St Mary's

“The realm of God is very near to you, for in God we live and move and have our being”.

Indigenous peoples were very aware of this. God was everywhere.

The sacred infused all of life; this is reflected in this Native American Navajo chant.

“The mountains, I become part of it…

The herbs, the fir tree, I become part of it.

The morning mists, the clouds, the gathering waters, I become part of it.

The wilderness, the dew drops, the pollen…

I become part of it.”

Our collective sense of being a part of nature, our world, our environment was lost somewhere in our move to go indoors, building bigger and more elaborate buildings – filling them with more and more things – Symbolically, removing ourselves from nature, from Mother Earth, from the source of our life. The rhythm of life, the movements of nature, the cycles of the moon, the rise and fall of the tides, the gathering of clouds, the direction of the wind, become insignificant, unimportant, along with so much which connected us to our fragile planet.

The removal of Indigenous peoples from their land, their mother, their source – and we were seemingly oblivious to what damage such severing would cause. Land was a commodity to be owned, bought and sold, fenced, dug up, damaged and destroyed at a whim.

I would like to say now we know, now we know Indigenous people have a special connection to land and to remove or destroy that connection, is an act of genocide. Now we know…it will not happen again. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As we are finding out under a government sponsored act done in our name called the Northern Territory Intervention. In 2007, seemingly acting in good faith, the Howard government acted on the handing down of the “Little Children are Sacred” Report- A report outlining the extent of Child Abuse in indigenous communities.

The military were sent out into 73 communities throughout the Northern Territory. Out of the 7433 Aboriginal children examined by doctors, 39 were referred to the authorities for suspected abuse. Of those, four possible cases have been identified. In other words, as Professor Alistair Nicholson, a former Chief Justice of the Family Court, has pointed out, this is no more than the rate of child abuse in white Australia. One of the things the “Little Children are Sacred” Report found was a lack of adequate housing in these indigenous communities. No real surprise. Under the new Northern Territory Housing laws, and with the suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act, Aboriginal people living on their own country who receive any form of Centrelink income support are being forced to give up their control of their land. If they don’t sign a life or 90 year lease, they are told they cannot have housing. Going into a government determined lease is the only way at having the possibility of getting a house (even though it appears incredibly unlikely that they will get one). Despite all the money being spent on the intervention (some 350 million dollars), just 3 houses have been built for the aboriginal people, while 56 houses have been built for white managers.

Journalist John Pilger writes, ‘every government since Bob Hawke has tried to claw back the land rights that were won in the Northern Territory’. Pilger says it’s now happening by stealth and it’s happening quickly. In 2006, there were 180 licences for the exploration of minerals on Aboriginal land. By 2009, this has leapt to 400 licences. Uranium, gold, oil, iron ore – these are the reasons Aboriginal people are humiliated; their land and languages destroyed.

These communities, as minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Jenny Macklin stated are “economically unviable”.  So much for “closing the Gap” and saying “Sorry” – these words are meaningless and rendered VOID in the face of this disgusting LAND GRAB. But if you had any doubts who is running this country in recent weeks, one has only to read the papers and listen to the news. Mining companies are extremely powerful, just ask our recently deposed prime minister, Kevin Rudd.

Any attempt to control or to get them to act in a more just manner is met by being ruthless and put in one’s place. These companies pay extremely low tax, significantly lower tax rates than the average worker. Given that they are given $5 billion dollars a year from the public purse already – in subsidized fuel, tax rebates, and billions of dollars in greenhouse pollution that isn’t paid for and millions of dollars of subsidized science – that’s before we talk about Government provided roads, rail, ports, electricity networks and other infrastructure.

A monster has been created in our name called the Mining Industry, we all benefit from it, but not nearly as much as the Mining Magnates who run and control them. Our silence in the face of such blatant land grabs is no longer acceptable – we can no longer be innocent bystanders in our own country. “If you are neutral in the time of injustice”, said South African Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu, “you have chosen the side of the oppressor”.

We have an election looming some time soon, late August maybe, a good time to put pressure on our politicians, to let them know we are not happy with the Intervention and the displacement that is occurring of Indigenous people from their lands. And the whole system of Apartheid that has occurred through the Income management scheme, where income is quarantined and only available through the use of a Basics Card for specified items, in specified places. Humiliating and degrading.

Thank-you to all those who have given to support a Bus going to The Alice this week to participate in a gathering of Aboriginal communities from across Central Australia and their supporters to plan a national strategy to defeat the Intervention.

On a more positive note, this weekend, Torres Strait Islanders have won a landmark nine-year court battle to secure native title rights over a vast tract of ocean to Australia’s north. Oceans which have sustained and nurtured the Torres Strait Island people for thousands of years – Oceans which are sacred to them.

I would like to finish with a poem from Denis Kevans of Wentworth Falls NSW asking

Ah, White Man, have you any sacred sites? Denis Kevans

Ah, brother, sister, I am searching for the sites sacred to you, where you walk in silent worship, and you whisper poems too.

Where you tread, like me, in wonder, and your eyes are filled with tears.

When you see the tracks you’ve travelled down your fifty thousand years.

I am searching round Australia, I am searching night and day,

For a site, to you so sacred, that you won’t give it away

For a bit of coloured paper, say a Church you’re knocking down,

Or the Rocks, your nation’s birthplace, by the Bridge, in Sydney Town.

Your cathedrals I have entered, I have seen the empty aisles,

Where a few knelt down in sorrow, where were all the children’s smiles?

Big cathedrals, full of beauty, opal glass and gleaming gold,

And an old man, in an overcoat, who had crept in from the cold.

Ah, brother, sister, I am searching for the sites sacred to you,

But the rivers, clear as crystal, smell like sewer-fulls of spew,

From the pipe and pump polluters, and the nukes that fleck the foam,

Would you let a man, with dirty boots, go walking through your home?

Sacred means that, sacred, that’s a place where spirits rise,

With the rainbow wings of sunset, on the edge of paradise,

Sacred, that’s my father, that’s my daughter, that’s my son, Sacred….

Where the dreaming whispers hope for everyone.

In the silence of the grottoes of Australia’s sunny land,

Stand together with the Kooris, stand together, hand in hand,

Open eyes to endless beauty, and to spirits, far and near,

For Australia is my country, hey, it’s sacred to me here.

Ah, brother, sister, I am searching for the sites sacred to you,

Where you walk, in silent worship, and you whisper poems, too,

Where you tread, like me, in wonder, and your eyes are filled with tears,

When you see the tracks you’ve travelled down your fifty thousand years.