Give the orang-utan a break

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

Ship movements cancelled at world's biggest coal port, Newcastle (Australia)

Ship movements cancelled at the world's biggest coal port, Newcastle (Australia) - 28 March 2010 from jagath dheerasekara on Vimeo.

Alyawarr (Australian Aboriginal) people walked off. They say “Enough is enough ! Abolish Northern Territory Intervention now !”

Back to Country : Alyawarr Resistance, Ampilatwatja, NT, Australia - Images by Jagath Dheerasekara

I first came across John Pilger’s writings in the Guardian in 90s when I was exile in Europe. I was immediately hooked of course. Introduction to the Black Australians or Aboriginal people also came to me from Pilger’s writings and documentary films. Pilger’s work such as Secret Country, Welcome to Australia made a strong and lasting impression on me. It was quite different to what I had seen in glossy magazines like National Geographic. Pilger repeatedly used the term apartheid. My first and recent trip to the Central Australia in the Northern Territory gave me the real meaning of apartheid. It came as a shocking revelation to say the least. John Pilger was exactly correct in using the term apartheid to describe the relationship between the black Australians and white Australia. Even 15 years after the Apartheid regime in South Africa fell, situation here sadly appears to be the same.

I first flew to Alice Springs to head to Ampilatwatja which was 350 km away towards North East. Alice Springs was a sad place to be. The impression created and the feelings generated so closely echoed what was felt on seeing films, photographs, and newspaper reports about apartheid South African townships such as Pretoria, Cape Town, and Johannesburg etc. Alice Springs is a bustling touristy town. There are plenty of restaurants always filled with white people – both tourists and residents. You would hardly see a black Australian sitting and eating in those restaurants. Shopping malls are similar. You get to see dozens of aboriginal people walking about here and there on the streets. Some of them looking for work.

Around 30,000 people are living in Alice Springs - I was told. 90 % of them have come from outside. They all, one can safely say are white Australians. For white Australians living there business goes on as usual. Going to work and dropping off children at school. Living in comfortable fenced or walled housed with well maintained gardens. Going for recreation, to restaurants, to pubs etc. In contrast, many Aboriginal people live in shacks. And they wander around alone or with children. Without jobs. Sitting under shades. Sitting around shops. Some trying to push a painting to a tourist. I was told – unemployment rate was over 95% among Aboriginal people. Most of them are living on government welfare benefits – What I saw was clearly two worlds, one empowered and bold and the other made powerless and marginalised.

On my way to Ampilatwatja, we stopped at a local store in a township called Utopia – so named by white settlers. Its real name is Arlparra. There I bought some groceries and offered the card to pay the 16 dollars to save my cash as ATMs were not readily available in the area. The aboriginal man who was of my skin colour and was at the register said “oh card. You have to go the other register”. ‘The other register’ which had a card terminal was manned by a white man. Later I got to know that this was usual practice. Aboriginese were generally not allowed to man registers with card terminals. Even in Ampilatwatja this is true. In fact the store which was started and financed by the elders of the Alyawarr community is today run by a Government Business Manager with white people employed to man the cash registers. It certainly did not look like empowerment. The community had to engage in a lengthy struggle and finally it appears to be fruitful in returning the store back to the community. 

Similarly, it was extremely saddening to see that the young have hardly any employment opportunities. Most work is done by outside contractors. Even when these contractors employ aboriginese they are paid at a rate of 70 dollars a day which is way below what is paid to a white person doing the same work. They demand not for the impossible or the unreasonable. In fact their few demands are almost austere.

In 2007 the Northern Territory Enmergency Response Legislation, commonly referred to as Northern Territory intervention, made it a 'prescribed community'. The Australian Federal Government persuaded the leaders of the community in to signing a five year lease promising government funding, employment, infrastructure and badly needed housing facilities. And Ampilatwatja became one of the 70 odd fenced in townships. The NT intervention legislation was announced by the then Prime Minister John Howard and was said to be in response to the report 'Little Children are Sacred' which contained allegations of neglect and abuse, including sexual abuse of aboriginal children of the Northern Territory. Years of government neglect and service failures were blamed for that state of affairs in the aboriginal communities. The 'special measures' of NT intervention legislation applied only to aboriginal people and to introduce the legislation, the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended. The legislation vested the government with the power of reclaiming aboriginal land and having townships on 40 year government lease if communities do not agree to sign leases "voluntarily". The government appointed Business Managers to stores and dissolved Land Councils where Aboriginal representations were.

The Community hates the BasicsCard or Green Card. They say BasicsCard is a racist card. It is belittling to put it mildly. It was introduced along with the special measures of the Northern Territory Intervention. Half of their welfare benefits go to the Basics Card. The card can be used only at designated stores. Sometimes people have to walk many kilometers to get to a designated store. At big stores there is a separate line for the BasicsCard holders. Big stores would allocate a separate register for BasicsCard or Green Card holders who are essentially Aboriginal people – in effect a separate line for the Aboriginal people has been created. The community considers it a shame. It dis-empowers Aboriginal people. It implies that the Aboriginal people can’t manage their finances. One school teacher who had a career for decades told me that she too was on the BasicsCards. There were many like her – she told me. Basics Cardholders are forced to work for Shire councils for no wages. In effect they are working for rations. I saw notices with lists of names pasted at public places asking those name bearers to report to work. Notices said – if not – BasicsCard benefits would be stopped – means rations would be stopped. Isn’t this a version of modern day slavery. People there said to me Intervention pushed them back at least 50 years. They fear that next their land would be grabbed for mining and for dumping nuclear waste.

A big billboard right at the entrance to the Ampilatwatja prescribed area is not marketing brand new cars but warns loudly “No pornography – No alcohol’. Several such boards dot the area with a description of the penalties. The aboriginal people are shamed by the message implicit in the billboards, reducing them to alocoholics and paedophiles. According to one activist, some elders had to be explained what pornography meant and a number of people told that despite attempts to type cast them as alocoholics, communities were dry by volunteer declaration. Talking about the billboards bring tears to some aboriginal elders. The intervention legislation also allowed the armed forces and federal police to enter the aboriginal land, conducting house searches investigating paedophile claims. Australian federal police still operate in some communities. While Australian government formulated and pursued an aggressive policy along these lines with wide publicity given to claims of alleged sexual and other abuse of children of aboriginal communities, the Australian Crime Commission, in 2009 reported that there was no evidence to support the allegations of existence of paedophile rings.

The report, Children are Sacred brought to the fore, the continuing neglect and service failure by successive governments, as a root cause of the ills plaguing the aboriginal community. It also stressed the need to return the strength to the aboriginal communities and the need to find solutions in consultation and ownership of aboriginal people. However, the NT intervention laws introduced in the wake of this report operate in complete contradiction to these recommendations. Aboriginal community leaders describe the intervention laws as disempowering, paternalistic and offensive.

This piece of legislation, is viewed as one of the biggest attacks on aboriginal land rights and self determination in the recent history. Without doubt, the so called natural resource / mineral boom where the price of minerals, especially of uranium started climbing, had a major impact in the introduction of the NT intervention laws which permitted the government to reclaim aboriginal lands. Forty percent of world's uranium deposits are located in Australia and most of it in the Northern Territory. Thus it is the mining companies and not the aboriginal people who stand to gain from the relocation of aboriginal people away from their land and incarcerating them in fenced in prescribed areas.

Ampilatwatja is a mess if not a hell. Having come from a third world country I have to say that I was shocked to see this much of poverty especially in a first world country. It was a shame on a first world nation and a crime on a “third world” people. Sewage systems are not functioning. The whole Township is full of garbage. Garbage collecting has stopped months ago. No new houses were built after the Intervention. Existing houses are falling down. Alyawarr people of the Ampilatwatja community finally decided to say no to the broken promises, lack of consultation and 'prescribed areas'. On 14th July 2009, coincidentally the Bastille Day, they left the fenced in prescribed area to trek to their homeland – their country – Rurong. White man’s name to that was Honeymoon Bore. It was nothing but a honeymoon for Alyawarr people, in a traditional sense. It is a struggle for self-determination. They are going to build their homes there in the way they want to. Not with the fences of meshed nets and steel pipes that was put up by the government. This walk off is historic in every way. This is heroic in ever sense. This is inspirational for both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people – those who are for human rights. They are determined to exercise their right to self-determination. They are determined to fight for their human rights. With the trade unions’ and volunteers’ support Alyawarr people completed their first protest house in February 2010. It is going to be the hub where the management will be set up. New communication technologies would be coming. Sustainable energy – such as solar will be used. Alyawarr people are going to live as a collective in their homeland. They will adopt permaculture and sustainable farming. This house is the symbol of a protest against Intervention and a symbol of hope and solidarity. Alyawarr people are starting a new life in their homeland. The collective voice of young and old, the men and women was clear and simple - “Abolish Intervention – let us manage our lives in our own way”. These persecuted and brave people need and deserve more support to go forward.

Reference discussions, interviews, chats, speeches and writings : Richard Downs, Banjo Morton, Angelina, Donald Thompson, Ampilatwatja Community, Babara Shaw, Emma Murphy, Peter Robson, Pat Eatock, Natalie Wasley, Paddy Gibson, William Tillmouth, Valerie Martin, Ralene Silverton, Elaine Peckham, Rex Granite, Jill Hickson, Djon Mundine and Pauline Clague.