A Call for an INTERACTIVE BLOG for ABORIGINAL RIGHTS COALITION (SYDNEY)

A Call for an INTERACTIVE BLOG for ABORIGINAL RIGHTS COALITION (SYDNEY)

ABORIGINAL NEWS THIS WEEK (20th August 2011)

I was just watching the News on ABC 24 (12 noon) when Marcia Langton was introduced as an “honored and respected” Aboriginal academic and Aboriginal spokesperson who had just delivered a speech honoring Vincent Lingiari and his struggle for Land Rights. Almost as an afterthought the commentator added at the end of his report the fact that the Lingiari family had boycotted the speech and had refused to be there to listen to Langton as she gave the 12^th Annual Vincent Lingiari Lecture at the Charles Darwin University because of her long term support for the NT Intervention.

When is the Greater Australian Community (GAC) and its political commentators and journalists going to wake up to the fact that we are sick and tired of THEM trying to select our spokespersons and “leaders” for us?  One of the earliest episodes of  ‘THE DRUM” on ABC 24 had the moderator lean forward and intently demand (on some Aboriginal issue)  “WHAT DOES NOEL PEARSON SAY ABOUT THIS?  WHY HASN’T  HE BEEN ASKED?”

Frankly we are fed up to the back teeth of having Langton and Pearson rammed down our throats.  These two extreme right-wing political apologists both started out their political careers as comparatively ‘left-wing” idealists.  When I first met Langton she was a 17 year old student who addressed the ‘Women in Politics Conference’ during the 1975  International Women’s Year gathering in Canberra where more than 2000 women discussed everything of any importance to women throughout Australia.  DURING THE CONFERENCE A GROUP OF WOMEN FROM WESTERN QUEENSLAND ACTUALLY TRIED TO HAVE ALL ABORIGINAL WOMEN REMOVED AND BANNED FROM ATTENDING ON THE GROUNDS THAT ABORIGINAL WERE NOT REALLY HUMAN (TRUE!)

At that time Matcia showed such promise.  Similarly, when Noel Pearson first gained access to television, he was not the narrow minded Lutheran of his childhood and latter years. His big swing and return to the Political/Religio Right reflects his becoming a favoured  protégée of the Howard administration (and of Howard himself). 

I have discussed the process by which the right subornes Aboriginal leaders elsewhere, but I will add that article on for those who may be interested but have missed the opportunity of reading  it when it was first published in the Green Left Weekly.

GOOD ON YOU, THE LINGIARI FAMILY! 

ABORIGINAL PEOPLE SHOULD ALSO BOYCOTT PEARSON!

LET OUR FEELINGS BE KNOWN!

Also this week on ABC24.

Aboriginal patients from the new Port Hedland hospital  (many receiving daily dialysis for kidney failure) are living rough on an almost bare patch of scrub land (where nothing grows higher than knee height) and being nursed by their family members.   The “hostel” that was shown in the background had nothing to do with extending hospital facilities for patients and their families.  The money allocated for hostels in the mining areas of north western Australia by the Federal government was earmarked for Aboriginal trainees and employees of mining companies,  One glance was enough to confirm that this accommodation was designed to house single men and had nothing to do with the hospital.

A second article a few days later proved that accommodation for Aboriginal trainees and employees is also sorely needed in Port Hedland.   Do you remember Forrest, the head of Rio Tinto (I think) when he promised Howard that he could find 50,000 jobs for Aboriginals in the mining industry?   Well the government has paid thousands of dollars in subsidies for more than 900 Aboriginal trainees, of whom only 300 are employed.  A few Aboriginal people from the south and from the eastern states have obtained appropriate employment but the majority of the 300 (from the NT and the north of WA) are employed as industrial cleaners using industrial strength solvents and high pressure hoses, despite being trained for higher duties as drivers and mechanics. Some trainees are earning only fifty dollars a day (less than the dole) and are sleeping rough in the bush while attending Port Hedland TAFE as they have no hope of paying the high rents of  P.H.

Only last week a maintenance worker was crushed to death . It is not known if he was Aboriginal, or not, but any death is to be abhorred.  Remember that Aboriginal workers are often at the mines because of a little known aspect of the Labor government’s version of NT Intervention , “Closing the Gap”,  requires unemployed Aboriginals to accept any job offered regardless of how far removed it is from their home country, or loose their benefits.

These are issues not necessarily taken up by organisations that concentrate on the NT Intervention.

The Aboriginal Rights Coalition (Sydney) can no longer organize meetings and demonstrations or provide speakers on such issues as the above. However my daughter Cathy, myself and some others feel the need to find alternative ways to develop actions and protests around such issues. There are two things that are influencing our thinking, firstly “I.T.” (Internet Technology) which I am not very good at.  The second is “Individual Responsibility”.

It is time to become self motivated and take responsibility for one’s own actions.   What can you do? Who can you write to?.  Who can you text/?  Who can you talk to?  How can you protest and support Aboriginal people? If you are more canny than me about the Internet, is there any way that we can set up an open blog where everyone can contribute?

We need people to express their thoughts on Aboriginal Issues, not just another site for news.

The Aboriginal Rights Coalition needs an interactive blog,