Recognition & respect

by Joan Williams

"I am one of our community who is a hundred per cent for recognition and 
respect of the diversity of culture between the Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal communities in this country." Glen Shaw, member of the National 
Indigenous Native Title Working Group, the Aboriginal Legal Service and The 
Deaths in Custody Watch Committee of WA said this to an "Invasion Day" 
breakfast on January 26, organised by the WA Branch of the CPA to ensure 
that the Aboriginal point of view on Australia Day should be heard.

"On the brink of the year 2000, we want the wholehearted support of all 
Australians, not the hijacking of our rights. Today is a rather sad day for 
me — when others are celebrating the slaughter of hundreds and thousands 
of my people under the guise of colonisation", he told a gathering of 40 
activists and friends, welcomed by Branch president Sheila Suttner to her 
home.

"The mob I came from lived in Tasmania", Glen Shaw said.

Glen then quoted George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector of Aborigines, 
who wrote in his diary of the interned Aborigines at Wybalenna `that 
however much they dreaded punishment for injuries inflicted on the white 
man, they considered themselves martyrs in the cause of their country'.

"I say that there are still many martyrs today."

He quoted the late Rob Riley, the inspiring WA visionary and advocate for 
the Aboriginal community, who said you don't stop fighting for justice 
simply because those around you don't like it, you just keep on fighting...

"All of us, as a nation, are faced with the best opportunity we will ever 
have in bringing our nation together. Do we want to continue down the path 
of confrontation between the Aboriginal people and the wider community?

"I would prefer the option of protection of heritage and culture, while 
allowing for resource development and the ongoing development of our nation 
as a whole, with all the citizens having a role to play in that 
development."

The speaker gave a quick overview of the political history of his people 
from 1901. "In WA we saw the most regressive policy — that classified 
Aboriginal people into Full Blood, Half-Caste, Quadroon and in a certain 
section Octoroon. The classification under which you were viewed, 
determined your ability and the terms and conditions under which you lived.

"From the mid 1930s to the late 1960s we saw the initiation of what is 
known as the assimilation policies, leading to a meeting in Canberra (April 
21-23, 1937), the minutes of which defined one of its purposes as `Destiny 
of the Race — that this conference believes that the destiny of the 
natives of aboriginal origin, but not of full blood, lies in their ultimate 
absorption... and therefore recommends that all efforts be directed to that 
end.'

"Our history is one of continual government intervention into the lives of 
Aboriginal people, and also intervention to the degrees which designed the 
parameters under which Aboriginal people could live...

"Aborigines were in fact all prisoners, subjected to wholesale removal of 
their families. There are people who still have not been recognised.

"I have heard of a woman with 17 children. She walked to a shop three miles 
away and when she came back all the children had been removed. Relocation 
took place with no formal schools or training — they had to get a permit 
to marry.

"This has led to people who don't fit in, caught up in the welfare system, 
no comprehension of self-determination — for them a day to day struggle 
for survival.

"Are we one country when my people don't have recognition? The long hard 
struggle is scary, often marked by suicide, alcoholism. Are we to have a 
Bill of Rights?

"The choice must be made by every person who lives in this country. We are 
over-represented by too many politicians, but at the same time we are under 
represented. We need the unified voice of all Australians."

Thanking the speaker, Sheila noted the international background of many 
present, and how deeply all had been moved by a man of great ability and 
devotion to his cause, and his work in several organisations at the cutting 
edge of struggle.