From today’s Crikey email:
Allegations have now been made that the Indigenous man whose arrest sparked a riot at the northern Queensland town of Aurukun on Tuesday night was assaulted by police.
Although there were no doubt local factors at play, the broader context for the incidents at Aurukun is the complete breakdown of trust between the Indigenous community and police in the wake of the mishandled death in custody of Mulrinji Doomadgee on Palm Island.
The Queensland Government must itself bear part of the blame for this. The failure of the DPP, Leanne Clare, late last year to recommend charges against Senior Sergeant Peter Hurley after the Deputy State Coroner found that he was responsible for Mulrinji’s death was handled appallingly. Peter Beattie completely misread the initial mood of both Palm Islanders and supporters in the broader Indigenous and non-Indigenous community when he called for people to “move on” and accept the “umpire’s verdict”.
The decision to review the DPP’s decision, and the subsequent public arguments over who should do the job, only kept the issue alive over the Christmas holidays. No doubt Premier Beattie and Attorney-General Kerry Shine hoped that the temperature would drop when Indigenous leaders welcomed the appointment of Sir Laurence Street.
But questions have been raised by Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett as to whether the rebadged “second opinion” will now examine any of the issues that go to the broader systemic problems surrounding Indigenous people and the justice system in Queensland.
The answer is probably not.
If that does prove to be the case, Beattie’s government may soon have to choose between more riots and distrust and opening a can of worms by comprehensively reviewing police culture and legal processes.
It would be an interesting social experiment to have a self imposed moratorium on committing crimes in these communities and then measure if and how quickly the police culture improves and how fast and far that improvement spreads south and into the broader Australian community.
I’m sure they are nasty cops but I wonder how nasty they were when first arrived. The correlation of racist attittudes and personal experience in these communities is the opposite to what we’d all wish in my own experience. One feels obliged to wonder at time if the only good thing about remote communities is the remoteness, and even that is declining.
Can anybody think of a place where goodwill and mountains of dollars has failed so badly? Apart from Iraq, that is.
“Goodwill”? In Iraq?
You’ve lost me.
Do you have any evidence that there is a complete breakdown in trust between the Aurakun indigenous community and the local police or will we have to extrapolate that from Acting Premier Bligh’s comment:
which could mean anything from some small diminution in confidence to a compete breakdown in trust?
I’ve talked to some people in the Indigenous community, GregM. I think if anything it’s a bit of an understatement.
I’m not sure if you’re being serious, but I would have thought that a riot involving most of the community storming the police station is pretty indicative of ‘a complete breakdown of trust’.
The timing also indicates that there is a strong relationship between the events of Aurakun and Palm Island.
It wasn’t just the police station which was stormed.
What I am about to say wont be pouplar but unfortunatey in OZ wether we like it or not, someone once said”Theres no votes in Boongs”,and from people who I have met over a long time in 4 states working in the Construction Ind and friends, its true.
To follow that point up John, why is it then that there is such a lot of money spent on boongs? Albeit with remarkably little to show for it.
Governments seem to fall over each other to spend money on “indigenous” Australians.
I’d prefer it if people don’t use that term, please.
John’s probably right though.
“John’s probably right though.”
I think what people are tired of is bad news and abject failure and hence the apparent disengagement. Even a bit of success would see us all heave a big sigh of relief. If anybody has a good idea I’d like to hear it.
I find it as easy to resent the rioters as others do to resent the police.
Indisputably the riot is the fault of the rioters.
I resent them plenty.
Theres plenty of votes in tourism which is our largest industry along with mining. When the link is made in the travelling global publics mind between this regimes malign neglect of our first Australians by the benchmarks of NZ, Canada and even the USA then we will see some real angst.
The hip pocket nerve can cause a lot of pain for even the stupidist racist redneck.
Actually Steve, that’s not true. Lots of money tagged as Indigenous spend, is money that would be spent on the communities in which maybe you, and certainly me, live. We don’t count money on hospitals or schools or roads as ‘special’ – but deliver it in an community with mostly Indigenous people and suddenly it becomes somehow worthy of separation.
On a per capita basis, Indigenous people get MUCH LESS expenditure on health, education, local infrastructure than other groups.
Angharad is right – on a per capita basis over time Indigneous people get much less than most others.
James said that seeing “even a bit of success would make us all heave a sigh of relief.” I understand and broadly agree with his sentiment, but one of the more tragic aspects of this incident is that, as I think Warren Pitt has said, the community at Aurukun has a number of successes in recent years, despite facing some major hurdles with limited resources. We rarely see those success stories – if we did it might dilute some of the feelings James is expressing. It’s a reimder to me that I should do a bit more trying to draw attention to those too.
Mind you, even if we had seen more of those positive stories, this sort of incident still would have happened. Our lack of knowledge of our history – even quite recent history – means the general community has little appreciation of how incredibly deep the wounds in Indigenous communities are. When these combine with a drawn out, multi-faceted tragedy such as has occured from the death of Mulrunji onwards, it causes immense harm. I think ‘distrust’ only begins to describe it.
If people want to just respond with resentment or the sort of hairy chested overkill that happened on Palm Island in 2004, there’s a lot more resenting back that can occur, which wouldn’t be in anyone’s interests.
Angharad & Andrew: Bullsheet!
I can’t beat an argument like that, SatP – too sophisticated for me to grasp.
I don’t think it is too hard to grasp really. It’s called the deep north response. The sheet being slipped on says it all.
I can’t think why some are so touchy about the amount spent exclusively on indigenous.
Contrary to the claims of Angharad, it is not regualar expenditure disguised to appear as indigenous only, but indigenous only expenditure is actually disguised to appear as available to all.
The bookwork by the multitude of bodies which exist in the aboriginal industry is very creatively adjusted to show positive outcomes & low government spending.
As a beneficiary of the extensive spending on indigenous, I hope it continues. It is very inefficient, that is, not much is achieved for the buck, but that is purely because of the people administering it.
None of which has anything much to do with the law & order issue at Aurukun. The rioters destroyed property which is for indigenous only, designed to improve their lives. They cannot make any excuse for that.
“The Deep North” response eh Steve?
Bigotry rides tall in these pages whilst you draw breath, that’s for sure.
(see 11/1/07 6.12pm comment)
WTF? What a revolting word for anyone to use.
Why don’t you come to the Justice Day rally on January 26th and start throwing it around, sport?
That would remind me of the story on this photo I took at the “Taking to the Streets” exhibition:
Oh, and before you start what-abouting from the pub, steve, Aborigines using the term ‘White C**t’ is also bigoted and deeply offensive.
I suggest you work on your research skills David Jackmanson.
The 6:12pm comment on the 11th contained no such word.
The comment where it was used was quoting the comment previous to it.
Deep thinker you ain’t, suggest you attempt engaging brain before mouth in future.
Funny how terms get such currency, eh? I mean, cunts are really nice things, aren’t they? Lots of fun to be around.
Does anyone know the actual derivation of boong? I know it’s incredibly derogatory, and only ever used as such, but is this just from usage, or etymology?
Gee steve, when you “quote” something you put it in “quote marks”, like the person in the comment to which you refer.
When you pick up a word someone else has used, and use it yourself, you don’t put quote marks around it – just like in your comment.
Your blog shows enough evidence of written English skills to show that you are well aware of this.
But you’re right, it was your 5.01pm comment, not your 6.12pm comment. You used revolting bigoted language over an hour before I said you did. Thanks for picking up the error.
Instead, the 5:01 quote marks are around “indigenous”.
Are you suggesting their claim to the term is dubious, Steve, or quoting someone again?
Got any evidence to back up this claim SATP? Or know what site we can go to to check the voracity? We could make the same sort of claim about any group in society if we wanted to but I would hope that you have not just plucked it out of thin air and are pulling our leg. if it is true then where does it leave your book-keeping?
Didn’t you just say that you were a part of the aboriginal industry as their publican? Hope your books are kept straighter than what you seem to be telling us here.?
James’ point, sadly, seems to be a regular enough of a phenomenon that it is worthy of more debate and social research.
If you only see the yukky side of life , and have deal with the mess – in health, education welfare and policing, i can understand how it all gets too overwhelming, and anything from detachment, cynicism, despair and contempt can set in. I’ve seen this happen to professionals more than a few times, (and not just in indigenous communities btw).
Seeking out the beauty and passion in these communitites, expressed through art, faith, sport and/or strength of character, and dont segregate yourself off from the community and hang out only with migaloos can go a long way to offsetting this.
(Oh, and dont think that indigenous professionals and leaders dont get overwhelmed, jaded, cynical and burnt out either…..)
FDB, I can’t find anything online about the etmology of the word…if you are in a capital city or near a university perhaps the Oxford Australian dictionary would be of use.
Not really relevant to this thread but I was told the etymology of the word came from the Kokoda Trail in the second world war. It means “brother” in Native Stretcher Bearerian. Originally the word was a nickname and not meant offensively at all. Now this is all a little to neat and tidy to be true in my opinion and it sounds like an easily disprovable urban myth.
Sublime cowgirl picks up on James’ point about the way local acculturation can roughen the edges of the sharpest idealist. Living in a country town with probably some of the earliest black guerilla warfare over land/habitat destruction, I can vouch for the european blind eye applying even post-Mabo.
Her other comment about the indigenous leadership particularly suffering from these incidents accounts with reports I read that these people at Aurukun took shelter with police as the mobs attacked.
I agree with Andrew Bartletts comments about the very long history/memory of oppression but Aurukun has had enough wins to have put this sort of self harm behind them. Also am I right in thinking it wasn’t even pension day, which isn’t trying to excuse it.
The person whose word triggered the riot is in jail because relatives refuse to put up with him if he is bailed to their address.
Interesting. Wonder if any of the rampagers have the decency to hang their heads in shame.
There are 1200 residents of Aurukun, a quarter of the rioted.
Were the remaining 3/4 of the population indifferent, scared, seeking shelter from police, taken to the bush, or hiding in their homes, hoping the riot doesn’t reach them?
See David Jackmanson’s 9.19am comment for an example of aboriginals resorting to violence as a first resort.
Unfortunately most indigenous violence is against each other, often family members.
One has to wonder if any of the rioters stopped to consider the proportionality of their actions.
I wonder how breaking into the tavern & stealing the grog can be said to be an expression of dissatisfaction with the Palm Island finding?
The nature of a riotous mob is surely such that it often goes quickly beyond anything reasonable, coherent or well-directed.
How and whyever it starts, as soon as those-most-likely-to-fuck-shit-up (young angry males) get involved, all bets are off. No surprise at all they’d want some free grog in the mix.
Terrifying and undeserved though it no doubt was for your fellow publicans, Steve, this doesn’t necessarily imply that the emotions that stirred the whole thing weren’t real.
And sure, if his rellies won’t have him, he’s probably a fucktard – remember that a one-off incident is not what we’re looking at. It’s tension, mistrust and resentment built up over generations.
Steve, you could do a bit of work on your reading comprehension:
I did not say that I was a beneficiary of the aboriginal industry by being their publican.
The “straightness” of my bookeeping, which you see fit to mention, is relevant to this thread how exactly?
Oh, so you think that if a white man calls a black man a b***g, the black man should reason with him? Or maybe lodge a complaint with the Equal Opportunity people?
What solutions do you offer to places like Arukun, other than your sneers and the same old lines about black welfare? (It is of course well known that corruption, misappropriation, bodgy bookwork and self-destructive behaviour never happen among white communities)
And are you going to come along to a black rally on Australia Day and see what happens when you use vile ethnic slurs like the one in your 5.01pm comment yesterday?
For instance SatP, perhaps you could tell us about some of the black leaders who stand up and speak out against toxic and self-destructive behaviour from blacks?
Or do you just want to go around spreading your resentment, which just adds to the crust of disdain that many white people have for black people, making their lives even harder?
Your post is spot-on FDB.
Except for:
“…Your fellow publicans…”. The Aurukun Three Rivers Tavern is owned and run by the people of Aurukun.
I’m not sure where Steve at the Pub is coming from here. He claims to know more about the subject of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Island health expendeture than, Senator Bartlett.
Maybe you’d like to check out this report – (PDF)
Later, the same report explains the difference -
Oops, HTML malfunction
Alex, you are another with reading comprehension difficulties.
I have made no claim to know anything about health budgets, indigenous or othewise. Your embarrasment mate.
I did state that lots of money gets spent on indigenous people. I also stated that this spending tends to not achieve a result proportionate with the dollars expended.
There is no reason to hide or explain away the amount spent on indigenous people. For some reason other commenters reflexively suggested that not as much is spent on indigenous as it may seem.
I challenged this feeling of guilt & cover up over the amount spent on indigenous.
I challenge you Alex to explain why you feel I would “have a problem” with proof of spending on indigenous health.
Alex, you could contact a primary school & sit in on a grade 4 reading comprehension class, save yourself the embarrassment of responding to a comment which wasn’t made!
I’ll ignore the ‘how much money is spent on blackfellas’ “debate” for the moment, beyond noting that Alex has provided some verification for the earlier assertions by myself and Angharad, while SatB managed “bullsheet”, followed by “I have made no claim to know anything about health budgets, indigenous or othewise.”
I broadly agree with Pablo’s comment, including that “Aurukun has had enough wins to have put this sort of self harm behind them” – which is all the more reason why this event is such a concern, and I might suggest also why (from what I can tell) the Qld government is treating it with some genuine seriousness, as opposed to the instant media-management driven responses for TV audiences in Brisbane, as they did with Palm in 2004.
It is also worth noting – because sure as hell many Indigenous people are – that there have already been 15 people charged over this week’s riot at Aurukun on Queensland’s Cape York. To prempt any moronic response, I am not inferring that people should be able to riot with impunity. Indeed, the news report said that “19 people came forward yesterday to be interviewed after talks with community leaders”, which suggests to me a strong degree of cooperation.
However, one can’t help but notice that 15 rioters get charged within a couple of days of this event, but when someone dies within an hour of being taken into police custody, it takes two years to decide to take no action at all (admittedly the initial internal police investiation into Mulruni’s death that said ‘it was all an accident’ didn’t take very long at all, but that’s hardly a good thing).
This follows on from Palm Island where people who pleaded guilty to being part of a riot (even though their specific personal action seems to have been no more than throwing a rock) get sentenced to jail following appeals from the Qld government – in one case for a single mother with no prior convictions.
Not to mention those on Palm Island who had armed and masked police break down their doors in the early hours of the morning without warning, with children present, had guns pointed at their heads, were arrested, charged and given ‘bail’ which meant exile from their home and Island for months – and after all this having charges dropped without so much as a “sorry”.
I know every incident can have its own separate plausible explanation, but it gets very hard not to join them all together, particularly – to use Pablo’s words – given the “long history/memory”.
Andrew, aren’t the Palm Islanders fortunate their riot wasn’t in Indonesia or Malaysia!
Aurukun for that matter also. Both towns rioted with impunity. Would not happen in some jurisdictions, at least, not a second time.
Well hurrah, SatP, as long as we do something better than the Indonesian Government, nothing else really matters.
SatP:
Andrew Bartlett:
I don’t know about your definition of impunity dude. Seems about as shaky as your knowledge of indigenous funding.
I respectfully suggest PatrickG, that is it your knowledge of Indo/Malaysian methods of controlling riots which is shaky, dude.
There is little to fear from the law in Australia (except for commission of the most serious of crimes) if one does not much care about short stretches in gaol or having a criminal record.
I repeat, that as a beneficiary of indigenous funding, I have a more than passing acquantaince with it. That is, it is not just something I feel I have “insight” into because I happened to read something on the topic. Nor do I claim to be an expert, or to have any special knowledge, as indigenous funding in Australia is a many, many, many headed Hydra.
Just because someone who has been to university, or who has been elected to office, or who has a chip on their shoulder, calls me a yokel, does NOT mean that I am shooting from the hip.
Do you feel that I am misguided to say there is lots of money allocated to indigenous-specific purposes?
Or do you feel that I am wrong when I say that indigenous spending is achieving positive outcomes which are disproportionately low considering the dollars put into it?
By the way, I was not suggesting that our (ie Australia’s) methods of handling riots/civil disorder are better than Indonesia or Malaysia’s, my meaning was quite the opposite.
My definition of impunity PatrickG, in this case is that the riots only stopped when the rioters ran out of energy.
The riots did not stop, in either case, because of superior force being used against the rioters,
Nor because the rioters had fear of triggering retribution from the law.
Look on the bright side. At least the yanks haven’t intervened to quell this insurrection in a pointless corner of a strategic outpost.
I always liked how the Brits did it when distant administrative districts got of control (ie: aid to the civil power) – shoot or hang the ringleaders and then with the maximum of muddle totally give in to all the region’s demands. Everyone then lived ever after in immense and sometimes happy confusion.
Hehe, Nabakov, be nothing like a C-130 circling overhead dishing out some serious respect via miniguns & generally brassing up the environs to curtail my thoughts of insurrection!
“nothing like a C-130 circling overhead dishing out some serious respect via miniguns & generally brassing up the environs..”
Some of my ancestors manned the 19th century equivalent – RN gunboats and frigates – up the Nile, around West Africa and in the South Pacific – all in the service of Lugardism and look at the fucking mess most of those spheres of operation are now.
Not what you first said.
Andrew Bartlett and Angharad said, between them:
And you said
Implying that you believe that, over time, Indigenous people do not get much less per capita than others.
So apart from resentful moaning about people who have been to university or got themselves elected thinking you are a yokel, do you have any figures to back up the actual assertion you made?
Also, what are you doing to help the black leaders and people who believe that there is a great deal of toxic, self destructive behaviour in Aboriginal communities and are trying to stop it?
” what are you doing to help the black leaders and people who believe that there is a great deal of toxic, self destructive behaviour in Aboriginal communities and are trying to stop it?”
Well personally I do my best to drink as much booze as possible so there’ll less left for them that fucks on up it without the monied WASP support system available to chronic pissartists like moi.
This may not be the answer you were expecting Dave – but it is somewhat how the world does really work.
Now I need a drink after this protracted bout of manual typing by hand. On keyboards too.
Nabakov, no matter how much you drink, there will still be enough left for Aboriginal people to damage themselves.
I’m not sure what you mean. Are you pointing out that WASPs/Anglos etc have access to far better addiction-help services than black people?
SatP,
I think you can make a good case that spending time in jail, a criminal record, and fines are a reasonable disincentive for people.
I would find it amazing that you presume to speak for the people of Aurukun, and what they would regard a ‘serious’ punishment – if you hadn’t spent this whole thread speaking for them.
As for your definition of impunity, that’s great; you can define any word however you want, but you will have to excuse me if I interpret it according to the more commonly shared definitions.
Just posting a couple of articles some may find interesting from the Medical Journal of Australia:
Issues faced by GP’s in Indigenous Communities
Issues facing Aboriginal and TSI Men – male health, wellbeing and leadership
There really needs to be a determined effort to train more Indigenous people for active work in the police force. I am sure there are rights and wrongs on both sides. However, riots often occur when one side or the other feels, rightly or wrongly, that its voice is not heard.