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Getting It Right: a Journalist's Guide to Working with Indigenous

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Getting It Right: a Journalist's Guide to Working with Indigenous 052 Getting It Right cover4/9 06/09/00 4:45 PM Page 2 RRiigghhtt gg IItt iinn tttt ee GG A Journalist’s Guide to Working with Indigenous Communities during the Sydney 2000 Olympics Produced by the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs and the Sydney Organising Committee Edited by Diana Plater, Nigel Parbury and Dani Redmond for the Olympic Games Design by i2i Design Foreword THE SYDNEY 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES will provide an opportunity to showcase to the world the rich and diverse cultures of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Prior to and during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and for some time following the Games, there will be an influx of Australian and international journalists, television crews, photographers, radio and television commentators wanting to visit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and report on Indigenous Australian cultures, lifestyles and issues. This attention will place great demands on some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups. SOCOG recognises the need to ensure that media contact with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is conducted with appropriate consultation and with respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols. This publication is intended to inform visiting and local media, both accredited and non-accredited, of relevant issues, appropriate contacts, and culturally sensitive practices for working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. SOCOG encourages all media groups and individuals to use this Guide as the first step to successful working relationships between media and Indigenous peoples of Australia. Sandy Hollway Chief Executive Officer Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games 1 From the beginning of the Dreaming 1883 Aboriginal Australia is not one political entity NSW Aborigines Protection Board (APB) – but up to 300 nation-states, speaking an takes over reserves for Aboriginal people and estimated 250 Aboriginal languages sets up reserve schools, usually taught by manager’s wife (untrained) with inferior 1770 curriculum Captain Cook claims eastern Australia as terra nullius – ‘land belonging to no one’ – 1888 in spite of his instructions not to take Centennial celebrations – Aboriginal people possession of territory without the consent boycott the celebrations. Motto of the of the inhabitants Bulletin magazine is ‘Australia for the White Man’ 1788 Colonisation by First Fleet 1901 Commonwealth of Australia formed – 1789 Aboriginal people excluded from the census Smallpox epidemic wipes out at least half of and the lawmaking powers of the Sydney Aboriginal people. Aboriginal people Commonwealth parliament had no resistance to European diseases, and even the common cold could be fatal White Australia Policy bars ‘coloured’ immigrants – and denies Aboriginal 1790 existence. Aboriginal people excluded from Resistance begins, first by Pemulwuy (from the vote, pensions, employment in post 1790 to 1802), then in Hawkesbury River offices, enlistment in Armed Forces, area. Martial law is declared time and again, maternity allowance but on occasion settlers are told to protect their property; official records speak of a 1909 ‘campaign of terror’ to crush resistance NSW Aborigines Protection Act gives APB the power to remove Aboriginal children 1837 from their families In London, a Parliamentary Select Committee affirms the ‘plain and sacred right’ of 1937 Indigenous peoples to land First Native Welfare Conference – policy of Assimilation is adopted to make Aboriginal 1838 people the same as White Australians Myall Creek massacre – 28 Aboriginal old men, women and children butchered; 1938 11 stockmen were brought to trial; initially Day of Mourning held by Australian acquitted, then 7 were retried and hung Aborigines League (est. 1932) and Aborigines for murder Progressive Association (1937), first major protest by Aboriginal people; manifesto 1876 ‘Aborigines Claim Citizen Rights’ and Abo Death of Truganini – immediately said to Call newspaper published be the ‘last Tasmanian Aborigine’, as by this time Aboriginal people are thought to be 1940 dying out The Aborigines Protection Board is abolished, replaced by the Aborigines 1879 Welfare Board Torres Strait Islands are annexed by Queensland 2 The importance of history The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths The damage to Aboriginal society was in Custody was the most comprehensive devastating. In some places it totally investigation ever of Aboriginal experience in destroyed population. In others, dependency, Australia. The Commission’s report in 1991 despair, alcohol, total loss of heart wrought stressed the general community ignorance decimation of culture... of Aboriginal history and the fact that this history should be taught in all schools: Every turn in the policy of government and the practice of the non-Aboriginal community That Aboriginal people were dispossessed was postulated on the inferiority of the of their land without benefit of treaty, Aboriginal people; the original expropriation agreement or compensation is generally of their land was based on the idea that the known. But I think little known is the extent land was not occupied and the people of brutality and bloodshed that was involved uncivilised; the protection policy was based in enforcing on the ground what was on the view that Aboriginal people could not pronounced by the law... achieve a place in the non-Aboriginal society and that they must be protected against Aboriginal people were swept up into themselves while the race died out; the reserves where they were supervised as assimilationist policy assumed that their to every detail of their lives and there was a culture and way of life is without value and deliberate policy of destroying their spiritual that we confer a favour on them by and cultural beliefs... The extent of control assimilating them into our ways; even to the seems incredible today... point of taking their children and removing them from family. ... the deliberate and systematic disempowerment of Aboriginal people starting with dispossession from their land (Elliott Johnston, Royal Commission and proceeding to almost every aspect of into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody their life... Decisions were made about them National Report, 1991) and for them and imposed on them... With loss of independence goes a loss of self- esteem... 1949 Australian Citizenship Act gives Aboriginal Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI) – begins people the vote in Commonwealth elections 10 year campaign by both black and white if they are enrolled for State elections or have people to end discrimination in the served in the Armed Forces. Finally in 1962 constitution all Aboriginal people were granted the vote 1965 1958 Freedom Rides – Sydney University students’ Federal Council for the Advancement of bus tour of NSW country towns to expose Aborigines – later changed to Federal Council grass roots discrimination against Aboriginal for the Advancement of Aborigines and people 3 1966 1975 Arbitration Commission rules equal pay for Racial Discrimination Act passed Aboriginal workers in the pastoral industry. Gurindji workers walk off Wave Hill cattle 1976 station, then claim their Dreaming Place The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Wattie Creek Territory) Act is passed by Federal Parliament 1967 1980 91% of Australian voters vote YES in Link-Up NSW established to re-unite families Referendum to count Aboriginal people in of the Stolen Generations the census and give the Commonwealth the power to make laws for Aboriginal people 1983 NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act recognises 1969 dispossession and dislocation of NSW NSW Aborigines Welfare Board abolished; Aboriginal people, sets up local-regional- Aborigines Advisory Council set up State land council network with 15-year land tax funding (to 1998) as compensation and 1970–71 for Aboriginal people to establish an Aboriginal Legal Service and Medical Service economic base set up in Redfern, followed by Aboriginal pre- school, Black Theatre, Aboriginal Housing 1987 Company Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody established in response to the high 1972 rate of Aboriginal deaths in prisons and Aboriginal Tent Embassy set up outside police lockups Parliament House Canberra, adopted Aboriginal flag 1988 Bicentennial celebrations and protest; tens of Whitlam Labor Government elected – thousands of people march through the abolished White Australia Policy, set up streets on Australia Day (26 January); Department of Aboriginal Affairs; new massive increase in awareness of Aboriginal Aboriginal policy of self determination history and issues 4 1989 Wik Case – High Court rules that native title Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and pastoral leases can co-exist, but that in Commission (ATSIC), elected body to replace all cases of conflict of rights the rights of the Commonwealth Department of Aboriginal lessee will prevail Affairs (DAA) bureaucracy Pauline Hanson and One Nation Party 1991 campaign against Aboriginal ‘special Report of Royal Commission into Aboriginal treatment’ Deaths in Custody released – 339 recommendations to change Australian Commonwealth Parliament statement of systems at every point of contact with commitment to Reconciliation Aboriginal people. Final recommendation is a formal process of reconciliation between 1997 Indigenous and other Australians. Council for Bringing them Home report on the Stolen Aboriginal Reconciliation established by Act Generations released – discredited by of Parliament Commonwealth Government; Australian
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