2015-05-11
Sarah Thorne (NT Greens Co-Convenor) and Senator Rachel Siewert
I recently spent time in the Kimberley visiting and talking with people that have felt completely in the dark about the possible closure of their remote Aboriginal communities and the funding chaos under the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS).
I stood with an elder at the Wangkatjunka community who told me the news of Government's intent to close some communities was crushing community spirit: "Colin Barnett is ripping out our soul, our ancestors lie here."
Different conversations in Halls Creek, Kununurra, Broome, Fitzroy Crossing and the Wangkatjunka community had the same theme. People who have deep spiritual connections with the land were unsure whether they would be allowed to remain on their homelands where their ancestors and elders are buried. News hitting the region was often stressful and fuelling uncertainty and people talked of living in fear of what will happen.
They didn't know whether it will be their community that will be closed, whether it will be nearby communities, they weren't sure whether essential services would be cut or what lay ahead.
When Colin Barnett tried to backtrack recently and wind back his rhetoric on closing communities, people weren't fooled.
People in remote communities would like Colin Barnett to know: They are not stupid, they are aware that the State Government was unlikely to outright shut 150 communities, they were aware that Government would try to wind back services and fold smaller communities into townships and bigger communities. They oppose this, they want control over the decisions affecting their lives and communities.
On top of this is uncertainty around funding particularly under the IAS; groups on the ground that provide support and services have no idea whether they will receive enough funding to continue to provide those supports and services, particularly to manage the fallout from shunting smaller communities into larger towns.
The clear message from community members and stakeholders was that they wanted genuine conversations with the Government so that they make the decisions and decide their own fate.
Colin Barnett has just said he intends to consult communities as part of his plan, but he still intends to close communities.
It is time to abandon Government plans to shut down remote communities and go and have conversations with communities about how to support them to make decisions about the future of communities.
People are clear they want to stay on the land, want to make decisions, and determine their own future. — Senator Rachel Siewert
Echoes in the NT
The Alice Springs Greens threw themselves into building the global day of action to “Stop the Forced Closure of Aboriginal Communities” on May 1. With a turnout of 250–300 people we joined the tens of thousands who protested in communities, towns and cities in Australia and across the world, including actions in North America and New Zealand, London, Paris, Berlin and Hong Kong.
The success of the protest is an exciting development in Aboriginal politics in the NT, which for years has suffered under the oppressive NT Intervention and racist scapegoating by the Territory government.
Aboriginal leaders came out in force, including Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, filmmaker and actor Patricia Morton-Thomas, Tangantyere CEO Walter Shaw and NT Stolen Generation Coalition chair Harold Furber. They drew the links between Barnett's agenda to close Aboriginal communities in WA with the experience in the NT under the Intervention that explicitly aimed to force people into “hub towns” and cities — starving them out by cutting jobs and services. The speakers made the links with the federal government's Indigenous Advancement Strategy which has cut services and Aboriginal-controlled programs across the board, setting back attempts of self-determination decades. Harold Furber announced that NT Stolen Generation Coalition had lost all its funding and would have to sack its entire staff and close its doors.
Patricia Morton-Thomas, whose new TV series “8MMM Aboriginal Radio” has just aired on the ABC, made an impassioned plea to her fellow countryfolk to get involved: “You think that the stuff that is happening in WA doesn't affect us here in the Territory? Well think again, because that's only a test case, because if they can move the mob off WA lands, they are going to be looking here soon. Do you know why? Have a look at where all the little mining flags are happening around Australia… This, what's happening in WA, is the biggest land grab since 1788. And then they are going to come here, because we've got mineral rich soil.”
This campaign is giving confidence to Aboriginal people, both young and old, to resist the pressure to stay silent out of fear of access to jobs, cuts to funding or being targeted by the media and government.
The Alice Greens were the drivers of the first two actions but its success has attracted new Aboriginal activists who want to take it forward. We have put ourselves at the centre of this campaign, and in the best position to be taken seriously by a radical movement that is rapidly challenging the racist narrative that has dominated Aboriginal affairs for the past thirty years. — Sarah Thorne (NT Greens Co-Convenor)