The threat to Aboriginal culture: assimilation or worse

Aboriginal culture and identity are under attack on many sides. ATSIC has been killed off and mainstreaming, which as Minister Vanstone put it allows Aboriginal people to be treated the same, is the government’s watchword. While the demise of ATSIC was no great loss in itself, the fact that the government at the same time killed off the principle of self-determination on which ATSIC was built is a very real worry. Kevin Andrews’ proposed revisions of the Community Development and Employment Projects, ironically called Building on Success, clearly emphasises the individual benefits of employment (no harm in that) but at the expense of the past efforts to build communities. Aboriginal Legal Services and Aboriginal Medical Services, at least in urban areas, are under threat.

The current efforts by the Federal government to push the idea of “mutual obligation” may be beneficial in the short term, but may lower the self-esteem of Aboriginal people and also shows no respect for Aboriginal culture.

The Federal government’s current concerted campaign against Aboriginal interests and efforts to promote assimilation are most serious for the future of Aboriginal identity and culture. This policy has support from influential voices in the media. Christopher Pearson in The Weekend Australian (March 5-6) gave space to supporting Hughes and Warin. That is perhaps not surprising. He is a close long-term friend of Tony Abbott and has been Howard’s speechwriter. According to Marion Maddox (in God under Howard) he was particularly active in opposing Aboriginal rights at the time of the debate on the Hindmarsh Bridge affair.

Again the fact the Hughes and Warin paper came from the Centre for Independent Studies is not surprising. Maddox tells hows Morgan, the mining magnate, “provided crucial seeding money to turn the Centre for Independent Studies into a significant opinion-shaper”. She writes of how on the issue of Indigenous claims over sacred sites, “Morgan’s speeches were apocalyptic, his fears primal”. As Hawke-Keating Labor embraced Indigenous rights and made noises about a treaty, Morgan’s rhetoric only escalated. When Hawke announced in June 1991 that a proposed Coronation Hill mine would be stopped to protect a sacred site, Morgan declared the decision a national disaster.

There is clear evidence that this government is intent on ridding Australia of its Indigenous people in all but name. They are aided and abetted in this task by sections of the media and often by think tank writers such as those from the Centre for Independent Studies. If Aboriginal people are lucky they can keep their artefacts and paintings and dancing just so long as they assimilate.

In the WA state election last month, Aborigines were the forgotten people. In the Federal election last year there was hardly a mention of Aboriginal people. An email from me to Julia Gillard as Opposition spokesperson made the suggestion that the age for eligibility to Medicare Gold for Aboriginal people be lowered from 75 for the rest of us to 55 or 60. Her office agreed but informed me that the ALP didn’t want to announce that pre-election as they might lose white votes!

Aboriginal colleagues are planning to set up a forum to debate Aboriginal life and culture and where it will be in 50 years time. My worry is that in 50 years time and perhaps much sooner Aboriginal culture and identity will be dead. There is a responsibility on non-Aboriginal Australians to realise just what it is that we face: the extermination of Aboriginal culture and the death of Aboriginal identity.

There is a need for us to fight to prevent this government and its allies in the media and elsewhere putting this threat into practice. The danger is real.

I believe that many people in Australia want to see Aboriginal people and their identity flourish, economically, socially and culturally. That flourishing must be set in Aboriginal cultural terms. Hughes, Warin and Pearson, and increasingly the Howard Government, want only Aborigines to flourish economically “like the rest of us” i.e. in their terms, not Aboriginal terms.

For Aboriginal people but also for non-Aboriginal people like me, it is time to say “Enough!” and stand up and fight alongside Aboriginal people for their right to be Aboriginal people - and now, as it may soon be too late.