The Redfern Speech

I saw the Redfern Speech at the time and it was quite inspiring.

Of course it was important mostly because of who said it, Paul Keating the PM, and not so much as to what was said. Words similar had been spoken before many times.

The speech helped de-legitimize certain prejudices and also made a bunch of people feel much better about their efforts and their position in society. It also gave courage to those fighting for the eradication of racism and also those fighting for justice in the area.

We can make all the excuses we want for racism, mild or otherwise, but at its core is a complete lack of common sense. I think there are those for who we can never hope for change – but they will die out eventually if the message remains strong. Which it is not.

Keating did say that we should not feel guilty for the former and current treatment of aborigines; this I disagree with because it is an emotion and we can’t mandate it of course. I find it very odd that Keating was arguing that as a society we should exclude guilt because it’s ineffective. The German youth, post-war, have been very motivated, in a positive way, by guilt for acts that they didn’t commit.

Turning to social justice, I am not sure that the ‘scorecard’ since this speech is all that promising. Many of my friends work in the area and they mostly think that progress has stalled, possibly due to years of coalition government?

I worry that government direct intervention is part of the problem. It often is very top down in its approach. And inefficient and/or ineffective. Plus the politics in aboriginal affairs is vicious. Where there is free money, there is also flies…

Geography is also against us – to some degree there is a separation of the majority of voters and the visual verification of the issues. So we rely on a very unreliable media to keep these issues on the front pages.

And how in the hell to do we get social justice into the minds of the majority of self-centered rent-seeking bogans and the harbour-side and north shore burghers that we call Australians? Bring back the Oils. Only pop culture can achieve true penetration. We now have pop culture-lite…

I have not many answers to these issues. I can see the issues. And I care. But fuck me this is one tough set of problems to solve if all you have is a role in government and some money…far too often in this country we look to government to solve our issues. It is the default of most people. Not mine.

Personally I would like to have seen the whole country handed back to the tribes in one effort. That would have got everyone’s attention; their own freehold land suddenly becoming a perpetual lease with aboriginal landlords….

p.s I really hate the word ‘custodians’. its sounds like it has been legally crafted to avoid threats of former ownership.