GUEST EDITORIAL
Aboriginal solidarity with refugees
John Falzon June 17, 2012
In May this year, Ray Jackson, President of the Indigenous Social Justice Association, issued passports on behalf of Australia's First Peoples to the two Tamil men indefinitely detained at Villawood Detention Centre. He said:
Locking people up doesn't solve any problems, it only causes harm. We have seen that time and time again with Indigenous people, and now the government is making the same mistake with asylum seekers. This has to stop. The Australian Government must stop imprisoning Indigenous people, and they must stop imprisoning asylum seekers. I am proud to welcome people in need into our community.
This week is Refugee Week. It's a good time to reflect on this powerful coming-together of the First Peoples and the people who have recently come to Australia seeking refuge.
At the same time we are witnessing a mass campaign opposing the Stronger Futures legislation. The Australian Catholic Bishops and Religious, for example, stated:
Social inclusion does not result from intervention, imposition, discrimination and exclusion. We call for an urgent shift from punitive controls to measures that restore community control, rebuild Aboriginal initiative and capacity, improve living conditions and show respect for Aboriginal languages and culture.
This is a beautiful expression of solidarity that comes at a time when the dominant discourse in Australia is swift to blame the First Peoples for the exclusion to which they have been subjected.
Lasting solutions can only come from the Excluded. As a member of the St Vincent de Paul Society from the NT told me: 'The Intervention will go down in history as being as shameful for the Australian Government as the Stolen Generations. No one was consulted. No one was listened to.'
The First Peoples have not been listened to. They have not been respected. Many have been forced to live like refugees in their own country: exiled, controlled, humiliated and imprisoned.
As Walter Shaw, from the Tangentyere Council, put it so plainly, again making the connection between the ongoing reality of colonisation and our shameful abuse of the rights of asylum seekers:
Aboriginal people, above all else, need to be empowered to solve our own problems, because non-Aboriginal people keep coming up with the same 'solutions', and they keep making it worse.
Australians don't like their nation painted as a war-torn country, or a place ravaged by hunger or disease. But that is what Central Australia — my country — has become.
People from some of the most disadvantaged nations on earth choose to jump on a rusty old boat and risk their lives over dangerous seas. They come with nothing more than the shirt on their back to seek asylum in a country they believe offers them the best shot at a way of life everyone deserves — a life where basic human rights and dignity are respected.
These are the very same rights denied to my people.
The words that are being spoken by the people forced to the edges of Australian society are born from a strong and positive vision for Australia. They speak with authority and their message emerges from their collective wisdom and experience.
None of us can learn what is right if we fail to listen to what is wrong.
Dr John Falzon is an advocate with a deep interest in philosophy, society, politics and poetry. He is the St Vincent de Paul Society National Council Chief Executive and a member of the Australian Social Inclusion Board.
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SUBMITTED COMMENTS
Richard Byrne18 Jun 2012
Our Federal government is doing to First Australians what the North Sudan government has done to South Sudan; just not with the bombs and guns. But, achiving the same end result, internal refugees.
Myra18 Jun 2012
AUSTRALIA, what are your prospects for the future? Please ponder this- “If I am neutral in situations of injustice, I have chosen the side of the oppressor.
Margaret McDonald18 Jun 2012
Since the intervention was first spoken about, I have been trying to fathom how it is different from the actions we have been apologising for. As for refugees, there seem to me to be some parallels with 'white Australia'.
alex nelson18 Jun 2012
Thanks, John, for the constancy of your compassion and the clarity in your seeing what is happening at the edges of our society and making a space for those who are there to speak.
Bernie Introna18 Jun 2012
Where are the voices of concern at our human rights record, which is shameful
. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have had inhumane treatment meted out to them, from the beginning of white settlement
. This same treatment is the lot of people coming to Australian shores seeking assylum, trying to eacape from untold suffering.
Where are the voices of protest.
From effective Social Justice groups, yes, they are inspiring, but what of the millions of Australians who say nothing, or who appear actively racists, towards seekers of refuge
. I am ashamed and appalled at our seemingly lack of compassion.
What of our churches?
These alarming conditions seem to be ignored when preaching on the Gospels.
What is happening in our faith communities, when we go calmly along with our lives, ignoring the Gospel we supposedly adhere to.
This same situation seemed to occur in Europe in the last century
Ady19 Jun 2012
I feel so much shame about our continuing treatment of the First People.
This Refugee Week and all the churches talked about was same sex marriage.
michele brine20 Jun 2012
This was great I loved the comment from the Australian Bishops & Religious Stronger Futures statement about the fact that we must respect Aboriginal culture and languages etc ...yes inclusion a real say in their own future is very important for anyone