Women For Wik Conference, Sydney 14th October 2007.
Sitting and Listening
I got there early and sat near the front. I didn’t mind about being a geek. I certainly hoped this event was packed, so my vantage point would pay off.
The speakers included several Indigenous women, most of whom who had traveled from the Northern Territory to Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, in order to speak, and share their experiences with the Federal Government’s Intervention in their lives. These are the stories we don’t hear in the media.
Not only did they need to lay out extra chairs in the auditorium, but people sat on the floor in the corners. My geekiness paid off.
These were ordinary women, with extraordinary courage to come this far to speak. The speakers included Olga Havnen, Eileen Cummings, Rachel Willika and Raelene Rosas, of the Northern Territory. The event was by the Women For Wik, Indigenous women seeking a voice.
One of the first speakers began by pointing out that she was, simply, a very privileged Indigenous woman: she grew up with basic human rights. She had access to health, housing, education, employment – and her parents had the basic human rights in order to raise her. This is not an option for all Indigenous people.
The government ignores their human rights.
When Rachel Willika spoke, she told her clan that she was going away for a bit to talk about what was happening in the Northern Territory communities. I thought this phrasing was beautiful – “away for a bit” – she’s traveled from a remote outback community with no radio, a few televisions, a small school, to some of the largest cities in the country, in order to reveal the injustices the government had imparted upon her community. She then smiled as she shared what her clan responded: “Oh good. Bring back a newspaper.”
While we laughed; we also realized the severity of this statement: simply, those who were impacted by the new reforms were met by Centrelink officials and even the army to reform their lives, before they even had news of it. Some communities had no idea about this Intervention, which isn’t helped by the lack of translation into local languages.
The women shared the impact of the Intervention, and some impacts we weren’t aware of. I knew that while the Government had enforced a no-alcohol zone in most of the Northern Territory, they had neglected to implement substance abuse programs. I think seeing family members and friends suffer from withdrawal without any kind of medical or social support is not helping anyone.
They told us there is no signage informing locals that laws apply. People aren’t aware of what laws exist. One pair of young girls were caught with some alcohol: but had no idea the law existed banning it in their region. They said they didn’t know: but they were still fined.
(Side tangent: It is probably a relevant place to insert the interesting fact that the Government decides where money will go in a family. They have a portion set aside for “essential” funds, and “non-essential” funds. Essential funds are like rent and food. Fines are Non-Essential; so these won’t be paid for by the funds the government is controlling. It’s possible, possible, that this could lead to greater imprisonment in the Northern Territory of people not paying fines: simply because they are allowed to touch their own money. Oh – and there is also no right to appeal to social security.)
Rachel Willika was a family support worker in her community for domestic violence. She worked within her community, within her culture, to solve issues. She is now, as of the intervention, unemployed. Not only is she now on the dole, but she receives around $120 a week.
Oddly enough, Centrelink currently has over 300 positions now available in the Northern Territory. Why aren’t these positions given to Indigenous people in the community (who understand the culture? Who are suddenly unemployed?)?
Something which intrigued me which Eileen Cummings shared, was the talk of the Permit system on Indigenous land. This is where Indigenous People could allow certain people onto their land, and prevent others. One of the benefits of the Permit system was that they got rid of sexual offenders who came in from outside their community. This system is abolished, and anyone can enter their land. Including sexual offenders. But, wait, isn’t that what the government is trying to stop?
These women need to translate to their communities, in their own tongue, what the government is going to do, what they control and why. Raelene Rosas is a law student living in Darwin, who phoned her parents to explain what was happening. They responded: “But it’s nearly the wet season! We have to get ready!” The entire community needs to mobilize in order to prepare for the change of weather. It’s funny that from an outsider’s perspective, that’s the last thing I thought of, and shows how far my cultural perspective (a white girl here in Sydney) is so far removed from the concerns and values of those in the NT. (However, it does remind me a little of Napoleon going to war with Russia and his troops died in the Winter. It makes me wonder whether the government will underestimate the force of nature?)
Rachel Willika was one of the most powerful speakers of the day. She’s from the Eva Valley, a remote community near Katherine, as mentioned, with no newspapers, television, radio – they need to drive 100kms to get their Power Card. This was her third time speaking in public (and I am going to guess the last two times were in Melbourne and Canberra over the previous two days. And I thought it was hard in high-school!) She walked up to the lectern, with her voice quiet, not trained for public speaking. Her voice barely caught in the microphone, she began with a timid, “Hello.” The hundreds-strong audience all responded with a collective “Hello.” She began to talk, her phrases initially mumbled. It made me really wonder what this woman was going to share, what motivated her, just a woman, not a politician or a lawyer, a woman with a family back home, travel such a distance to speak: she wasn’t just wasting our time. She began to tell us about her communities’ response when they heard about the Intervention. Her community saw it on the television (which intrigued me that no official notice went out). She was saying how everyone in her community was terrified, especially the children. They didn’t know what was going on. Mothers were scared. When they heard the army was coming in, they thought they were coming with guns. Rachel’s daughter began crying. I daresay everyone would have followed suit. Everyone, everyone was scared. The community had a meeting, thinking they could go bush, to a nearby cave, where there is fresh water, and plenty of bush tucker, and hide the kids there, where it is safe from the army.
Then Rachel’s voice changed. She was no longer timid. Her voice became strong and clear. She announced, “And I stood up and said No! I said we fight, find help, find supporters!”
Her voice cracked as she cried this, and the room was beaded with tears. It really made me realize how desperate the situation was when she used the words “we find help”, “we find supporters”, that means not just “we need to change the policy a little”: they see themselves in the centre of a warzone, looking desperately, clinging to hope that resistance exists. Everywhere they look, they see suppression, control, hate. Dare I say discrimination? Racism?
She said we’re all working toward the same goal. We all want to see our families not drinking, not on drugs. We all want to see our children grow up to be doctors, lawyers. We want self-determination. The government just came in with their plan, never asked if it’s okay.
Interestingly, the Women For Wik have their own Intervention plan*.
Communication needs to happen. People need to sit down and talk to each other.
I felt so lucky to be at the conference today, to hear what was happening. People were terrified, how their families were affected. How people genuinely planned to hide in caves to escape the army. (And we say “Pfft! It’s Australia! It’s 2007!” This is real.) To listen to what people are feeling, not what we think.
So, what can I do?
Tell ten people about what’s going on. Tell them of the injustices. The lack of talk. The lack of power. The disrespect. The racism.
Make one of the people you tell a Minister. I double dare you to make it a Prime Minister**.
There is apparently a volunteer program for those who want to volunteer to live and share skills with those in Indigenous Communities (for example, if you’re an awesome Silk Painter, the Kimberley region is looking for you!). It is called the Indigenous Community Volunteers: http://www.icv.com.au/
One thing that quite made me laugh was when the women announced there was a government Complaints line to call about the Federal Intervention: 1800 333 995. (Then, they explained it was a Intervention Infoline – but, really, which is it truly best used for? I think if we each made it a daily highlight to call the line and lodge a complaint, it could go a long, long way!)
Let’s Act!
I’ve forgotten where I read this: simply, the Little Children Are Sacred report that the government based this Intervention on made a series of recommendations which should be implemented. The funny thing is, that few of those measures were actually implemented, and someone dreamed up a whole new series of “recommendations”.
This war is not based on anything (except maybe one group of people thinking they are more important that another?).
Yes. There are problems in the Northern Territory.
Yes. They need to be fixed.
A blanket solution will cause more problems.
There needs to be dialogue – people conversing about their issues, both listening and giving.
It needs to be locally based, within each region or clan: outsiders will not achieve anything making if they don’t listen to the communities needs and wants, or understand their culture.
And that’s one of the problems right now.
People are talking.
Other people aren’t listening.
Let’s fix this.
Notes:
*
Women for Wik Intervention Plan:
(I’m fairly certain this is it, we didn’t get an opportunity to see it at the conference:
The final edition for 2007 of the Community Governance Research Update (No. 6), produced as
part of the ARC Indigenous Community Governance Project in partnership with Reconciliation Australia: http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Projects/CGRU_6.pdf)
**
Write to a Prime Minister (or two!)
A note for the up-coming election, is that Liberal (John Howard) obviously is fully supporting the intervention. Labour (Kevin Rudd) lodged bi-partisan support for the Intervention. But check out the party websites for exactly what they say. (But I’m sure if we let them know how silly they are, I’m certain they’ll seriously re-assess their plan.)
Because I’m new to the whole election thing this is something I think is important: be aware of who you’re voting into the Senate. If certain parties and friends with other parties, then passing laws are easier (for example things which violates human rights, and other things the government doesn’t care about).
However, if the majority in the Senate are not friends (in the sense of views politically) then it will be harder to pass laws. So if the government in power tries to pass a law that has many negative ramifications that their party doesn’t care about, it can be blocked in the Senate by a party who do care, and not become a law.
Thus, things like this Intervention can be prevented in the future.
So in the senate may be the force to prevent dodgy laws, even if the government in power really, really wants a law. We just need to vote the people in who will agree with what we believe is right and moral.
*** So people were recording the event, and there were loads of journalists there. I’m under the impression the SMH was going to publish something about it; and maybe YouTube will have the actual speakers. Sorry,I don’t know more than that.
How Do I know this?
http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/new.php#listing
http://www.anu.edu.au/caepr/Projects/CGRU_6.pdf
http://www.icv.com.au/
http://www.womenforwik.org/ntaction.html
http://www.womenforwik.org/index.html
http://www.antar.org.au/congress
http://www.facs.gov.au/nter/docs/nter_180807.
