Photographer : Joe Focus @ Flickr
Mick Dodson
HREOC Report 2005
In May 1967, white Australians voted overwhelmingly to smash a fundamental pillar of Australia’s entrenched racism. After decades of fighting for justice, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were afforded the same legal rights as non-Indigenous Australians—recognised as citizens by inclusion in the Census and given the right to vote in all states and territories (previously Indigenous Australians were not permitted to vote in QLD or WA). The legal gap was closed and the power to legislate on behalf of Indigenous Australians was placed in the hands of the Commonwealth. It was an act of great significance, a huge leap towards Indigenous justice and a chance to redress the gross oppression that had been prevalent throughout the previous 180 years.
It is now May 2007, forty years since the ’67 referendum. Down the road from my house in Fitzroy, on a corner of Smith St, I often walk past a group of local Indigenous Australians who gather there daily. There are normally about fifteen, young and old. Most days I walk past feeling slightly unsettled and wary. I dislike that I feel this way. I dislike that I assume that each day they lose their minds to the drink, repeating it all the next, with little more to do than sit around and get through their sombre days together. It strikes me that forty years is a long time for assumptions like these to still exist.
Despite the efforts of 1967, the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains wide. I trundle along Smith St past one tall Indigenous bloke. It hits me hard that he is likely to die far earlier than I will. According to Oxfam’s report ‘Close the Gap’, Indigenous Australians can expect to live almost 20 years less than non-Indigenous Australians, which is on par with non-Indigenous expectancy rates in the 1920s. Indigenous death rates are three times greater than the non-Indigenous rate and infant mortality rates worse than developing countries like Bangladesh and Mozambique. Where nations like New Zealand, Canada and the USA have decreased the health gap between their Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, by comparison, Australia lags considerably behind. Since 1967, the life expectancy has risen for Indigenous Australians, from 54 to 68 for females and from 52 to 60 for males. But the gap between this and non-Indigenous expectancy is still far too wide. Life expectancy for Non-Indigenous Australians is 82 for females and 76 for males. In a time of such prosperity it is a profound shame that we’re not all able to share in it.
After forty years of legal recognition, too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders continue to live without equal access to basic health conditions and the acceptance by the wider community that non-Indigenous Australians take for granted. Indigenous activist Charlie Perkins remarked in 1996 that if the same referendum were held then it would fail, because Australians are too sensitised in a negative way to Aboriginal affairs. Mick Dodson said that he sees the same grim statistics rehashed regularly, attracting brief glimmers of attention, but too many Australians have come to view this evidence of inequality as almost inevitable. Just another negative assumption like the ones I held as I walked along Smith St.
Former ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) commissioner Tom Calma argues that it is not a lack of solutions that inhibits the progress of Indigenous health, but a lack of implementation of basic, necessary steps. Oxfam’s report ‘Close the Gap’, in line with the Australian Medical Foundation, offers a list of achievable steps. These include an appropriate increase in funding, as well as a boost to health resources and raising awareness throughout Indigenous communities. It also advocates support of Indigenous health practitioners in combating preventable illness and setting benchmarks that will keep this progress on track. A number of chronic and communicable diseases such as problem drinking affect Indigenous people disproportionately. The report calls for additional funding towards strategies to combat these issues, programs that would hold specific relevance for the Indigenous Australians down on Smith St.
If we truly seek to redress Indigenous inequity at this 40-year anniversary then we should remember that many different factors affect a person’s health. The extent to which a human being feels accepted and their ability to participate freely and equally within society impacts their life. We need to overcome negative attitudes and assumptions towards Indigenous people and work in partnership with Indigenous communities if we want to make real improvements. Whilst better health care is fundamental, it must coincide with a realisation that we are all bound together in humanity. Indigenous activist Faith Bandler reminds us that it is a human being's duty to get involved in raising people to be equals in society. The vision and path is clear. With commitment, it shouldn’t take another forty years before real equality is experienced for Indigenous Australians.
How do I know this?
ABC,
Time Frame,
http://www.abc.net.au/time/chars/char5.htm#kei
Aird, W 2007,
After four decades, Aborigines still struggle to be heard, The Age,
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/after-four-decades-aborigines-still-struggle-to-be-heard/2007/05/21/1179601325255.html
Australian Biography,
Faith Bandler,
http://www.australianbiography.gov.au/bandler/index.html
Australian Electoral Commission 2006, Aborigines and the Vote,
http://www.aec.gov.au/_content/when/history/ab_vote.htm
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) 2007,
Closing the Indigenous life expectancy gap within a generation,
http://www.antar.org.au/content/view/346/127/
Cardy, T 2007,
Indigenous life expectancy at 1920s levels, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21774797-1702,00.html
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission 2005,
Social Justice Report
Oxfam Australia 2006,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
Oxfam Australia 2007,
Close the Gap: Solutions to the Indigenous Health Crisis Facing Australia
Reconciliation Australia 2007,
40th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum,
http://www.reconciliation.org.au/i-cms.isp?page=345
