a letter from Pamela Curr

[miriam_e]

Here is a comment from someone who works in one of the communities being invaded. They are far better suited to be able to tell us what is really happening than the astonishingly slanted mass media reporting of this event.

Leaders of the Mutitjulu community today questioned the need for a military occupation of their small community.

We welcome any real support for indigenous health and welfare and even two police will assist, but the Howard Government declared an emergency at our community over two years ago - when they appointed an administrator to our health clinic - and since then we have been without a doctor, we have less health workers, our council has been sacked all our youth and health programmes have been cut.

We have no CEO and limited social and health services. The government has known about our overcrowding problem for at least 10 years and they've done nothing about it.

How do they propose keeping alcohol out of our community when we are 20 minutes away from 5 star hotel? Will they ban blacks from Yulara? We have been begging for an alcohol counsellor and a rehabilitation worker so that we can help alcoholics and substance abusers but those pleas have been ignored. What will happen to alcoholics when this ban is introduced? How will the government keep the grog runners out of our community without a permit system?

We have tried to put forward projects to make our community economically sustainable - like a simple coffee cart at the sunrise locations - but the government refuses to even consider them.

There is money set aside from the Jimmy Little foundation for a kidney dialysis machine at Mutitjulu, but National Parks won't let us have it.

That would create jobs and improve indigenous health but they just keep stonewalling us. If there is an emergency, why won't Mal Brough fast track our kidney dialysis machine?

Some commentators have made much of the cluster of sexually transmitted diseases identified at our health clinic. People need to understand that Mutitjulu Health Clinic (now effectively closed) is a regional clinic and patients come from as far away as WA and SA; so to identify a cluster here is meaningless without seeing the confidential patient data.

The fact that we hold this community together with no money, no help, no doctor and no government support is a miracle. Any community, black or white would struggle if they were denied the most basic resources. Police and the Military are fine for logistics and coordination but healthcare, youth services, education and basic housing are more essential. Any programme must involve the people on the ground or it won't work. For example who will interpret for the military?

Our women and children are scared about being forcibly examined; surely there is a need to build trust. Even the doctors say theyare reluctant to examine a young child without a parent's permission. Of course any child that is vulnerable or at risk should be immediately protected but a wholesale intrusion into our women and children's privacy is a violation of our human and sacred rights.

Where is the money for all the essential services? We need long term financial and political commitment to provide the infrastructure and planning for our community. There is an urgent need for 10's of millions of dollars to do what needs to be done. Will Mr Brough give us a commitment beyond the police and military?

The commonwealth needs to work with us to put health and social services, housing and education in place rather than treating Mutitjulu as a political football.

But we need to set the record straight:

• There is no evidence of any fraud or mismanagement at Mutitjulu - we have had an administration for 12 months that found nothing
  
  
• Mal Brough and his predecessor have been in control of our community for at least 12 months and we have gone backwards in services
  
  
• We have successfully eradicated petrol sniffing from our community in conjunction with government authorities and oil companies
  
  
• We have thrown suspected paedophiles out of our community using the permit system which our government now seeks take away from us.
  
  
• We will work constructively with any government, State, Territory or Federal that wants to help aboriginal people.

Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ASRC
12 Batman St
West Melbourne 3003
ph 03 93266066 fax 03 93265199
www.asrc.org.au

Pamela Curr
http://justfreedom.org.au

Comments

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

Rather than screens of in-line text, a simple link would be much nicer.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Yep. Sorry. You're right of course. I'll edit to put it behind a cut. I actually got it from her site rather than crikey.com and her page is very pretty but a little hard to read. I should have used a cut tag though.
Remedying that now...

[kremmen.livejournal.com]

I don't understand this situation at all. I used to think Johnny was a shrewd politician. (evil, but shrewd) However, this just doesn't make sense. I don't mean that in any rational way regarding the actual issue. If we ignore that obvious debate and move on to the usual reason for this government to do something (to buy votes from the weak-minded), it still doesn't make any sense. I can't see hordes of people saying "we'll vote Liberal now, because Johnny's dealing with those filthy aborigines!"

The primary goal of the current federal Libs appears to be to appeal to the simpletons, those who don't think through either the principles or the ramifications of issues. I believe the primary motivation for such voters is selfishness. Government gives me more money/less tax/etc, so I vote for them. The aboriginal situation is just irrelevant for those people, unless they are aboriginal themselves.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

I think you're underestimating (like I tend to) the effect of complicit media. In the last couple of days I've spoken to several intelligent people who are concerned with human rights and who I consider enlightened individuals. They have all been sucked in by the media and Howard's crap.

Notice how many newspaper pictures of aborigines include images of garbage? Any editor understands the effect of that. They have been very successfully associating filth with skin color in people's minds for a while now. But they've really hit propaganda gold with the paedophilia stuff. Here is something they can exploit both ways -- appearance of paternalistic concern, while being able to express disgust for them. A racist's dream! And sadly, most people do seem to be latently racist.

People I've talked to recently respond something like this: "I don't agree with the heavyhanded way he's doing it, but at least he's doing something to help, unlike all the other people who just sit on their hands."

When I point out that previous governments have given the communities some degree of control over their lives (though not enough) and given them some medical services and educational funding (though not enough), but Howard began removing all those things as soon as he got into office, the response is generally a disbelieving "Are you sure? But that doesn't make sense. Why would they do that?"

When I ask how sending in troops helps the children, the answer is "Oh, they're just support services, building police stations and running supplies." Amazed, I ask, "For 2 policemen?" and then point out the number of unemployed black, and white, carpenters and people with delivery vans up there who would love that work.

But the clincher is the 5-year lease the government is taking out on native land in about 60 communities. (Ummm... how long do they have to be separated from the land before the native title becomes void?) Howard won't guarantee it'll be five years, or that the Indigenous communities will ever get their land back... but that they will be fully compensated. (Yeah, right! Like he/we fully compensated East Timor for their oilfields he/we stole.)