Indigenous Australia News – Page 7 – Endangered Languages and Cultures

This week’s langguj bagarap

5 February 201127 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

Bagarap (1) how not to read census numbers

Uncertain future for town’s new arrivals
Simon Kearney, Yuendumu | August 27, 2007
LIFE will be a lottery for the 25 children born this year in the remote Northern Territory Aboriginal community of Yuendumu.
Based on last year’s census, it is likely that only two of these children will finish Year 12 and five of them will grow up without any command of the English language.

What Kearney must have done is take the percentage of all Yuendumu inhabitants who don’t speak English, and base his 5/25 figure on that. Conveniently forgetting that most of the non-English speaking Warlpiri are old people. Kids learn English at school.

Those who do not learn from history…

5 February 201117 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

…doom other people to repeat it. In this case, the other people are Aborigines.
Govt hails passage of NT indigenous laws, August 17, 2007 – 12:39PM, The Age
“A historic day for Aboriginal people”, according to the Government. Indeed, and this is what Bob Brown wants us to remember it for:

Senator BOB BROWN (Tasmania – Leader of the Australian Greens) (7.50 pm) Hansard 16/8/07
…We know from experience right around the world – from the Gaelic experience to the experience of people in the Americas – that the loss of language brings great anguish and depression, which visits people for centuries afterwards. Yet this government seems to have put that aside in the move – which must be very clear about here – to say to Indigenous people, ‘Take up the predominant culture or else.’ […]. I want that on the record, so that no-one reading about this moment in history 10, 50, 100 or 500 years from now can say, “If only they had known what they were doing to Indigenous culture in Australia.” We all know. The government has made its choice. It has the bulldozer; it has the numbers, and we do not. But let nobody in this place say that it did not know what this would do to Indigenous culture, custom, law, language, pride and wellbeing into the future of this nation.

725 500 new bureaucrats to the rescue of abused children

5 February 201113 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

Update: “unjustified, racist and obscene:” see end for explanation
Update 2 I missed the 140 extra DEWR people to manage the CDEP changes, and a few others.. up to 725 thanks Bob!
The National Emergency Response is about job creation – 350 new Centrelink workers and 150 new FACSIA staff. Just 66 additional police. Fewer than one per targeted community. That eats up most of the $500 million. No money for the housing shortfall, sexual abuse counsellors, new classrooms…..
The Senate votes on Tuesday 14 August on whether to pass the NT National Emergency Legislation. If you want them to delay or modify it, write to your senators now. Individually, or GetUp has a campaign.
Heaps more material has appeared on the site of the Senate Inquiry into the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 & Related Bills
– 80 or so extra submissions since when I looked. I checked every 10th – all opposed.
– extra material tabled
– the transcript of Friday’s hearing
– answers to questions asked by committee members
[Update: you can now download the Senate Inquiry report which includes the transcript. Further comments on the report at the end:]

“And I for one welcome our new * overlords.”

6 June 201712 August 2007 by David Nash

The snowclone title I owe to Mark Liberman’s LanguageLog post.

I’ve continued to track which communities are being targetted by the “Howard/Brough plan” (last update on 22 July). Last Tuesday we learnt which communities will get a 5-year lease to the Commonwealth. These are set out in the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007 and its Schedules, wherein s.2(1) specifies commencement dates of the leases.

Senate inquiry on the NT National Emergency Response bills

5 February 201111 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

The wind dropped in Canberra this morning – just as well for the small demonstration following the La Perouse community’s Aboriginal flag up the hill to Parliament House. A mixture of the Green Left, the young, and many grey and white-haired people with long experience in Indigenous communities. The main message was – tell Australians that the NT National Emergency Response legislation won’t stop child abuse, that it may make matters worse, not better. Far too many Australians believe that the proposed legislation is Doing Something About Child Abuse. They don’t know that it may well be Doing Something Bad About Child Abuse.
When I got back, I found an e-mail from GetUp! who are running a campaign for signatures to delay or modify or vote against the bills – before this Tuesday (14th August) when the Senate votes on it.
Did you know that receiving an e-mail publicising a demonstration could be illegal on public computers in most Aboriginal communities in the NT once the legislation is passed? (And as for porn – if their spam filter doesn’t work, they’re stuffed). Sloppy drafting.

How to fix the NT National Emergency Response Legislation

5 February 201110 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

For a clear account of problems with the Northern Territory National Emergency Response Legislation, a list of possible unintended bad consequences, and some solutions to some of the problems, go to the Submission of the Human Rights And Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) to today’s public hearing on the legislation by the Senate Legal and Constitutional Committee.
Here are just a few of the possible bad consequences they note:

We need a bill of rights

5 February 20118 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

I don’t want to think about the legislation the Government rammed through yesterday– Northern Territory National Emergency Response Bill 2007, No. 2007(Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) A Bill for an Act to respond to the Northern Territory’s national emergency, and for related purposes. I don’t want to think about the Opposition supporting this bill. … Read more

Justice for the Stolen Generation

5 February 20112 August 2007 by Jane Simpson

A small glimmer of good news amidst the increasing storm clouds of concern about how the loss of the Community Development Employment Program will make some Indigenous Australian communities unliveable and unviable. For the first time, an Aboriginal person who was removed from his family as a child has successfully sued a state government for … Read more

News from Rome: “Australia declares war on the Aborigines”

5 February 201129 July 2007 by admin

So reads the headline of a three page article in the Friday 27th July 2007 Il Venerdi supplement of La Repubblica, the most widely distributed national daily newspaper in Italy (La Repubblica has an excellent website [fixed broken link, JHS]; however the supplements are print only and not available on the internet). The headline and subhead read:

“L’Australia dichara guerra agli aborigeni. Sulla base di accuse che sembrano costruite (violenza sui bambini, alcolismo) il governo manda militari << ispettori >> nei territori sacri dei nativi. Dietro ci sono le promissime elezioni, E le miniere di uranio.”

which I translate as:

“Australia declares war on the Aborigines. Based on accusations that seem made up (violence against children, alcoholism) the government sent troops ‘inspectors’ into the sacred lands of the natives. Behind this are the next elections. And the mining of uranium.”

Ploughing salt into the ruins of the NT – Brough’s end game with CDEP and the little children – Bob Gosford

5 February 201124 July 2007 by Jane Simpson

[Guest post from Bob Gosford, who has written on NT topics for Crikey]
Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and Workplace Relations Minister Joe Hockey yesterday announced the imminent demise of the Commonwealth’s Community Development Employment Programme (CDEP) in the Northern Territory.
As of 30 September this year, CDEP in the NT will be dead.
According to Brough, it’s all about the cash and the kids.