ISSUE 178, May 28, 2009: A black man in a white house is a wonderful thing, writes AMY McQUIRE. But it doesn’t guarantee black rights and nor does having black faces in Australian parliaments.
New US President Barack Obama’s honeymoon period isn’t up yet. Despite already serving more than 100 days in office, he still has the capacity to make them swoon.
After all, his ability to use up all of the memory on a camera phone as fans excitedly flash and click to capture their moment in history is well documented, even in places like the Pentagon.
He’s undoubtedly a history-maker - the first black President, the overcomer of seemingly insurmountable odds.
But it is now time that he lives up to his reputation. Being the first black president does not mean he will automatically champion black issues, or other minority appeals.
His skin colour is slowly blurring into the background of the White House. He is being measured not on his place in history, but on how his reign will affect history.
Although he is a long way from the Northern Territory, President Obama was in my mind while I read about the NT government’s controversial homelands policy last week.
It is certainly an outrageous piece of work.
It involves investing $160 million in essential services towards 20 towns in the Territory, with critics accusing the government of effectively killing the outstations, or homelands, to which Aboriginal people have ancestral links.
There have been concerns it will force Aboriginal people off their lands, as they struggle to access basic services.
It could also result in a rise in substance abuse, some say, as a surge of people move into the towns lucky enough to receive the funds.
One of the most adamant critics of the policy has been the Laynhapuy Homelands Association, which supports 18 outstations in North East Arnhem Land, home to about 800 Yolngu.
Spokesperson Yananymul Mununggurr last Thursday slammed the policy, describing it as a “major betrayal of trust of our people”.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of thought behind this policy,” Ms Mununggurr said in a statement.
“The decision not to fund new housing for our homelands condemns Yolngu to further overcrowding, declining living conditions and ultimately the extinguishment of our traditional culture.”
Dr Gawirrin Gumana, land rights activist and Dhalwangu leader, described as one of the most senior Yolngu alive today, also made an impassioned statement to the NT government.
“If you are looking for people to move out, if you want to move us around like cattle, like others who have already gone to the cities and towns, I tell you, I don’t want to play these games,” Dr Gumana said.
“Government, if you don’t help our homelands, and try to starve me from my land, I tell you, you can kill me first. You will have to shoot me.
“Listen to me. I don’t want to move again like my father moved from Gangan to other places like Yirrkala or Groote. I don’t want my children to move. I don’t want my family to move.
“I will not lose my culture and my tribe to your games like a bird moving from place to place, looking for it’s camp or to sleep in other places, on other people’s land that is not our land.
“I do not want my people to move from here and die in other places. I don’t want this. We don’t want this.
“I am an Aboriginal from mud, red mud. I am black, I am red, I am yellow, and I will not take my people from here to be in these other places.
“We want to stay on our own land.”
This sort of reaction came from the people who would be directly affected by the policy.
It amazes me then, that a government with three Indigenous ministers, one of them responsible for this portfolio, could actually implement a policy such as this one.
Minister for Indigenous Policy, Alison Anderson, who has a record of voicing the cries of her people, says that it is a waste of money to direct funds to homelands that are rarely populated.
“You will see that only insects crawl around inside the house and the goannas often go in and there’s no human footprints,” Minister Anderson told the ABC.
But the Minister’s explanation seems hollow in the face of the outcry by prominent Aboriginal leaders around the country.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma dubbed it an ‘assault’ on Aboriginal culture.
Central Land Council director David Ross said that it was simply repeating past policies.
Northern Land Council Chief Executive Kim Hill said there were still a lot of unanswered questions.
I wondered how an Indigenous minister could be so far removed from the majority of Aboriginal opinion. And then I began thinking of other surprises Aboriginal ministers have pulled out of their sleeves recently.
Like the former NT deputy Marion Scrymgour, a proud Tiwi woman, who effectively killed bi-lingual education in the Territory last year - to the outcry of Aboriginal people (and many non Aboriginal people) all around the nation.
I also considered how the NSW Minister for Community Services Linda Burney, is herself in an important position to help raise awareness on issues surrounding Aboriginal families. But how much action has actually been taken by the NSW government on the Breaking The Silence report?
And what of the NSW government’s Stolen Wages cop-out, a policy over which Burney has direct control?
It really made me wonder whether there was a point at all in having Aboriginal representation in parliament if Aboriginal politicians simply catered to the wills of their party.
Of course, it’s not always like this.
To her credit, Minister Anderson, as well as fellow Indigenous MLAs Malarndirri McCarthy and Karl Hampton all crossed the floor to vote against a Labor government attempt to override a Supreme Court decision on the controversial McArthur River Mine expansion.
This showed that they were willing to stand up for the best interests of Aboriginal people.
But are these instances a rarity?
My mind quickly turned back to that beacon of hope for minorities around the world - Barack Obama.
Having Obama as a black head of state in the most powerful country in the world will not solve the crises affecting minority populations in the nation.
He is simply the face for a white establishment, who happened to support him to the top because they saw a possibility for a win.
He is, first and foremost, an American President.
But our politicians that represent us, those Indigenous brothers and sisters who have made it to the top, and who no doubt are there to help their people, should be that first and foremost. Aboriginal.
I understand that party pressures can make or break a career. But having Indigenous people in power should mean that real representation for First Peoples is injected into politics.
Their party should come second to their obligations to protect and project black rights.
These same rights are the rights of their community. They are the rights of their families.
And of course, these rights are their rights too.
blackcurrent@nit.com.au
* Amy McQuire is a Canberra-based journalist with the National Indigenous Times. She is of Darumbal and South Sea Islander descent, and hails from Rockhampton in Central Queensland. She is the current National NAIDOC Young Apprentice of the Year.
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