1. The Advertiser www.theadvertiser.com.au Wednesday, February 18, 2004 19
PUB:ADVERTISERDATE:18-FEB-2004PAGE:19ED:STATECOL:CMYK
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ISSUES A TROUBLED PEACE
Reconciliation with Aboriginal Australia appears a distant prospect despite hopes for a better
year ahead, writes Indigenous Affairs reporter MARIA MOSCARITOLO.
THE riot in Redfern sparked by
the death of a young Aboriginal
boy on Sunday morning shows
just how tenuous relations be-
tween black and white Australia really are.
All it took for the ember of discontent to
ignite and for chaos to hit Sydney streets was
the sight of two police officers tending a
17-year-old youth who had become impaled
on a steel fence post while riding his bike.
Rumour spread that the cops had chased
the boy to his death, outrage grew and the
streets became a war zone of petrol bombs,
riot gear, blood and broken bones.
The shocking scenes broadcast around the
country on Sunday show just how much work
is still needed to make reconciliation a tan-
gible reality.
It comes just days after Reconciliation
Australia, the national body charged with
advancing harmony, painted an optimistic
picture for the future.
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Commission argues reconciliation is in ruins,
and the violence shows how fragile relations
are – and how volatile they will remain.
While authorities are blaming ringleaders
who were looking to pick a fight, acting
ATSIC chairman Lionel Quartermaine says
such chaos will always threaten to erupt as
long as indigenous people continue to feel like
second-class citizens.
‘‘Culturally we’re not violent people but
there comes a time when oppressed people
say enough is enough – rightly or wrongly,’’
Mr Quartermaine says.
‘‘While anyone in authority chooses to
ignore the strain on the relationship between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people then
they are kidding themselves, because this is
a real issue.’’
The shabby Sydney suburb has been the
site of previous clashes with authorities, but
as Aboriginal activist Lyall Munro said on
Monday, the brawling mob ‘‘completely
freaked the country out’’.
Police in full riot gear is a chilling sight in
Australia, a country not used to seeing mass
street violence. Accusations and respons-
ibility have been shunted between police,
political parties and Aboriginal leaders.
Questions have been raised over why so few
rioters were arrested that night, but New
South Wales Police Association head Ian Ball
said police were injured because elders could
not control bottle throwing youths, and were
being made into scapegoats.
Mr Quartermaine says the problems faced
by Redfern’s Aboriginal people – like poverty,
unemployment and isolation from main-
stream life – are an ‘‘embarrassment for
Australia and its biggest city’’.
He says Australians who watched the riot
on television news should not be tempted to
sweep aside Redfern’s problems in the belief
they are unique to the troubled area because
they are the same issues faced by many
Aboriginal communities.
‘‘As a society we become like ostriches – we
stick our heads in the sand and hope it will
go away, and when we do that, it festers until
a tragic thing like this takes place,’’ Mr
Quartermaine says.
‘‘I certainly would hope now the wider
community will take these issues and these
concerns on board.
‘‘Just imagine if this happened to their son?
As a society we choose to ignore these things
because ‘it doesn’t happen to us’. We say, ‘it’s
not our problem, it’s not our fault’, but in
reality it’s a concern for all communities.’’
Advocates say there should be no ‘‘us and
them’’ and the well-being of indigenous
people reflects the health of the nation itself.
Lobby group Australians for Native Title
and Reconciliation believes the underlying
tragedy of Sunday’s events is that it takes the
death of a 17-year-old to make people sit up
and listen to what needs to be done.
And even then, too much attention is
focussed on condemning the perpetrators
rather than considering the basic causes, says
ANTaR national president Phil Glendenning.
HE pointed to reaction, such as NSW
Opposition leader John Brogden’s
call for public housing in the riot zone to be
demolished.
‘‘With things like this, the causes don’t get
dealt with, we just paper over them and move
onto the next thing . . . but we’ve got 216 years
of history to suggest that approach is entirely
wrong,’’ Mr Glendenning says.
Last week’s report by Reconciliation Aust-
ralia gave a thumbs up to the ‘‘good inten-
tions’’ expressed by governments in 2003.
It acknowledged the bleak reality that
many indigenous people still lived in third
world conditions, but applauded government
moves to look at individual community sol-
utions rather than the ‘‘one-size-fits-all’’
approaches which have dominated policy in
the past.
It recognised the challenge, as always, is to
turn words and statistics into action: ‘‘We
need only to commit ourselves to translate
good and well-informed intentions into ac-
tion, to stick with the journey beyond the
cycles of politics, and promising results will
start to multiply across the country.
‘‘This year has presented an opportunity to
make great strides . . . the year ahead is one
of great possibility.’’
Mr Quartermaine dismisses the ‘‘good
signs’’ heralded by the report, saying rec-
onciliation was at a standstill.
He said progress was marked by ‘‘a lot of
nice, soft words’’ but little action.
‘‘Basically our rights have been ignored, and
this is what it’s all about,’’ he argues.
‘‘We can’t ignore the past – reconciliation
is about acknowledging what took place and
righting the wrongs, so we can move forward.’’
He said every person in Australia had a part
to play, not just those in authority, because
reconciliation ‘‘is about relationships’’.
‘‘It’s just like a husband and wife – if you’ve
got a husband and wife who don’t talk and
don’t communicate, then of course there’s
going to be a problem. There’ll be abuse,
there’ll be (separation). There’s a relationship
between all members of the community.’’
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