NT intervention

[rahli]

Here is an interesting article that has recently caused a stir in Northern Territory indigenous politics. An painfully honest look at how some folk see hope through the federal government intervention.

Bess Nungarrayi Price | August 27, 2009

Article from: The Australian

I WAS born under a tree at a place called Yuendumu. My father was 10 when he first saw a white man. I speak Warlpiri and some of four other languages plus English.

We have had so many self-appointed people, black and white, who have decided to be our spokespeople, who know nothing about us and our issues.

They are the people who have been running the show all these years without ever asking us whether it's OK for them to do so. They are the people who want to keep us in the dark as if we are some sort of Stone Age people.

It took urgent measures by the federal government in 2007 to help our people, for them to recognise what was happening to them and do something for themselves before it was too late.

I am one of those people who embraced the government's move. To me it meant at last somebody was acknowledging there was a crisis that needed to be addressed. For a long time our people's lives have been in a state of crisis, spiralling downwards, rapidly, uncontrollably.

The protesters against this intervention seem to care only when whitefellas kill blackfellas. They don't care when our kids are killed by their own people or they commit suicide.

Three of my brothers drank themselves to death in the Alice Springs town camps. Two nieces, one 21, one 26, did the same.

My granddaughter was murdered in a town camp, stabbed by her ex-husband. The ambulance wouldn't go in there without a police escort because the drunks attack them when they go there to save a life. So she died waiting for them.

I could go on all day about the violence I have seen. Yet these protesters treat me like an enemy. They have told the world that I am a drunk and that I support the government only because it pays me to do work for them.

They have never given me a chance to talk at their rallies.

They bring white students and cranky Kooris and Murris up from down south who know nothing about us and who hate whitefellas. They look for local people who think like they do and try to keep the rest quiet and away from the media.

I know plenty of Aboriginal women here who want the intervention because they can feed their kids now.

The protesters treat them like enemies as well. They never support the old women who come in from the bush to protest against the grog.

They attacked the women at the women's centre at Yuendumu when they set up their own shop. They took the side of the violent men and the corrupt ones in our communities and refused to support the women worried about their kids or sick of being beaten up by drunks. They have never even tried to talk to us.

White people told us that they wanted to preserve our language, so now my people can't express themselves to the rest of the world and rely on white people to do it for them. I went to school before the bilingual program started, yet I speak Warlpiri and English better than our kids and our grandkids.

Our people need to be challenged. There needs to be an open and honest debate among ourselves. These protesters have done their best to stop that from happening, calling it "solidarity". With all the money the government has poured into our self-managed organisations and communities, everything has gotten worse.

Our organisations can put energy into campaigning against government policies and getting the UN to take notice of their views, but they don't stop our men from murdering our women, our kids from killing themselves. They don't keep our languages alive. All they can do is bleat for more money. We have the strength ourselves if we can only be honest for once. The intervention started this debate. That is the best thing about it. It has made us think for the first time about what's happened to us, where we are and where we want to go.

The Racial Discrimination Act has not protected our people from ourselves. Now we know that and can do something about it. Let's roll forward instead of backwards.

I was disgusted by the two meetings with you (the Rollback the Intervention group) that I attended in Alice Springs. All the talking was done by English speakers.

Almost all of the ones talking do not speak our languages. They had no interpreters so my people could tell you what they think. The announcements relating to the meetings were last minute, in English and hidden away in the classified ads that my people don't, and many can't, read.

I asked people to come and talk but they said: "Kurntangka" - shameful. Those people at the meetings do not make them feel welcome or confident; in fact they intimidate them.

My people, the ones with the problems that the intervention is designed to address, were deliberately excluded. They were lining up and down at the pub and the bottle shops as they do every day or sitting in filth in the camps worrying about their kids and waiting for the next round of grog-fuelled violence.

You were given a fairytale version of our culture by people who don't live by our law. That mob wants you to think that it is the government that causes all our problems. That is an outrageous lie.

The government gets it wrong because it consults with the wrong people. It gets it wrong because it cannot help people who won't, or don't know how to, help themselves. We want to be able to help ourselves.

We want leaders who will lead us out of our misery, not sit around whingeing about how hard their lives are when they have the jobs and the power. We want leaders who tell us that we are not victims who can't do a thing for ourselves but sit around dying while we wait for the government to get it right.

We want leaders who will convince our own mob to stop drinking, fighting and feuding, who will get our kids into school so we can produce our own professors of indigenous rights who can go to your country to listen to your people's stories.

Bess Nungarrayi Price is the chairwoman of the Northern Territory's Indigenous Affairs Advisory Council. This is a speech she prepared for a meeting of the Rollback the Intervention group.

Link

[SunChaser]

What a bunch of racist ignorant ramblings!

She keeps carrying on how brillant the intervention was, but doesn't name one single good thing that's changed since the intervention and then goes on to call anyone who disargees with it a racist. She's a pawn for a openly racist government and should be ashamed of herself. How can anyone justify a government policy that discriminates against certain people, it's classic RACISM!

Don't you think they were talking the same crap about helping the kooris when they were stealing there kids from them? But this is different, right? We know what we are doing this time, right?

Bunch of red neck racist christians!

[rahli]

Bess Nungarrayi Price was born at Yuendumu. Her first language is Warlpiri. She also knows Luritja and Western Arrernte. Bess has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Aboriginal Community Management and Development from Curtin University and has worked in education and training, public administration, the media, community development, interpreting, translating and language teaching and has experience in small business management. She has represented Central Australia at conferences in Québec and Beijing. The Jajirdi Dreaming belongs to Bess, her brothers and sisters, fathers and aunts.

Link

Doen't look like much of a redneck christian.

[SunChaser]

Bess has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Aboriginal Community Management and Development from Curtin University and has worked in education and training, public administration, the media, community development, interpreting, translating and language teaching and has experience in small business management. She has represented Central Australia at conferences in Québec and Beijing.

Well, that’s probably what her problem is. She’s a traitor, working for the government and you don’t work for the government if you’re giving your personal opinion on issues. She’s a spokes person that the government has purposely put in place so they can say LOOK she’s koori and agrees with our racist intervention!

It’s easy to manipulate one person, like back when white people would offer some young koori girl a bit of pipe tobacco if she showed them where the sacred sites were, so they (the westerners) could steal the bodies of their dead. Does that mean that all aboriginals would have sold their culture for a bit of tobacco?

Doen't look like much of a redneck christian.

I was referring to the idiots that put this racist policy into place and besides there’s Christians going up there all the time trying to convert and brain wash the kooris in to believing fairly tales and from the way she talks, she does kind of sound like a born again Christian to me.

You positive they haven’t converted her

[rahli]

You positive they haven’t converted her

No I'm not sure but I read her speech and she's converted me

[nickldo]

I am writing to reply to your posts in which you have attacked the character of an individual who you claims statement is ignorant ramblings. I can see how you beleive such a thing as how would a territory aboriginal know anything about the intervention, lucky for them they have a spokesman from Victoria like yourself. You claim that she doesnt state what has improved and that she thinks that anyone who doent agree with her is a racist. First of all she doesnt use the word racist or even impy it anywhere in her speech, unlike yourself who managed to slip it in 5 times in 4 sentences. Betsy states that now women can feed there children which you may not see as an improvement but im sure there children do. In general Betsy states the problems that aboriginals face and is asking for an honest debate which she will not receive as she has attacked people like yourselfs identity and now you will all act like small children in the school yard and call her names (redneck etc.). If you had ever stepped foot near a territory aboriginal community then you would know the lives that these children face and you would understand that there protection is more important than anything that will ever escape your mouth. I can see the extent of your knowledge when you say she is "Koori", no she is not Koori and she would not claim to be as this is a word used generally by half cast aboriginals who live in the cities and is not a word used by local territory aboriginals. I would love to speek to you in person as I can not express myself well enough with writing but I guess I dont need to argue your points and explain who you are as Betsy has allready done this in her speach.

[Ace]

Agreed with Nickldo.

Jabez, it's pretty big to make such claims man. I can assure you, not all of the people who are trying to help with the intervention are 'brainwashing christians'. My mum and several close friends (all very non-religious types with only good in their hearts) were some of those who put their hand up to try their best in what is nothing other than a dire situation. Murder, rape, physical and mental abuse, lack of schooling, ignorance, misunderstandings, alcoholism, and so many similar things are worth fighting against. I agree that the policies behind it all are still lacking, but anything is surely better than nothing? If the leaders of our country are unable to put an end to all the misery that is faced in daily life, who the hell will? Should we let kids (we are talking toddlers here, too) continue to be raped by drunks, hips displaced and broken then beaten to a bloody death? If that were happening right next door to you today, would you do something about it??? I can understand that you are against certain things, but let me assure you, it isn't racist to try to put an end to this sort of thing.

[folias]

Police in Fitzroy Crossing say that since the intervention there, they have 50% less work to do on outcalls due to violence and so on.

Julian.

[FancyPants]

I don't know shit about the situation, and I couldn't even begin to understand fully. But I bet the lady who wrote this piece has a damn better idea than I - and likely Jabez - do.

[mac]

Ok im not the most educated person but thought id add this

i also have some as nikldo puts it half cast relations or (Barkindji people)

we dont use the term Koori down here as thats gust a generalization & some of the peoples & groups find it offensive depending on where they are from

we say Murdi as this is refered to as the Murdi Paaki region

Murdi is the main term used with our diverse indigenous groups around this area including (Ngemba, Parundji, Barkindji, Barindji, Karenggapa, Wongaibon peoples)

The Barkindji people were predominant around the lower Darling, (Menindee) The area was known to the Barkindji people as 'Minandichee which they called the Barka, Barkindji literally meaning Darling folk.

The Wilcannia Barkindji tribe (from barka meaning a river) also groups (tribes) From the Lachlan to the east bank of the Darling River was the homeland of the Barindji (not Barkindji) and the Wongaibon, and to the west in the corner country were further groups. Ngemba and Barkindji

The homelands of the Barkindji extended from what is now Wentworth in the Riverina Bioregion, northward through the Murray Darling Depression Menindee region and into the Darling Riverine Plains Bioregion beyond Wilcannia.

Barkindji homelands were known to extend into Queensland via the Paroo due to the friendly relations they had with the Parundji people of the Darling Riverine Plains Bio region

ok i have gone a little off track here but thought i would give some history of this area

anyhow i have lived here for 38 years & have aboriginal family so have seen & lived around & seen similar problems down here so its not just isolated to the NT

My aboriginal relatives have had a hard life in many ways but when they moved to Wadeye (Port Keats) to work & help the community they saw first hand the problems & conditions up there & were shocked at what they saw, the way they were treated & how the community treated each other as well as the problems they have so Bess Nungarrayi is in no way exaggerating the situation but trying to better it from the inside ,(if you cant beat em join them to make a change for the better)

so my long winded post i would say jabez i dont know if you have lived with these community's & seen first hand what gos on you should be not be so quick to judge others

jabez & nickldo im not having a go at either of you personally but had to voice my opinion on this subject as it seems to be debate Bess Nungarrayi Price is only trying to better community's & bring this to the attention of all not just white vs black Aussies but to the rest of the world

This is just my opinion on the subject, i may be incorrect with some of it & im not the best at expressing myself

so i hope i did not offend anyone with my long winded post , feel free to debate or correct me if you think im wrong in anything i say

im open to comments debate or to be corrected if im totally off track, as i said its only my opinion

Edited October 28, 2009 by mac

[nabraxas]

She's a pawn for a openly racist government and should be ashamed of herself.

i bet if she smoked enough weed she'd soon come to the same conclusion...

[Garbage]

I like it,it's about time the whites spoke up for themselves too.

[drugo]

Broader arguments concerning the NT intervention usually stem from a postmodern paradox in cultural diversity.

In 1945, with a sense of modernity's progress in question, UNESCO [united Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation] kicked off with a three part agenda for the 'third' world. (1) promote literacy (2) western agricultural methods (3) birth control.

Designed to eliminate famine, the doctrine resulted in the spread of a single economic and demographic model, leading to a considerable reduction in cultural diversity across the world. The west had a seemingly altruistic (this is open for interpretation) agenda to reduce material dis-ease, extend life spans and education (some argue, a quasi-universal set of values and beliefs). In other words, we will help you live longer, but in the process a shit load of cultural diversity, things like, different morals and values, along with language, mythology, community, kinship, and indigenous knowledge, including shamanic knowledge, is to be tossed into the furnace under the name of materialistic progress. Live longer but not necessarily "better" - or at least, in my opinion, certain material aspects of life, and through literacy other western ideals, became enforced as sacred.

We will tell you what is wrong with you (using our set of values and beliefs) and then we will introduce ways to fix what we think is wrong with you.

2nd and 3rd phase of the UNESCO doctrine acknowledged the devastating cultural destruction that was happening. A reflex action from the west resulted in continuing the initial three part policy whilst introducing the 2001 Universal Deceleration on Cultural Diversity; which is for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage, and protection and promotion of cultural expression.

Now here is the paradox surfacing in Australia:

UNESCO in nature, the Close The Gap program --an initiative to reduce Aboriginal Australian death rates to the same level as non-Aboriginals-- is realising that many of the current indigenous cultural systems are intimately involved in maintaining The Gap. It is good to consider that 'current indigenous cultural systems' (whatever the fuck that includes), have been shaped through colonial policies and programs, resulting in a very messy, sad, and difficult situation to work through for both the lives of indigenous peoples and those policy makers intervening. The intimacy between The Gap and many 'outback' cultural ways of life is not a simply matter. I would suggest not being quick to assume 'backwardsness' for indigenous and non-indigenous folks in this situation. Keep in mind that we generally looking at things through a gaze of certain aspects of the culture we live and breathe in, as much as we might think that we can take a position from nowhere.

UNESCO and the like, claim to support cultural diversity and a universal declaration of human rights. This is a paradox. How can there be one set of universal rules and a bunch of different [at times, conflicting] local rules?

The broader questions of cultural diversity coming together and negotiating difference is really complicated, especially in the turbulent 21st century, and therefore it is generally discussed superficially. There is no right way to support Aboriginal culture. Precisely because this thing called "Aboriginal Culture" is a construct of the western imagination. BUT everyone can support people, including "Aboriginal Australians", in so many different ways. Put simply, we need to open our ears and hearts whilst applying our minds to the smaller concerns 'on the ground'. Such as indigenous impoverishment in our local communities, if that is where your heart is – which I think is an admirable and important place for it to be.

Rather than a set of words on an essay, a blog, a newspaper, or PhD, I think the answer lies in a constant process of negotiating difference, which should, and usually can only, be done locally. Maybe this process of constantly negotiating difference is fundamental to life in general and all the mundane and magnificent decisions we make.

[mac]

Would people prefer another ATSIC with a rapist like Geoff Clark running the show ?

I think Bess Nungarrayi Price has her priority's rite & is the lesser of two evils compared to a corrupt cunt pack rapist like Clark

Yes she is restricted by who she works for & im sure she is paid well but in my eyes & many of the local Murdi around here she is at least attempting to help & not abusing her position like Clark's Corrupt ATSIC commission

Sorry went off topic there as usual

Edited October 29, 2009 by mac

[SunChaser]

NT intervention failing to make a difference: report

THE Government's intervention in the Northern Territory has stagnated with no more children going to school now than two years ago and reports of substance abuse soaring.

A six-month progress report on the intervention, quietly posted on the internet this week, showed school attendance rates remained virtually static in affected communities with only two out of three children going to school.

It also states plainly the Government's commitment to reinstate the Racial Discrimination Act by October 2009, a promise it has broken.

The intervention was started under John Howard in 2007 and continued under the Rudd Government with extra funding amid criticism from affected communities.

''This is unacceptable treatment. Racism and divisions increase and living conditions deteriorate each day the Act remains suspended,'' a petition signed by Aboriginal leaders said. ''We are like outcasts - denied basic rights afforded to other Australians.''

In communities targeted by the intervention, reports of domestic violence rose 61 per cent, substance abuse was up 77 per cent and there was a 34 per cent increase in alcohol-related crime, the report entitled 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, said the increases were due 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.

A trial to get parents encouraging their children to go to school had begun in six NT communities, she said. ''We recognise that increasing school attendance is essential to closing the gap.''

Convictions of child sexual abuse involving indigenous perpetrators has barely changed. Child protection was the reason given for the emergency response at the time.

In the two years before the intervention, there were 15 convictions for child sexual abuse involving indigenous perpetrators, the report said. In the two years of the intervention, that number was 18. Four other perpetrators were not indigenous. Welfare quarantining has not reduced the purchase of tobacco at all.

The president of the National Welfare Rights Network, Kate Beaumont, said the report found that 1000 people were on the wrong sort of welfare payment.

"The report presents a bleak picture and is a stark reminder of how difficult it is going to be to achieve positive change in these communities,'' she said.

People with a limited understanding of the claim processes experience difficulties understanding Centrelink correspondence, she said.

In the six months to June 2009, the Commonwealth Ombudsman received 214 complaints about the intervention and other indigenous programs in the NT, the report said.

The Government will introduce legislation to make the intervention comply with the Racial Discrimination Act in the next session of Parliament, Ms Macklin's spokeswoman said.

smh.com.au

I don't believe you people! justifying taking civil rights off another human being to save them from themselves, but wait it was worth it to save the kids right!

Convictions of child sexual abuse involving indigenous perpetrators has barely changed. Child protection was the reason given for the emergency response at the time.

In the two years before the intervention, there were 15 convictions for child sexual abuse involving indigenous perpetrators, the report said. In the two years of the intervention, that number was 18.

I've heard on living black people say that the majority of those convictions were usually some 20 year old with their 14 year old girlfriend, which is what it is, but far from little kids being raped, which is what we were told was happening on a massive scale and why we needed to take their civil rights off them. Where’s all the convictions? RACIST propaganda!!!!

Edited October 31, 2009 by jabez

[rahli]

The behavior displayed by the intervention protesters according to Bess in the original article reminded me of a passage I have read recently regarding the motivation of some protesters. It is as follows –

“Are all college protesters motivated by justice for all”? In the past few decades, college and universities have been the site of student protests regarding issues such as international sweatshops, fair trade, ecology, women’s rights, free speech, diversity, war, and so on. When looking at a group of protestors and the behaviors of individual protestors, it usually appears that the activists are united in solidarity around a particular cause and engaged in similar actions such as waving picket signs, marching, and signing petitions.

Despite these similarities in outer behavior, the inner motivation of protesters tends to differ widely. Studies of moral development during the Vietnam War showed that only a minority of college protestors were motivated by post-conventional (woldcentric) reasons, such as care for the lives of Americans and Vietnamese or a desire to end an unjust war policy. Most protestors were at pre-conventional levels of moral development and were protesting in order to stick it to authority (“Don’t tell me what to do!”) or out of fear of being drafted themselves.

Wilber K., Patten, T., Leonard A. & Morelli, M 2008. Integral Life Practice: A 21st Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and Spiritual Awakening, Integral Books, Boston, Massachusetts, pp. 120.

If the protestors described in the original article were truly concerned for the people affected by the intervention they would be engaging them in an open and honest manner to better understand their plight and use their visions of the future to mold the direction of change. Sounds to me many of them are just sticking it to authority and couldn’t care less who get hurts in the process. There is some hope in the human potential that allows for growth and improvement of ourselves and the world around us. So, like many of the dispossessed indigenous people they are fighting for, there is a chance that one day the protestors will reach a post-conventional world view and become the architects of real change.

But it looks to me as though Bess has beaten them to it with her ability to integrate Indigenous and Western teachings to more clearly see the issues at hand and more clearly see how Aboriginal people must mold the direction of change for a strong and just future for all people.

Edited October 31, 2009 by rahli

[nabraxas]

I don't believe you people! justifying taking civil rights off another human being to save them from themselves, but wait it was worth it to save the kids right!

yeah, everyone should just smoke like a tonne ov MJ & then everything would be irie, & i mean like a metric tonne, don't want none ov your imperial ton bullshit --- that's just slavery under another name man.