“The 1970s also saw the creation of Aboriginal Medical Services, community-controlled groups that resulted in Aboriginal people solving Aboriginal problems.
The health services were also inspired by the US civil rights movement. The health of Aborigines today is among the worst on Earth, but there’s broad consensus it would be far worse were it not run by Aboriginal people.
But if Aboriginal control of Aboriginal lives can work in health and in NSW land rights, why hasn’t it been allowed to work in all other aspects of our lives?
From Sol Bellear is the chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service Redfern
I also have a dream. A lot of people my age remember where they were when man landed on the moon. As a lifelong Aboriginal activist, I prefer to remember where I was when Martin Luther King delivered his iconic ”I have a dream” speech.
That was our moon landing, a feat, until then, considered impossible – the rallying of people of colour around the globe to stand up against inequality and injustice.
This week was the 50th anniversary of King’s speech. When he delivered it, I was a young man in school at Mullumbimby on the NSW far north coast. Our teachers discussed the speech the next day in class but, in a place like Mullumbimby, it was hard to grasp the importance of the occasion.
It wasn’t until I came to Sydney in the late ’60s to attend a memorial service marking King’s assassination that the enormity of what King had said, and what it represented, finally dawned on me. King, Malcolm X and other great black leaders had challenged and dismantled much of the apartheid state in the US, and the March on Washington was part of a growing push to see civil rights legislation enacted there.
Much of the focus was on jobs and the right of African Americans to get access to the real economy.
Of course, discrimination remains very much alive and well in the US today, but the gains of African Americans can’t be denied. But sadly, as we mark the 50th anniversary, the truth of that era and the Aboriginal struggle also dawns on me.
Yes, King’s speech inspired my people. And yes, King’s speech shone an international light on the appalling treatment of Aboriginal Australians. But while King was arguing for basic civil rights, in Australia we were still fighting for basic human rights, a fight that continues today.
”I have a dream” was delivered in 1963, when Aborigines were still classed as ”flora and fauna”. It would take another half a decade before our nation voted to count Aborigines in the census, and afford us citizen status.
But the great promise that the referendum held forth – justice and equality before the law – has never fully materialised.
I’m not suggesting there haven’t been some gains in Australia. The activism of the 1970s and ’80s, strengthened by the determination of men such as King and women such as Rosa Parks, brought us modest land rights.
In NSW, there exists a land rights system that costs the taxpayer nothing, and which is leading economic development in many metropolitan and regional Aboriginal communities. The NSW system is not perfect – indeed it has returned to Aboriginal people less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the total NSW land mass – but, according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples James Anaya, it is the best land rights legislation on Earth.
The 1970s also saw the creation of Aboriginal Medical Services, community-controlled groups that resulted in Aboriginal people solving Aboriginal problems.
The health services were also inspired by the US civil rights movement. The health of Aborigines today is among the worst on Earth, but there’s broad consensus it would be far worse were it not run by Aboriginal people.
But if Aboriginal control of Aboriginal lives can work in health and in NSW land rights, why hasn’t it been allowed to work in all other aspects of our lives?
Why, 50 years after King’s speech, does the most basic human right – self-determination – still elude my people? Why, today, do we seem further away from this dream than ever before?
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott recently promised to appoint a national indigenous council if he is elected to office. Hand-picking our leaders to get the advice you want to hear didn’t work in the 1960s, ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s. It won’t work now. It’s as far from self-determination as you can get.
And why is the other most basic of human rights – justice – still denied Aboriginal people?
Mr Abbott is promising compensation for Australian victims of global terrorism, including legislation to compensate for victims of the 2002 Bali bombing.
”When people suffer because of the fact they are Australian, a decent nation should offer some acknowledgment, some recognition,” Mr Abbott said.
I agree, and I applaud the promise. But I also look forward to Mr Abbott extending that same fine principle to my people, who suffered because they were Aboriginal Australians.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd launched himself onto the international human rights stage with the national apology to victims of the stolen generations. Mr Abbott, if elected, can actually make it meaningful by delivering reparations – a basic human right – denied those people.
If, 50 years after King’s speech, either of the two main parties really want to engage with Australia’s first people on a basis of equality and respect, they’ll find us ready, willing and able. Aboriginal people have always had the solutions to Aboriginal problems.
Martin Luther King dreamed of a day when his people would be judged not on the colour of their skin, but on the content of their character.
Fifty years on, I dream of a day when Australians will face up honestly to the failures of their past, regardless of the kindness of their intent. I dream of a day when non-Aboriginal Australians demand not a dream about a future for my people, but a simple plan to restore our basic human rights.
Most of all, I dream of the day when Aboriginal Australians will be judged not on the colour of our skin, but on the strength of our self-determination.
Sol Bellear is the chairman of the Aboriginal Medical Service
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Sol Bellear provides a valuable insight into the Australian aboriginal rights movement since the 1950s. A lot of great aboriginal leaders had achieved some great strides in aboriginal self determination over the years. However, since John Howard got rid of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, taking away a platform for aboriginal voices, the media and Australian governments have ignored aboriginal people’s rights. There is a silent, subtle and informal genocide and assimilation policies being implemented by all Australia governments. Where’s the evidence? The worsening third world and inter-generational poverty that aboriginal people continue to endure, as confirmed by the federal government’s own bureau of statistics. The current federal government’s ‘closing the gap’ policy has been proved to be ineffective by the government’s own review of it’s policy. So what have the two major parties done? They both have agreed to implement the same policy after the election. In response, two aboriginal communities have declared their own sovereignty which they never surrendered to the British and will continue to fight for their nationhood. We will see more of this as Australian governments continue their silent, subtle and informal genocide and assimilation policies. Australian governments are operating an apartheid regime with it’s intent to kill off aboriginal people. The only difference is we’re a minority and Australia is too far away for the rest of the world to care.