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Darren Godwell: Give white patronising a heave-ho

By Darren Godwell - Opinion

27 June 2003 - Indigenous affairs are killing my people. Women and children are copping the brunt of it. Kids are killing themselves because of sexual abuse and because they see little hope for a better future. Yet black men and women struggle to get real help to confront their demons. And the best John Howard's Government can offer is to hand out more welfare payments.

Of course, some of this predicament is of our own doing. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission leader Geoff Clark has breached the fundamental trust of any elected official by putting self-interest ahead of the common good. As Noel Pearson says, indigenous people demonstrated poor judgment in recent campaigns. Indeed, the failings of the past 20 to 30 years are, in part, the failings of an older generation of indigenous leadership. Clearly, different times require different leadership. Privilege seldom gives up power voluntarily.

But back to the Howard Government's systematic effort to suffocate indigenous affairs. The gammon man of indigenous affairs isn't Clark so much as it's Philip Ruddock. As Indigenous Affairs Minister, it is Ruddock who is responsible for the portfolio. He has attacked the falsely labelled policy of self-determination and hidden behind it as an excuse for inaction.

Surprisingly, Ruddock is joined by a band of black accomplices. The house nigger has moved from government-issued horse to government-issued desk. They pride themselves on ministerial invitations to barbecues, appointments to boards and reference groups. They know their place. Blackness without offence. Coloured company free of the challenges of difficult questions. The house niggers do great damage. Their presence legitimises seven years of policy without substance.

White privilege asserts its right to dictate the boundaries and issues in indigenous affairs. House niggers readily support this exercise of privilege. When the minister uses phrases like "Indigenous people I've spoken to say . . ." or "Indigenous people around the country tell me . . .", it's worth asking who these nameless, faceless, unrepresentative boosters are.

Paternalism, alas, has always been the bedfellow of indigenous affairs. White people, we're told, always know more about indigenous affairs than us Aborigines. At a conservative estimate, 80 per cent of what happens in indigenous communities is tied to government. But paternalism didn't work for communist states and it clearly isn't working for indigenous communities.

The past 20 to 30 years of indigenous policy has failed. But don't buy for a second that this represents a failure of indigenous self-determination. Self-determination was never attempted. What has failed is half-arsed, begrudging string-pulling by politicians and bureaucrats. Paternalism masquerading as self-determination is a failure.

TheAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 was never intended as a vehicle for self-determination. What the politicians passed in the act was incomplete at best. Indigenous self-determination has never existed under any Australian government.

The ATSIC board always struggled to direct change. It carries one of the worst governance handicaps imaginable. The ATSIC Act has always prescribed that the minister, not the board, has the power to hire and fire the chief executive, with staff appointed under the Public Service Act. Effective budget arrangements were never controlled by the ATSIC board. More than $500 million of ATSIC's budget is welfare payments in the form of work for the dole.

Ruddock misconstrues one of the act's limitations as a separation of powers issue. There was never a separation of powers issue. Quite plainly, the minister retains all effective power: he determines the overall budget and appoints the chief executive who in turn appoints all the staff. ATSIC's board was given the public responsibility, yet neutered in its authority to control its own resources.

The fundamental tenet of Australian race relations remains unchanged. Indigenous people never ceded this land and the seas that surround it. Founded on a lie, there are no documents of sale and there remains no treaty.

So what's the path out of this mess? First, we must build a fair dinkum reconciliation. We must strike an honourable agreement between the original Australians and the new Australians. Call it what you want, but let's honour old man Lingiari's wish that we "go forward together as mates".

Second, the commonwealth should fully assume the authority it was given in the 1967 referendum. Indigenous affairs needs an effective commonwealth agency under effective indigenous control. Creating another middle man is not an improvement. The only outcome will be increased interference and bureaucracy at the level of states and territories. Send the bureaucrats packing. Ship the thugs out on the same boat. Cull the black industry by deporting the white opportunists. Make the legislative amendments and let the ATSIC board get down to work.

Finally, indigenous people will never get ahead on any scale, in any form, without greater control and accountability at the grassroots. The answer is capacity building beyond bureaucratic jingoism. More true community control free of government bungling. Nepotism must end. Elected indigenous leaders and appointed executives must get effective or get out.

There are only 410,000 indigenous people in Australia, half of whom are under 15. We've a small population and, in senator Aden Ridgeway's words, we should not get overwhelmed by the size of the task. Our hope is the same as every other Australian's – dignity and the freedom to live a life of our own choosing. Let's stop making excuses. If you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.

Darren Godwell is an adjunct lecturer in indigenous studies at James Cook University in Townsville.

Source: The Australian

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