A big serious talk
John Howard said about the stolen generation: "Australians of this generation should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies."
This post is aimed at that great, normative 'we' that Howard appeals to here - the big, middle class lump that is assumed to be non-Indigenous (and probably white).
Howard was in Federal parliament before the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) came into place and, though I haven't researched this, I can't imagine he was clamouring for it to be established. He was in power when it was policy to remove children from Aboriginal parents and send them to institutions which were given less funding than institutions for white children and he did nothing about it, which makes it partly his responsibility.
But then lots of people - good people, acting from an honest desire to make things better - share this responsibility. Lots of people - good people, trying to make the world a better place - enacted the policy of taking children away from their parents. I was struck the other day when I was having dinner with two of my closest friends, that all of our parents had been involved in the stolen generation in some way.
My mother was a paedeatric nurse and lots of Aboriginal children were brought in suffering from malnourishment or neglect. She would nurse them and then when they were healthy again hand them back to the social workers who would decide where they would be placed. One friend's mother was a social worker who specialised in girls in remand which, given the massive overrepresentation of Aboriginal women in the justice system, is the same as saying 90% of her clientele were Aboriginal. The other's father had been a customs officer. This job might at first seem distant to work with Aboriginal people but part of his job involved enforcing the laws forbidding sailors and others from visiting the Aboriginal camps near ports. One of his first jobs was to go around the camps outside Geraldton and kick out white and asian sailors who were (sometimes) exchanging alcohol for sex or (sometimes) visiting their common law wives.
I am utterly convinced that these people - my mother! - acted from absolutely the best of reasons. They were trying to make the terrible circumstances in which Aboriginal people lived slightly better. The thing is, though, that it didn't work, it made things immeasurably worse, and they were each a tiny little bit responsible.
I think it is important that we acknowledge that. The stolen generation is not some terrible thing that somehow happened in some vague way without anyone ever intending to do it. It was a consciously developed policy implemented over decades by hundreds of thousands of well meaning people. It was done by us.
And it continues to be done by us.
White people continue to impact on the lives of Aboriginal people. Take the dinner party again. One of my friends is a lawyer who works for mining companies which, as she says, means she represents the interests of big corporations who are sitting on Aboriginal land. The other used to work for the Department of Justice working on policies for women which effectively means policies for Aboriginal women. It was Broome prison, I believe, which had not one single white woman in the jail. And I, of course, work on Indigenous road safety issues when I can. Aboriginal people die at three times the rate of non-Indigenous people in Western Australia, and yet I still find it difficult to get any programs in this area resourced. I keep pushing but it doesn't seem to change. And perhaps it is my fault for not just throwing a fit and refusing to do anything other than work on this. Or perhaps I should think that the little I am doing is more than happened before.
Either way, I am clearly intervening in Aboriginal affairs. I am doing so for the best of reasons. I see the terrible, tragic situation of Aboriginal people in this state and I feel like I can't not act. But am I doing the right thing? Am I actually helping?
I am not apologising for the stolen generation. I am not saying that people meant well so we should forgive and forget.
I mean to say the opposite - that people meant well but that their actions had terrible consequences that we all bear responsibility for. That our current actions may or may not be helping, but that we have a moral responsibiltiy to act and that we are all responsible for the position of Aboriginal people in our society.
In response to Howard's statement that we '"should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies", I say that we, as a nation, are responsible. We enacted the stolen generation - and not so very long ago either, ending in the late 70s. We continue to live in a racist society in which Aboriginal people suffer disproportionately. We vote for the politicians, enforce the laws, create this world. We share responsibility. Aboriginal people share this responsibility too - but we cannot overlook our own responsibilities.
I hope that this is not just white guilt. I think guilt would be if we wallowed about, berating ourselves. Accepting responsibility is a different thing. It means that we - collectively, as that big, middle class group that Howard loves so much - promise to take action and do our best to make things better.
This post is aimed at that great, normative 'we' that Howard appeals to here - the big, middle class lump that is assumed to be non-Indigenous (and probably white).
Howard was in Federal parliament before the Racial Discrimination Act (1975) came into place and, though I haven't researched this, I can't imagine he was clamouring for it to be established. He was in power when it was policy to remove children from Aboriginal parents and send them to institutions which were given less funding than institutions for white children and he did nothing about it, which makes it partly his responsibility.
But then lots of people - good people, acting from an honest desire to make things better - share this responsibility. Lots of people - good people, trying to make the world a better place - enacted the policy of taking children away from their parents. I was struck the other day when I was having dinner with two of my closest friends, that all of our parents had been involved in the stolen generation in some way.
My mother was a paedeatric nurse and lots of Aboriginal children were brought in suffering from malnourishment or neglect. She would nurse them and then when they were healthy again hand them back to the social workers who would decide where they would be placed. One friend's mother was a social worker who specialised in girls in remand which, given the massive overrepresentation of Aboriginal women in the justice system, is the same as saying 90% of her clientele were Aboriginal. The other's father had been a customs officer. This job might at first seem distant to work with Aboriginal people but part of his job involved enforcing the laws forbidding sailors and others from visiting the Aboriginal camps near ports. One of his first jobs was to go around the camps outside Geraldton and kick out white and asian sailors who were (sometimes) exchanging alcohol for sex or (sometimes) visiting their common law wives.
I am utterly convinced that these people - my mother! - acted from absolutely the best of reasons. They were trying to make the terrible circumstances in which Aboriginal people lived slightly better. The thing is, though, that it didn't work, it made things immeasurably worse, and they were each a tiny little bit responsible.
I think it is important that we acknowledge that. The stolen generation is not some terrible thing that somehow happened in some vague way without anyone ever intending to do it. It was a consciously developed policy implemented over decades by hundreds of thousands of well meaning people. It was done by us.
And it continues to be done by us.
White people continue to impact on the lives of Aboriginal people. Take the dinner party again. One of my friends is a lawyer who works for mining companies which, as she says, means she represents the interests of big corporations who are sitting on Aboriginal land. The other used to work for the Department of Justice working on policies for women which effectively means policies for Aboriginal women. It was Broome prison, I believe, which had not one single white woman in the jail. And I, of course, work on Indigenous road safety issues when I can. Aboriginal people die at three times the rate of non-Indigenous people in Western Australia, and yet I still find it difficult to get any programs in this area resourced. I keep pushing but it doesn't seem to change. And perhaps it is my fault for not just throwing a fit and refusing to do anything other than work on this. Or perhaps I should think that the little I am doing is more than happened before.
Either way, I am clearly intervening in Aboriginal affairs. I am doing so for the best of reasons. I see the terrible, tragic situation of Aboriginal people in this state and I feel like I can't not act. But am I doing the right thing? Am I actually helping?
I am not apologising for the stolen generation. I am not saying that people meant well so we should forgive and forget.
I mean to say the opposite - that people meant well but that their actions had terrible consequences that we all bear responsibility for. That our current actions may or may not be helping, but that we have a moral responsibiltiy to act and that we are all responsible for the position of Aboriginal people in our society.
In response to Howard's statement that we '"should not be required to accept guilt and blame for past actions and policies", I say that we, as a nation, are responsible. We enacted the stolen generation - and not so very long ago either, ending in the late 70s. We continue to live in a racist society in which Aboriginal people suffer disproportionately. We vote for the politicians, enforce the laws, create this world. We share responsibility. Aboriginal people share this responsibility too - but we cannot overlook our own responsibilities.
I hope that this is not just white guilt. I think guilt would be if we wallowed about, berating ourselves. Accepting responsibility is a different thing. It means that we - collectively, as that big, middle class group that Howard loves so much - promise to take action and do our best to make things better.