toohey, ‘Understanding Aboriginal law', in J. Toohey, Aboriginal Customary Laws Reference: An Overview, LRCWA, Project No. 94, Background Paper No. 5 (September 2004).