Advance Australia Fair - Building Sustainability, Justice and Peace
Closing plenary - Working together to build an alternative
Sunday 31st July 2005

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Frank Hytten

Co-convenor, ANTaR Victoria
Standing in for Jacqui Katona

ANTaR’s a group of non-Indigenous people. I’m non-Indigenous. I was born in India. Basically we believe that it is time that non-Indigenous people started doing more about Indigenous justice issues. Non-indigenous people make up 98% of the population. There is no way that 2% of the population can lift some of the burdens that have been put on and continue to be put on them. We try to motivate non-indigenous people to get involved in the struggle again. From about 2000 onwards from when the bridge walks occurred some think that things are resolved. Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t know if I’m speaking to the converted or not.

To talk about how to go forward we’ve got to understand a little bit about what’s happened so far. The demise of ATSIC is an important milestone. It did not collapse because individuals were corrupt or incompetent. It did not disintegrate because it was an incompetent agency. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it wasn’t. The key issue, and the reason that it dissolved is because there’s a political agenda to dissolve it. The Immigration Department has not been dissolved or abolished, in spite of all the things it’s done. In fact, the guy got promoted. The intelligence services which led us into war haven’t been dissolved and no one has lost their jobs. You can go through any bureaucracy and you’ll find the same levels of confusion, representation, and non-representation as you would with ATSIC.

The Left and many Aboriginal people themselves got involved in the bagging of ATSIC, which was the only representative structure and practically the only way that was available in our culture for people to have and express a different point of view.

Where do we go from here? We have to start in small ways, we have to start by talking to our neighbours, by joining ANTaR. If you haven’t got money you can lend us your expertise. You can lend us contacts. In Victoria there’s 3000 secondary schools of which 28 teach Australian history as a regular part of their curriculum and 4 teach subjects to do with indigenous studies as a part of the curriculum on a regular basis because it’s an elective and it’s not picked up.

We need to stop being afraid to speak about justice issues just because they concern indigenous people. We’re not afraid to talk about terrorism, we’re not afraid to talk about refugees and asylum seekers, or other issues. Why are we so afraid to talk about our issues to do with justice? The 98% are responsible for what has happened over the last couple of hundred years because it is our institutions, our churches, hospitals, governments and so forth that have done the things to Aboriginal people that have locked them into place now and which create enormous difficulty for them.

We need to use our contacts to spread the word, we need to get active and start doing something. We can start wearing t-shirts and engaging with people about what it says, we can put plaques on our houses acknowledging traditional ownership, flags on our houses and stickers on our cars. In terms of my work with Aboriginal people, they do see that as creating a sense of belonging. I was talking at a Socialist Alliance meeting about 12 months ago and someone there said we need a revolution, all the badges and stickers are a waste of time. On some levels that’s true, but an indigenous person stood up and said that they are from Queensland and when they drive down the street in Brunswick and see the flag on the town hall and stickers on the cars it makes them feel safe. If all of us did that we are going to make a lot more people feel safe. Maybe if more people felt safe they would speak out a bit more clearly. Racism continues to exist, which you all know. A colleague of mine has two children at school, one of them calls themselves Greek and the other Chinese, because to be Aboriginal is at the bottom of the pecking order. And this is in a suburb of Melbourne with 123 different ethnicities. To be at the bottom of that pecking order says something about our culture and who we are.

Without wanting to berate the converted, we can do more. One thing that you can do is join solidarity-based organisations. We can’t all go off and meet Aboriginal people, because they are 2%, they’d be busy having dinner in all of our houses, they’d never get home again. They don’t want to keep telling us again and again what it is they want. They’ve been telling us this for a hundred years, certainly since 1938. It’s time we actually started doing something about it.

Local government is our best hope. I think it’s where change is possible. State Government says all the right things but are locked into certain positions and doesn’t do very much, and the Federal Government is actively hostile.

The Northern Territory Land Rights Act is under threat and they are going to do a Geoff Clarke on the chairperson, the leader of the NT Lands Council. The Cultural Heritage Act is going to be under review, and we know what they mean by review.

We need to mobilise, to talk to our church groups, sporting groups, schools, parents, children, retirement village friends, pensioners associations. We are all connected to dozens of people and organisations and we need to start doing stuff. If you want to know what to do, give ANTaR a ring. Get active and engaged, if you haven’t got money, then lend us your time. I know there’s a whole range of issues, but if this is something that grabs you then please do get involved.

Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation http://www.antar.org.au

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