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Making Indigenous Poverty History

By Graham Ring

27 July 2006 - People with names like Mabo and Mundine don’t take backward steps. Graham Ring discovers a force to be reckoned with.

For someone brought up as a good Catholic boy, I’m spending way too much time around the doubtful precincts of the Collins Street Baptist Church here in Melbourne. The Supreme Commander of all Land Forces is very much involved with the church, and from time to time she issues an Instruction that my presence there is required.

So it was that I ended up at the church recently for the Victorian launch of the ‘Make Indigenous Poverty History’ campaign.

Once upon a time churches used to be about bells and smells and arcane rituals. Now it seems that the men and - gasp! - women of the cloth, get around monstering people about social justice.

Instead of running afternoon teas and macramé workshops they are developing the rather bolshie habit of pointing out that wealthy, complacent Australia has unfinished business to address.

The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are eight brave declarations that ‘enough is enough’.

They seek the eradication of poverty and hunger, and the promotion of health, education and environmental sustainability.

This courageous vision throws the gauntlet at the feet of wealthy western countries like Australia.

No amount of sophistry can disguise the fact that white, middle-class Australians like me live ‘high on the hog’ while children in Africa die from mosquito bites.

It’s easy to become numb to the deluge of statistics that bear out the scale of Indigenous poverty and disadvantage in our own country. To forget that those numbers on the charts are Aboriginal Australians struggling to survive. Real people experiencing real misery.

The Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign shines a powerful torch on our own country’s indifference towards Indigenous poverty.

At the Victorian launch, I had the good fortune to meet Graeme Mundine, who has the same easy going nature as his brother, ALP honcho Warren.

Graeme’s formal title of ‘Executive Secretary of the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission’ is a bit of a mouthful, but this bloke doesn’t stand on ceremony.

When you’re one of eleven children you have to learn how to get on with other folk, and not take yourself too seriously.

Mundine says that as we campaign to achieve the Millennium Development Goals we should not forget the world’s Indigenous peoples, hence his call to ‘make Indigenous poverty history by 2015’.

Aden Ridgeway launched the national campaign last November at a church service in Parramatta. Bishop Saibo Mabo, the Deputy Chair of NATSIEC and Anglican Bishop of the Torres Strait, also spoke to the gathering.

If the name Mundine packs a punch, then the Mabo moniker is shared by perhaps the most dedicated and courageous fighter for social justice that this country has ever known.

The great Edward ‘Koiki’ Mabo barnstormed his way through a moribund European legal system to ensure that his Murray Island people would have legal title to their country.

I reckon that once someone called Mabo sets their heart on something the only sensible course of action is to immediately accede to all their demands. It saves time.

ALP stalwarts Warren Snowdon, Bob McMullan and Peter Garrett - all of whom have more integrity than hair - made adjournment speeches in the House of Reps to coincide with the commencement of the national campaign.

McMullan noted that for all the passionate debate about these issues, the fact that the relative disadvantage of Indigenous Australians has worsened over the last decade has gone almost unnoticed.

Garrett too had the good oil. He rocked the House, saying that if we are fair dinkum about addressing poverty then we must embrace the MIPH campaign.

At the launch in Melbourne, we listened to a compelling address by former pastor Grant Paulson that had people leaning forward in their seats.

The Paulson mob were originally from Cherbourg, and Grant’s father Graeme, is a senior figure in the Queensland Baptist Church.

Paulson junior is a man of great personal warmth. Some time ago I attended a service at Collins Street in his company and, feeling the chill on my naked noggin, I reached into my pocket for a beanie.

Unsure of protocol, I asked Grant if it was disrespectful to wear a hat in the church. “Not if your head’s cold,” he smiled.

Paulson is also a speaker of some power. Not an old fashioned tub-thumper, but a practitioner of the much more dangerous art of sweet reason. He spoke in measured tones about the hope we all experienced in the 1990’s as the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation pointed the way forward, and the way that the process had subsequently stumbled and stalled.

Then he talked about ‘justice’ and ‘integrity’ in a way that made the hair on the back of my neck prickle.

At the conclusion of the service, we queued to sign a ‘poverty pole’, committing ourselves to ensuring that the Millennium Development Goals address the disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Australians, and vowing to hold our elected leaders to account.

The Melbourne launch was well-attended, moving, and a bit special. If you’re wondering what in God’s name pastors and priests are doing spending their valuable time campaigning for social justice, the answer is easy. They’re changing the world.

See you in church.

Graham Ring is an award-winning writer and a fortnightly columnist and writer for NIT.

Source: The National Indigenous Times

Further information: make indigenous poverty history action page - includes news index and external links

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