The Guardian 12 March, 2008
Rally demands end to "racist" NT laws
Darren Coyne
Organisers of a Canberra rally last month calling for an end to the "racist" Northern Territory intervention have issued an appeal to unions and grassroots members of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).
A proposed motion drafted by the Aboriginal Rights Coalition urges ALP branches and unions to call on the Rudd government to immediately review the NT intervention, and to ensure that reparations are paid to members of the Stolen Generations.
The motion follows the February rally in Canberra when more than 1,000 people, including Aboriginal people from every state and territory, marched on Parliament House demanding an end to the intervention, and laws of "apartheid".
Angry at the government’s continued use of troops, the blanket quarantining of welfare, attacks on land tenure, and other issues related to the NT intervention, the protesters gathered at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy near Old Parliament House.
Human rights
Chanting "human rights for all", they waved placards condemning various measures of the intervention, including the use of troops. Ironically, as the marchers made their way towards new Parliament House, they were met not only with a line of police officers, but artillery — for a 19-gun salute to mark the opening of the Parliament — pointing at them.
The marchers settled peacefully on the lawns out the front of the new Parliament where, inside, politicians had earlier received their first ever welcome to country.
Outside on the lawns, speakers included politicians, activists and Aboriginal people from "prescribed communities" in the NT.
Newly elected Chairman of the National Aboriginal Alliance (NAA), Sol Bellear, drew upon Gough Whitlam for inspiration when he issued a warning.
"Well may they say God save the Queen because nothing will save this Parliament if they don’t pull out of the Northern Territory", he said.
"The NAA is happy to stand behind the mob from Alice Springs. You have to live there. None of these bureaucrats that went from here to there for Centrelink, they don’t know what it’s like to be in the bush, they don’t know what it’s like to go without."
Mr Bellear said Aboriginal war veterans were also having their pensions quarantined, and he called on the RSL of Australia to join the fight.
"There’s nothing worse than having half your pensions quarantined, that’s part of the stolen wages all over again; we want an immediate pullout."
Mr Bellear said what was happening in the NT was bound to spread to other parts of Australia.
"Remember what that great fighter for black women’s rights, Angela Davis, said: ‘If they come for me tonight, they’re coming for you in the morning’?".
Walter Shaw, a fourth-generation town camper from Alice Springs, said it was the third time he had been forced to visit Parliament to speak against the laws. He said the NT legislation was passed in a climate of ignorance, and described meeting with politicians who had no clue regarding its content, or consequences.
"A lot of people who passed that Bill, which is now called the intervention, didn’t know the impact and effect on us mob in the prescribed areas, the communities, and also town camps, but we’re here months later feeling the impact," he said.
"This intervention is racially vilifying our people and it’s demonising all people, both men and women, on our communities. It’s saying women neglect their children, men abuse their children, and men and women are chronic alcoholics."
Mr Shaw described the intervention as "the last nail in the coffin for the NT".
"We want to maintain our cultural existence and existence as Aboriginal people but we want to move forward so we can live side by side with all Australians", he said.
That, however, is difficult when those implementing the intervention are struggling with the task, according to another speaker, Aaron from Alice Springs.
"These people they put in don’t know jack-shit. We’ve had to fight red tape to try and get money for these people (on communities)", he said.
"We shouldn’t have to beg, borrow or steal. We’re not children getting pocket money ... not animals being told what to do. We are people, proud people, First People. And we need to tell this Parliament of today where to stick their intervention policies."
Veronica Lynch, from outside Alice Springs, delivered a message to the gathering on behalf of the tiny community of Mata Mata, in Arnhem Land.
"Before we thought it was safe to allow the new government to share our canoe. But now we feel they’re paddling in the opposite direction," the people of the Burrawanga clan wrote.
They said they were "threatened by the new laws because we don’t know where they’re taking us".
Vincent Forrester, from Mutitjulu "where they started picking on us", said: "I’m looking for a fight. Why am I looking for a fight? Because I was sitting down peaceful and then I seen this general and his soldiers come and some boofhead with strange policies, Mal Brough."
Gurindji man Maurie Ryan, a grandson of the famous Vincent Lingiari, said the intervention was "one of the most racist legislations by the Howard Government imposed on my people in the NT".
"There have been a few racist interventions ... 1770 when some idiot came and put a rag in the ground, then you had others, the Racial Discrimination Act, the whole lot," he said.
"Why don’t we give these politicians a $50 card and say go shop in Darwin or Alice Springs? This is racist... this country is based on lies."
But it was a visiting Maori MP who drew the biggest cheer when he described former Prime Minister John Howard as a "racist".
"Last year I got myself in trouble with my Parliament and your Parliament by saying John Howard is a racist bastard," Hone Harawira said.
"And chances are I’m going to get in trouble when I get back home again because today is the opening of our Parliament as well," he told a chuckling audience.
"But my heart was here. My heart is with Indigenous struggles around the world."
But while Mr Howard may be gone — and indeed was the only living former Prime Minister not to attend the national apology to the Stolen Generations in Parliament — his legacy remains.
And although the Rudd Government has promised a review within 12 months, protesters are hoping to speed up the process.
Barbara Shaw, who organised the large NT contingent, raising around $40,000 to attend the rally in Canberra, called on Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin to visit Alice Springs.
"We’ve all got the same problems. It’s not working for us and we want it stopped," she said.
She called on everyone present to further support another rally being organised for March 13 and other measures under way to overturn the NT legislation.
The Aboriginal Rights Coalition’s appeal to unionists and Labor people is one such measure.
The artillery was not fired until half an hour after the protesters had left the lawn area and returned to the Aboriginal Tent Embassy out front of Old Parliament House for a feed and a yarn. Someone in the big house must have realised it would be a bad look to be shooting cannons over the heads of protesters.
Koori Mail