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Harmony and me

By Alex Perrottet - posted Tuesday, 21 March 2006


Today, March 21 is Harmony Day. It coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. It encourages governments and individuals to promote harmony and racial tolerance in society. One intention of Harmony Day (pdf file 29KB) is to “enable organisations and individuals to tell their communities what they are doing to promote community harmony”.

In terms of addressing the issue of racial discrimination, we Australians don’t have far to turn. We have debated it for years and used all kinds of rhetoric and symbolism to feel “at one” with the original inhabitants of our country. We can look at certain salient issues such as petrol sniffing, Mulan’s trachoma-eyed children, the 20-year gap between the average Indigenous life span and the national average, and the enormously high occurrence of diabetes among adults in Aboriginal communities. As we know or can guess, this is just the start of the long litany of Indigenous issues that stick out more than Uluru in the Simpson Desert. We have a problem in our own backyard and it will certainly be around well and truly after all our efforts surrounding Harmony Day.

The conclusion is that we need more human measures to achieve reconciliation.

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We need to see that it is not just the role of government to achieve harmony. This is an issue for every Australian - Indigenous and otherwise, politician and plebe.

Over the years, I have been lucky to spend time on volunteer projects in Aboriginal communities with groups of university students. I remember driving past the perimeter of a dry camp not far from Alice Springs and finding a sea of VB cans on the fence-line - our introduction to one of several attempts at solving the alcohol problems in these communities. The local policeman (of Indigenous background himself) took us out at night in the back of the paddy wagon, and as we stared out at the laughing faces through the steel grill of the vehicle, I remember thinking it was the most watered-down happiness I’d ever witnessed. How could our efforts in that town achieve anything?

At the end of our stay, my sentiments were unchanged, although we had grasped better the complexity of the problem. Having experienced government dollars falling from the sky, and those dollars drying up like the engines of the rusty machinery they financed, our gesture seemed just as futile. But the lesson had been learnt. We had started to understand the problem, and that put us miles ahead of the average Australian.

Back during Corroboree 2000, we had the People’s Walk for Reconciliation. I found it all too symbolic, but realised that symbolism goes a long way in changing attitudes and can be a big step towards an effective solution. On that occasion, William Deane, the then governor-general and arguably the nation’s most outspoken public figure on Indigenous issues, said, “Our search for national reconciliation is not a matter of charity or generosity. It is a matter of basic justice and national decency.” I’d be prepared to take William to task on that one.

Like Peter Garret, who spoke about “sincere acts of real reconciliation” in his maiden speech to Parliament, Deane could see many beds still burning. The phrase from Garret’s song comes from the burning of Aboriginal homes infiltrated by bauxite at Mapoon in 1963. Four years later, the path of reconciliation through justice would begin with the nation’s most strongly affirmed referendum, which saw 90 per cent of voters granting Indigenous peoples equal rights under the constitution. It is the path of justice Deane himself helped pave as a member of the High Court in the Mabo decision in 1992.

Everyone agrees that justice, while taking time, is an essential path to follow. But in the meantime, there is much to be achieved through the charity and generosity of the type that Deane downplayed. Don’t get me wrong - Deane is no stranger to acts of charity, but I ask why we don’t applaud and encourage the generous efforts of individual Australians while the scales of justice struggle to balance above them. It might take us past our comfort zone, but extending the hand of charity gives a lot more comfort to others than the cold face of justice.

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A similar sight to the littered boundary line welcomed me once into Balgo, an isolated community in Western Australia, and a very uncomfortable 850 kilometres from Alice Springs. However, the atmosphere in that small town of 450 people breathed hope like I hadn’t felt before. We had arrived in a town that dealt with four suicides and petrol-sniffing issues in the previous months. But what is most peculiar about Balgo is that in this environment there are promising signs of reconciliation. There is a group of very dedicated nurses, an amazingly committed parish priest and a group of impressive volunteers.

The Indigenous members of the community follow their own traditional customs, a bit of a rarity among communities with European influence. While preserving these special customs, efforts are being made slowly on both sides to enjoy the benefits of Western civilisation. A simple example is the Catholic community, who attend Mass and prayers, using their own language and cultural alterations to the liturgy. The parish priest has learnt Guguja, the local dialect, which has helped make their faith more meaningful to them.

Balgo could also be called the home of Aboriginal art in Australia, with experts flying in for exhibitions of the famous works of locals. The artists sell their paintings and support their families, taking advantage of a rare and beautiful skill.

Despite its problems, which still continue to exist, there is a spirit lingering in Balgo that makes the children friendly and affectionate, the adults approachable and everyone, white or black, respected. I firmly believe it is because there are committed people immersed in the culture, prepared to give as well as take. The attitude is a constructive one - a bridge must start on both sides first. Take it from me: if they can achieve it in Balgo, there is hope for greater Australia.

When generosity and charity receive such a workout, justice and decency are simple flow-ons. If volunteers like those in Balgo put justice and decency first, they would have packed up years ago and left, quite legitimately.

During my stay, I saw a young Aboriginal man, recently reformed from alcoholism, suffer again from a “grog run” organised by his own father, and terrorise the town with a car jack he used to smash car windscreens. It was spirit-breaking stuff to see him walking down the main road, car jack in hand; approaching an on-coming four wheel drive driven by one of the nurses. Once again it was the parish priest, who with a sense of déjà vu that would depress the most optimistic of aid workers, physically took him aside and brought him round.

Our work in that community seemed to make strong bonds. We were invited to attend a corroboree-like dance, not a common privilege for visitors. We were hosted to a dinner and a special ceremony of gratitude for our work. We had only spent three weeks cleaning and repainting old buildings, but somehow the gap had been bridged. We spent our evenings playing basketball with the children of the town, and there many friendships were forged. I clearly realised what enabled this experience, and it was the hard work of the volunteers who had created an atmosphere of mutual respect with their selfless labour.

While we had our part to play, perhaps we were the lucky witnesses of an ever-strengthening bond. It’s not the bond of justice, which can change with time and cultures, but a universally accepted language of brotherhood and friendship.

Speaking of the 1967 referendum, Deane warned, “The sparks struck by many individuals in different parts of our country became a flame which continues to burn and which will reproach all Australians for so long as we remain unreconciled.” Conversely, the spirit of the volunteer is now spreading like wildfire among the young and impressionable in this country, and it remains a key path to reconciliation. At Santa Teresa, that first community I visited a number of times, UNSW now runs its Outback Assist Program. Even high schools are getting in on the idea and running volunteer service projects (pdf file 1.39MB) to remote outback towns.

There is a little kid in Balgo called Francis. I was helping him one day to straighten the front wheel of his bike. He said that he had found it abandoned a few days before. I was later to find out that the same went for his shoes and clothes as well. It immediately came to mind that our charity and concern for Indigenous people is very much second hand - we invest words and money, which are picked up at times but don’t satisfy in the long term and are soon dumped. First hand experience and individual acts of charity will go far in achieving lasting harmony with our Indigenous country folk. They are shared experiences that remain forever - supports for both sides of the bridge.

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About the Author

Alex Perrottet is an Australian journalist currently working in New Zealand.

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