Star Tribune (Minneapolis - St.Paul) http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=82600870 Published Sunday, September 24, 2000 Natives' ' Needs Overlooked at Games By MORT ROSENBLUM / AP Special Correspondent SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Olympian flames lit by a popular Aborigine runner warmed hearts around the world as a symbol of ethnic blending. Among indigenous Australians, where reality bites, reaction was cooler. " Well, it can' t make things worse, because we' re already going bloody backwards, " said municipal worker Pete Weatherall, on a seedy sidewalk of Redfern, a heavily Aborigine enclave in the heart of Sydney. " We' re hoping -- what else can we do?" his friend, Hilton Ferguson, added. Redfern is only a tiny microcosm of the 385, 000 Aborigines in diverse tribes scattered across an area as big as the mainland of the United States. Still, it is Sydney' s window on the other Australia. And the mixed mood in Redfern was repeated in telephone interviews with aboriginal intellectuals and community leaders around Australia. Some praised Cathy Freeman' s starring role in the Olympics' opening ceremony, as well as its multicultural theme. Others saw a sop meant to replace serious work on crucial problems. " A lot of people called this tokenism, but it was a little bit more, " said Geoff Clark, elected head of the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Commission. " Once you create the awareness, scrutiny will follow." But, he added, it was only a start. A majority of white Australians fear losing something if land rights or compensation are granted to indigenous groups, he said. He estimated there are a million hard-core One Nation Party sympathizers, forming a big voting bloc hostile to Asian immigration and Aborigine rights. " You can' t expect much more at the Olympics than to arouse interest, and we' ve done that, " Clark said. " Now it' s up to us. A right is only a right as long as you' re willing to defend it." Clark' s state-financed organization speaks for indigenous Australians in meetings with the government, the United Nations and other forums. But tribal and private views range to the extreme. " That was a joke, the greatest token gesture in the history of Australia, " fumed Gary Foley, a University of Melbourne professor and self-described activist, referring to the ceremony. Foley is Clark' s cousin. " This country is paranoid about being portrayed like South Africa, but the government chooses to ignore problems because they are racists, " Foley said. " We have the weakest indigenous land tenure under any Western law." He singled out what he called brutality against Aborigines in Western Australia, where he said many white immigrants from South Africa work as police officers and prison guards. The basic issue is as old as Australia. Europeans who sailed by in the late 1700s declared the continent " terra nullius, " empty of human settlement since it was too barren to be habitable except on the coastal fringes. Aborigines say up to a million people lived in the Outback then, whether noticed or not, and their ability to thrive for 40 millennia in such a harsh environment gave them homestead rights. As settlers moved in, native tribes died from unfamiliar disease. Clashes and massacres killed 850 Europeans and at least 20, 000 Aborigines, according to Henry Reynolds, a widely respected historian. In 1788, ethnographers say, there were 750 local dialects and 150 to 200 distinct languages. Today they estimate no more than 30 remain. Controversy rages over the " stolen generation." Last month a federal court dismissed a case by two Aborigines who contend the government was liable for removing them from their families as children. From 1910 until the 1970s, authorities placed about 100, 000 light-skinned aboriginal children in the care of white families. State and federal law declared it was humane to save children of a doomed race. Back then, the watchword was " assimilation, " and Aborigines were not regarded as citizens. Fallout also follows a 1996 landmark court decision that overturned the concept of " terra nullius" and opened the way for indigenous land claims. Aborigines say they have seen few concrete results. Aboriginal life expectancy is 20 years less than white Australia' s, quadruple the gap between American Indians and other Americans. Unemployment is five times the national average. Aborigines make up 2 percent of Australians, but 20 percent of the prison population. Fifty percent of Aborigines are dependent on welfare. Only 31 percent go beyond secondary school. Reynolds, who is not an Aborigine but has traveled extensively among different tribes, said the underlying problems can be addressed only in their long-term context. " The ceremony was an important gesture, " he said, " but it does not mean there is racial harmony between indigenous and white societies. In fact, that has been deteriorating over the past five years." He blamed a conservative government, supported by a small majority, for hostility to crucial Aborigine issues. Prime Minister John Howard has refused to apologize for the actions of past generations. At the same time, Reynolds added, aboriginal leaders have to confront their own problems of welfare dependence, drug and alcohol abuse and a lack of community cohesion. " We need a plan over 10 years, possibly even 20, with a considerable amount of money behind it, leading to Aborigine control over their internal affairs, in the same way as the American Indians, " he said. That, he added, " would force responsibility onto the communities themselves while also decolonizing the situation." So far, frustration only simmers. Threats of violent protests at the Olympics have dwindled. But there is bitterness. At the Aborigines' Tent City in Victoria Park, young activists repeat the word " genocide." Many Australians, white and indigenous, see a new wave of reconciliation, which is growing with a new generation. But most also say entrenched racism and ignorance impede progress. The worldwide success of aboriginal art and music is helping draw attention to the other Australia, but there is widespread resentment to criticism from the United Nations and other outside groups. A day after the opening ceremony, Katrin Burmeister, a white Sydneysider turning browner in the sun, said she was happy with the theme of racial harmony. But she was also wary. " We have a great deal to work on, " she said, " but WE have a great deal to work on, " emphasizing the second pronoun to exclude non-Australians. Lilian Holt, a moderate Aborigine who directs the University of Melbourne' s indigenous studies institute, called the ceremony a small step on a long journey. " A lot of white Australians were happy I liked it, as in, ' Well, are you mokes satisfied now that we' ve done something?" ' she said, with a laugh. " Moke" is a derogatory local word. She accused government leaders of " a very mean spirit, " who are limited by " myopic economic rationalism." White Australians " see everything in terms of money, " she said. On the good side, the Olympic display focused attention, Holt added. " Sometimes when you acknowledge your demons, you exorcise them." In Brisbane, Michael Williams and Jackie Huggins at the University of Queensland took a harsher tone. " Our people are dying, " Williams said. " Until you address the real issues, the sore is still festering." Back in Redfern, Mick Mundine explained why the Aboriginal Housing Company he directs is tearing down the infamous " Block" to replace dilapidated housing with homes in which residents can take pride. " We have all this drug use, crime, drinking, and what do people think?" he said. " The respect is gone. If this continues, we will lose our children. We have to think about them." Mundine dismissed acrimony over what has already happened. " Look, you can think positive or negative. I don' t believe in living the past, " he said. " I believe in the present and future. If there is a gesture, OK, you build from it. We all have a lot to do." Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
