AUSTRALIA’S SHAME
A 45 minute documentary – August 2000
Script
By Marion Mayer-Hohdahl
Camera: Joel Peterson
VT editor: Carlos dos Santos
Pictures start at 2 :00
TEXT
2.04
The fifth continent’s preparing for the Olympic Games in Sydney.
2.11 Title: AUSTRALIA’S UNCOMFORTABLE HERITAGE
2.19
Australia’s aborigines have threatened huge demonstrations to draw attention to discrimination against them. They see the Olympics as a festival of the white establishment. Aborigines feel they’re treated as second class people.
2.32
TITLE: A FILM BY MARION MAYER HOHDAHL
2.40
In Australian sports institutes, athletes train for the Games. Amongst the 600 athletes, just 20 are aborigines.
2.49
O-sound
James Swan,
Boxer
It’s much more tougher to actually get into these teams specially because we are naturally talented, and we find it a bit harder when it comes to politics and bureaucratics.
3.01
Because of this some of Australia’s indigenous population are calling on all black athletes to boycott the games. There’s also talk of a blockade of Olympic countries.
3.15
O-sound
Sol Bellear
We’ve said that there are going to be mass protests. And, our advisory committee supports aboriginal protests, so we can let the world can know that aboriginal people are not getting the deal that the world thinks we are.
3.29
The Redfern All Blacks – the Black aborigines – is no ordinary rugby club. It’s the second oldest organisation involved with aboriginal rights, and fighting racism.
3.43
O-sound
Lyall Munro
Land Rights Commission
The element of racism is alive and well in the national game of rugby league. Very much so. One would think that on the eve on the biggest sporting event in the world that these sports institutions would take time out to clean up their act with regard to racial vilification and white racism. Not only in football but across the spectrum.
4.03
Barely three kilometres away from Sydney’s financial district live many aborigines in the four blocks called Redfern. These people, formerly living in tune with their environment, now live in the city in bitter poverty. Alcohol and heroin are destroying their lives.
4.26
O-sound
Richard Bell
Aboriginal
They think they’re better than us but they’re not. There’s a big stereotype about how aboriginal people are, we’re all bludgers, all drunks and drug addicts, all thieves and shit. It’s not true and half the time, they just use that to keep us down.
4.50
Half of young aborigines never get any qualifications from school, and almost 40 per cent are unemployed. Here they voluntarily gather up rubbish and used needles. By doing this, they lose a part of their unemployment benefit. But they want to fight the stereotype that says they’re good for nothing.
5.14
O-sound
Dennis Weatherall
Work co-ordinator for aborigines
They just want to work, they don’t care. So long as they’ve got a job and can get up every morning and come to work and be active. People say that aboriginal people are lazy. These people are not lazy. They just want to prove that they are just as ready to work as anyone.
5.39
Robbed of their traditional way of life, the aborigines have never found a connection to white society.
5.48
Joyce Ingram has some aboriginal blood in her and gives support to many aborigines in Redfern. Few residents of this area manage to get out of the vicious circle of poverty, alcohol abuse and prison. Joyce blames the racism of white Australians.
6.12
White society here has almost no contact with the aborigines – yet they have been feted by celebrities as big as singer Michael Jackson and the American actress Whoopi Goldberg, who visited to show their support… according to Joyce, they’re very nice people.
6.33
O-sound
Joyce Ingram
Resident
Lovely people. But he’s very small, tiny. But they’re lovely people. They came straight here. No police knew. Every time they came here no police knew, nothing. Then they went out to Longbow jail with the aboriginal colours, football colours on, to see the boys at Longbow.
6.55
For her work with aboriginal people, Joyce was awarded an honorary doctorate of aboriginal affairs She’s proud of it, but also feels the full-blooded aborigines look down their nose at her for being of mixed race.
7.14
O-sound
Joyce Ingram
The full blooded aborigines look at us and they say ‘You’re yellow people.’ They’ve got no respect for us. That’s the full blooded ones, they’re originals, if we were full-blooded it would be a different thing. But they look down their nose at us and say we are yellow people. So, we are more or less out and out on the outside, and they’re on the inside within the fold so to speak. It’s a funny country isn’t it?
7.52
Joyce had eight children, but only four have survived. Not an unusual case amongst aborigines. One of her grandchildren recently came into conflict with the law. The probation officer regularly comes looking for her. Many aborigines claim the police harass them.
8.16
O-sound
Adam Stuart
Probation assistant
Specifically in this area you wouldn’t have to stay around long before you saw a police presence.
8.28
About 30’000 people live in Redfern. The crime rate in this part of Sydney is high. The police admit they may come down too hard on aborigines.
8.39
O-sound
Peter Parsons
Redfern Police commander
The police here in the past have probably approached the policing of crime issues on the block somewhat aggressively. But perhaps the aggressive policing of not only the block area but other areas of metropolitan Sydney has seen a diminishing of police and community relationships.
9.05
The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has criticised the Australian sentencing laws. Many aborigines die in custody – either through unsatisfactory medical care or suicide.
9.24
In front of the old parliament building in the federal capital of Canberra an illegally erected Aboriginal Embassy has stood for 28 years. They want to draw attention to the fact that not only are they treated as second class citizens, but their land rights are also under threat. For over 200 years the aboriginals have been fighting for their land. In 1992, they were granted ownership on the grounds of traditional use, although only a few still live that way. Now, they have to prove a spiritual, cultural and physical links, impossible for those of mixed race. It’s a white man’s lie born of history.
10.06 starts
O-sound
Ray Swan
Activist
You find that Cook had legal binding laws, Captain James Cook, to take possession, with the consent of the natives. But instead, he went back to England, with a legal lie, which was to acknowledge that the country was uninhabited. That no one existed. And, when Captain Phillip came out here in 1788 with the penal colony, he came out with orders so he continued what Captain Cook started, and the other order he had was ‘you take the land from the idiots’ – which were the aboriginal people. And, that’s what they’ve done.
10.57
Aborigines lived in Australia for at least 40’000 years before the Europeans arrived. Family clans were spread across the continent, speaking 300 different languages and 700 dialects. Since the beginning of the 20th century there’ve been efforts to forcefully assimilate aborigines into white society. The fire at the embassy is holy for the aborigines – it has a symbolic value and plays a decisive role in all ceremonies.
11.29
O-sound
Audrey Kinnear
Aborigine
It is a special place, and I think also, it’s the one place that people are being persistent in their fight for sovereignty, and for those of us a few years ago and still now and thought justice was going to come sooner, and I am and we can’t even get a national apology and justice for our people.
12.00
O-sound
Isabell Coe
Aborigine
The prime minister is one of the most racist prime ministers we’ve ever had. While they are up their talking about draft declarations for aboriginal reconciliation we’re taking our fire, the peace and justice fire up there and ceremonies, representing aboriginal people who have been involved aboriginal embassy and who have since passed on. And they arrested our fire, they shovelled our fire onto the back of a truck. They went and put the fire out. They arrested a ceremonial sister representing aboriginal people who have since passed on. And, it seems that even after our people are dead they are still trying to arrest their spirits.
12.59
Over a hundred years ago, the colonial settlers saw the aborigines as a primitive people, destined to die out. They were hunted from their land. Massacres were part of the daily order. Aborigines could only go to the cities with special permission. The church and the state separated children with white fathers from their aboriginal mothers, and gave them to white Australians to raise – they became the ‘lost generation.’
13.35
The government has consistently refused to give an official apology to injustices done to aborigines in the past. Here, the so-called document of reconciliation is being presented. Aboriginal and government representatives have worked on it for 10 years. It is meant to improve understanding between black and white Australians. But most aborigines see the declaration as hogwash. It holds no legally binding clauses. The indigenous population wants an official apology and nothing else will do.
14.32
In the event it was mainly white Australians who took part in this glitzy ceremony. The few aborigines present expressed their impatience and frustration with the Australian Prime Minister’s speech.
15.06
O-Sound
John Howard
Prime minister
It has been a long journey, I know it has been difficult. And, I know there has been areas of disagreement. It’s not possible for any of us to reflect upon the desirability of moving forward without acknowledging the impact of the European civilisation had on the indigenous people of this country and the cultures of indigenous people. And, will be renewed in their resolve to continue the process of reconciliation amongst all of the Australian people.
15.58
Since 1998, for the first time in 15 years, the aborigines again have a representative in the Australian parliament. Aborigine Aden Ridegeway, the only aboriginal politician, is trying to push indigenous rights of the population in the Senate. He’s also trying to urge the government to take responsibility for the crimes of the past.
O-sound
16.20 on Off
16.27 ON
Aden Ridegeway
Senator
I think that this government really thinks that giving any sort of apology and even using the word sorry is an admission of liability that some how they are responsible. There is talk that this would lead to massive amounts of compensation and further actions in the court. But nothing could be further from the truth. It won’t end up with that kind of result. The Australian attorney-general has given the prime minister that advice and yet the government still refuses to do so. So, I think it’s really an Australian denial, a willing blindness to accept and acknowledge the past. There’s no question there was clear policies of cultural genocide. What it sought to do was to remove the culture of indigenous people first and then to absorb those people into broader society which was seen as less than full-blood. There’s always been I think an active policy over a long period of time to move down the path of absorption and in the process make aboriginal people more white and remove the black.
17.20
In 1997, the former Labour government Commission decided that the forcible removal of children was a kind genocide under the terms of the UN convention of 1948.
17.36
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
We are the original occupants of this land. We’ve been brought down to a minority in our own country by the acts of genocide by White Australia, what they’ve done. Their laws, every law they passed in parliament, are deliberate and systematic to destroy us.
17.54
In Canberra, the federal capital, Wadjalabinna states her claims of genocide. For around 70 years, full-blooded aborigines were shut into reserves and around 100’000 children of mixed race were separated from their parents. They were the ones put into institutions or adopted out to whites.
18.17
O-sound
Ellie Gilbert
Genocide claimant
We’ve already had our holocaust because the people were shot, just there was all out slaughter. Then, when they couldn’t shoot everyone because the people knew the country, they would poison the water holes and just kill whole families. And then people got wise to that but they were starving, and they would start to trust someone, then they would be given a feast that was poisoned. Or flour that was poisoned. And, after that the final thing that absolutely broke the people was when the took the children. And that’s exactly what Hitler did, he took the children.
18.58
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
The ladies, missionaries, were trying to pull me from her grasp and my grandmother was crying, I was screaming, That was so traumatic. When they were getting a belting from the white missionaries they’d be jumping around and their legs would all swell up and there would be bleeding around their ankles from the chain, and they’d be sitting under the hot sun, tied to trees or posts and they’d swell up. And, I’d watched my auntie, a couple of my auntie’s get this belting because they tried to go and look for our family. They swelled up and they had to get a stretcher, and take her off the chain, and carry her away and I thought I’d never, ever see her again. We were screaming as children, crying for them. We didn’t see them for about two weeks. They were all black and blue from getting this belting from these missionaries. Didn’t commit any crime. Just looking for their parents.
20.07
Almost without exception the stolen aborigine children where physically, psychologically or sexually abused. They were forbidden to speak their language in an effort to separate them from their own culture. Wadjalabinnas mother was raped by a white farmer. Her mother and her father were both full-blooded aborigines. When she was 19 she was married to a white farm manager, found for her by the missionaries. Wadjalabinna had white help in the household.
20.40
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
Working with white people under me, I was tempted to be nasty because I felt angry. But my mothers words always came back to me and she said that ‘these white people don’t treat us as human beings’, but she said ‘don’t you ever treat them in that way because they are human beings too, we all come from the human race first.’ So I had to control myself, I had to remember we were all from the human race, and I had to treat everybody with respect. And, it was really hard for me to do under the circumstances, but because I had so much anger, so much pain to deal with, and I don’t know how I ever survived it. There were times when I thought I would never survive. Then I had little children who were my saving grace. I lived my life for them.
IV Cont.
22.08
It was government policy that I was never to return to that reserve. And, my people were never to come to me. My parents dared to come and my husband said to me ‘They can’t stay here, this is not a blacks camp. My children screamed because they’d never seen people with dark skin before, only people with my colour and my mother was devastated and she said ‘Why didn’t you tell these children about me?’ I said ’Mum, I told them my parents were full-blooded aborigines, but they are only children and I tried to show them pictures in books. But Mum, they’ll get to know you and love you while you are here.’ But I was not allowed to have them in the main house. We had a lovely home with four bedrooms and every convenience. But I was told to go the garage and clean out the dirty old saddle shed out for my mother and father to sleep in. Said I couldn’t have them with me.
23.29
The churches, which forced aborigines into missions, took a long time to apologise. Many of the ‘lost generation’ have now turned their back on the church.
23.41
O-sound
Lowitja O’Donoghue
Aborigine activist
I saw it as perhaps Gods will in getting me involved in the church. To get them to understand the history of the removal process and the fact that they have a responsibility to actually right the wrongs of the past.
24.00
Jeannette Hunters’ grandparents were missionaries who had cared for the stolen aborigine children. Her church was one of the first to ask for an apology.
24.09
O-sound
Jeanette Hunter
Pastor
We acknowledge the prophetic and compassionate intentions of many missionaries and Christian workers. At the same time Christian churches, in bringing the Gospel to Australia, often failed to acknowledge that God was already present in the land, and often failed to distinguish between its own ‘Western Culture’ and the good news of Jesus Christ. We recognise that much of this was part of the removing children from their parents and the on going problems this has had for the subsequent generations as well.
24.38
Former fish shop owner Pauline Hanson doesn’t believe in apologies. Her One Nation Party demands an end for support for aborigines and calls the children of the stolen generation the lucky ones.
24.54
O-sound
Pauline Hanson
Party president
A lot of these aboriginal people wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for the missionaries, the churches, the governments and different ones, who took them out of the conditions they were in and actually gave life themselves. Gave them their education. And if you have a look at some of these people themselves Lowjita O’Donoghue, she actually was from the stolen generation, and she went on to be chairman of ATSIC, which is the Aboriginal Australian Torres Straits Islander Commission. So, you see it hasn’t been all bad. These people should be saying ‘Thankyou.’
25.32
One Nation wins votes in the outback. People here are anti-globalisation and the new world order. They claim they are missing out, blaming the high unemployment rate on immigrants.
25.53
O-sound
Wendy Latimer
Farmer
It’s not racism. No, we’re not out to knock one race of persons. We’re the ones that say, we should be treated equally. It’s the government now which is saying, we’ve got one set of people should have better welfare criteria or something. And, that’s where the trouble starts.
26.20
The farmers want immigration to stop and a halt to special welfare for the aborigines. They say taxes are so high that they themselves need special assistance from the state.
26.40
And Pauline Hanson fans the fire. In 1996, she made a shock entrance into the Australian parliament. But two years later she lost her seat. Her Party now has only one politician in the Senate, but still speaks for many in the outback.
27.00
O-sound
Pauline Hanson
Party president
You see in 1967, when there was a referendum to actually include aboriginal people in the census, the Australian people believed Hey, these people are Australians as well, they should be treated the same, treated equally. But Australians were deceived and cheated at the referendum because what they actually voted for allowing the government bringing in policies based on race alone. And because of that it’s actually caused problems for Australia.
27.29
This twice divorced mother and business woman has styled herself as the mouthpiece for reactionary Australians. But she does find some agreement on the ’67 referendum from an unexpected political corner.
27.45
O-Sound
Aden Ridegeway
Senator
The social decay that you now see in communities is the result of the last 30 years. That didn’t exist prior to the ’67 referendum. So, the ’67 referendum whilst it was an historic moment in the building of this nation, was also a double edged sword. What it did was give aboriginal people entitlement to welfare benefits. We’ve now become the victims of welfare dependency and can’t get off that treadmill.
28.14
Today, there’s a thousand dollar fine for any unauthorised entry onto aboriginal land. The indigenous people is shutting itself off from the white population. When the English arrived in 1770 some 500’000 aborigines were living here. Less than a hundred years later they were decimated to about 80’000. Today, the aboriginal population numbers around 300’000, just over two per cent of the total population. The aborigines are not united. They come from different clans with different interests and identities. It may be the case that in many parts of Australia nothing would function without white help and management, as in this community. But many aborigines are escaping the welfare trap and doing something to improve their own lot.
29.07
Nicholas Oliver
Manager – Areyonga community
We do have social security in Australia. That tends to make people, what we call it here in Australia ‘sit down money.’ And, they tend to sit down for nothing. That is a shame, but we hope that we can as the years go by, change that. And, again it goes back to building up some importance in the community, and trying to make them feel proud of their community.
29.32
Perina and Nicholas Oliver are employed by the government. But this swimming pool for aboriginal use has been built thanks to charity. The government was reluctant to get involved in a project like this for an aboriginal community.
29.59
O-sound
Perina Oliver
Well here at Areyonga we are a small community, and often the small communities are forgotten by the bigger bodies, so we were virtually told no the government would not fund a pool. They were very worried about what would happen when we left, would it be kept up to scratch. They’d had a community where a pool had been built, it operated for a few years and then it was actually filled in again because it all went down hill.
30.23
Two hundred and fifty-six aborigines and eight whites live in Areyonga. Everyone can earn money with projects within the community. A few do. Computers create interest amongst children, but few will finish school. Only 10 percent of this community can read and write.
30.45
Twice a week, health nurses visit Areyonga. The life expectancy of aborigines is a staggering 20 years less than that of the white population.
30.59
O-sound
Alexander Brown
Doctor
In the face of a society or community which doesn’t feel good about itself and has nothing to live for, no longer holds on to the understanding of its culture, or doesn’t get any recognition of the value of that system, and whose children have no where to go or nothing to do and no job prospects, you can put in a thousand pools you can put in a thousand clinics. You are still looking at the same problems. The health situation is not going to be better if you’ve got these things or not.
31.29
(Don’t voice in English version - for non-English versions only)
The aborigines continue to live on the margins of society. The missionaries didn’t manage to change that – like this film from the ‘50’s shows.
The future is not hopeless, it says. The results it says, justify the belief there is a real future and happiness. There are employment possibilities for aborigines in the northern territories. They are magnificent stockmen. The government is making it possible for them to have their own cattle herds and in other enterprises. In recent years the government policy has changed from the passive idea of protection to that of constructively promoting welfare for aborigines. For the following generations activities are now focused sharply on education. Through it, new worlds are opening up for these simple nomads of the desert. A liberal supply of water for washing was seldom available in the desert. Soap never. These children are acquiring habits of cleanliness their parents could not have known.
32.39
Never mind soap, the women elders today still teach the children traditional dances, songs and myths of the rainbow snake – the creation myth. The snake awakes the first creatures and wakens mother Sun. Then the first ancestors come out of the earth.
33.03
Many of the residents of Areyonga can well remember the time of the missionaries. Today, most of them live in-between western Christian beliefs and traditional values, but many say life was actually better before the missionaries arrived.
33.42
O-sound
Daphne Puntjina
Aborigine
We know, we want that they look up to aboriginal people. Before government, when my mother and father, when we had no food, missionary give have flour and sugar and tea. Now, we have problems. We’ve got live people but life no more. Too many drinks and fights and car accidents. Long time ago it was really good.
34.42
Daphne Puntjina and other older women are trying to maintain their traditions. They make wooden beads, paint nuts and beans for necklaces. Only a few visitors come to Areyonga. Outsiders are mistrusted. Visitors are often unaware that they’re forbidden from entering aboriginal sacred sites. That’s the worst offence for an aborigine and the reason why whole stretches of land are closed off to non-aborigines.
35.17
The area around the famous Ayers Rock – Uluru in aboriginal language – is sacred for the aborigines and off limits to visitors. Ayers Rock takes a central place in their mythology. For non-aborigines it’s a spectacular hill, emerging from nothing. The aborigines believe in an anthropomorphic nature. Man owns the land, and the land owns man. For non-aborigines it’s a hard concept to understand. Many of their dances are equally sacred. Only a few of them are performed in front of outsiders.
36.16
In Alice Springs – six hours drive from the famous Ayers Rock – tourists spend a day with aborigines. Many white Australians, racist towards aborigines, forget that millions of tourist dollars flow into the country because of its indigenous population. Here, these Americans are trying out bee honey, which is highly valued by the aborigines. Initially sceptical, they are soon won over by the taste.
36.55
Tourism is bringing prosperity to aborigines in the area as well as keeping aboriginal culture alive.
37.07 in OFF
37.08 in ON
O-sound
David Kriss
Aboriginal Cultural Centre
It makes the community more self-sufficient. It shows not only other aboriginal communities but the general population that aboriginal people are able to cope on their own, are able to provide for themselves. A venture like this also shows that our culture, is exposed not only to the Australian population but an international market as well.
37.40
For the last five years, this Aboriginal Cultural Centre has been using tourism to forge bridges with the international community.
38.03
But for the ‘lost generation’, the scars have not healed.
38.09
O-sound
David Kriss
A lot of the parents just had no idea exactly what was going on. They signed documents having no idea what the specific purpose of that document was for. And, hence the children were taken away and some of those children were never to be seen again. A gentleman came up to me and said to me ‘I’m your cousin Steven. Would you like to meet your mother?’ And when I walked in she just started crying. But crying in happy, not sad. I just her face light up and it was just very magical. And just looking at her instantly, I knew straight away, instantly, that that was my mother and that sense you just sense that was your mother. And, even in appearance you look like your parents. I think it was a very happy moment for her and myself too of course, but still lacking that bonding that most children have with their parents.
39.20
For decades David Kriss’s clan could not visit the sacred sites of their area. White farmers wouldn’t let them onto the land. But David’s story has a happy ending - he fought for his land rights – and won.
39.38
O-sound
David Kriss
I have the title in front of me here. And, actually it gives me a sense of belonging. It’s like the last nail I’ve now found myself, where I belong, my people, my family. Just knowing this piece of paper here, in black and white has my name on it, stating I am a traditional landowner of the place.
40.16
In north Australia lies one of the largest areas of natural beauty – Kakadu national park. The area is one of 17 places in the world, that was recognised by UNESCO in 1981, as being both a cultural and natural World Heritage site. The park is as large as Belgium and is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.
40.48
The oldest rock paintings in the so-called X-ray style found here are famous. The outlines of men and animals, bones and organs are extremely clearly depicted. Many of the rock paintings are considered sacred by the aborigines and are kept secret. Only this rock gallery is open for people to view.
41.08
Despite the uniqueness of Kakadu National park, the Australian government has allowed the ERA mining company, to mine uranium. The firm owns the mining rights. The Ranger mine is the third largest in the world. The uranium mining leaves radioactive remains, which is stored in dams. Water evaporates in many of the basins. At the beginning of the year, contaminated water leaked 9 kilometres and spread through two wetland areas in the national park. The mine owners were able to keep the accident secret for a week.
41.54
Aborigines are fighting against plans to build a new mine – Jabiluka. Jacqui Katona is organising a world wide protest. The aborigines want the right to dispose of their own land, which they’d fought for since the 1970’s to get the pioneering Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Under this law, large areas of the northern territories were promised to the aborigines.
42.20
O-sound
Jacqui Katona
Activist
Action groups are being joined by literally hundreds of people to take action, write letters, demonstrate, make meetings with politicians and ensure that everyone knows, not just their friends and family, but the community is made aware that the Australian government is prepared to sacrifice a World Heritage listed site for a company’s private profit.
42.39
The Mirrar aborigines fear the uranium mining will destroy and poison this idyllic place. Both mines, can according to the ERA, deliver 150’000 tonnes of uranium in 30 years. But, that will leave behind 40 million tonnes of radioactive sludge, which can lodge itself in the lungs. The Mirrar say the human cost is just too high.
43.04
Jabiru is the town centre of the national park. Around 600 aborigines from 30 different clans live in the park. They have profited financially from progress - from the tourists and from every tonne of uranium. A 99-year contract between the aborigines and the Australian National Parks board has many conditions. Aborigines will be trained in tourism and are supposed to have a say in what happens in the park and the right to live in the park. The health situation of the aborigines has also improved, materially they are better off. But it’s a fragile balance: tourism also brings with it alcohol, and alcohol is destroying more and more aboriginal lives.
43.59
O-sound
Sandra Djandjul
Aborigine
We’re here because we are fighting for the water. We don’t want the fish to die for us. And we don’t want to have mining at Jabiluka. We don’t want that.
44.16
Despite the fact there are differences between the clans, they’re united over fighting to stop the uranium mining. The aborigines don’t want to lose control over their land. Loss of the land means loss of their self-esteem – and their identity.
44.52
Hundreds of thousands of mainly white Australians showed their solidarity with the aborigines during this demonstration in Sydney – protesting against the exploitation of the original inhabitants of this continent – both social and economic. But, the aborigines must find their own way into the future. They want a legally binding contract which states that they are the original owners of the land. They want their self-determination and their rights confirmed. They’ll probably be waiting a long time.
Text ends 45.37
Pictures end 46.10
MUSIC DETAILS:
AKM
Millennium – Richard Harvey
KPM CD 300
Nr. 7 A Greater Future
47 seconds
Creation - XCD 001
Extreme Music – Sonic inspiration for music
Creative Minds - Nr.7 Creation
Spirit Dreams
Indigenous Australia 1 A 2024 D
A Soundscape of Unsurpassed Beauty
Nr. 1 Dreams (Doowi)
David Hudson presents Wangetti
I A 2013 D
Indigenous Australia
Nr. 4 Compressor
Spirit Dream (as above)
Stolen Generation
Indigenous Australia
Nr. 3 Movement – Mission life
Wangetti (as above) Nr. 6
A 45 minute documentary – August 2000
Script
By Marion Mayer-Hohdahl
Camera: Joel Peterson
VT editor: Carlos dos Santos
Pictures start at 2 :00
TEXT
2.04
The fifth continent’s preparing for the Olympic Games in Sydney.
2.11 Title: AUSTRALIA’S UNCOMFORTABLE HERITAGE
2.19
Australia’s aborigines have threatened huge demonstrations to draw attention to discrimination against them. They see the Olympics as a festival of the white establishment. Aborigines feel they’re treated as second class people.
2.32
TITLE: A FILM BY MARION MAYER HOHDAHL
2.40
In Australian sports institutes, athletes train for the Games. Amongst the 600 athletes, just 20 are aborigines.
2.49
O-sound
James Swan,
Boxer
It’s much more tougher to actually get into these teams specially because we are naturally talented, and we find it a bit harder when it comes to politics and bureaucratics.
3.01
Because of this some of Australia’s indigenous population are calling on all black athletes to boycott the games. There’s also talk of a blockade of Olympic countries.
3.15
O-sound
Sol Bellear
We’ve said that there are going to be mass protests. And, our advisory committee supports aboriginal protests, so we can let the world can know that aboriginal people are not getting the deal that the world thinks we are.
3.29
The Redfern All Blacks – the Black aborigines – is no ordinary rugby club. It’s the second oldest organisation involved with aboriginal rights, and fighting racism.
3.43
O-sound
Lyall Munro
Land Rights Commission
The element of racism is alive and well in the national game of rugby league. Very much so. One would think that on the eve on the biggest sporting event in the world that these sports institutions would take time out to clean up their act with regard to racial vilification and white racism. Not only in football but across the spectrum.
4.03
Barely three kilometres away from Sydney’s financial district live many aborigines in the four blocks called Redfern. These people, formerly living in tune with their environment, now live in the city in bitter poverty. Alcohol and heroin are destroying their lives.
4.26
O-sound
Richard Bell
Aboriginal
They think they’re better than us but they’re not. There’s a big stereotype about how aboriginal people are, we’re all bludgers, all drunks and drug addicts, all thieves and shit. It’s not true and half the time, they just use that to keep us down.
4.50
Half of young aborigines never get any qualifications from school, and almost 40 per cent are unemployed. Here they voluntarily gather up rubbish and used needles. By doing this, they lose a part of their unemployment benefit. But they want to fight the stereotype that says they’re good for nothing.
5.14
O-sound
Dennis Weatherall
Work co-ordinator for aborigines
They just want to work, they don’t care. So long as they’ve got a job and can get up every morning and come to work and be active. People say that aboriginal people are lazy. These people are not lazy. They just want to prove that they are just as ready to work as anyone.
5.39
Robbed of their traditional way of life, the aborigines have never found a connection to white society.
5.48
Joyce Ingram has some aboriginal blood in her and gives support to many aborigines in Redfern. Few residents of this area manage to get out of the vicious circle of poverty, alcohol abuse and prison. Joyce blames the racism of white Australians.
6.12
White society here has almost no contact with the aborigines – yet they have been feted by celebrities as big as singer Michael Jackson and the American actress Whoopi Goldberg, who visited to show their support… according to Joyce, they’re very nice people.
6.33
O-sound
Joyce Ingram
Resident
Lovely people. But he’s very small, tiny. But they’re lovely people. They came straight here. No police knew. Every time they came here no police knew, nothing. Then they went out to Longbow jail with the aboriginal colours, football colours on, to see the boys at Longbow.
6.55
For her work with aboriginal people, Joyce was awarded an honorary doctorate of aboriginal affairs She’s proud of it, but also feels the full-blooded aborigines look down their nose at her for being of mixed race.
7.14
O-sound
Joyce Ingram
The full blooded aborigines look at us and they say ‘You’re yellow people.’ They’ve got no respect for us. That’s the full blooded ones, they’re originals, if we were full-blooded it would be a different thing. But they look down their nose at us and say we are yellow people. So, we are more or less out and out on the outside, and they’re on the inside within the fold so to speak. It’s a funny country isn’t it?
7.52
Joyce had eight children, but only four have survived. Not an unusual case amongst aborigines. One of her grandchildren recently came into conflict with the law. The probation officer regularly comes looking for her. Many aborigines claim the police harass them.
8.16
O-sound
Adam Stuart
Probation assistant
Specifically in this area you wouldn’t have to stay around long before you saw a police presence.
8.28
About 30’000 people live in Redfern. The crime rate in this part of Sydney is high. The police admit they may come down too hard on aborigines.
8.39
O-sound
Peter Parsons
Redfern Police commander
The police here in the past have probably approached the policing of crime issues on the block somewhat aggressively. But perhaps the aggressive policing of not only the block area but other areas of metropolitan Sydney has seen a diminishing of police and community relationships.
9.05
The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has criticised the Australian sentencing laws. Many aborigines die in custody – either through unsatisfactory medical care or suicide.
9.24
In front of the old parliament building in the federal capital of Canberra an illegally erected Aboriginal Embassy has stood for 28 years. They want to draw attention to the fact that not only are they treated as second class citizens, but their land rights are also under threat. For over 200 years the aboriginals have been fighting for their land. In 1992, they were granted ownership on the grounds of traditional use, although only a few still live that way. Now, they have to prove a spiritual, cultural and physical links, impossible for those of mixed race. It’s a white man’s lie born of history.
10.06 starts
O-sound
Ray Swan
Activist
You find that Cook had legal binding laws, Captain James Cook, to take possession, with the consent of the natives. But instead, he went back to England, with a legal lie, which was to acknowledge that the country was uninhabited. That no one existed. And, when Captain Phillip came out here in 1788 with the penal colony, he came out with orders so he continued what Captain Cook started, and the other order he had was ‘you take the land from the idiots’ – which were the aboriginal people. And, that’s what they’ve done.
10.57
Aborigines lived in Australia for at least 40’000 years before the Europeans arrived. Family clans were spread across the continent, speaking 300 different languages and 700 dialects. Since the beginning of the 20th century there’ve been efforts to forcefully assimilate aborigines into white society. The fire at the embassy is holy for the aborigines – it has a symbolic value and plays a decisive role in all ceremonies.
11.29
O-sound
Audrey Kinnear
Aborigine
It is a special place, and I think also, it’s the one place that people are being persistent in their fight for sovereignty, and for those of us a few years ago and still now and thought justice was going to come sooner, and I am and we can’t even get a national apology and justice for our people.
12.00
O-sound
Isabell Coe
Aborigine
The prime minister is one of the most racist prime ministers we’ve ever had. While they are up their talking about draft declarations for aboriginal reconciliation we’re taking our fire, the peace and justice fire up there and ceremonies, representing aboriginal people who have been involved aboriginal embassy and who have since passed on. And they arrested our fire, they shovelled our fire onto the back of a truck. They went and put the fire out. They arrested a ceremonial sister representing aboriginal people who have since passed on. And, it seems that even after our people are dead they are still trying to arrest their spirits.
12.59
Over a hundred years ago, the colonial settlers saw the aborigines as a primitive people, destined to die out. They were hunted from their land. Massacres were part of the daily order. Aborigines could only go to the cities with special permission. The church and the state separated children with white fathers from their aboriginal mothers, and gave them to white Australians to raise – they became the ‘lost generation.’
13.35
The government has consistently refused to give an official apology to injustices done to aborigines in the past. Here, the so-called document of reconciliation is being presented. Aboriginal and government representatives have worked on it for 10 years. It is meant to improve understanding between black and white Australians. But most aborigines see the declaration as hogwash. It holds no legally binding clauses. The indigenous population wants an official apology and nothing else will do.
14.32
In the event it was mainly white Australians who took part in this glitzy ceremony. The few aborigines present expressed their impatience and frustration with the Australian Prime Minister’s speech.
15.06
O-Sound
John Howard
Prime minister
It has been a long journey, I know it has been difficult. And, I know there has been areas of disagreement. It’s not possible for any of us to reflect upon the desirability of moving forward without acknowledging the impact of the European civilisation had on the indigenous people of this country and the cultures of indigenous people. And, will be renewed in their resolve to continue the process of reconciliation amongst all of the Australian people.
15.58
Since 1998, for the first time in 15 years, the aborigines again have a representative in the Australian parliament. Aborigine Aden Ridegeway, the only aboriginal politician, is trying to push indigenous rights of the population in the Senate. He’s also trying to urge the government to take responsibility for the crimes of the past.
O-sound
16.20 on Off
16.27 ON
Aden Ridegeway
Senator
I think that this government really thinks that giving any sort of apology and even using the word sorry is an admission of liability that some how they are responsible. There is talk that this would lead to massive amounts of compensation and further actions in the court. But nothing could be further from the truth. It won’t end up with that kind of result. The Australian attorney-general has given the prime minister that advice and yet the government still refuses to do so. So, I think it’s really an Australian denial, a willing blindness to accept and acknowledge the past. There’s no question there was clear policies of cultural genocide. What it sought to do was to remove the culture of indigenous people first and then to absorb those people into broader society which was seen as less than full-blood. There’s always been I think an active policy over a long period of time to move down the path of absorption and in the process make aboriginal people more white and remove the black.
17.20
In 1997, the former Labour government Commission decided that the forcible removal of children was a kind genocide under the terms of the UN convention of 1948.
17.36
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
We are the original occupants of this land. We’ve been brought down to a minority in our own country by the acts of genocide by White Australia, what they’ve done. Their laws, every law they passed in parliament, are deliberate and systematic to destroy us.
17.54
In Canberra, the federal capital, Wadjalabinna states her claims of genocide. For around 70 years, full-blooded aborigines were shut into reserves and around 100’000 children of mixed race were separated from their parents. They were the ones put into institutions or adopted out to whites.
18.17
O-sound
Ellie Gilbert
Genocide claimant
We’ve already had our holocaust because the people were shot, just there was all out slaughter. Then, when they couldn’t shoot everyone because the people knew the country, they would poison the water holes and just kill whole families. And then people got wise to that but they were starving, and they would start to trust someone, then they would be given a feast that was poisoned. Or flour that was poisoned. And, after that the final thing that absolutely broke the people was when the took the children. And that’s exactly what Hitler did, he took the children.
18.58
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
The ladies, missionaries, were trying to pull me from her grasp and my grandmother was crying, I was screaming, That was so traumatic. When they were getting a belting from the white missionaries they’d be jumping around and their legs would all swell up and there would be bleeding around their ankles from the chain, and they’d be sitting under the hot sun, tied to trees or posts and they’d swell up. And, I’d watched my auntie, a couple of my auntie’s get this belting because they tried to go and look for our family. They swelled up and they had to get a stretcher, and take her off the chain, and carry her away and I thought I’d never, ever see her again. We were screaming as children, crying for them. We didn’t see them for about two weeks. They were all black and blue from getting this belting from these missionaries. Didn’t commit any crime. Just looking for their parents.
20.07
Almost without exception the stolen aborigine children where physically, psychologically or sexually abused. They were forbidden to speak their language in an effort to separate them from their own culture. Wadjalabinnas mother was raped by a white farmer. Her mother and her father were both full-blooded aborigines. When she was 19 she was married to a white farm manager, found for her by the missionaries. Wadjalabinna had white help in the household.
20.40
O-sound
Wadjalabinna Gungalidda
Genocide claimant
Working with white people under me, I was tempted to be nasty because I felt angry. But my mothers words always came back to me and she said that ‘these white people don’t treat us as human beings’, but she said ‘don’t you ever treat them in that way because they are human beings too, we all come from the human race first.’ So I had to control myself, I had to remember we were all from the human race, and I had to treat everybody with respect. And, it was really hard for me to do under the circumstances, but because I had so much anger, so much pain to deal with, and I don’t know how I ever survived it. There were times when I thought I would never survive. Then I had little children who were my saving grace. I lived my life for them.
IV Cont.
22.08
It was government policy that I was never to return to that reserve. And, my people were never to come to me. My parents dared to come and my husband said to me ‘They can’t stay here, this is not a blacks camp. My children screamed because they’d never seen people with dark skin before, only people with my colour and my mother was devastated and she said ‘Why didn’t you tell these children about me?’ I said ’Mum, I told them my parents were full-blooded aborigines, but they are only children and I tried to show them pictures in books. But Mum, they’ll get to know you and love you while you are here.’ But I was not allowed to have them in the main house. We had a lovely home with four bedrooms and every convenience. But I was told to go the garage and clean out the dirty old saddle shed out for my mother and father to sleep in. Said I couldn’t have them with me.
23.29
The churches, which forced aborigines into missions, took a long time to apologise. Many of the ‘lost generation’ have now turned their back on the church.
23.41
O-sound
Lowitja O’Donoghue
Aborigine activist
I saw it as perhaps Gods will in getting me involved in the church. To get them to understand the history of the removal process and the fact that they have a responsibility to actually right the wrongs of the past.
24.00
Jeannette Hunters’ grandparents were missionaries who had cared for the stolen aborigine children. Her church was one of the first to ask for an apology.
24.09
O-sound
Jeanette Hunter
Pastor
We acknowledge the prophetic and compassionate intentions of many missionaries and Christian workers. At the same time Christian churches, in bringing the Gospel to Australia, often failed to acknowledge that God was already present in the land, and often failed to distinguish between its own ‘Western Culture’ and the good news of Jesus Christ. We recognise that much of this was part of the removing children from their parents and the on going problems this has had for the subsequent generations as well.
24.38
Former fish shop owner Pauline Hanson doesn’t believe in apologies. Her One Nation Party demands an end for support for aborigines and calls the children of the stolen generation the lucky ones.
24.54
O-sound
Pauline Hanson
Party president
A lot of these aboriginal people wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for the missionaries, the churches, the governments and different ones, who took them out of the conditions they were in and actually gave life themselves. Gave them their education. And if you have a look at some of these people themselves Lowjita O’Donoghue, she actually was from the stolen generation, and she went on to be chairman of ATSIC, which is the Aboriginal Australian Torres Straits Islander Commission. So, you see it hasn’t been all bad. These people should be saying ‘Thankyou.’
25.32
One Nation wins votes in the outback. People here are anti-globalisation and the new world order. They claim they are missing out, blaming the high unemployment rate on immigrants.
25.53
O-sound
Wendy Latimer
Farmer
It’s not racism. No, we’re not out to knock one race of persons. We’re the ones that say, we should be treated equally. It’s the government now which is saying, we’ve got one set of people should have better welfare criteria or something. And, that’s where the trouble starts.
26.20
The farmers want immigration to stop and a halt to special welfare for the aborigines. They say taxes are so high that they themselves need special assistance from the state.
26.40
And Pauline Hanson fans the fire. In 1996, she made a shock entrance into the Australian parliament. But two years later she lost her seat. Her Party now has only one politician in the Senate, but still speaks for many in the outback.
27.00
O-sound
Pauline Hanson
Party president
You see in 1967, when there was a referendum to actually include aboriginal people in the census, the Australian people believed Hey, these people are Australians as well, they should be treated the same, treated equally. But Australians were deceived and cheated at the referendum because what they actually voted for allowing the government bringing in policies based on race alone. And because of that it’s actually caused problems for Australia.
27.29
This twice divorced mother and business woman has styled herself as the mouthpiece for reactionary Australians. But she does find some agreement on the ’67 referendum from an unexpected political corner.
27.45
O-Sound
Aden Ridegeway
Senator
The social decay that you now see in communities is the result of the last 30 years. That didn’t exist prior to the ’67 referendum. So, the ’67 referendum whilst it was an historic moment in the building of this nation, was also a double edged sword. What it did was give aboriginal people entitlement to welfare benefits. We’ve now become the victims of welfare dependency and can’t get off that treadmill.
28.14
Today, there’s a thousand dollar fine for any unauthorised entry onto aboriginal land. The indigenous people is shutting itself off from the white population. When the English arrived in 1770 some 500’000 aborigines were living here. Less than a hundred years later they were decimated to about 80’000. Today, the aboriginal population numbers around 300’000, just over two per cent of the total population. The aborigines are not united. They come from different clans with different interests and identities. It may be the case that in many parts of Australia nothing would function without white help and management, as in this community. But many aborigines are escaping the welfare trap and doing something to improve their own lot.
29.07
Nicholas Oliver
Manager – Areyonga community
We do have social security in Australia. That tends to make people, what we call it here in Australia ‘sit down money.’ And, they tend to sit down for nothing. That is a shame, but we hope that we can as the years go by, change that. And, again it goes back to building up some importance in the community, and trying to make them feel proud of their community.
29.32
Perina and Nicholas Oliver are employed by the government. But this swimming pool for aboriginal use has been built thanks to charity. The government was reluctant to get involved in a project like this for an aboriginal community.
29.59
O-sound
Perina Oliver
Well here at Areyonga we are a small community, and often the small communities are forgotten by the bigger bodies, so we were virtually told no the government would not fund a pool. They were very worried about what would happen when we left, would it be kept up to scratch. They’d had a community where a pool had been built, it operated for a few years and then it was actually filled in again because it all went down hill.
30.23
Two hundred and fifty-six aborigines and eight whites live in Areyonga. Everyone can earn money with projects within the community. A few do. Computers create interest amongst children, but few will finish school. Only 10 percent of this community can read and write.
30.45
Twice a week, health nurses visit Areyonga. The life expectancy of aborigines is a staggering 20 years less than that of the white population.
30.59
O-sound
Alexander Brown
Doctor
In the face of a society or community which doesn’t feel good about itself and has nothing to live for, no longer holds on to the understanding of its culture, or doesn’t get any recognition of the value of that system, and whose children have no where to go or nothing to do and no job prospects, you can put in a thousand pools you can put in a thousand clinics. You are still looking at the same problems. The health situation is not going to be better if you’ve got these things or not.
31.29
(Don’t voice in English version - for non-English versions only)
The aborigines continue to live on the margins of society. The missionaries didn’t manage to change that – like this film from the ‘50’s shows.
The future is not hopeless, it says. The results it says, justify the belief there is a real future and happiness. There are employment possibilities for aborigines in the northern territories. They are magnificent stockmen. The government is making it possible for them to have their own cattle herds and in other enterprises. In recent years the government policy has changed from the passive idea of protection to that of constructively promoting welfare for aborigines. For the following generations activities are now focused sharply on education. Through it, new worlds are opening up for these simple nomads of the desert. A liberal supply of water for washing was seldom available in the desert. Soap never. These children are acquiring habits of cleanliness their parents could not have known.
32.39
Never mind soap, the women elders today still teach the children traditional dances, songs and myths of the rainbow snake – the creation myth. The snake awakes the first creatures and wakens mother Sun. Then the first ancestors come out of the earth.
33.03
Many of the residents of Areyonga can well remember the time of the missionaries. Today, most of them live in-between western Christian beliefs and traditional values, but many say life was actually better before the missionaries arrived.
33.42
O-sound
Daphne Puntjina
Aborigine
We know, we want that they look up to aboriginal people. Before government, when my mother and father, when we had no food, missionary give have flour and sugar and tea. Now, we have problems. We’ve got live people but life no more. Too many drinks and fights and car accidents. Long time ago it was really good.
34.42
Daphne Puntjina and other older women are trying to maintain their traditions. They make wooden beads, paint nuts and beans for necklaces. Only a few visitors come to Areyonga. Outsiders are mistrusted. Visitors are often unaware that they’re forbidden from entering aboriginal sacred sites. That’s the worst offence for an aborigine and the reason why whole stretches of land are closed off to non-aborigines.
35.17
The area around the famous Ayers Rock – Uluru in aboriginal language – is sacred for the aborigines and off limits to visitors. Ayers Rock takes a central place in their mythology. For non-aborigines it’s a spectacular hill, emerging from nothing. The aborigines believe in an anthropomorphic nature. Man owns the land, and the land owns man. For non-aborigines it’s a hard concept to understand. Many of their dances are equally sacred. Only a few of them are performed in front of outsiders.
36.16
In Alice Springs – six hours drive from the famous Ayers Rock – tourists spend a day with aborigines. Many white Australians, racist towards aborigines, forget that millions of tourist dollars flow into the country because of its indigenous population. Here, these Americans are trying out bee honey, which is highly valued by the aborigines. Initially sceptical, they are soon won over by the taste.
36.55
Tourism is bringing prosperity to aborigines in the area as well as keeping aboriginal culture alive.
37.07 in OFF
37.08 in ON
O-sound
David Kriss
Aboriginal Cultural Centre
It makes the community more self-sufficient. It shows not only other aboriginal communities but the general population that aboriginal people are able to cope on their own, are able to provide for themselves. A venture like this also shows that our culture, is exposed not only to the Australian population but an international market as well.
37.40
For the last five years, this Aboriginal Cultural Centre has been using tourism to forge bridges with the international community.
38.03
But for the ‘lost generation’, the scars have not healed.
38.09
O-sound
David Kriss
A lot of the parents just had no idea exactly what was going on. They signed documents having no idea what the specific purpose of that document was for. And, hence the children were taken away and some of those children were never to be seen again. A gentleman came up to me and said to me ‘I’m your cousin Steven. Would you like to meet your mother?’ And when I walked in she just started crying. But crying in happy, not sad. I just her face light up and it was just very magical. And just looking at her instantly, I knew straight away, instantly, that that was my mother and that sense you just sense that was your mother. And, even in appearance you look like your parents. I think it was a very happy moment for her and myself too of course, but still lacking that bonding that most children have with their parents.
39.20
For decades David Kriss’s clan could not visit the sacred sites of their area. White farmers wouldn’t let them onto the land. But David’s story has a happy ending - he fought for his land rights – and won.
39.38
O-sound
David Kriss
I have the title in front of me here. And, actually it gives me a sense of belonging. It’s like the last nail I’ve now found myself, where I belong, my people, my family. Just knowing this piece of paper here, in black and white has my name on it, stating I am a traditional landowner of the place.
40.16
In north Australia lies one of the largest areas of natural beauty – Kakadu national park. The area is one of 17 places in the world, that was recognised by UNESCO in 1981, as being both a cultural and natural World Heritage site. The park is as large as Belgium and is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists a year.
40.48
The oldest rock paintings in the so-called X-ray style found here are famous. The outlines of men and animals, bones and organs are extremely clearly depicted. Many of the rock paintings are considered sacred by the aborigines and are kept secret. Only this rock gallery is open for people to view.
41.08
Despite the uniqueness of Kakadu National park, the Australian government has allowed the ERA mining company, to mine uranium. The firm owns the mining rights. The Ranger mine is the third largest in the world. The uranium mining leaves radioactive remains, which is stored in dams. Water evaporates in many of the basins. At the beginning of the year, contaminated water leaked 9 kilometres and spread through two wetland areas in the national park. The mine owners were able to keep the accident secret for a week.
41.54
Aborigines are fighting against plans to build a new mine – Jabiluka. Jacqui Katona is organising a world wide protest. The aborigines want the right to dispose of their own land, which they’d fought for since the 1970’s to get the pioneering Aboriginal Land Rights Act. Under this law, large areas of the northern territories were promised to the aborigines.
42.20
O-sound
Jacqui Katona
Activist
Action groups are being joined by literally hundreds of people to take action, write letters, demonstrate, make meetings with politicians and ensure that everyone knows, not just their friends and family, but the community is made aware that the Australian government is prepared to sacrifice a World Heritage listed site for a company’s private profit.
42.39
The Mirrar aborigines fear the uranium mining will destroy and poison this idyllic place. Both mines, can according to the ERA, deliver 150’000 tonnes of uranium in 30 years. But, that will leave behind 40 million tonnes of radioactive sludge, which can lodge itself in the lungs. The Mirrar say the human cost is just too high.
43.04
Jabiru is the town centre of the national park. Around 600 aborigines from 30 different clans live in the park. They have profited financially from progress - from the tourists and from every tonne of uranium. A 99-year contract between the aborigines and the Australian National Parks board has many conditions. Aborigines will be trained in tourism and are supposed to have a say in what happens in the park and the right to live in the park. The health situation of the aborigines has also improved, materially they are better off. But it’s a fragile balance: tourism also brings with it alcohol, and alcohol is destroying more and more aboriginal lives.
43.59
O-sound
Sandra Djandjul
Aborigine
We’re here because we are fighting for the water. We don’t want the fish to die for us. And we don’t want to have mining at Jabiluka. We don’t want that.
44.16
Despite the fact there are differences between the clans, they’re united over fighting to stop the uranium mining. The aborigines don’t want to lose control over their land. Loss of the land means loss of their self-esteem – and their identity.
44.52
Hundreds of thousands of mainly white Australians showed their solidarity with the aborigines during this demonstration in Sydney – protesting against the exploitation of the original inhabitants of this continent – both social and economic. But, the aborigines must find their own way into the future. They want a legally binding contract which states that they are the original owners of the land. They want their self-determination and their rights confirmed. They’ll probably be waiting a long time.
Text ends 45.37
Pictures end 46.10
MUSIC DETAILS:
AKM
Millennium – Richard Harvey
KPM CD 300
Nr. 7 A Greater Future
47 seconds
Creation - XCD 001
Extreme Music – Sonic inspiration for music
Creative Minds - Nr.7 Creation
Spirit Dreams
Indigenous Australia 1 A 2024 D
A Soundscape of Unsurpassed Beauty
Nr. 1 Dreams (Doowi)
David Hudson presents Wangetti
I A 2013 D
Indigenous Australia
Nr. 4 Compressor
Spirit Dream (as above)
Stolen Generation
Indigenous Australia
Nr. 3 Movement – Mission life
Wangetti (as above) Nr. 6