29 September 2008
We Aboriginal women from the Prescribed Area People’s Alliance meeting yesterday, September 29 2008, met to talk on issues that affect us the most out of this intervention. We have made a statement. We don’t want the intervention. We want to manage our communities the proper way, the way we want it, this is our community, we are the ones that live there, listen to us and our cultural ways.
Racism
The intervention law is racist and we want protection under the Racial Discrimination Act 1975.
Rights
Intervention has taken away our people’s rights.
Law
There is one law and that’s our law. Our laws don’t change. White people are changing their law all the time.
Culture
We have been practicing our culture for thousands and thousands of generations. We want to strongly maintain and practice our culture. We want to stay in our communities and pass on traditional knowledge to the future generations.
Governments
Governments don’t listen to us. We want another government who is good, honest and respectful, with good people working for us. White men are trying to put us back, they like to be in the front. They’re always taking over. Stay with Aboriginal law. Government people bringing in new ways are destroying our way.
Consultation
We want more consultation and communication. We want consultation in our languages. We want to work together. Intervention workers come in, they don’t know our community and what we need, they don’t work with us. Government Business Managers are not working properly for our community needs. Community management belongs to us. Government works 9 – 5, community is 24/7.
Police
Police can do what they like, get away with anything since the intervention started. We’d like them to ask us how we’d like to deal with community issues. We’d like to work in partnership to deal with community problems.
Income Management
There’s no financial programs to support our people. A blanket approach to Income Management is the wrong way. Income management is bringing everyone into town. People don’t want to have to come into town. They want to stay in their own communities.
Nothing has improved
There’s no new houses, schools or anything for communities. They’ve only built new houses for the new intervention staff. We had programs created by the community for our community. We wanted more support for them. Community programs have been taken away. They’ve taken away our night patrol, community bus and women’s centres.
Going backwards
For old people the intervention is bringing up bad memories of the past, the old days, the ration days, the dog tag days and the mission days.
Health
We want permanent doctors and nurses in our communities that we can trust, not the fly in fly out, one-day or one week intervention doctors. Give our people the opportunity to be health workers in our communities.
Education
We want to our young people to stay on land and learn culture. We want to see kids going to school and getting a proper education in a school that’s on Aboriginal land, not to have to send them away.
Elders
Our old people are our government. We listen to them. We want to employ our own people, young people, to care for families.
Elders want “Return to Country” programs and aged care facilities in their communities. We listen to our old people, government should listen to them.
Calls to action:
1. We call on Quentin Bryce, the Governor General, to come and meet with us women.
2. We call on Jenny Macklin to have proper consultation with us women.
3. Stop the intervention. We want to manage our communities the proper way, the way we want it, this is our community, we are the ones that live there, listen to us and our cultural ways.