BOOKS: Henry Reynolds on Tasmania

Work has taken yours truly to a small island off the coast of Mexico. It's a gorgeous place known for its delightful landscape ...

... and for the genocide committed by its early settlers.

So where did all this luscious murderous Tasmanian stuff emerge from? I decided to spend a Friday afternoon finding out.

It didn't involve much research or effort on my part. I just joined some of Tasmania's chattering classes at an upmarket bookshop in Launceston There we were greeted and seated before Henry Reynolds and another historian named Eric.

We all packed together to hear Reynolds tell us about a book he's just written on the history of Tasmania. Reynolds' work certainly isn't the first. There have been plenty of books on Tasmanian history. Go to any bookshop in Hobart or other town on the island and you'll find an entire section on Tasmaniana.

Eric suggested that Reynolds' book was like a distant autobiography of his own dealings with Tassie. Reynolds, it so happens, did most of his study in Tasmania. He then went into exile in Queensland before returning.

Reynolds says that when he was at school, most history taught was about England. Ironically, Tasmanians have had a very rich tradition of writing about the history of their colony/state.

Reynolds tells us that perhaps the reason for this is that everywhere you look, you are reminded of the island's English colonial history which has been preserved in its old buildings.

There's lots of Georgian style buildings. Tasmania was a filthy rich colony, especially during its boom times of the 1830's and 1880's.

Reynolds says he was first approached by Cambridge University Press 10 years ago to write this short history. He was given a 100,000 word limit. He starts his work by looking at European settlement in Tasmania through the eyes of its Aboriginal tribes who has lived in the island for around 300 generations. These tribes were virtually cut off from the mainland by the Bass Strait.

I was surprised to hear that as late as the 1960's, there were indigenous peoples in Tasmania who has not met white people. Reynolds he has spoken to some of these people.

... to be continued.


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MEDIA: American-owned newspaper plays the Manne

It was bound to happen. That American-owned newspaper that likes to call itself The Australian has shown itself to be the 'Heart of the Nation' with a vicious and vitriolic attack on La Trobe University academic Robert Manne.

And why? Because Professor Manne wrote 25,000 critical words about the paper.

And in its response, The Oz left not a single angle uncovered, with even an exceptionally tasteful cartoon showing Manne ... wait for it ... sitting naked on the toilet and farting.

It really was intelligent stuff from The Oz. I'm just wondering whether they had to tap Manne's phone to put all this together.

Then again, to be fair, Manne probably doesn't keep his mobile in the dunny.

Perhaps the most hilarious feature of the critique was that they couldn't get regular indigenous writer Noel Pearson (or indeed any indigenous writer) to respond to Manne's criticism of The Oz's coverage of indigenous issues. Instead, Uncle Chris Mitchell from the WelovetheNTIntervention Tribe was given (or rather, gave himself) the task of responding.

Seriously, is it any wonder The Oz is fast losing as much credibility as it is readers and revenue? Perhaps they should stick to printing shonky op-eds.

I feel sorry for all the genuinely good journos and writers and photographers and other media professionals who have to share page and website space with this kind of near-psychotic babble. I mean, all that vitriol for one single politics academic?

UPDATE I: A regular writer for The Oz (who once wrote for Crikey) goes completely ballistic on his Facebook wall, describing Manne's

... grotesque and evil approach to the Malaysian solution ...

Ouch!

Words © 2011 Irfan Yusuf

OPINION: Why Conservatives should have been the first to apologise to indigenous Australians ...

(This article was first published on ABC Unleashed on 31 January 2008 to coincide with the Prime Minister's token apology to the Stolen Generation.)

Australian conservatives love talking about the importance of family values and of strengthening families. They also love talking about why migrants should be force-fed a good dose of cultural integration, even if it means having them memorise a dodgy citizenship booklet.

But for some reason, when it comes to the cultures and families of Indigenous Aussies, the rules applying to families and integration are turned on their head. Confused? Read on.


Budget dinners and Indigenous telephones...

On budget night two years ago, I found myself sitting in the Great Hall of Parliament House chatting away with some woman from a Liberal Party branch. After being lectured by her for 10 minutes on why "those nasty Mozzlems" didn't belong in Australia, I thought I might change the topic. So I switched to Indigenous affairs. The conversation went something like this:


SHE: Oh, them Abbos! What they need is a good dose of Western Christian civilisation.

ME: Well, madam, do you consider yourself a conservative?

SHE: Of course!

ME: And do you support the status quo?

SHE: Well, yes I do.

ME: Now on the one hand, we have around 200 years of European cultural status quo on this continent. We also have 40,000 years of Indigenous cultural status quo.

SHE: Yes, and ...

ME: Well, surely a genuine conservative would show more reverence and respect to a 40,000-year-old cultural status quo, wouldn't they?

SHE: Why? Did you know that the Aborigines didn't have telephones?

ME: Neither did Arthur Phillip, for that matter.

SHE: Huh! You must be one of them. You certainly look like it!

It's a bit rich for white-skinned Anglo-Aussies to lecture newer migrants on integration. What efforts did English, Irish, Scottish and other convicts and settlers make to integrate with Indigenous cultures?


Dr Nelson puts his heart in it...

One of my most memorable tasks as a member of the NSW Liberal Party State Council was to sit on the pre-selection panel for Dr Brendan Nelson. I've written about that experience here. After entering Parliament, Dr Nelson regularly bombarded us with all kinds of newsletters, reports and speeches.

Nelson had his own distinctive slogan and logo on all stationery - letterheads, envelopes etc. With the stars of the Southern Cross in the background, the words "Bradfield: Put your heart in it!" screamed out at you each time you received something from the good doctor.

Back in those days, Nelson was relying on the good graces of the relatively more left wing "Group" faction of the party which had secured him the preselection. The Group were always taunted by us for wanting to look more like the ALP than the ALP, supporting allegedly trendy causes such as the Republic and Aboriginal land rights.

One report Dr Nelson sent out was a summary of the 689-page Bringing Them Home report produced by the Human Rights & Equal Opportunity Commission as part of its "National Inquiry into the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families". Accompanying the summary was a letter from Dr Nelson urging all delegates to read the report. I can't recall whether Nelson mentioned a national apology back then, but it was clear from Nelson's covering letter that he regarded the treatment of Indigenous families as a source of profound national shame.


Dr Nelson takes his heart out of it...

That was then. Nelson is now Opposition Leader, heavily reliant on the votes of more conservative Liberal MPs. His home state is dominated by a small cabal of far-Right apparatchiks. His back bench includes a young MP who, as president of the NSW Young Libs and staffer for Liberal MLC David Clarke, engaged in a war of attrition against anyone (including a former NSW Opposition Leader) deemed insufficiently right wing.

Now Nelson has to beat his chest and prove his conservative credentials by standing up for good clean wholesome family values. Even if it means showing gross insensitivity toward Indigenous Australians whose families were forcibly ripped apart.

Nelson claims an apology to victims of the stolen generation will reinforce a "victim mentality". In fact, the opposite is more likely the case. The fact that no apology has yet been made ensures this issue remains even more of a festering sore among Indigenous Aussies. An apology may well go a long way to healing that sore and taking reconciliation forward.

Nelson asks whether the apology is "the most important issue that's facing Australia when we've seen a decline in the share market, home interest rates go up, petrol get more expensive and a basket full of groceries harder to fill". Yet how much influence does the government really have over these matters? Or is Nelson going to lead the next Federal Opposition with the campaign slogan "Keeping interest rates at record lows"?

John Howard had little control over interest rates, yet he still apologised to voters each time interest rates rose. Neither Brendan Nelson nor Kevin Rudd nor me nor most readers had anything to do with stealing Indigenous kids from their parents. Methinks being stolen from your family is worse than having troubles with your mortgage.

Brendan doesn't seem to understand this. Malcolm certainly does. Which probably explains why most punters and pundits take for granted that the future belongs to Malcolm.

A lesson on Christian values...

I asked an Aboriginal mate of mine named John about whether an apology would be nice. John was one of thousands of Aboriginal Aussies whose family was forcibly broken up in an attempt to "Christianise" them. It must have worked on John as he approached the issue in a very Christian manner.

"It isn't about whether you should say sorry even though you had nothing to do with it. What you should really be asking is this: If this happened to you, if you were stolen from your family, would you want to receive an apology? And more importantly, would the apology help in taking us all beyond the original injustice?"

I guess it's an extension of Christ's saying that we should love our neighbour as we love ourselves. Certainly I had that drummed into me during 10 years at St Andrews.

If we really are a Christian nation (as some conservatives claim), surely we should be taking some advice from the man (or rather, Son of Man) himself in how we deal with each other. Conservatives should be tripping over each other to make a collective apology not just to the Stolen Generation but to all Indigenous Aussies for all they have suffered thanks to our presence here.

Conclusion

Dr Nelson, follow your own advice and put your heart in it!


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COMMENT: Keneally on Australia Day and indigenous suffering ...

Prominent historian Thomas Keneally is no longer reluctant to celebrate Australia Day.

On Australia Day, I believe, most reasonable Australians now admit that the descent of European people upon Australia brought bewilderment and pain for the Eora people of the Sydney basin, an overturning of an indigenous cosmos. That bewilderment and pain would spread ultimately throughout the prodigious hinterland and remain there to this day. That is one of the reasons there have always been a number of suggested alternatives to this day, and the idea is put forth that the date is a two-edged sword. I confess I have myself argued so.

Yet maybe because it has come to stand for a duality of experiences, genesis and loss, it has remained the national day.

Indeed. But does that mean that indigenous people in the Northern Territory must remain the only Australians to be subject to a legal regime whose implementation requires suspension of the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act?

If I was an indigenous Australian, especially a Territorian, I'd see little reason to celebrate.

RACISM: Submission for urgent UN action on NT Intervention ...

A group of respected lawyers acting for ...

... a number of Aboriginal people who reside inPrescribed Areas in the Northern Territory and are subject to the measures of the Northern Territory Intervention ...

... has prepared a 64 page submission and lodged it with the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. You can download and read the document in full care of the National Indigenous Times website here. It makes compelling reading.

To claim that the Commonwealth government can only overcome profound institutional and other disadvantage of indigenous people by excluding government action from the provisions of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) is effectively an admission that the government action does in itself constitute racial discrimination. Removing disadvantange by racist means may achieve some short term goals, but in the long term it further institutionalises racism.

If you read nothing else in this report, at least read the executive summary.

CRIKEY: Rudd and the return of multiculturalism ...

John Howard never liked the "m" word. But Kevin Rudd has brought it back, reinstating the Australian Multicultural Advisory Council that Howard abolished. At one time, many of us associated multiculturalism with a government-funded industry filled with "ethnic" leaders busily stacking their organisations so that they could employ their otherwise-unemployable nephews and/or stack ALP (or in my case, Liberal) branches for pre-selection purposes.

And after reading the story in today’s Sydney Morning Herald, you might be tempted to believe that the usual suspects will form part of this council.

Suspects like the kind of largely irrelevant self-appointed leaders of Muslim religious organisations, most of whom were middle aged first generation migrant men who push women away from mosques and who even validate domestic violence. Howard had little hesitation in placing these men on his Muslim Community Reference Group because they had little ability to engage with media and politicians.

Some of them enjoyed making embarrassing public statements, and their removal from the public stage has provided plenty of relief to a beleaguered faith sector to often held collectively responsible for events overseas they have little control over. Imagine if all Queenslanders were held responsible for Attorney-General Kevin Shine’s insensitive remarks on rape victims.

Rudd’s choice of nominees for his Multicultural Advisory Council reflects a good mix of academia, sport, professional experience and grassroots activism. The only Muslim religious community representative, Joumanah El Matrah, belongs to an organisation that works tirelessly at a grassroots level with women from emerging communities such as Afghans, Iraqis and Africans. Generally media-shy, El Matrah is one of Australian Islam’s unsung heroines.

The interests of indigenous communities are too often ignored in discussions about multiculturalism.

Rudd’s committee includes Rhonda Jacobsen, an accomplished indigenous lawyer who has written extensively on the legal aspects of reconciliation. Without exception, these appointees represent the best and brightest of Australian pluralism.

Hopefully they will advise the Rudd government in such a manner that minorities won’t be marginalised or turned into political wedges in a manner so common during the 11 years of Howard’s monocultural madness.

First published in Crikey on 18 December 2008.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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OPINION: Appreciating Australia's indigenous heritage ...

When I was growing up, some of my Indo-Pakistani aunties expressed some extraordinary views. One was particularly scathing of Indo-Pakistani doctors who married gori (Hindi/Urdu for "white-skinned" ) women. "These gori women are all cheap. They just take our men's money and then leave them for some handsome white fellow!"

It wasn't just the auntie's implication that men of Indo-Pakistani origin could not be good-looking that offended me. It was also the idea that women with white skin were necessarily selfish, money-hungry and incapable of maintaining stable relationships with wealthy tanned medical practitioners. This particular auntie often boasted of being highly educated herself. Apparently she had completed a Masters degree in Indian literature from some university whose name I could never pronounce and won't even try spelling.

However, having a quality tertiary education doesn't inoculate one from making absurd generalisations about entire groups of people. Back in May 2006, I found myself seething with anger and disgust having read an article in a certain newspaper which contained this startling claim: "Traditional Aboriginal society was always harsh on women".

Indeed, I was so disgusted to read this that I put fingers to keyboard and sent the following e-mail to the opinion editor:

It reflects poorly on your newspaper that it could [publish a] piece... Claiming that Aboriginal cultures are characterised by abuse toward women and children is a gross insult to our nation's cultural heritage. Would you publish an article if the writer to make such claims about Jewish cultures? Or about Catholic or English-speaking cultures?

The editor's response spoke volumes.

I think it reflects poorly on you that you can't even think outside your narrow ideological box. What is wrong with competing ideas, esp[ecially] , given that the 30-year orthodoxy of self determination has disadvantaged so many indigenous Australians in the outback.

Whether indigenous Australians should be stopped from living anywhere in what is essentially their country is a debate I'd rather avoid. My concern is this strange obsession some allegedly conservative people have with proving that their culture is somehow superior to everyone else's. And even more strangely, that they somehow have the right to issue black cheque fatwas about the cultures and histories of entire races.

The Australian recently published some important observations of Major-General Dave Chalmers , who has just completed an 18 month stint running the Northern Territory Intervention. Chalmers is convinced indigenous Australians can only secure a better future by preserving their culture. And this can only be done if we as a broader Australian community learn to respect indigenous cultures.

Over time, we as a society have undervalued indigenous culture and in many places it's been lost... And where it's been lost, people have lost their compass, they've lost their framework of life. It's not being replaced by a mainstream Australian framework, and people are in limbo. We need to be paying a lot more attention to traditional healers and traditional lawmakers, the role they played, and play, in people's lives.

Genuine conservatives show genuine respect and reverence to our 40,000 year indigenous cultural status quo at least as much as they will to our 220-odd year European status quo. That involves recognising the sophistication of indigenous communities. In her 2007 book The Outsiders Within: Telling Australia's Indigenous-Asian Story Peta Stephenson tells just some of the stories of trade and cultural interaction (and indeed intermarriage) between indigenous tribes and Makassar trepang fishermen from Sulawesi (going back at least a century before Captain Phillip landed in Botany Bay) and Chinese indentured labourers.

Stephenson shows that these interactions were suppressed by colonial and Australian authorities, with members of culturally mixed families torn apart. Her nook should convince even the most hardened monoculturalist the Indigenous Australia wasn't some isolated monolithic horde of noble savages waiting for the Poms to civilise them. Before and after Europeans settled and plundered, non-European peoples interacted with indigenous peoples on more equal terms, respecting their laws and customs.

We've all heard of Cathy Freeman's indigenous heritage. But how many of us are aware that Freeman is also part-Chinese? Her great-great grandfather moved from China in the late 19th century to work on sugarcane farms in northern Queensland. Stephenson writes that Freeman actively supported Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympics, and Chinese-language newspapers openly celebrate her Chinese heritage even if mainstream newspapers ignore it.

And who could forget the 1988 bicentennial celebrations, including the re-enactment of the Endeavour landing in Sydney? Our Territorian cousins up north had their own celebration, with the landing of the Hati Marege (meaning "Heart of Arnhem Land" in Indonesian) on the Arnhem Land coast. Stephenson provides evidence of Makassar fisherman from Sulawesi making annual voyages to fish for trepang (sea cucumbers) and to trade with the local Yolngu people since as early as the 17th century. This mutually beneficial trading relationship was banned by the South Australian government in 1906-07, ensuring the local Aboriginal people became isolated and insular. Mixed Makassan and indigenous families were torn apart, some only reunited recently after 80 years.

Indigenous Australians entered into complex and sophisticated trade relations with numerous non-European peoples both before and after colonisation and dispossession. They didn't need Europeans to teach them how to interact with outsiders. It's about time we learned more about these aspects of indigenous history so that we can enjoy the same healthy respect and admiration for the first Australians as Major-General Chalmers.

First published on the ABC Unleashed website on Wednesday 03 December 2008.

Words © 2008 Irfan Yusuf


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COMMENT: It's good to see someone is benefiting from the NT intervention ...

Apparently the only way a government can fight child abuse in indigenous communities is to put aside the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act. Yep, welcome to 21st century Australian conservatism. Where 3 decades of bipartisan legislative consensus can be thrown aside with little complaint from either side.

This exraordinary legislation was passed at lightening speed through both Houses of Federal Parliament in mid-August. We are told that indigenous Aussies are benefitting from the intervention. That may well be true. But there is one group certainly benefitting.

The Weekend Australian Financial Review reported on 18-19 August 2007 that ...

Commonwealth public servants have leapt at the offer of a $37,000 allowance to work as "business managers" in remote Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory, but there are concerns about whether they have the commitment and expertise for the job.

At $37K a pop, who needs commitment? The report continues ...

The business managers will be the government's representatives on the ground following the takeover of NT Aboriginal communities.

Heck, I'd jump at the opportunity of grabbing a $37,000 payrise just to 'represent' the Commonwealth up north. Here, Mr Brough, you can have my CV!

Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough said this past week that 300 applications for the positions had been received, far more than the government was looking for ...

Placements are for a period of up to 12 months, with the managers given the opportunity to return home every three months.

And what to the people on the ground, most affected by the intervention, think of all this?

But indigenous communities, which have to hand over control to these outsiders, have questioned how these public servants will perform and complained of lack of details regarding their duties ...

At one of the targetted communities, Yirrkala, council co-ordinator Adrian Rota expressed frustration at a lack of detail regarding the business managers.

The Laynhapuy Homelands Association represents 19 "outstation" Aboriginal communities in north-east Arnham Land ... Deputy CEO Ric Norton said the recruitment could attract ambitious but unsuitable public servants.

Kevin Rudd has already committed the ALP to continuing with the intervention should his party win next Saturday. Let's hope a Labor victory leads to a greater degree of consultation with the communities on the ground.

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf



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COMMENT: More on Howard's alleged disdain for symbols ...

If you believe what John Howard told the Sydney Institute last night, you’d think John Howard is allergic to the use of symbols. Yeah, right.

The citizenship booklet says that Australia has three official flags. There’s the one Howard is quite happy to see used as a symbol of race riots at Cronulla. He refused to condemn anyone using this flag, even if it involved getting pissed and stoned and screaming “F#ck the Lebs! F#ck the wogs!!”

But what would Howard think of people sing the other two official flags – those of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians respectively – being used for such a purpose? Was Howard a happy camper when Cathy Freeman donned the Aboriginal flag after winning her race at the 1994 Commonwealth Games?

Howard has been quite happy to use his favourite cultural symbols as political wedges to divide Australians. He’s quite happy to marginalise one group for not integrating and not abiding by his nebulous “Australian values”. Yet his government is quite happy to provide special favours to other (often white Anglo) groups whose ongoing record in integration is much worse.

Yet Howard’s use of symbols has been repeatedly shown in Crikey to be based on historical mythology and ignorance. Remember his response to the artist who portrayed the Virgin Mary wearing a face-veil?

I spent much of last weekend watching Melbourne’s newest funny-man Aamer Rahman and his colleagues perform Fear Of A Brown Planet at the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Much of Rahman’s act involved using ‘reverse’ racism. Here's a taste ...

I ask you white people this question – what’s your problem? Always complaining about others. Muslims trying to kill me. Refugees taking my job. And I love this one. Aboriginals have a drinking problem. Yeah, right. Any nation that can turn a beach barbecue into a neo-Nazi rally in a few hours has no right to complain about other people’s drinking!

Sometimes comedy can be used to express uncomfortable truths …

Words © 2007 Irfan Yusuf