The Joint Select Committee final report has just come out, but I have not read it, and am not writing about that just now. I want to write about the circus show that is being played before the eyes of the public.
If you look at who is initiating processes, who is funding processes, and which individuals are actors in the processes, it is bleedingly obvious that the Constitutional Reforms are being driven by the Government, and are being helped along by unelected, not endorsed under Aboriginal law nor the Aboriginal Community, ‘Aboriginal Leaders’. If you understand that the reforms will benefit Government far, far more than they will benefit Aboriginal people, you know there is a very strong motive.
In “our democracy”, it is supposed to work something like this; the public want to change “their” constitution, so they go to their representatives who’s job is to get the ball rolling to hold a referendum to get the changes through. This is why the Yulara Statement was addressed from the non-Australian sovereigns of the soil to the Australian people, and not to the politicians. The Australian people are then, in turn, supposed to act on it and carry it to politicians in an attempt to appear that the request has come from Australians. Meanwhile the Government runs committee after committee, while simultaneously running various PR campaigns to keep the momentum to “raise awareness”, going against the will of the people for their own power. This is a bastardisation of democracy bordering on tyranny.
Every good show needs a villain. Malcolm Turnbull put his hand up for the job and has continually copped it for rejecting it and “lying” about it being a third-chamber. When Turnbull lost his position as Prime Minister it became a hard for him to continue to play the scapegoat, so less than two weeks later Tony Abbott was nominated as “Indigenous Envoy” to replace him. I gotta say he does a fantastic job at looking like a clown, very entertaining. Nigel Scullion has also been made the bogyman by allocating funding according to the national interest, fueling derision of the deluded who think an “Indigenous Affairs Minister”, sworn to the Crown, should be looking after Indigenous interests. No doubt the same people who think the Chief Protector of Aborigines’ job was to “protect” Aborigines.
There is a very consistent pattern that has gone since First Contact, Government creates the problems, then they present their solution on a silver-platter, which usually does bugger-all to solve the problem, but would you please see how hard they are trying! Not their fault Aborigines don’t stay alive and out of jail… So many black kids in jail…if only we had an advisory body enshrined in the Constitution everything would be so much better, right? One of the oldest tricks in the book. Also note how they use the Labor/Liberal, good cop/bad cop dichotomy to feign disagreement while they buy themselves time to push their bipartisan agenda onto the public.
The Australian public have been indoctrinated (falsely) over many decades that Aboriginal people are Australians too. “We’re all Aussies”. They have deeply grounded (albeit with some major blindspots) ideals of equality. Tall-poppy syndrome is a symptom of this. Trying to turn around now and claim that Aboriginals need special treatment in the Constitution is going to be a very hard sell. The reason that the 1967 referendum was so successful was not because of a wish to help “the poor Aborigines”, it was successful because it removed “special treatment” of a particular race from the constitution. Now, the Australian public are not buying-in to special treatment for Aborigines – and why should they when it is contradictory to their values of equality? The only way they might come around is to explain what is really going on and tell them their Hills-Hoist is at risk, but that would be Game Over because Aborigines would also see what’s going on.
No politician is going to stick their neck out for a referendum that doesn’t have clear public support. It is not that politicians are against it. They are very supportive of getting their power secured by Aboriginal sovereignty. They are waiting on public support, which is just not there.
The other major actors – the Aboriginal Community. Have you seen them out on the streets and out on social media campaigning for whitefellas to support Constitutional Reform? I saw one protest in the mainstream media run by Aboriginal organisations.
In an unprecedented show of unity, the coalition of land councils, medical services, legal services, child and family services and education advocates – representing thousands of Aboriginal people across the state
So who funds these organisations? And note the protest was run on a workday/weekday. There is no authentic, Indigenous grassroots movement. I could be cherry-picking – go search yourself and see if you can find authentic-looking actions from the Aboriginal community. I’m not saying there are no Aboriginal people supporting it, but the support is far from overwhelming like the media and proponents are trying to make out. My feeling is that most in the Aboriginal community are generally disinterested and slightly skeptical. Then there are some that are very against it like myself, especially amongst the Sovereignty proponents, who are a growing minority of a minority. The majority in the Aboriginal Community don’t give a crap, and are probably as apathetic about the Australian constitution as most whitefellas are.
The real players and drivers – the think tanks, insiders, influencers. These are the mechanisms driving the changes. The Cape York Institute, Uphold and Recognise, the Referendum Council, the Joint Select Committee/the Government themselves, legal institutions, certain universities, Australian-appointed UN representatives, certain media outlets, Land Councils, mining, banks… it goes deep. Look who is on these bodies, the history of these individuals, who is supporting these bodies etc. I won’t go into that here because it deserves a post on it’s own. The same individuals are moving in-between these circles, opportunities pop-up for them at just the right time, the same names keep popping up – because they have ‘the background knowledge’, right? And they have the nerve to preach self-determination.
Maybe if Aboriginal people were simply granted some control of their own land they would be able to organise politically on their own terms, but they are busy trying to stay alive in an oppressive system while vampires work on stolen land to appropriate Aboriginal sovereignty while pretending to help.
Don’t be fooled by the circus show. We are all been taken for a ride.