Hi Melody,
I have returned to your email a few times in the past week. Somehow I am drawn
back to acknowledge your love for Australian Indigenous roots. I contacted a
dear friend who lives with the elders of the Bunjalung tribe in NSW. I sent him
your email and he responded with a message which I understood to be passed on
by a Bunjalung elder. Its essence would seem to be the simplified version of
the political effort outlined in your email. I understood that to be, an
intense longing of Australian aboriginals to return to the "lore" of the land
instead of having the land governed by "law".
I had a dream the night I received this email from Bunjalung. I was taken on a
journey to the stars by a passionate presence filled with great love and anger.
The journey began with invitation, then acknowledgement of sameness and
togetherness. In accepted disagreement this indigenous energy catupulted me
far beyond the earth into the sky....screaming the words all this belongs to
me. In the majesty of this moment I understood the meaning of soverignity. As
I entered the vastness of space and aloneness my inner voice replied, "I also
belong here." I returned to my body with two words resonating in my heart.
Those two words were "Beyond belonging." Could it be that "beyond belonging"
is a way that love works best?
I am still meditating upon this. Just felt to share it with you. I would love
to hear something more from you.
Much love and respect for your love Sadhana
________________________________
From: Melody Mandeno <mninos@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: ConstellationTalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, September 7, 2009 4:12:51 PM
Subject: [ConstellationTalk] Fw: [Womenforwik] new ideas!
I forward this to the group for consideration from a collective social
group constellation.
Regards
Melody
----- Original Message -----
From: "eva cox" <ecox1@bigpond. net.au>
To: <womenforwik@ whatsworking. com.au>
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 2:39 PM
Subject: [Womenforwik] new ideas!
indigenous politics -New Matilda 7 Sep 2009
We Can Change How The Other Half Lives
By Patrick Dodson
The new green economy presents an opportunity to develop remote and
regional
Australia, writes Professor Patrick Dodson - and in the process create
real
jobs for young Indigenous Australians
At the beginning of the month I was camped on the banks of the Mary River
in
Western Arnhem Land with 100 other Aboriginal and Islander peoples who had
met to discuss issues related to the use and management of the water
resources across northern Australia. The Mary River, as it is known to
non-indigenous Australians, is on the land of the Limilm Ngari - people
who
are living on and sustaining their land and waters in the traditions of
the
forebears while endeavouring to develop a tourism enterprise that is
framed
around sharing their country with visitors from Australia and other lands.
In that country, on the edge of Kakadu, where the great rivers of the
north
make their way from the majestic Arnhem Land escarpment across vast flood
plains and into the Arafura Sea, Aboriginal people are seeking to play
their
role in the sustaining of the resources that have been entrusted to them
by
their fathers and mothers and those before them.
Whether they will be allowed to participate in the future is yet to be
seen:
along with all other Aboriginal people living on Aboriginal titled land in
the Northern Territory, the Limilm Ngari are subject to the provisions of
the Federal Government's Northern Territory Emergency Response
legislation.
In the wider context of "the Intervention" Aboriginal people, including
the
Limilm Ngari, are required to cede control of their residential lands, in
the short term, in order to receive services and infrastructure that are
the
rights of all Australian citizens, land owners or otherwise.
In the longer term they stand to lose control of their ancestral lands and
waters altogether. But because Aboriginal society has been confronted with
interventions in many different guises, the traditional owners of the Mary
River Country and other Aboriginal people across Australia will survive
this
latest endeavour to engineer assimilation on our people.
In this context, assimilation is aimed at achieving the original colonial
dream and assertion that Australia was terra nullius - land belonging to
no
one. This gloomy forecast is founded upon the experience and models to
date
of dealing with Aboriginal rights and interests - even legislated ones.
After 200 years or so, we have to question the philosophical underpinnings
of the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the mainstream of
Australia - especially via governments.
What I believe is required is the courage and vision to create a new
national framework for dialogue in this country so that better designed
structures for participation, infrastructure and service delivery can be
agreed upon to respond to the challenges that change throws up. This is a
process that has been initiated by General John Sanderson and myself and
supported by many likeminded Australians which aims to develop a new
philosophical underpinning to guide the development of a just relationship
between Indigenous and non-indigenous Australia.
Debate or commentary about Aboriginal peoples affairs are too often
determined by the non-indigenous population or designed to take place
within
the mainstream paradigm. Very seldom is the voice from within Aboriginal
and
Islander society and culture heard.
Until, as a nation, we reach a different plateau of maturity in our quest
for full nationhood we will continue to be diminished as a society and
will
inevitably repeat the disasters of intervention, increased public sector
domination over Aboriginal lives, continued removal of our children, high
incarceration rates and increased destabilisation on our traditional
homelands.
This is how assimilation has manifested itself to us for the past two
centuries.
If a new national framework for dialogue is to be constructed then it will
require all our governments, institutions and best minds to be brought to
the task.
A new national framework must take into account the rich diversity that
has
built up among our population since 1788; it must be inclusive of the
richness and complexities of all the peoples that make up our diverse
society.
If we revert to the old paradigm - where one sector of our society asserts
its values over all others - then we will fail in our task and the
foundations of our future society will be as unstable as the flawed
pillars
of the British-centric Australia of the past.
Our joint custodial duty to our country is a heavy burden for all
citizens.
Our part in the ongoing nation-building endeavour requires that we
question
our foundations, philosophy and institutions. There should be a
consideration of the real legitimacy of our constitution as a true
reflection of our modern nation state. We must consider whether or not it
is
representative of the multi-dimensional society that we have become since
1901, when a British settler elite drafted and put forward the rules for
the
governance of the newly created nation to Westminster England. Like the
South Africans in the post apartheid period, we should consider how our
nation will govern itself as we confront our historical failure of
recognition and acceptance of the first peoples.
Australia's land tenure systems are based on 18th and 19th century values
and ideologies when colonial governments equated occupancy with
development
based on pasturing sheep and cattle on vast tracts of land far too fragile
to sustain them or exploiting scant water resources for food production -
always to the exclusion of the interests of the traditional land owners.
The international effort to address global warming and climate change will
in the future demand that nations begin to manage and use their natural
assets in a more considered way than they have in the past. Indigenous
people must be allowed to participate in the planning and decision making
in
relation to these resources as had been our right and responsibility prior
to 1788. A national dialogue should engage Indigenous, government,
environmental, agricultural, scientific and pastoral interests in
negotiating how our land, water and sea resources can be effectively
managed, sustained and equitably shared in the future.
The recent controversy over the management and access to the Wild Rivers
of
Cape York to the exclusion of the consent of the traditional owners and
the
resistance by tourism operators and politicians to respect the cultural
responsibilities of the Anangu of Uluru and Kuta Tjuta to ban climbers to
the top of this most sacred of sites are indicative of the exclusion of
native peoples from the negotiation about the future use of lands and
waters
in this country.
Climate change, global warming and food security are not simply about
developing alternative energy sources, finding ways of burying carbon
dioxide in cavities in the earth or the development of super seeds that
double yields while using miniscule amounts of water. These might be a
useful start but they in themselves are never going to deliver long term
structural change - economic, social or environmental in Australia or
anywhere else on the globe. Development and distribution of natural
resources must involve processes of negotiation and consent with
Indigenous
peoples.
As a consequence of industrial development post-World War II we have seen
the movement of young people from the bush to the city. Rural decline and
the use of "fly-in, fly-out" strategies by mining companies since the
1980s
have also had an impact on the demographics of the bush. As a result,
Indigenous Australians have found themselves standing alongside a group of
almost equally politically excluded Australians: those living in the
northern half of the nation who are non-indigenous but who have chosen to
contribute to the future of the nation by working for the development and
sustaining of our deserts, our northern coastal regions and the pastoral
regions of the Northern Territory, Western and South Australia and
Queensland.
People in remote Australia, covering most of our continental land mass
have
found themselves more than ever subject to the decision making processes
and
priorities of governments authority in southern cities, far removed from
the
reality of the lives of those in the bush. It is a paradox that greater
access to communications, roads and transport has for many Australians
meant
a diminishment of political power rather than an enhanced capacity to
engage
and contribute to regional governance.
The dialogue for a new national framework will begin to open the
discussion
on how the north of the continent might be developed in a meaningful and
productive way so that the experiences and the lessons of the past can be
built on. To do this, we need a northern regional development authority to
allow for regional participation with government and industry. The
function
of such an authority would be to preserve our great remaining wilderness
regions, provide the basis for the first elements of the new green
economy,
the creation of renewable energy sources, the development of sustainable
low
impact tourism, assist to identify carbon abatement project opportunities
and promote the production from traditional food and medicine sources.
These industries of the green economy are not incompatible with existing
mining or food production industries but we must take the opportunity to
plan for the inevitable development of northern Australia so that we
enhance
our economy, provide meaningful employment for our children and allow for
the growth and development of the Indigenous peoples - along with the
sustaining of our culture and the management of our traditional estates.
The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, often speaks about turning to a new page
in
the national narrative. The dialogue for a new national framework must not
be simply about a new page - but the next book in a trilogy of human
endeavour on this continent.
The first book relates to the occupation and use of this land by the
Aboriginal people where the creation story began and the laws, languages
and
customs of Aboriginal people and the land prevailed.
The second book is about the colonial engagement and the two centuries of
dispute and conflict between our peoples, occupation and alienation for
the
natives and economic windfall at the expense of the environment and the
native peoples for the colonial society.
The third book must be about social, economic and environmental
sustainability of the continent where Australians address the challenges
of
the global world, develop and create new economies based on sound
environmental practices.
It must be a tale of regional reconstruction where the unsustainable urban
sprawl gives way to new green industries based in regional centres where
the
standards of health service and education are equal for all Australians.
Where living in the bush is an advantage not an impediment to our
opportunity.
Where the exploitation of our natural resources is undertaken in a
sustainable manner.
Where the arrival of a mine in a region does not herald generations of
social upheaval and disintegration for the people whose homes and
communities sit alongside the mineral development.
It must be where we take pride in the vitality and strength of the
Aboriginal cultural and spiritual realities.
Where the continent's first peoples are involved in all aspects of the
negotiation of the nation's future, our rights and responsibilities are
enshrined in the laws of the land and our ceremonies celebrated in the
nation's institutions.
This is an edited version of a speech given by Professor Patrick Dodson at
the launch of the Indigenous Policy Dialogue and Research Unit of the
School
of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales on 20
August.
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