Truth and Allyship: a non-Indigenous perspective
The referendum on the Voice to Parliament really got me thinking. It made me want to speak out about some things that are weighing on my mind. It's funny, in a way I feel like I'm taking a page out of my granddad's book, Kenneth Jones. He used to type up letters to the editor of the Christchurch Press, and here I am, trying to share my thoughts through this online blog. It's like carrying on a family tradition.
So, I have been looking for new ways to support First Nations people. I recently got involved with truthtelling by attending the Queensland Inquiry and making a submission to the Australian Parliament. I was glad to see that the several powerful QLD Government heads gave evidence to the Inquiry on the historic injustices of their departments.
The State election is coming up fast and the Path to Treaty Act 2023 will be repealed by LNP if they come to government - if you care about this important legislation please add your name to this petition. Police and youth justice are also high on the public agenda - as both sides of politics compete to be the toughest on youth crime. Why is public fear of (Indigenous) youth crime growing while incidents of crime are falling? Is this pitchfork politics? I have armed myself with some disturbing evidence for the next family barbeque.
Earlier this year I joined a community group, Brisbane First Nations Allies, and did some research with them into Rheumatic Heart Disease. This is an entirely preventable disease that almost exclusively impacts First Nations people, and I am ashamed that our wealthy country has one of the highest rates of RHD in the world. Our wee group aims to help raise awareness and join the campaign for more funding to prevent and treat RHD, and I hope you can help.
I was recently surprised to learn that Queen Victoria was viewed by some Indigenous peoples as humanitarian. This might sound rather frivolous, but I put some effort into my outfit for the ceremonial first hearing of Queensland's truth telling and healing inquiry in Brisbane, including Queen Victoria earrings as a symbol of my colonial heritage.
Truthtelling and truth-listening
Last week, I shared my thoughts with the Australian Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs about the Inquiry into the Truth and Justice Commission Bill 2024.
My perspective is as an immigrant in Australia, having moved here with my partner from Aotearoa New Zealand some years ago.
I thought hard about whether to write a submission. I questioned whether it was my place to speak on these matters. I know this is a concern many friends share, about talking out of place and causing offense to First Nations people. In the end I looked at the guidance from ANTAR and other networks and decided it was my duty to look into this subject and put forward my opinions in support of a First Nations led process that leads to tangible change..
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people demanded Voice, Treaty and Truth expressed in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and they are leading truthtelling processes accross Australia. The Queensland Inquiry is being embraced because it respects this First Nations led principle, and I am hopeful that the national process will do the same.
Non-Indigenous Australians certainly have a role, and we need to get involved in a way that works for everyone. The fearmongering tone of the referendum debate shocked me, I wasn't optimistic we were ready for another public dialogue. So I did a spot of research to find out more about truthtelling and the attitudes of non-indigenous Australians. To know more please read my submission to the Inquiry.
Truth-telling is critical to reframing the relationship between First Nations Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians.
As non-Indigenous Australians, it's important to acknowledge our responsibility to actively listen to truthtelling, even when it's uncomfortable.
This comic humorously highlights how our defensiveness can get in the way of building respectful relationships and sometimes leads to blame shifting. While the topic of facing up to our wrongdoings (and those of our ancestors) is a serious one, it's refreshing to find humor in such discussions to help us reflect on our reactions and strive to be better people, friends and community builders.
Joshua Creamer:
A Leader in Truthtelling and Healing
The Chair of the Queensland Truth-telling and Healing Inquiry, Joshua Creamer, is a descendant of the Waanyi and Kalkadoon people from North Western Queensland. He is a barrister specialising in human rights class actions and native title. Mr. Creamer has achieved success in two landmark class actions - the Palm Island and Stolen Wages 2.
Mr Creamer spoke at a National Aboriginal Press Club luncheon last month 3. He impressed me with his wisdom, modesty, and talent, along with his gift for storytelling. He also shared insights into his life, his profession, his vison for the inquiry, and the cases he won for First Nations communities. Mr Creamer's deep commitment to his people and his family was moving and motivational. He stands out as a remarkable First Nations leader who I believe will make a real impact.
One of the things Mr Creamer shared was his desire for this truth telling process to be healing - and include stories of friendships between First Nations Peoples and non-Indigenous Australians. There are stories of courage and mutual affection that truly deserve to be heard by all Australians.
Last week, submissions to the inquiry reached back to 1859, when Queen Victoria signed the independent colony named "Queensland" into existence. Submissions showed how policies over the years often viewed Indigenous communities as problems to be solved rather than as deserving of respect and support. The Inquiry heard from seven heads of various Queensland government departments came together to testify about their department's historic mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. They spoke about the key areas of treaty, health, welfare, justice, land, resources and police.
"Last week the moral gap between the human truths and the bureaucratic imperatives was thrown into sharp relief."
Julienne Schultz wrote in this week in the Guardian
Following his testimony, the police commissioner, Steve Gollschewski, said “It’s really confronting for us to remember that they [the Queensland police] were acting out policies that were set by the government of the day that believed, for whatever reason, that they were doing something that was in the interest of the state.”
We know that the public sector needs to be accountable to our elected officials. After all, our elected representatives are the ones responsible for creating policies and laws that affect all of us. But what happens when they ignore advice from experts in their own Departments?
Pitchfork Politics, the Police and Youth Crime
Speaking of which, in the upcoming State election, both the Labor and LNP campaigns are focusing on addressing the youth crime "epidemic" while the number of youth offenders has fallen by 20 per cent over the past five years.
Queensland has a long history of criminalising First Nations people, and this destructive practice is still going strong today. Shocking data reveals that Indigenous children and youth make up two-thirds of all children and young people in the Queensland justice system. There are good reasons why children and young people offend - including experiences of poverty and family violence - not to mention intergenerational trauma from colonisation and dispossession from traditional lands, along with oppressive government policies and practices that are ongoing.
This system is clearly failing First Nations children and their families. As the Queensland Child Death Reviews Board recently said "We have a system that can too easily fall into providing a negative cycle of more punitive practices and escalating behaviors that trap young people into anti-social and risk-taking behaviors that led to a cycle of incarceration."
Last year, I was shocked when the Labour Government once again suspended Queensland's Human Rights Act, allowing children to be kept in adult watch houses indefinitely. These watch houses are meant for adults for short stays, but children are being held there for weeks. The number of children in these watch houses is at an all-time high, with reports of inadequate care, exposure to adult prisoners, police abuse, and even sexual assault. These conditions are unsafe for Queensland's children and unacceptable to our community. If you share these concerns, consider reaching out to the QLD premier to help advocate for change.
So why is the community so worried about crime when the rate is falling ? It seems the frustration is with repeat offending, as property crimes by a small number of serious repeat young offenders have grown according to the Queensland Youth Justice Strategy 2024–2028.
Local communities are taking matters into their own hands - and moral panic can be fueled by anti-crime Facebook groups containing “overtly racialised content” according to leading criminologist Prof. Chris Cunneen. On one Cairn's anti-crime Facebook page a man wrote: "Many believe... these children need to suffer further physical abuse to teach them a lesson. This isn’t the answer.”
While not everyone in the white community is looking for punitive justice, there is clearly one corner that does not believe Indigenous kids warrant the help, care and respect due their own children. Imagine a picture where white middle class kids repeatedly committed these property crimes, our political leaders would be bending over backwards to help get them back on track.
Youth crime protesters march on Australian Parliament
Meanwhile Indigenous mothers are afraid to let their sons walk down the streets for fear that they will be accosted by vigilantes or stopped by police. In Cairns alone, frontline officers conducted 2,399 street checks during June-August this year, resulting in 160 arrests of young people and 203 charges. So that's thousands of children, many of whom are probably innocent of any crime, being stopped and 'checked' by the police?
So it looks to me like Queensland politicians are pandering to white Australians fear of indigenous children stealing or damaging their houses or cars. It doesn't seems to matter whether these fears are well founded.
“Victims must come first,”
Mr Crisafulli, QLD LNP Leader said to the LNP state convention
In the upcoming State election, both sides of politics want to show they're tough on youth crime. The QLD LNP leader, David Crisafulli, is making rash promises, like introducing "adult time for adult crime" for those aged from 10 to18 years old. If this overhaul went through it would apply to violent crimes as well as property crimes (such as robbery, break and enter, and car theft). One of the consequences would be that a child convicted of murder would face a mandatory life sentence.
History is repeating itself - we need to confront this brutal legacy of oppressive policies and practices that overwhelming impact upon First Nations children. Instead of tougher policing and punitive measures, which do not work, we must empower First Nations leadership and First Nations led solutions.
A Ceremonial Hearing: What's a Girl to Wear?
I was excited to be able to attend the ceremonial first hearing of Queensland's truth telling and healing inquiry. It was wonderful to share that moment with a friend and be a part of such an important gathering with community leaders who advocated for this process for many years.
This all sounds rather frivolous but I put a bit of effort into my outfit for a reason. Wearing vintage earrings with Queen Victoria's image added a special touch. I came accross these in an op shop, but it wasn't until I polished them up did I notice the silver shilling embossed with a youthful Queen Victoria, which a quick Google search informs me that this might have been British currency used in Australia between 1825 and 1910.
Including Queen Victoria in my outfit was a way to acknowledge my English, Scottish, and Irish ancestry, as well as the injustices that occurred during her rule. I wanted her symbolic presence to witness the consequences of those times. Wearing the earrings was also my way of recognizing the role my ancestors played as early settlers and colonisers of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Aboriginal oral tradition in south-east Australia relates that Queen Victoria gave us our land
We now know of Queen Victoria as an influential and enduring monarch (1837-1901), the suffrage, anti-poverty and anti-slavery movements can all be traced to her reign. However, the Queen was just 18 years old and barely five feet tall when she was crowned (1837), the same year the House of Commons acknowledged Britain's duty for protective guardianship.
First Nations peoples had good reason to learn about the colonial authorities - and so they got to 'know' Queen Victoria too. I was surprised to learn she was a symbol of humanitarianism and a last resort for complaint against the actions of colonials by some Indigenous groups. In New Zealand, The Treaty of Waitangi (1840) stated British concerns for Māori as Queen Victoria's personal interest in them. By1863, Queen Victoria received a party of Māori visiting England to meet the monarch they affectionately called ‘Our Mother’. For decades after the Treaty of Waitangi, it is reported that Victoria was a ‘passive participant’ in Māori debates about how to project their sovereignty.
In 2011, Euahlayi man Michael Anderson, a seasoned activist, pursuing recognition of Aboriginal rights and sovereignty, explained that ‘the old people were told back then, and it came down through the generations, that Queen Victoria gave us our land...' According to Maria Nugent this story evokes for Aborigines the moral standard that settler Australians could and should have lived up to.2
I would also like to find out more about the non-Indigenous people in history who recognised injustices, spoke out against them, and supported First Nations communities. But this has proven harder than expected. I am thinking of the sorts of people Tara Winch evoked through the character Reverend Ferdinand Greenleaf, in her award winning novel The Yield . The Reverend established a Lutheran Mission in NSW in the late 19th Century, and I was inspired by reading about his actions in caring for, defending and advocating for this community. Tara Winch wrote in his obituary that he "...died of natural causes. The editors here at The Australian Argus, however, would like to think he might have died of a broken heart, such was his fierce commitment to justice for his friends the Aborigines."
What Can We Do: Allyship
I recently discovered the concept of becoming an "ally" to First Nations people, and have started along the path to learning how a non-Indigenous Australian like me can go about this. There is so much great work already being done which makes me feel more optimistic about allyship as a movement. A wealth of resources, films and books has been curated by the Australian Centre for Social Innovation which are well worth checking out.
Brisbane First Nations Allies are a community group striving to amplify the voices of Indigenous communities and their autonomy. We are part of a broader community who contributed to securing a positive outcome in the Referendum for the Brisbane region last year. We have a range of projects emerging and underway, to help empower First Nations people.
Rheumatic Heart Disease
The Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) working group was established following a call to action from Noel Pearson, Chairman of the Cape York Institute. Our vision is to increase awareness, raise funds, and prioritize efforts to prevent and alleviate the suffering, damage, and fatalities associated with Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF) and RHD.
ARF and RHD are preventable conditions occurring in high income countries when social and cultural determinants of health are not equitably addressed. ARF was once common in the general child population and has been almost eradicated in the non-Indigenous Australian population, but it continues to have a devastating impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, with some of the highest rates globally.
Recently, I researched and wrote the "Fact Sheet: Rheumatic Heart Disease" to educate supporters and potential partners on the epidemiology, prevention, and management of RHD amongst First Nations people in Australia. See the key facts below...
Important Facts: Rheumatic Heart Disease (RHD) & Acute Rheumatic Fever (ARF)
Disproportionate Impact: First Nations people accounted for 82% of the 10,349 Australians living with a diagnosis of ARF and/or RHD in 2022.
Young Lives at Risk: Children 5-14 years made up 43% of the First Nations ARF diagnoses in 2022.
Completely preventable: RHD starts with a simple Strep A infection that can be identified and treated.
Living Conditions: About 66% of all cases are linked to regions with high rates of household overcrowding with 86% of cases in 2022 being diagnosed in remote areas.
Growing Concern: The number of registered cases of RHD and ARF among First Nations people is increasing: the rate of RHD alone increased by 50% from 2012 to 2021.
If you share my concerns, you can help by sharing this information around your networks to raise awareness. Take a minute and watch this video from the Snow Foundation to see and hear from children and parents living with RHD in Australia. If you would like to know more, or find out how to get involved please reach out to me.
Endnotes
Mistress of Everything: Queen Victoria in Indigenous Worlds. Edited by Sarah Carter and Maria Nugent, Manchester University Press. 2016
Nugent, Maria. “The Politics of Memory and the Memory of Politics: Australian Aboriginal Interpretations of Queen Victoria, 1881–2011.” Mistress of Everything: Queen Victoria in Indigenous Worlds, edited by Maria Nugent and Sarah Carter, Manchester University Press, 2016, pp. 100–22. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv18b5fbf.11. Accessed 3 Oct. 2024.
Landmark class action cases of the Chair of the QLD Inquiry, Joshua Creamer:
The Palm Island Case (Wotton v State of Queensland 2016), which addressed the death in custody of an Indigenous man at Palm Island, resulting in a $35 million community compensation.
The Stolen Wages QLD Case (Pearson v State of Queensland QUD 2016), Australia's largest human rights case, which led to a $190 million settlement.
The National Aboriginal Press Club is presented by The Centre for Aboriginal Independence and Enterprise. The CAIE vision is to build alliances between the Aboriginal and non‑Aboriginal community in a show of collective unity and openness. They are supported by ANU, CommBank, and BHP.
Neville Bonner Bridge - Brisbane - opened August 2024
Neville Bonner AO was a Jagera man and politician, who became Australia's first Indigenous parliamentarian. Named in honour of the late Indigenous Senator Neville Bonner AO, the Neville Bonner Bridge is a footbridge that links both sides of the Brisbane River.
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