The Militant (logo)  

Vol. 79/No. 20      June 1, 2015

 
1,000s protest gov’t attacks
on Aborigines in Australia
 
BY LINDA HARRIS  
SYDNEY — Carrying signs reading “Our land, our rights, our life,” thousands took to the streets in cities and towns across Australia May 1 to protest plans by the Western Australia government to shut down some 150 Aboriginal communities there. Solidarity rallies took place around the world from London to Hong Kong, Berlin to Honolulu, and in neighboring New Zealand. (See article below.) The Liberal Party government announced last September it would cease funding essential services in remote indigenous communities. West Australian Premier Colin Barnett said two months later that nearly half of the 274 Aboriginal communities on traditional lands in the state, home to some 12,000 people, were not “viable” because the government could not provide services to them.

On March 10, Prime Minister Tony Abbott backed Barnett’s decision to shut the communities down, saying it was not the “taxpayers”’ job to subsidize “lifestyle choices” if indigenous people insisted on living in remote areas. His remarks fueled the protests.

Women from the Kimberley region in northern Western Australia set up SOSBlakAustralia and called protest actions on March 19 and April 10, with thousands marching across the country.

“The union movement supports, and will defend, the right of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to live on traditional lands and continue their cultural connection,” Australian Council of Trade Unions President Ged Kearney said, backing the May 1 actions. The Torres Strait separates Australia from Papua New Guinea.

The Maritime Union of Australia encouraged members to join the rallies. Northern Territory branch secretary Thomas Mayor said that the Darwin Aboriginal community would be turning out in force “and the unions will be walking alongside them. This government is a common enemy of the community and maritime workers.”

“The government is denying us our human rights,” Michael Willis from SOSBlakAustralia told the annual May Day march on May 2 in Wollongong, an industrial city south of Sydney. Several hundred marched there the night before in opposition to the closures.

“It’s a basic human right, not a lifestyle choice,” Wiradjuri elder Jenny Munro told some 2,000 people here May 1. Other speakers included Aboriginal actor Ernie Dingo, a Yamatji man from the south of Western Australia, who said his community could be closed, and journalist John Pilger.

Chanting “Always was, always will be Aboriginal land!” protesters marched through city streets with placards saying, “Close the gap, not the communities.” The “gap” refers to the wide difference in living standards between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians.

Indigenous Australians can expect to live 10 to 17 years less than other Australians. Babies born to Aboriginal mothers die at more than twice the rate of others. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience substantially higher rates of heart and kidney disease, as well as diabetes.
 
 
Related articles:
Actions in New Zealand stand in solidarity with Aboriginal Australia
 
 
 
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