One of the most important pleas that came out of the two day aboriginal summit in alice springs in late november last year was speaker after speaker urgently calling for protection against the planned shut-downs of their communities in west australia, at least 150 nominated by the barnett government, and the 50 nominated in the apy lands in south australia, brought forth cries of angst against these planned government land grabs. there was immediate recognition and outrage that such shut-downs were being brought into the respective parliaments for legislation to take back these lands and depopulate the communities affected. it is no secret that like all aboriginal cultures around the invaded world are as attached to their lands as a foetus is attached to their mother. our lands are our life, our culture, our very history for many many millennia. for the invader governments the land is nothing more than a commodity, to be used to create profit or to be sold. that is not our culture.
but such shut-downs are not without other trauma and in west
australia especially there are consequent horrors facing those families
who become homeless as they are moved from their homed and/or
communities. one example of what occurs when a community is shut down is
the community living at oombulgurri. as we were talking and electing
our leaders at the aboriginal summit ms. tammy solonec was reporting in
the guardian what trauma such an action by wa premier barnett government
has been foisted upon those who lived there. on their traditional
lands.
the article is necessarily lengthy and is produced untouched
word-wise and clearly shows the government's lies, spin and the use of
'secret english.' i have removed only the pictures from the original
article but the url is there should you wish to go to the original
article. tammy, amnesty international and the guardian are to be very
much congratulated for this expose of the venality of the wa barnett
government.
The
Guardian
The trauma of Oombulgurri's demolition will be repeated across Western Australia.
Tammy Solonec
Amnesty
International's research into the homelands showed that Aboriginal
people living onancestral lands live better lives. But the WA government
plans to close 150 communities
Thursday 27 November 2014 13.51 AEST
Removing people from Oombulgurri was a gradual process.
First,
the government closed the services. It closed the shop, so people could
not buy food and essentials. It closed the clinic, so the sick and the
elderly had to move, and the school, so families with children had to
leave, or face having their children taken away from them. The police
station
was the last service to close, then eventually the electricity and water were turned off.
Finally,
the 10 residents who resolutely stayed to the end were forcibly
evicted, given just two days notice of eviction and allowed to bring
only one box of belongings each. They had to leave behind cars,
whitegoods, tools and personal possessions.
I saw many of these
abandoned possessions during a research trip in September to what was by
then a ghost town: a suitcase and a chair lying eerily in the middle of
a road; personal documents strewn across the office; clothes, furniture
and toys left in most houses; and children's named artwork hanging on
the walls of the school.
Oombulgurri lies on the banks of the
Forrest River in the eastern Kimberley. The town is opposite a stunning
slate cliff face, its wide streets are lined with Boab trees and
hundreds of wild horses have taken over the area. Its population
fluctuated over the years; at the 2006 census it was 107. The town had a
clinic, shop, police station, school, office, power station, about 60
houses and large water tanks.
Residents described it as great
place, where you could "catch two barras on one line". They told me the
community contains several Aboriginal sacred sites, including ceremonial
sites, and a cemetery.
Oombulgurri is also the site of the 1926
Forrest River massacre of Aboriginal people. Its traumatic history
continues in present times. During 2005 and 2006 four people killed
themselves; a sexual assault taskforce and a Coronial Inquest went on to
highlight incidents of domestic violence, suicide, child sexual abuse
and alcoholism. Three individuals from the community were convicted of
offences.
While the taskforce and inquest unravelled an
undeniably grave social crisis, the coroner did not make a
recommendation to close the town. Nevertheless, the Western Australian
government did just that, and has begun demolishing Oombulgurri.
Oombulgurri
is part of the Balanggarra native title claim, which was successfully
determined in2013 following a 20-year fight. The determination
acknowledged the thousands of years that the Balanggarra people have
cared for their country and promised them some right to it in the
future.
Unfortunately for the traditional owners the
determination did not include the Oombulgurri settlement, which is owned
by the WA government's Aboriginal lands trust, extinguishing native
title. It was this loophole that allowed the WA government to forcibly
evict traditional owners from their homelands.
The official line
when Oombulgurri was closed in September 2011 was that it was
"unviable". Communication last month from the WA government to Amnesty
International states Oombulgurri was closed due to severe dysfunction
and to ensure community safety.
"Unviable." That's a term used by
the WA government in recent weeks to justify closing up to 150more
remote Aboriginal communities. But as I have seen first-hand, thereis
nothing more "unviable" for Aboriginal people than to be forcibly
evicted from their traditional lands and assimilated into white
townships.
The WA government has said most residents left their
homes voluntarily, a claim completely at odds with the testimonies we
collected. Residents spoke of a lack of consultation, and said the
process was rushed and did not seek the consent of those being evicted.
The
claim of voluntary departure looks even hollower when you consider that
the Balanggarra Aboriginal corporation, on behalf of 150 residents, has
requested for people to return to their land and been refused by the
Barnett government. In fact, they have been told they'll be charged with
trespass if they try to return.
To be disconnected from land and culture, often made
homeless, and forced deeper into poverty, substance abuse, violence,
lack of education, unemployment and ill health - that's what it means to
be "unviable".
My visit to the town in September, a month before
demolition commenced, was a continuation of Amnesty's work on
homelands. Our 2011 homelands report found huge benefits for Aboriginal
people living on their traditional lands: connection to land and
culture, self-determination, employment, improvements to physical and
mental health, and a reductionin substance abuse and violence.
For
example, people living on the NT's Utopia homelands were found to have a
40% lower mortality rate than Aboriginal people in the NT generally,
and a 50% lower rate of cardiac disease.
The eviction of the
residents had the opposite effect. Many residents were left homeless and
either camped or stayed with relatives throughout the Kimberley region.
Three years later some residents are still homeless or not
appropriately housed.
The children suffered the most from the
eviction. On our visit we were told that most of the children from
Oombulgurri who now live in Wyndham do not go to school. Many others
have been removed by the department of child protection.
And
teenagers had it particularly bad too. There were influences in Wyndham
that weren't easily accessible to them in Oombulgurri - as alcohol,
drugs and petty crime like stealing cigarettes. Many were taken from
their families or detained by police.
There are few liquor restrictions in Wyndham and many of the evicted Oombulgurri residents turned to alcohol.
The
trauma felt by the people is evident. One of the last men to leave
Oombulgurri took his own life in Wyndham. One of the last Elder women to
leave still cries every day. Nearly everyone we spoke to expressed
sorrow, disbelief and hopelessness. Many still can't understand why it
happened and yearn for their homeland.
As the inquest and
taskforce showed, Oombulgurri had its problems. But the government did
little to address violence and substance abuse in the community for
years. A decade ago, when I visited Wyndham in my role for the WA
department of commerce, I was told that it was open knowledge that
planes regularly flew drugs and alcohol into Oombulgurri, and that the
authorities were well aware.
The abuse of women and children were
crimes, and those individual perpetrators were rightly dealt with in
the criminal justice system. The entire community should not be punished
for the heinous crimes of individual residents.
The WA
government traumatised the women and children further when they were
evicted from their traditional lands. Instead they should have invested
in the community, by providing health, employment and social programs to
help the residents and the township.
Despite community efforts,
supported by Amnesty International, the bulldozers rolled into
Oombulgurri last month. The WA government has literally dug a hole and
in it buried the rubble ofpeople's homes and personal belongings. The
process will soon be replicated in up to 150 communities across the
state.
Living on the homelands is of such clear benefit for
Aboriginal people and the whole state, that Colin Barnett's decision to
evict more communities will end in tragedy. In terms of reducing the
burden on the health, welfare and justice systems, maintaining remote
communities is a policy any government should support.
I urge all
governments in Australia to open transparent discussions about the
future of our communities that includes those in those communities.
Making remote communities "viable" and safe is possible with will and
creative thinking. The demolition of Oombulgurri must never be repeated
in another community.
http://tinyurl.com/mf3y6rs
this
article raises my ire each time i reread it. no non-aboriginal person
would be treated in such a brutal and colonialist fashion but this is
every day life for aborigines but still we must fight everyday for our
inalienable human rights.
if tammy's article also raised your ire then i direct you to the
unbelievable abuses perpetrated against aboriginal families, including
children and babies, that are forced upon them by the actions and laws of
the barnett government. like tammy's article shows homelessness is the
horror that displaced aboriginal families are put through on a daily
basis.
this is but one of the abuses that have brought about our cry across
the stolen lands, no more! we have leaders to lead us as we begin the
dismantling of the horror and trauma of the invader governments on
invasion day 227 years ago around australia.
enough from me. over to the articles from gerry georgatos that i
really hope give you just a taste of our black and white history.
fkj
ray jackson
president
indigenous social justice association
prix des droits de l'homme de la republique francaise 2013
(french human rights medal 2013)
1303/200 pitt street, waterloo. 2017
isja01@internode.on.net
61 2 9318 0947
0450 651 063
we live and work on the stolen lands of the gadigal people
More reading:
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