On being young and free

At least most people seem to be getting this year that to sing (as you do) our national anthem and rejoice that we are 'young and free' is yet another example of simply ignoring any idea that we have an indigenous culture. A culture which, depending on your reckoning, is 40 probably 60 and maybe even 100 thousand years old.
I am not entirely happy with the description that it is the longest continuing culture in the world, (though the case can be made and I am open to being convinced). That, I think, begs the question about whether Australian aboriginal culture has the consistency for such a period that would mean there is anything more than the tenuous link that we live on an island and so it must be 'continuing' in that sense.
But that there has been art, music, story, familial structure, aetiological mythology,is abundantly clear.
Mabo and Wik articulated from a legal point of view that as far as this country is concerned it was not an uninhabited wasteland just wasting for the young and free to some and rape it.

On this Australia Day remember we are both young and free and also old and deep

N is for

NORTHERN TERRITORY. The 'intervention' begun by the last government to address certain issues in remote aboriginals communities, is so complex that it is difficult to talk about intelligently.
On the one hand children in peril demand swift intervention for their protection, on the other so much 'intervention' smacks of patronising interference of the white fella knows best kind.
We still ahven't got this right after 200 years.

Miscellany

Don't know that Super Tuesday proved much other than the fact that it's not over yet!

This morning the Advertiser leads with a story about aboriginal people in the West Parklands having their stuff confiscated. It's a tricky issue. One dimension of it is that, it seems to me, the Adelaide City Council often likes to sweep these issues under the carpet.

I noticed for example when I used to bus to work in the CBD that at Big Race times, or Festivals aboriginal people were often moved on so that (I suppose) visitors didn't have to confront a social problem that we find intractable.

Went to see Miss Saigon last night. Hellishly expensive tickets (which I didn't buy) for a very indifferent show. Had two wonderances about why this might be so

1. Although it'd had rave reviews; are we so starved of top-end theatre that we willcall anything "good" even when it is not
2. The production lacked energy, the music is ponderous at the best of times but I thought with the exception of the eponymous Miss Saigon, the principals were poor. The Engineer...around whom much of the show revolves was almost unintelligible and his definition of the role curious to say the least.
3. We had the scary thought at half-time that because the last burst of theatre we had was in London have we been spoiled. Are we now witnessing the treue gap between Australian and international theatre? Will nothing ever seem quiet good enough again.

Constitutional recognition

A great difficulty with the whole issue about apologising to the stolen generation is the minimalist approach. That is, we will do as little as we possibly can to avoid having to accept any unforeseen consequences.
I think strategically this is a mistake and a policy that will fail.
Whilst the fear of blank cheques and unforeseen consequences is rife in our community. Let us not attempt the impossible and think that there are no costs and no consequences.
Indeed the best startegy, it seems to me, is not to do as little as possible but rather to do what needs to be done.
One aboriginal group at least (here) suggests that another issue to be picked up concerning indigenous peoples is constitutional recognition.
It has been settled some years ago (Wik and Mabo) that Australia was not "no man's land" or 'terra nullius' to use the legal term (see here for example...but it is worth Googling terra nullius(here) to get a very good range of discussions about this important idea).
And this, it seems to me is what the Constitution should recognise. There were already people here when the British decided this should be their country, and the consequences of that need to be lived with.
I had converse with someone today about the palce of Maori people in New Zealand society, she was expressing surprsie at the amount of power and influence they have.
My response to that is that the place of Maori people was recognised by the colonists by the Treat of Waitangi. While that is no perfect document or understanding, and NZ indigenous society is far from problem free at least they were not just totally ignored, or treated as if they never existed.
The anniversary of the signing of the treaty of Waitangi is tomorrow, February 6th

The problem of abuse

As the struggle of dealing with child sexual abuse in remote aboriginal communities continues, we should not be surprised that this stretches resources (here). The problem is deeper than we think, or want to admit.

An example of the extent of that this week is that we have seen the Roman Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles make an enormous financial settlement with victims of abuse in that Diocese over 50 years (here). Our own local Anglican Diocese has been struggling with this issue  for some years. And it does indeed stretch our resources.

It is important to recognise that while the provision of adequate law enforcement, compensating victims , and the need to start again are critcal issues and need to be dealt with well.

But they  beg the question of whether they are attempts at local containment of a problem that is actually much wider. 

This certainly has been a major critique of the aboriginal community focus. The indigenous people are an easy target, but what of non-indigenous communities.

None of my blog readers would imagine that I am  suggesting that we should not be throwing resources to support aboriginal communites. May they not be used to posture and paint power-brokers in a good political light!

Churches, too, are an easy target. Highly visible and outspoken, and good targets for the charge of hypocrisy. But do we imagine that abuse is limited to the church alone.

Certainly not!

My contention would be that there is a fundamental issue about MEN. Yes, men! 

Although there are a few isolated cases (readily sensationalised by a male dominated media) of women abusers the real problem is men.

We live in a society, both black and white, religious and non-religious which allows men, not all men, to believe that you have a good chance of getting away with abuse.

Now maybe we are tightening up on this.

But I don't want to have narrow 'easy-target' focuses when there is clearly a much wider problem throughout society.

Where are the resources for schools to address the teaching of programs to help boys become the sort of men we want them to be?

Where is the wholesale examination of why our legal system by and large fails to convict rapists and abusers (anything up to 85-95% perpetrators of vilent sexual attack are never convicted or brought to justice)

You see, it is easier to hit the soft targets, but the problem is much more extensive than that.

Things that go bump in the night

It has been a funny old week with many disturbing things. They vary in quality, some seem serious, some seem ho-hum, some are depressing. I can do things about some of them and nothing about others. It all leaves me feeling just a little dazed about what is going on in my life.

• Sunday was my first Sunday back, everything went OK. Sometimes with a longish break your drop the rhythm and its hard work just leading worship. It wasn't so this week. Maybe that's good and maybe that's bad. It rather reminds me of the cartoon of the old woman shaking the priest's hand at the door of the Church, after one of a the new style of services (so typical of the 60s and 70s) had not gone particularly well. "Don't worry Vicar, " she said, "we'll soon be rattling all the new words off without a thought!"
• We also had a little administrative meeting after church and I came away feeling ambushed about discussions that had obviously taken place while I had been away and no one had bothered to tell me about them. The actual content didn't bother me so much, but I was left with a sense of little concern for me and my feelings.
• The weather has been dark and cold, and I was very conscious that last year this took a toll on my mental outlook. I cannot wait for it to end, but there is weeks to go.
• All this Aboriginal stuff is horrible. I feel for those communities that are so vulnerable to government whim and posturing in order to gain electoral advantage
• I was deeply disturbed after Spiritual Direction this week. I came away with a feeling that I had made no connection at all with my Director. And I wanted to go back and say "This can't go on!" and yet the thought of having to find someone else is too much to bear. The irony is that (as those who know about Direction will testify) that such a strong response inevitable means some powerful sort of movement within.
• Despite my previous bemoanings that my dream analysis has been pretty lacklustre, I have really been having a series of dreams which have quite disturbed me.
• I was more than a little spooked by the Religion Report this week (here) An awful story of alleged systematic child abuse within a 'respectable' religious order, where almost all of the serving brothers have had allegations brought against them. I am not involved. I don't know any of the people. But it has saddened me greatly. Perhaps it confronts an overly idealistic vision of the religious life, which the world sees through all too readily but which I have clung on to. What if, as the fiercest critics say, it is all just a sham and a cover for evil and neurosis? A case could be made.
• Yesterday, I saw my 89 year old friend. In the process of great decline. He is sad and depressed and will die sometime. His spirit is almost defeated. His body is packing up. His active mind is understimulated. There was little I could do or say to address any of this.
• This morning in my prayers I realised how fed up I am of all this.How angry with the God who seems to be playing "Yes Minister" with me!...yes this is what I call the Appleby effect. . I have noted it before when I have watched.. as I have this week.... ten episodes of that hilarious but bitterly cynical show which I got on DVD for my birthday
  

I am prepared to admit that all this might have some greater meaning...but enough is enough!!

Weakening the twenty second catch

Many will be, if not pleased then, interested to hear that the dreaded health checks of aboriginal children will not be compulsory. (see Minister Abbot's comments here)
Threats of these checks have allegedly sent mothers scurrying with their children into the bush, fearful that those who 'fail' their tests will be removed from their parents. This, after all, is a strategy used throughout Australia, not just in aboriginal communities...children 'at risk' are placed in care. It is difficult to know what else to do, since child abuse situations clearly demand prompt action.
What, too, if checks actually uncover child abuse and promises have been made that children will be left with their families...whilst the spectre of removing children from their parents looms large in aboriginal communities, nevertheless what to do?
All this stresses the need to have a properly resourced (and highly resourced) totally independent body that oversees this. That is totally free of political interference.
Maybe this is just vain hope and naivete on my part. As each decade goes on this problem get worse, and more expensive. At what point will we bite the bullet and say this is actually more important than being in Iraq. Or maybe I just have unrealistic expectations of what governments and politics can achieve.

Black children overboard?

I have resisted the temptation to leap (overboard?) on this awful issue of disarray (too weak?) or anarchy( too strong?) in remote aboriginal communities.
I don't know that I have formulated clear ideas about this issue so much as a series of dilemmas which I can't easily get my mind around. I suspect in this regard I am like many people.

• There is no doubt that these problems exist and need immediate attention
• We are so city focussed in this country that we have a huge problem in this country taking issues in remote and rural communities. It is easy for these issues to slip out of any effective focus and to get anything done. This is not just an issue about abuse, it is also about the inadequate resources that are made available for health, education and human services in general
• This problem has been with us for decades and I am suspicious of why there is now such a strong focus. The electorate is (in my mind) rightly suspicious fo what the political motivation for this might be; and the phrase Black Tampa, perhaps a highly emotive one, is worth keeping in my mind
• It would seem to me that everyone should be trying to keep our political masters (for masters they mainly are) out of the controversial process decision making. This seems unlikely since we are talking big bucks, and the current political mood is not so much about the community good as about getting value for the dollar.
• I also have tucked at the back of my mind the question of why the focus is on aboriginal communities alone. This is not to understate the importance and the community's particular responsibility for the ruin of aboriginal people. But what of other socially depressed and oppressed groups
• The nature of these sorts of issues is difficult to discuss and uncover, but let us not pretend that the issue sof child abuse is in aboriginal communities alone or exclusively
• This stuff is not good!