OPINION: 'The Blame Game', government and media continue to ignore Aboriginal genocide

The blame game is as old as democracy itself. In the most recent event (closure of a possible 150 remote Aboriginal communities) the government blames the individuals in the community for problems due to lack of funding, but isn't that the same as blaming a child for a bad report card due to poor public school funding.  

So why do politicians spend so much time blaming each other but never themselves, or do politicians just suck at self criticism?

REALITY:

Before this discussion begins there must be some grounding and it's healthy to start with the reality. "White Australia" has control of the land, the law and the implementation of that law. This was generated after the theft of the land an it's resources that we now call Australia.

Prior to this the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander lived for 60,000 years with hundreds of tribes and a complex social system.

Fast forward to 2015, Australia was build on the back of the destruction of a social and political system as well as the physical genocide of the first nations.

MEDIA:

Highlight this historical context or criticise today's social structure against the pre-1788 and you will find the responsibility and accountability is offloaded, underwritten of course by the very supportive mainstream media telling us nothing we need to know.

This perspective is present even in the ABC Four Corners program episode 'Remote Hope' that looked at the remote communities.

Amy McQuire comments in NewMatilda, just turning up with camera's doesn't translate into good journalism, "Every year, there seems to be a new story on Aboriginal poverty. But it’s more than just ‘poverty porn’. This is called ‘Fishbowl Journalism’,where the Australian media arrive to film devastating pictures of the Aboriginal problem one month, feel outraged and dismayed and shocked by it, and then a couple of months later do basically the same story from another remote corner of the country.

"Then, a year later, they do it again, effectively swimming in circles, drunk on their own reflection, viewing Aboriginal Australia through the distorted view of their own privileged fishbowl."

In almost all regards the ABC are better then private media, however this should not, nor does it exclude them from criticism.

Going into the show, one may have expected something completely different. The episode prior to 'Remote Hope' revealed the depth and scale of underpaid migrant workers on farms in the Australian produce line being used by large food retailers right under the nose of the union and government. It doesn't take long to notice the same rigor given to empower those oppressed migrant workers was not given to the Aboriginal community in 'Remote Hope'. It seems hope may be the only thing the ABC granted them.

In a recent interview with Green Left Weekly, Aboriginal elder and activist Sam Watson spoke about the forced closures in WA saying, "The Coalition government is committed to an agenda based on genocide, an ideology that underpins all their policies. In this case, they want to open the way for big mining corporations to further exploit Aboriginal lands. 

"The genocide is driven by capitalism’s need to access the mineral wealth of our lands. Native title doesn’t deliver land rights, as recent court cases have shown."

Part of the national day of protests that unfolded around Australia after the WA government failed to make any solid assurances the communities would not be closed, Aboriginal elder and activist Rhonda Collard-Spratt said "We had our family stolen, our land, and nobody cared about the children and what the effect of that did to us. So I can see the long term effects of this removal, forced removal by the horrible government that doesn't have a spirit. And when they wreck the land and poison the water, can they eat that money, or drink it?"



As for other issues like the lack of consultation by government, the $500 million federal funding cuts, interviews with the national protest organisers or a serious discussion about 'land rights' were all ignored by the program.

Why was this?

The last serious analysis of the ongoing cultural and political genocide by the decisions of "White Australia" was John Pilger's documentary "Utopia". An independent journalist, compared to a national broadcaster... it just not funny.

BLAME:

where the Australian media arrive to film devastating pictures of the Aboriginal problem one month, feel outraged and dismayed and shocked by it, and then a couple of months later do basically the same story from another remote corner of the country.
Then, a year later, they do it again, effectively swimming in circles, drunk on their own reflection, viewing Aboriginal Australia through the distorted view of their own privileged fishbowl.
- See more at: https://newmatilda.com/2015/05/12/four-corners-fishbowl-journalism-does-more-damage-aboriginal-people#comment-form-wrapper

where the Australian media arrive to film devastating pictures of the Aboriginal problem one month, feel outraged and dismayed and shocked by it, and then a couple of months later do basically the same story from another remote corner of the country.
Then, a year later, they do it again, effectively swimming in circles, drunk on their own reflection, viewing Aboriginal Australia through the distorted view of their own privileged fishbowl.
- See more at: https://newmatilda.com/2015/05/12/four-corners-fishbowl-journalism-does-more-damage-aboriginal-people#comment-form-wrapper"

The unwritten rule to blame Aboriginal communities is useful for politicians, especially ones that are doing poorly in the poles. The "lifestyle choices" comment is merely Abbott's way to excuse the actions of his government from any type of accountability and stamp his ideological and cultural perspectives onto our society. Hypocritical I know, when he is apparently the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs you might think he has to take some accountability.

Similar diversionary tactics are used by politicians in areas like rape culture, racial profiling and social services. I am reminded of Malcolm X who said "The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses."

If history has taught us anything it's that as government increases the blame game, so to do they increase how afraid they are of the people uniting.

COMMUNITY EXPECTATION:

There are probably some people thinking, "if there is one case of abuse the government should act." You are probably right. The same way that the government should address social disfunction resulting in domestic violence and suicide throughout all of society rather than spending $400m on tools to surveil it's citizens. The difference, as you can see, with issues concerning mainstream Australia is it doesn't include forced evictions from people living in Brisbane or Sydney.

At the end of the episode Peter Collier, WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister, said in relation to how the communities will stay open is based on "sustainability". That means the community must provide "safe nurturing environment for the children", "job opportunities and training" and "outcomes for the entire community". If only the government set the bar this high for all cities.

The ABC might take the problems of remote communities to the wider Australia, however it lacked to give it the depth and weight it deserves and help start the conversation around Aboriginal rights and land rights.

While the most recent episode of Four Corners does nothing to progress the conversation of situation for remote communities, Australia must act without prejudice. Australia must one, take the blame for problems in society, two, seek to increase the voice of those oppressed, and three prevent any problems from happening again. Prevention is better than a cure, as they say, this requires funding but most importantly cooperation by the government and it's citizens. A prerequisite for being a politician one would have thought.