The following article was published in "The Guardian", newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday, August 2nd, 2000. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills. Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795. CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> "The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au> Subscription rates on request. ****************************** Time for a Treaty This is an abridged version of a longer article to be published in the next issue of the "Australian Marxist Review" which will be out soon. ******************** The occupation and ownership of Australia's territory by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders for at least 50,000 years is an indisputable scientific and historical fact. by Peter Symon The indigenous people were hunter-gathers with a communal economy and a society based on sharing and co-operation. The culture and system of ideas of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were developed in close association with the land, its plants and animals. Their society was savagely uprooted by the invasion of 1788 and although Governor Phillip was given instructions to "take possession of the continent with the consent of the Natives", consent was never asked nor was it ever given. The land occupied by the indigenous people was seized without any compensation or recognition. The theory of "terra nullius" (empty land) was established to justify this open theft by the conquerors. The new settlers imposed their economic system, their authority and power, their culture and beliefs, often using the Christian church for this. The languages and culture of the nomadic people were steadily but never completely destroyed. Genocide The Aboriginal population is estimated at about 300,000 at the time of the first white settlement. By the end of the 19th Century this number had been reduced to perhaps 75,000. This thread of genocide continued through policies condoned by successive governments. Not only did the settlers' guns do their deadly work, but the poisoning of water and flour was also used. Diseases imported by the white invaders, and sometimes deliberately spread, were also a potent killer of the indigenous people. Die out In the 18th and first half of the 19th Centuries, it was believed that the indigenous people would die out. "Christian" missionaries played their part to "smooth the pillow" of the supposedly dying people. This process was to be helped by herding them onto reserves and through the policies of assimilation. The reserves became pools of cheap or unpaid labour for farmers and pastoralists while the destruction of Aboriginal families by way of abducting their children (the stolen generations) began. The identity of these children was denied in the name of assimilation. Paul Hasluck, a one-time Governor-General of Australia, said assimilation "means that, after many generations, the Aboriginal people will disappear as a separate racial group". However, changes taking place in white capitalist society also impacted on the remaining indigenous people. Pastoralists needed workers and Aborigines proved to be capable stockmen who could be employed on very low or no wages. Women were required as domestic servants in white homesteads. Changes in attitudes During World War II many white soldiers became acquainted with the Aboriginal people for the first time and saw for themselves the shocking treatment that was meted out to them in outback areas. White society became increasingly conscious and many could no longer tolerate the discrimination and exploitation without protest. Meanwhile, some Aborigines moved off the reserves and obtained the lowest paid and most menial jobs in cities and towns. In this way some became workers in the wider Australian community. Even those living on reserves came in contact with the cash economy and capitalist forms of trade. Slowly but steadily the vision of the Aboriginal people grew from a tribal outlook to an Australia-wide consciousness. In 1958, the first Australia-wide Aboriginal organisation was formed -- the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI). It was a multi-racial organisation and included such outstanding Aborigines as Joe McGinness (a Cairns waterside worker and communist), Faith Bandler, Kath Walker, Pastor Doug Nichols, Gladys Elphick, Ray Peckham (also a communist), and others. One people The indigenous people began to realise that they were a people with a common history and ancestry and that all were being savagely oppressed, deprived, exploited and wronged. >From this realisation came a higher level of struggle. By 1988, the 200th anniversary of white invasion, Aboriginal people declared: "We have survived". This was a call to resistance. Some broke through to high school and universities, even though the majority were still relegated to the fringes of country towns and in other far-away places and lived in appalling conditions of poverty, deprivation and unemployment. Land rights struggle A significant factor was the steadily growing struggle for land rights and for decent wages and conditions for Aboriginal workers. On 1 May 1946, a major strike struggle took place across the Pilbara region of Western Australia. One of its outcomes was the formation of an Aboriginal mining co-operative, the first of its kind in Australia. The Pindan group used traditional forms of social organisation but modified them to suit their circumstances. This was followed in 1966/7 by the strike of stockmen from properties of the British-owned Vestey pastoral company in the Northern Territory. The Arbitration Commission had awarded Aboriginal stockmen equal pay and conditions but implementation was delayed. The Gurindji people began a long strike which grew into a successful struggle for land rights when they occupied their traditional land at Dagu Ragu (Wattie Creek). Referendum The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were not counted in the Australian census and legislation on questions relating to the indigenous people resided in State parliaments. A referendum in 1967 which called for this situation to be reversed was adopted by a 90 per cent vote that was also a vote for a changed attitude on the part of governments to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Terra Nullius overturned A high-water mark was reached in the land rights struggle when in 1992 the High Court gave a decision in the Mabo case. For the first time a Court recognised the fact that the Aboriginal people had occupied land for millennia, thereby overturning the lie of "terra nullius" -- that the Australian continent was empty of people at the time of Governor Phillip's invasion in 1788. But white conservatives fought and are still fighting a stubborn rearguard action to deny the reality of the 1788 invasion, to deny the policies of genocide, to refuse to recognise the stolen generations and, above all, to limit, delay and, if possible, scuttle the land claims of many indigenous people. For the ruling class of capitalist Australia it is private property that is sacred, not any concepts of justice or what is right. Treaty Labor Prime Minister Hawke responded to calls for a treaty in 1987 and undertook to commence negotiations on what was then called a "Makarrata". Hawke called for a "compact of understanding" but this was rejected by Aboriginal leaders. Charles Perkins said: "We want a treaty written into the Constitution for all time. A compact is not good enough." A treaty, he said, should cover issues of the prior ownership of land, sovereignty, compensation for land lost, and recognition of the customs, laws, languages and sacred sites. Keating replaced Hawke as Prime Minister and, instead of proceeding with treaty negotiations, appointed a Reconciliation Council in 1990. This was a diversion which sidetracked the treaty concept. The Council finalised its work this year and issued a Statement of Reconciliation which says: "We recognise this land and its waters were settled as colonies without treaty or consent [and we] respect that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have the right to self- determination...." Is a treaty the way to go? Can a treaty be concluded between the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander national minorities and the Australian State? The policies of protection, integration and assimilation have completely failed while the assertion of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as distinct peoples with their own history, ancestry, culture and traditions is irrefutable. That they are the original inhabitants of this continent is also irrefutable. At its 3rd Congress in 1978 the Socialist Party (now Communist Party) declared: "The Aboriginal people are an oppressed national minority within the Australian state and it is a particular responsibility of the working class to join in struggle for the emancipation of the Aboriginal people and to win full national minority rights and in particular the right to the inalienable, communal ownership of remaining tribal lands .... "Another fundamental demand is for the creation of autonomous administrations on lands made over to inalienable, communal ownership." Recognition It is time to dispense with the ideas of "protection", "integration" and "assimilation". Even "reconciliation" is not enough. RECOGNITION is required -- recognition of the Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders as distinct peoples, as the original occupiers and owners, as national minorities within the Australian state. A treaty will require long negotiations. It would need to be incorporated in law with amendments to the Australian Constitution. In the process the Aboriginal and Islander national minorities must be treated as equals. Howard claims the demand for a treaty is "divisive" as though divisions do not already exist. His charge is yet another ploy to frighten people, to justify present policies and to meet the interests of the mining companies and pastoralists. However, governments and the Australian people will have to face up to the question of a treaty and accept that it is a valid demand. A treaty is not an alternative to the continuing struggle for land rights. Land rights claims and the campaign for a treaty are two elements of the same struggle. Two hundred and twelve years is time enough to put the wrong to right. A treaty is now the way in which this has to be done. -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
