Tony Deyal
IT IS one of life's ironies that on the same day a letter, accusing me of racism, written by the Australian High Commissioner in Barbados was published in the Nation newspaper, Aborigines in Sydney went on a rampage and burned down a police station to protest the death of a 15-year-old boy. The Aborigines claimed that it was a death "while in custody" as the boy had died while being chased by the police.
In 2001, Australia's Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found that Aborigines are the main victims of racism is Australia, much of which derives from the nation's colonial history. "Everywhere we went I was struck by the sense of marginalisation felt by indigenous people and people from non-English-speaking backgrounds who do not fit the stereotype of the typical Australian," Federal Race Discrimination Commissioner William Jonas said.
The High Commissioner was responding to a passing reference I had made to Australia in an article on the whereabouts of God and other mysteries. I was in the Bahamas, participating in a Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) when a youthful choir rendered a song and an opinion that if God ever felt the need for a holiday, the Bahamas would be his destination of choice. I was not certain and wrote, in part, "He cannot be in Iraq. And if we continue through a process of elimination, he definitely is not in the United States, perhaps preferring not to take sides in the Democratic primaries or in the Presidential Election. He is not in South Africa with the West Indies team. He is not in England with Tony Blair. He definitely cannot be in Australia where only white people are allowed, or in Neverland where Michael Jackson has replaced Him. But if he is in the Bahamas, why has he not intervened in the ongoing suppression of the aspirations of Small Island Developing States by the more developed countries?"
RACISM IS A PART OF
EVERYDAY EXPERIENCE
Interestingly, the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission's Report maintained that racism is still part of an everyday experience for some Australians. The Commission referred to Australia's 'Whites Only' policy that operated from about 1900 to 1973 and restricted immigration to predominantly European cultures. The Commission claimed that the policy had a lasting impact on the national social development of Australia because it allowed "the construction of a populist national identity that excludes and marginalizes groups on the basis of ethnicity and race."
At the World Conference against Racism in 2001, Monica Morgan, from the Aboriginal Yorta people of southeastern Australia recounted how her people had been traumatised by the collective effects of two centuries of racism. According to a BBC Report, her own generation has been marked by the removal of Aboriginal children from their families, the so-called 'stolen generation'. Some 100,000 children were taken from Aboriginal families throughout Australia, including Monica Morgan's own family. Describing the impact on her family, she said, "The removal of children from their families affects every member of the indigenous community in Australia today. Every one of our families has been directly involved, or has people who have returned home after being removed. In my own family, the father of my children was removed from school at 10 years of age. He and seven of his brothers and sisters five at school, one who was in hospital, two who were in camp with their family members were removed and placed in a jail cell and transported to places known as detention centres or homes, where they were trained to be domestics, brainwashed to be assimilated, and violated. In every one of our communities now we are having our people return to us, broken, feeling rejected, hopeless and without any justice."
DESTRUCTIVE POLICIES
While the Commission has recommended, and the Aborigines are demanding, a formal federal government apology to Australia's indigenous people for past discriminatory and socially destructive policies, the Government has consistently ruled out the need for such an apology saying it was not supported by the majority of Australians and would, in itself, create further social divisions.
What are supported by, and originated with, some Australians are the horrible 'Abo' jokes that portray Aborigines as lazy, dirty, ugly, alcoholic, thieves and morons. What follows might be offensive but proves my point about racism in Australia.
Q: What do you call an Abo in a Rolls Royce?
A: A thief.
Q: What do you call an Abo in a suit?
A: The defendant.
Q: What do you call an Abo with a gun?
A: Sir.
Q: What do you call an Abo who does well in an IQ test?
A: A cheat.
Q: What do you call 50 Abos rolling down a hill?
A: An Abolanche.
Q: Did you hear about the two Abos who appeared on the TV show 'That's Incredible'?
A: One didn't drink and the other had a job.
I am sure that there are some Australians who are not racist and that the Honourable High Commissioner is one of them. However, his claim that Australia is a "vibrant multi-cultural country that year after year has welcomed immigrants and refugees from all over the world, irrespective of race or creed" must be viewed in the same context as Steve Waugh's claim that he caught Lara when the ball actually hit the ground, or Ian Healy's that he had run out Lara when the ball had never touched his glove. However, considering what has happened and continues to happen to the Aborigines, I won't demand an apology.
Tony Deyal was last seen saying that being called a racist by a representative of the Australian Government is like being called an 'inveterate womaniser' by ex-President Clinton. You don't know whether to laugh or to cry.
