Beyond the Apology

Black and Strong – February 24th, 2008 by Kristen

In the weeks following the apology I have found myself hearing the arguments and words of those Australians who opposed it. Whilst I disagree with them, I can understand the flawed logic that many use to explain their position, despite much of it stemming from what I see as ingrained racism and much simplification of a very complex issue.

So as much as I dislike Western Australian Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey’s political beliefs and his record as a politician, and as much as I despise his disgusting words and behaviour on the day of the apology, I can understand the point of view he represented of himself and many other Australians, when he said this:

“So the Prime Minister reads a speech, apparently some people stand up and sit down and then a miracle happens over night, there’ll be no petrol sniffing … and girls can sleep safely in the family bed at night”

There are many Australians who disagreed with the apology, and this was the key argument from those I spoke to who took that position (despite for some it being the straw man argument concealing a deeper racism).

To them I say, no, the apology will not directly help those things. Petrol sniffing, sexual abuse and other problems facing many Aboriginal communities and people can’t healed by one speech.

However, the apology, in all its hugely important aspects of healing, acknowledgment, recognition, and catharsis, also represents something that probably enrages Tuckey even further. It represents a point where the voice and power of the Aboriginal people influenced a government to action.

Unlike our previous Government, it was not the shaming images of broken communities that drove this action, not the need to desperately scrabble for votes by intervening in the “Aboriginal problem”. Our Government said sorry because of the stories of those taken, and the actions of them and their families and communities drove a campaign through the years of being officially ignored since the ‘Bringing Them Home’ report was released in 1997. Aboriginal people and their voices and their power made this happen.

So when we come back to the Australians who say they want to stop the petrol sniffing and ensure the safety of children - well to them I say, “this is how it can be done”. Through Aboriginal voices and power.

Not in the old racist and paternalistic fashion that saw children stolen from families - the same paternalistic attitude that saw troops enter communities and intervene in the lives of people for social issues and behaviour created in large part by previous policies in that same paternalistic vein.

The way forward is in policy and action driven by Aboriginal people, aided by the governments and institutions that work with them and their communities. Dodgy Press believes in a bi-partisan strategy - not just between the Government and Opposition, but those between those in power and the Aboriginal people they say they want to help.