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The Lucky Country (Part2)


Julian2

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Your so right Bust, the powers that be point at the millions they throw at these problems when it's only peanuts in real money terms. Can you think of any social problem world wide that ten percent of the US annual military budget wouldn't fix in th blink of an eye?

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I cannot help but laugh these day when you hear or read a report about the findings of such n' such enquire on whether there is alcohol abuse in remote Aboriginal Commiunities. It just amazes me how much money get's spent on obvious situations

How much you think this one might have cost? Must admit though it seems a good read and gives a brief history.

http://beta.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/regional/qld/ch5.html

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Thanks Bust, I've saved it and will read it tonight.

There's lot's of stories about them trashing stuff paid for by the taxpayer TB, and they will continue to be told. The latest government cuts in Aboriginal programs were deliberately directed at those run by whites while the Aboriginal run programs were allowed to mainly founder through incompetent staff and nepotism. Personally I think that the only hope for them is through the education of the children, something that is happening in some communities and not in others. I don't doubt that the fault lies on both sides but as long as things continue as they do it disgraces our society and embarrasses us overseas.

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http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=158532

 

The truth hurts

Friday, November 3, 2006

In a stinging attack, Rose Kunoth-Monks, of Jedda fame, says Aborigines need to take back control of their lives and find answers to the growing social problems blighting many central Australian communities. Paul Toohey reports.

Aborigines not mourning their dead but standing around gravesides fighting over who will get the dead person's possessions; violence subsuming all sense of harmony; people kidding themselves that they still are linked to the old customary ways.

This is the scathing assessment of Aboriginal life in central Australia according to Rose Kunoth-Monks, an Aboriginal leader who will always be remembered for her teenage starring role in the 1955 film Jedda,about an Aboriginal girl raised by white pastoralists but lured back to her people - and her death - by her Aboriginal lover.

 

Kunoth-Monks will now be remembered for much more after delivering a stinging wake-up call to her own people at the Desert Knowledge Symposium in Alice Springs. Kunoth-Monks, 69, cast aside whatever romantic notions might remain about Aboriginal life in the centre and called upon Aborigines and whites to end all nostalgia and begin adapting to the future.

 

"When I visit my community now [utopia, north-east of Alice Springs], I no longer find cohesion," she said. "In place of caring and sharing, I find sickness, violence and self-harm.

 

"The sacred objects and the sacred ceremonies are few and far between. People are not attending, they take less time to learn and perform, stories are short cut." She said instead of proper mourning rites "people can't wait to split the limited possessions of the dead.

 

"Where once I would pass my coolamon on to my granddaughter, now people are worried for the car, and the fridge and the clothes that are fought for around the graveside."

 

Kunoth-Monks accused blacks and whites of constructing a false "dreaming" which was not about links to law and land but simply a hopeless longing for the old days. "It is the case," she said, "that in many parts the only dreaming is that of the people who yearn for the past and wish to tie us back to that past. Here I include indigenous and non-indigenous people."

 

Kunoth-Monks said if Aborigines only relied on "identifying with land and culture we become tied to customary practice rather than facing the future and what needs to be done today. We can no longer be tied to the land through the old ways, although there are many who think romantically that we should always respond to new situations through customary eyes and practices without adopting new approaches."

 

Survival meant more than relying on the past. "We can't get our rich history back; in fact many of the older people I talk with don't actually want it back."

 

"No longer is reliance on land and culture sufficient. People more and more use these as an excuse for not performing and not taking difficult decisions - they are locked into stationary orbit." She said Aborigines had to accept blame for bad choices and start taking control of their destiny.

 

"I am hurting inside and I say this with huge pain - but for our survival this is where we need to go."

 

Speaking to The Bulletinafter her lecture, Kunoth-Monks said: "I'm the ogre. I won't have any friends after today. But we're not a dead people, we're living people suffering. All this romanticism has to stop."

 

Kunoth-Monks, who chairs the Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education, says she has had to warn lecturers not to treat Aborigines as children. "I've had to say to my lecturers, 'don't baby talk, they [adult Aboriginal students] are here to learn English. Speak to them in English'.

 

"It's hard for individuals who have this idea of the beautiful, softly spoken Aboriginal person when the picture around the fringe camps, of the anti-social behaviour, is in fact one of savagery.

 

"If we want a quality of life we have to utilise the infrastructure we have and become a part of the economy of the Territory. I live out on Utopia. I was born on Utopia. And I saw my grandfathers and my uncles assist and make life on the communities sustainable, as cattlemen. That was maybe three or four generations ago.

 

"That relationship endured and both the cattlemen and the indigenous people respected each other. Where has it gone? We were capable of adapting to work with cattle, riding horses, knowing about animals, and every other thing that needed to be done. My uncles cared for cattle like they were like they were their own.

 

"From there we went to welfare. They told us to sit down and let the taxpayers of Australia provide for us. They made all these policies. The fact is that the black person took care of himself long before white settlement. We are capable. I'm asking: where are we positioned now? What is our future identity in the 21st century? Is land and culture still necessary? It probably is, but not sufficient for the future our identity.

 

"We have to be honest. There was great cohesiveness in the tribal group I grew up with 50 years ago. It's not there any more. We have to find identity and go and be a part of the national scene in Australia. Don't have people leading you around by the nose."

 

Kunoth-Monks says identity will not be found by "sitting inert on a piece of land. I'm talking about the journey we must take to become a part of society. If we can't become a part of that, and enjoy the benefits of it, what are we?"

 

Kunoth-Monks is also a board member of the Desert Peoples Centre, a cooperative between the Batchelor Institute and the Centre for Appropriate Technology. It is an educational centre and think tank staffed by Aborigines and academics who are dedicated to finding better ways to use Aboriginal knowledge to improve lives.

 

She says she was lucky. Being in Jedda - the first film to use Aborigines in starring roles - showed her a world many of her people have never seen. "I believe Jeddaopened my eyes to life beyond being an Aboriginal and life beyond Utopia and Alice Springs. I became quickly aware that there was a great big, wondrous world out there.

 

"It also made me realise anything I had to achieve I had to do it with my own strength. For many years I lived in Perth and Adelaide and Melbourne. I didn't have welfare groups pandering and babying me. Each and every one of my people are capable of that."

 

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