Forget the past, stop today's genocide
21.03.1998

AN Australian television organisation had the foresight and courage to properly research and produce a documentary on living conditions on Aboriginal communities, the condemnation would reverberate around the globe.
As much as we are shocked by footage of starving children and drought and war-caused devastation in Africa, the real picture in northern Australia is every bit as appalling.
Indigenous author Rosemary O'Grady this week took to task the chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Sir Ronald Wilson, over his understanding _ or lack thereof _ of living conditions endured by indigenous people on remote communities.
Sir Ronald is hardly one to be criticised on the subject of concern _ whether it be for indigenous or non-indigenous. But the point made by Ms O'Grady is that so few people, including Sir Ronald, really appreciate the enormity of the social, physical and health problems in these communities.
Put simply, not every Aboriginal person in Australia dresses or speaks like Noel Pearson.
To visit a community _ and by that I mean to stay for a couple of days, living in available accommodation, eating what is available, and watching and listening to what is going on _ is an unforgettable experience.
Too many people _ mainly politicians _ fly in, shake hands with the community council members, make a promise or two to fix a tap or fly-screen the nurses' quarters, then fly out.
Why, for instance, have wet canteens (bars) costing between $2 million and $6 million been built on communities such as Aurukun and Mornington Island?
These places have incredible housing shortages, unbelievable health problems, insanitary living conditions and overcrowding. What fool sets these priorities?
The problem started more than a decade ago when the Queensland government agreed that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people should get what they had been asking for _ self-determination.
With that came self-government. But local governments need money _ rates income _ to provide facilities such as roads, drainage, sewerage, refuse disposal and water.
As the majority of residents on the communities do not have available employment, they cannot pay rates. Their sole income is welfare _ and to that end more than 30,000 Aboriginal and Islander people now have to work for three days a week to get their ``dole''.
The ``solution'' to raising rates money was to allow local communities to have a wet canteen so they could reap the profits and use that income.
The stupidity of that move has brought about the present disgraceful social problems.
To go to a northern community on a day when the welfare cheques arrive is incredible. Hundreds of people are drunk and sick before the sun goes down. Men and women fight. Children cower in fear. People lie around bare, grassless front yards of dilapidated homes, drunk, incoherent, vomiting.
Young girls with babies wait on the fringes of the bar area, hoping to salvage some of the scant funds so they can buy food for their families. Their wait is often in vain, and all they get for their troubles is another hiding.
It is horrible to see what human beings do to themselves in these circumstances. The grog turns them into pathetic, violent, helpless automatons.
The women's shelter at Kowanyama on Cape York is opposite the wet canteen. There is no protection provided for the women and the walls and veranda roof are pock-marked with bullet holes.
In the homes the children wait. They know what to expect _ 15 or 20 riotous adults arriving home when their money has run out. They will be drunk. There will be no food _ and obviously no help with such niceties as homework or the other problems faced by all children. These kids are not growing up. They are kicked in the guts and told to get up.
And what do they have to look forward to _ what example _ both parents drunk, dad bashing mum, dad bashing the kids. Frustration being expressed because they are communities with no example, no past or future. No hope.
Two years ago Aboriginal health expert Professor Gracelyn Smallwood delivered a lecture in which she illustrated the life of a typical Aboriginal girl.
Professor Smallwood said: ``Let us picture a scenario of an indigenous child being born in and growing up on a north Queensland remote community, suffering from extreme poverty, hopelessness, and generally appalling living conditions.
``This child is likely to be viewed by the authorities as being `at risk' of abuse and neglect. This assessment must be examined in light of the environment in which this child is reared.
``First, the mother-to-be is often very young, in her teenage years. During her pregnancy she can be subjected to violence and abuse from her partner and has limited access to nutritional foods, as the cost of living in remote communities is astronomical.
``If the mother is lucky, she may have antenatal care twice during her pregnancy. At 33 weeks she will be sent away to a hospital in the nearest regional centre.
``The mother usually survives the culturally inappropriate, white male midwifery service, and gives birth to an under-nourished baby, born premature, away from her support system.
``The mother then returns with her newborn baby to a poverty-stricken, isolated and remote community. If she is not encouraged to breast feed she can pay up to $17 for a tin of milk formula. The welfare cheque arrives once a fortnight. On the alternate week she will usually run out of money and to make the milk formula last, the baby receives a weaker and weaker solution.
``The baby will be underweight for his/her age and undoubtedly suffering from lactose intolerance, infected with gut parasites, skin and chest infections and possibly renal disease.''
As O'Grady has written, it is okay for people to talk of reconciliation and being sorry for the past.
But until the unemployment, grog and violence problems are addressed, there will be no change.
Perhaps it is only when you see it, in all its degradation, beamed into your living room, that you will appreciate the enormity of the problem. Then you will share my disgust at the governments and do-gooders _ black and white _ who sit back and allow this genocide to occur.