NT Labor continue traditional Dry season racism (Part 1)

15 April, 2003

In the Northern territory, the Dry season is heralded by the emergence of dragonflies, the arrival of European back-packers and the campaign to remove Aboriginal people from public view.

Aboriginal people who have escaped from their remote Communities - described as "dysfunctional" by ex-Country Liberal Party leader Shane Stone and (more recently) by NT Labor's Community Development Minister John Ah Kit - find themselves pressured to return.

Today the NT News has headlines that blare GO HOME and an article on a financially lucrative arrangement between some local Aboriginal people the Larrakia, Ah Kit and the Labor government. Essentially a plan to remove 'itinerants' (Territory-speak for Aboriginal people who choose to live traditionally) has been given a politically-correct fillip by the use of some of the less 'traditional', but far wealthier Larrakians.

In fact $500,000 has been provided by the Labor government to set up a "Larrakia Hosts" programme to assist the Larrakia in sending their poorer bretheren back to the reservations, built by Europeans to contain them.

The article also explains how elders from communities such as Milingimbi, Oenpelli, Ngukurr, Maningrida and Wadeye will be flown to Darwin to tell "itinerants" to go home. The article does not explain why the Aboriginal people in Darwin, from these communities would heed these requests.

I have been told -- (due my anti-racism activities) -- to leave Darwin constantly by NT Police, assorted racists and even by a Police Prosecutor (during a trial) on one memorable occasion, but I'm still here.

I do not believe Aboriginal people have less rights than myself, in deciding where they want to live.

Larrakia land?

It is ironic, that the only time Darwin is conceded to be Larrakia land, by the government, is when driving non-Larrakian Aboriginal people out of Darwin, becomes their priority in the Dry season.

In Court recently (during the so-called Parliamentary invasion trial) I tried to get the point that Darwin was built on Larrakia land into evidence, but was prevented from doing so, by strenuous objections from the Police Prosecutor. My attempt to tender a document describing me as "family" and a "member of the Belyuen Aboriginal community" was also disallowed. The traditional owners of the Cox Peninsula the Singh family, part of the Larrakia, formalized my tenure on their land when the NT State began trying to remove me.

I had resided there for seven and a half years, prior to these attempts by the State to evict me. Attempts that were initiated when I complained of local racism. At one stage myself and my (then) partner Fiona were arrested and imprisoned for Trespassing at our home.

My 'adoption' by local Aboriginal people and our refusal to leave our home, were probably the reasons the NT Police witnesses due at the 'Trespass' trial decided to be 'ill' that day. The case was dismissed.

The protests against my evidence being submitted, affirm my belief that the Courts and NT Police operate on a racist fiction that their law (established by genocide) has more legal weight than that of Aboriginal people.

Obviously a European legal system instilled by - mass murder, land theft and a multitude of human rights abuses based on 'race' - in Australia, has massive credibility problems. Even under its own auspices.

That an array of evidence from codefendants, based on "lifestyle" and "provocation"(but divorced from any 'taint of Aboriginality') was admitted without any objections from the Police Prosecutor, demonstrates a bias based on same.

I will be armed with these articles when challenging this evidential anomoly in court.

More hypocrisy

When Larrakia elder June Mills took the stand as a witness on our part during the 'Parliamentary Invasion' trial, she was quizzed about her status as a Larrakian and her right to give myself and codefendents permission to erect the 'Tent Embassy' at the NT Parliament. I thought the interrogation about her credibility - in that venue - was uncalled for and rude, then...

... but now, when I see goverrnment-paid Larrakians, suddenly being 'empowered' to speak on behalf of Larrakian people such as June, I feel disgust. June and other Larrakian people have been active in protesting the persecution of the inaccurately-named 'itinerants'.

The Black invasion

An enormous presumption is being made about the impact of Aboriginal people in Darwin, dressed up in terms such as "cultural protocols" to conceal its innate contradictions.

Elder Lorelle Fejo said, "Our land has been turned upside down. It is about time we brought it back to what it should be.''

Does the 'impact' of Aboriginal people on the Larrakia compare in any way (for example) to the cultural and physical impact of European invasion?

What right has the government to dictate, when and how Larrakian voices will be heard? And more importantly - which Larrakian voices will be heard.

As June Mills stated in court. The Larrakians did not give permission for the NT Parliament building to be constructed on their land.

That a propaganda campaign to marginalize and demonize Aboriginal people, is underway in the Northern Territory is not a difficult premise to support.

We have collected a number of articles (a couple provided here) as evidence that the NT Labor Party has donned the electoral robes of the Country Liberal Party (CLP).

The use of Larrakians to drive Aboriginal people out of Darwin (while a nice touch) does not change the fact, that this is exactly what the CLP did, to bolster electoral support in the NT, for over a quarter of a century.

Problems?

Of course there are 'problems' when people who have been ill-treated for generations on the basis of 'race' leave the "dysfunctional" communities built for them by their oppressors and venture into an urban realm that neither caters for, nor wants them.

These 'problems' however are not ones that are being addressed honestly. The culpability of non-Aboriginal people for the shocking conditions Aboriginal people must endure in their remote communities (and their desire to escape them) is excluded from this propaganda campaign.

We are regressing to that traditional racist state of 'blaming the victim".

I find the assumption that all Aboriginal people visiting Darwin are guilty of "antisocial" behaviour and must be able to account for their presence here, particularly offensive.

Regardless of the views one holds on these 'problems' - there is no possibility of a working solution, while the genocide that led to this situation is concealed, to appease the 'sensibilities' of the non-Aboriginal people responsible.

Rights of Indigenous people

The Preamble and the rest of this document can be viewed here.

Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, E/CN.4/Sub.2/1994/2/Add.1 (1994).

Indigenous peoples have the collective and individual right not to be subjected to ethnocide and cultural genocide, including prevention of and redress for:

(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities;

(b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources;

(c) Any form of population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights;

(d) Any form of assimilation or integration by other cultures or ways of life imposed on them by legislative, administrative or other measures; (e) Any form of propaganda directed against them.

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Obviously the entire draft is applicable in regard to the violations of human rights, all Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory have suffered. I have singled out this section for the purposes of this article.