Damien,
That's OK. There are a variety of websites that might interest
you as well, and the
Melbourne Age newspaper site is particularly good, devoting a whole page to the
subject of mandatory
sentencing - free of charge if you can find it. Mind you, the rate of knots Trudy
works at feeding this
mailing-list with all the transcripts from the Australian Broadcasting Commission, you
would think that that
would not be necessary.
Jim Duffield supplied a couple of interesting links as well just recently on the
agendas and the reasons
behind the debate on the Stolen Generations:
One is at:
http://www.ipa.org.au/people/hpbrunton.htm
This one is the Institute of Public Affairs, introducing their "man" Mr Brunton, a
very oppurtunistic
right-wing character who wrote the "Stolen Generations" report for the Minister for
Aboriginal Affairs in
this country.
Another interesting website is:
http://www.aiatsis.gov.au/research/dp/8/genocide.htm
Which is from an Australian-based Professor of Genocide at Macquarie University,
on how far you can say
Australia's treatment of it's indigenous people was genocidal, and the debates and
revisionism around the
subject of the genocide in Australian history generally. That website is strongly
recommended.
Cheers,
Matthew
Damien Short wrote:
> Thanks Mathew, that is great. Thanks for taking the time, I feel fully up to
> speed now!
> Cheers,
> Damien
>
> Damien Short (Sociology Dept)
> Human Rights Centre
> Essex University
> England
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tassy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Militant Listbot
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Date: 18 April 2000 19:24
> Subject: Re: [recoznet2] Re: Stolen Generations
>
> > Damien,
> > Well, the debate on forced removal re-ignited itself
> when Ron Brunton, a public
> >servant and a member of a conservative think-tank here in Australia (the
> Institute of Public Affairs)
> >produced a report for the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
> Islander Affairs, John Herron, saying
> >that the numbers of people who were the victims of this government policy
> were "exaggerated", and claiming
> >that forced removal could be in the interests of the children who were
> seperated from their mothers. In
> >other words, racial assimilation is a justifiable policy. The report
> questioned whether assimilationist
> >forced removal policies could be linked to "the Holocaust". I think I am
> right in saying that the term
> >"Stolen Generations" was also attacked, because of some quibble about
> whether generations had been stolen
> >(they had of course, since the late nineteeth century in some parts of
> Australia, even longer).
> >
> > Howard defended his Minister, and Brunton, which to many is as good
> as saying that he agreed
> >assimilationism in Australia was being exaggerated and not part of the
> Holocaust. Of course,
> >assimilationism was part and parcel of the Holocaust, and there is an
> abundance of literature available to
> >substantiate that claim, and forced removal of children is what happens to
> people categorised as
> >second-class citizens who need to be assimilated into the wider society.
> Howard also quibbled over the term
> >"Generations".
> >
> > But as I heard I think it was Geoff Clark, the head of ATSIC, saying
> on SBS, to really understand the
> >debate on the Stolen Generations, you have to understand that the Howard
> government was really copping a lot
> >of flak for refusing to override the Northern Territory's laws of
> "mandatory sentencing" - really the
> >mandatory imprisonment of juvenile offenders on their third offence,
> particularly aboriginal youth, for
> >trivial offences, many of them linked to drugs, alcohol, and of course,
> poverty. Western Australia is the
> >only other state to believe in mandatory imprisonment.
> >
> > This debate was the result of a United Nations report last month, from
> the Committee to Eliminate
> >Racial Discrimination, which was pretty routine really - Koffi Annan the UN
> Secretary-General was invited by
> >Human Rights Activists in Australia to intervene in the debate on Mandatory
> Imprisonment during a visit to
> >Australia in Feburary and decided not to "interfere" in domestic politics.
> The CERD report was years in the
> >waiting, *routine*, and although it was very accurate, it was rather too
> soft for my liking. But not, it
> >seems, to Australian conservatives, who, like the conservatives elsewhere,
> like to make mountains out of
> >molehills about these things eroding "national soveriegnty" etc; example,
> British Conservatives talking
> >about the "dangers of the Common Market", American isolationism towards the
> weak League of Nations during
> >the 1920's and 30's. I thought I'd mention this political stuff because
> that's what my article to a
> >socialist newspaper had to say about Annan's ideological surrender to
> Nationalism in this country.
> >
> > So Clark's point is that the debate on the "Stolen Generations" report
> was unfortunate, and perhaps a
> >tactic of the government, to divert attention away from the debate about
> mandatory imprisonment.
> >
> > The Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Denis Burke, made a
> series of inflammatory remarks about
> >"state's rights", and how he could be a chauvinist on crime, and it
> shouldn't matter anyone else living
> >beyond a certain geographical border - a bit like Governor Wallace in
> Alabama in the 1960's. That's the
> >context behind Charlie Perkins, the Aboriginal Rights Activists', comments
> about "burning cars and burning
> >buildings" in the Sydney Olympics. People said Perkins was being violent,
> but I'd say it was the government
> >that was beating an assimilationist drum at the time.
> >
> > Denis Burke has a throughly racist agenda for Aboriginal people. His
> government has proposed laws on
> >Native Title which take the Land Rights Movement back to the days before
> the landmark Gove Penisula Ruling
> >in the early 1970's, by annulling rights of access still further, and
> especially by a proposal I have read
> >to remove the powers, and wind up the Aboriginal Land Councils, a basic
> mechanism of self-determination for
> >aboriginal people in this country and one of the few gains that Aboriginal
> people have had in that part of
> >the world for legal equality with the mainstream Australian white
> population.
> >
> > This is hidden from the debate - this agenda of Burke's, and that's
> just a great shame and a damn pity,
> >because that's exactly where the ruling-class ideology is - to remove the
> legal and political powers of
> >indigenous peoples. That's why in this country if you support affirmative
> action and laws to end racial
> >discrimination, they tag you with being "politically correct" - in other
> words, for daring to believe, not
> >just in sweeping things under the carpet, but in promoting extra rights for
> aboriginal people. And it's not
> >only racial, this ideology, it's political, because it's applied to
> feminists and gay and lesbian rights
> >activists as well - to any social rights activist.
> >
> > Burke's racism is saying - we created all this terrible problems for
> white people by "giving in" to
> >demands for self-determination in the form of Land Councils in the 1970's.
> And that's an attack on the
> >social processes behind fixing inequality in this country. So that's what
> we are dealing with.
> >
> > One of the things that really troubles me about Australian race relation
> s - as I am inclined to call
> >them, because unfortunately I think that's the level of the society I am a
> part of - is that the agenda
> >belongs to people like Burke, and other chaunvinists. It makes me very
> sceptical about the whole process of
> >reconciliation where this is the case. The agenda should be with
> Aboriginal people themselves, as the
> >process of self-determination implies. It's not that there's not a lot of
> great people involved in the
> >reconcilation movement in this country, because I've been to see
> Reconcilation Day meets and the good-will
> >is there, but whether that makes any difference to people like Burke, who
> believe in escalating things for
> >short-term political mileage and create all sorts of nascent debates in
> this country which are no good for a
> >reconcilation of cultures whatsoever, I cannot say I think it is very
> feasible. All you've got to have is
> >some "red-neck" (the Australian slang - meaning a provinvialist, a believer
> in the politics of difference)
> >come along and give himself another 3 years in Parliament and in the
> meantime the cause for Aboriginal
> >liberation is set back by decades. I'd have to agree with Perkins'
> pessimism in the finish.
> >
> > Another thing is that people voted Burke in, even though there was a lot
> of racism in his re-election
> >campaign, which also occurred about the time of the CERD report two months
> ago. Maybe it's because
> >acceptance of unequal social and legal powers on the grounds of race is
> more a part of Northern Territory
> >politics than elsewhere, or maybe it's because Australia is a racist
> country, I'll leave it for you to
> >decide.
> >
> > OK then, I hope that's been of some help.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Matthew Davis
> >
> >
> >
> >Damien Short wrote:
> >
> >> Hi folks,
> >> Can somebody please briefly fill me in on the current debate, I have been
> >> away for a while? Do I understand correctly, has Howard denied that
> forced
> >> removal occured? If so, where and how did he do this?
> >> Thanks a lot
> >> Damien
> >>
> >> Damien Short (Sociology Department)
> >> Human Rights Centre
> >> Essex University
> >> England
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Trudy & Rod Bray <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> To: RecOzNet2 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >> Date: 18 April 2000 10:58
> >> Subject: [recoznet2] [FWD] Grafton events x 2: dance
> >>
> >> >Forwarded from Christine Howes:
> >> >ABORIGINAL DANCE THEATRE REDFERN
> >> >you mob wanna dance?
> >> >free dance classes
> >> >
> >> >Grafton Public School children
> >> >Tuesday & Wednesday 23rd & 24th May
> >> >
> >> >South Grafton High School youth
> >> >Thursday & Friday 25th & 26th May
> >> >numbers limited - for session times and bookings give Renee a call on
> >> >(02)
> >> >9699 2171
> >> >Renee Brooke, Youth Dance Coordinator
> >> >Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern
> >> >P.O. Box 1093
> >> >Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
> >> >(02) 9699 2171
> >> >(02) 9310 2643
> >> >email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >NADCA NSW and the Aboriginal Performing Arts & Cultural College Lanitza
> >> >invite you to attend a
> >> >
> >> >FREE FORUM
> >> >Aboriginal Cultural & Contemporary Dance Development
> >> >Regional Northeast NSW
> >> >
> >> >When Tues 6th June 8:30-4:30
> >> > Wed 7th June 8:30-5:00
> >> > Thur 8th June 8:30-2:00
> >> >
> >> >Where Uniting Church Hall
> >> > Bent Street
> >> > South Grafton
> >> >for information contact
> >> >Sylvia DeAngelis, NADCA
> >> >P.O. Box 1093, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
> >> >Ph: (02) 9699 3765, 9699 2171
> >> >Fax: (02) 9310 2643
> >> >Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> >or
> >> >David Daley, Chairperson
> >> >Aboriginal Performing Arts & Cultural College Lanitza
> >> >Ph: (02) 6642 1856
> >> >--
> >> >_________________________________
> >> >Truth is a pathless land. --- Krishnamurti
> >> >-------------------------------------------------
> >> >------------------------------------------------------
> >> >RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived
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