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Injustice in Our Own Backyard

 

Over the past few days and weeks, we here at Wanderer have watched on as parts of our world crumble into chaos and pain. We are in disbelief of the injustice and devastation still experienced today by people of colour across the world. We are in disbelief of the insensitive and ignorant responses from some. We are horrified and hurting for those facing this directly. We are hurting for humanity and the trauma being brought upon our fellow humans. However, we are feeling these things as a sudden response to a reality that many individuals face everyday, and have done for their entire lives. We are standing up in support now, while minorities of every kind have been pushed down since the dawn of time. What’s more, if we continue to behave in the same ways we always have and let this simmer down, we will go back to sharing videos of sunsets rather than protests, we will return to being uneducated, we will return to our positions of white privilege, we will continue to overlook the incessant racism of modern Australia and we will continue to contribute to White Supremacy. That is not who we are, is it?


So what’s next? Well, there is no simple answer - this is a complex issue that needs intense attention and care. Still, I know one thing we all must do is begin to step up and take responsibility for our previous inaction. Accept now, that we will never understand the extent of our unearned racial privileges, and in future, work to recognise and look beyond them. Then, begin questioning and educating ourselves. What can we do to continue this support? How will we ensure our true lifestyles align with the outpouring of words for justice we have created online? I think having a good look in our own backyard is where it must start. 


I think partially, the issue is that as a society Australia likes to think we are not part of all the insanity we’re witnessing overseas. We’d prefer to sit back in disbelief and watch this turmoil unfold, thinking how grateful we can be that it is not happening here. Well, in actual fact we’ve sat back and allowed a cultural genocide to occur on our own soil. We’ve continuously overlooked the extent of Indigenous discrimination in Australia, and for centuries have overlooked the role we as individuals hold in our racist society. We’ve admired ‘dot paintings’ and listened to a guest play didgeridoo in school assembly. We’ve praised Kevin Rudd for the apology, and flown flags each year for NAIDOC week. All the while, Indigenous deaths in custody continue to rise, Indigenous children continue to be removed from their families, Indigenous people continue to have lower life expectancies, and they continue suffering from the ethnocentric roots of colonial Australia. 


I think we must forget that our modern society is young, only a few hundred years old. When this land, the land of First Nations people, was invaded by British settlers, it was done so under the claim of Terra Nullius: the idea that Australia was land belonging to no one. Over 40,000 years of kinship, of lore, of language, of deeply developed culture was instantaneously erased in the minds of future Australians. Western ways were then introduced, all done so with the view that Indigenous peoples were ‘dying out’. They were organised and regulated under legislation intended to ‘smooth the dying pillow’. Protection, Assimilation and Integration policies were put in place to occupy the time of Indigenous peoples, requiring ‘travel passes’ for them to leave reserves and missions; organise their presence and consumption of space, dispossessing their land and displacing them from country; minimise their communication, outlawing Indigenous languages; dismantle their support networks of kinship, removing children and separating families; and ultimately to destroy their social, cultural and spiritual welfare, stripping them of their rightful sovereignty. Today, we can recognise this as social and political abuse which has led to irreversible, intergenerational trauma.


Even though these policies aren’t in place today, the damage they caused remains visible in too many aspects of Australia. Our society has not moved forward from its disgraceful roots, and a lot of work will be required to do so. It is not optional though and it cannot wait. Remember, as much as you are offended by the racist truth of our nation, you have no idea how horribly it must truly hurt those it targets. Those like Dave Dungay Jr. Dave was a 26 year old Dunghutti man from Kempsey, who died in 2015 at Long Bay Prison Hospital at the hands of jail staff. When Dungay, an insulin dependent diabetic, refused to stop eating a pack of biscuits, he was violently held down by six guards and administered with sedatives. Footage shows him yelling “I can’t breathe” several times before losing consciousness as nurses and other staff look on. Striking parallels can be seen between this tragedy and the recent death of George Floyd. So please, do not think for one-second that police brutality does not exist in Australia. 


Dungay’s death is one of over 430 Indigenous deaths in custody that have occurred since 1991. It is not an isolated event, these issues are nothing new. While his death is one which occurred at the very hands of institutionalised racism, it represents the underlying causes of discrimination which remain visible and accepted in regular Australian life. These are the causes we, as individuals, play a role in changing. They include the language we use to speak about Aboriginal people, the coverage we give to them in the media, the time we spend learning about their experiences, the support we give to them, whether we stand up for them where we can, whether we recognise their rights as the traditional owners of the land that we inhabit, etc. The list can go on and on, because the ways in which we have come to discriminate against Indigenous peoples, goes on and on. My point is, we’ve become complicit in their systemic discrimination by normalising their mistreatment wherever it seems ‘convenient’. Let’s face it, most of you never really took the time to understand Indigenous issues, because they simply didn’t affect you, right? Well, in skimming past news stories, zoning out in history lessons, celebrating Australia day, you were complicit in building a deeply racist nation. Let me remind you: if you are not actively working against racism, then you are accepting it.


So together we must put a stop to this blatant side-stepping around Indigenous discrimination. We must realise that we are holding on to the roots of racism, reburying them with rich soil each day. Now we must raise them, wrench them with might. Then, we must burn them and search the earth for their traces to ensure they may never grow back. 


I ask you to accept your responsibility, as an Australian person, to educate yourself on Indigenous culture. Research the history of this land, I mean before white people like you were here. Watch the news segment you once thought didn’t apply to you. Take the Indigenous elective available to you at uni. Stop your friends when they speak racist words, help to educate them too. Make space for Indigenous voices, pay attention to their message and spread it. Engage with programs, charities, protests, fundraisers. Do not, for the love of god, ‘get over’ this; remain vigilant and actively anti-racist. Make sure you are doing it for the right reasons, not just for the likes or optics. Have the hard conversations; your discomfort is contributing to the disruption of murderous patterns and systems. I am not asking you to do these things out of interest or entertainment, not for fun, not because you have the spare time to, not because it looks good for your reputation. I am asking you to, out of necessity, out of the need for Indigenous lives to be saved. I am asking you to look beyond your safety and privilege and to recognise that Indigenous peoples came before you and lived on this land. We have enslaved them, murdered them, torn their families apart, and we continue to do so. So now, while we certainly cannot undo our history of pain and prejudice, we must all stand and speak up. It should not be on the victims to fight for justice, because you and me, we are the perpetrators here. 

 
 
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Some resources for information and ways you can engage:



 
 
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Written by: Matilda Reid

Captured by: Jack Evstigneev

 
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