I’ve been here for a week and I’ve already heard enough patronising comments about the people we are all here to serve to last a lifetime. It’s not always racism but more often it’s some sort of reflection of un-challengeable superiority. It always seems to be missed that capitalism and more specifically the Australian economy can’t provide for its white citizens and therefore should not be pressing for greater control over the continents true owners. People who have never signed over authority to these white invaders (in the form of a treaty) that play games with their past, present and future.

 

 

 

What began as a mission to save children from sex offenders has become a full-blown assault on every power structure within indigenous communities. The initial police and army presence which eventually led to one 13 year old boy being identified as a "sex offender" provided a smoke screen for Liberal then Labour governments to completely take over communities. This has been executed by the federal government in the Northern Territory where the territory government does not have the level of autonomy that other states have to be able to say "No". The resulting policies have seen an injection of funding, which may or may not have come forth from a Liberal government had they been re-elected none of which has been used to empower communities. President Chavez said "If you want to help the poor you have to give them power" it seems the Australian governments have gone the other way, "If you want to help these poor incapable people you have to take control of everything and fix it for them" may seems like a more accurate representation of the Australian "solution."

 

 

 

I’m now working in one of these roles created by government funds for other organisations. My role is basically to save the youth from everything and turn them into money makers for the system instead of a welfare drainer. There is no instruction to learn the cultural structure of the neither community nor requirement to learn the language of the people I’m aiming to help. Given this lack of demand for community consultation I am meant to bring my western ways to the community and teach the kids how to be like us. Along the way we are meant to teach other local young people how to help their young people become more like us. Our role along with an English only school (by decision of the community) takes away most parental responsibility and virtually ensures the kids will be under-educated in their own culture as well as that of the invaders.

 

 

 

Other than our role the elected community council has been dissolved by the government in order to form shire councils which will cover a massive geographical area with many communities not having representatives because of the limited number of positions. During the interim period before the election of the new shire body there has been wide disapproval of the changes from a number of communities because they now have much less power at the community level. The body that has replaced them has also been a dead-end for applications for work within the community from borrowing the community bus to putting in a workers toilet at the workshop. A man has been appointed by the shire to the community to be the government facilitator but is not always present in the community and has been unable to even ensure the payment of local workers working for the shire. It seems now that the community store, where you can expect to pay well over sky rocketing city prices for goods is likely to soon fall out of community hands. ; The last source of funding still in control of community members.

 

 

 

After speaking to an older member of the community who was taken from his family and has never met at least one of his siblings it seems the government has learnt nothing from its paternal efforts to erase the burden of an indigenous population. This man now has serious health issues as a result of alcoholism; (though he seems to have no real understanding of the cause of his ailments other than "because of the grog") he speaks little of the language of his family and has clearly been deeply affected by what happened to his family. Now it looks like the government is continuing its trend for destruction which has gone through genocide and slavery to servitude and kidnapping then from one form of welfare madness to another. While many aspects of the culture remain strong it’s erosion like the desert winds is turning millennium old rocks into sand.

 

 

 

In my next entry I will compare this situation to the ones I have seen in the last few years being in Latin America.

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