With Aboriginal communities still under threat of forced closures and the removal of essential services, #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA has announced a Third Global Call to Action to take place this weekend from Friday, June 26 to Sunday, June 28.
Australia – Fifteen weeks after Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s “lifestyle choices” comment and WA Premier Colin Barnet’s announced plans to close up to 150 Western Australian communities, a wave of actions calling for a halt to community closures have been taking place worldwide, with a reach of over 12 million people from all walks of life.
Though the protests have made state and federal governments tone down their rhetoric, new plans show that their nation-wide agenda remains the same: the steady winding back of Indigenous services and community and cultural protections, while paving the way to reap resources from Aboriginal land through measures like the $5 billion “Northern Frontier” plan. Cultural heritage sites have been deregistered in WA and Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory are now on notice after the Federal Government’s proposal to pay out the NT Government to absolve themselves of future financial responsibility as has happened in WA and SA.
Loss of land, culture and self-determination has already resulted in a state of emergency in Aboriginal Australia, already experiencing chronic rates of poverty, homelessness, forced child removals, alcoholism, incarceration, trauma, suicide and ongoing deaths in custody. On top of this, the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in our prisons has risen more than 80% in ten years. A recent Amnesty International study showed that WA Aboriginal youth are 53 times more likely to end up in jail. The $534 million dollar cuts to services in the 2014 budget, attacks on communities and the denial of basic human rights via measures like the NT’s “paperless arrests” are rightfully increasing international concern.
Studies show that people live safer, healthier and longer lives in strong and healthy communities where connections to culture and custodianship of land can be maintained. And though he purports to be concerned about Indigenous wellbeing, on Colin Barnett’s watched, 80 per cent of WA communities are without safe drinking water and those who have been forced to leave communities are left to fend for themselves on the fringes of larger towns like Broome where alcohol and violence is a much greater problem. Such policies and practices are part of a long pattern of cultural genocide that we can no longer afford to ignore.
To date, #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA Calls To Action have given rise to an incredible movement with a new generation of young grassroots activists stepping up to be heard while garner support locally and abroad. Federally we have seen petitions have been tabled, tri-partisan support from Greens, Democrats and Labor. official statements made in Parliament from Greens and Labor members.
In Western Australia questions have been raised in lower and upper house around sexual abuse claims by Premier Barnett which he continues to ignore and to date has failed to produce a legitimate verification of such inflammatory statements. Calls by Minister Collier for people to stop protesting amidst claims of a consultative process to provide a document outlining the planning, instead met the community with a five page promotional document of little substance.
While the rhetoric has shifted away from the terminology of forced closures, there is no tangible backdown by the state. Recently, the West Australian Government has called for regional Aboriginal leaders to nominate to join Strategic Regional Advisory Councils being established in the Kimberley and Pilbara. Minister Redman has said, “The reform will only work if it is developed and implemented in collaboration with Aboriginal leaders”. The question is, on whose terms and at what price to our communities and culture? Actions to date show that government talk of “reform” and “consultation” are window dressing for getting their own way at our expense.
We urge all people of good will to join this call to action and #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA will continue its role to keep the spotlight firmly on government until there is complete certainty for our communities.