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Jackson: There is strength in enlightenment by seeing UTOPIA by Ray Jackson 3 January 2014
T
he film review by Julian Drape, as appeared in First Nations Telegraph on 1 January http://goo.gl/Y5Ew8k, proves to us all that indeed John Pilger is back in town with his latest gutwrenching expose of the terrible and vile conditions of Aboriginal life once the ‘white-blindfold’ has been removed from the general public’s eyes to clearly see and know the truth, the black invasion historical truth. This may be new to some but every politician in this country, past and present, is very well aware of these deplorable, even criminal, conditions, that have been wrought on us by the invasion and its aftermath. The reply to the question from John of why little of a positive nature has been done in the Northern Territory over some 50 years clearly shows the utter contempt most, if not all, politicians have to addressing the plight of our people; in the NTespecially. As we are only too well aware, their answer, after 50 years of abject and constant failure, was to enforce the horrendous, souldestroying and invasive assault on the human rights of the NT Aborigines, along with the most blatant land grab of the NT Aboriginal communities since the invasion began! Under the NT Lands Right Act, 1976, initiated by Gough Whitlam, but made law by Malcolm Fraser, the initial stolen lands were returned to the Traditional Owners. This current land grab is a double jeopardy being a double theft of Aboriginal lands. We must never forget that what one government can give can be more easily taken
Leader Barbara Shaw with the Elder who appears on Utopia cover.
away by another. That is why we need the Racial Discrimination Act (to be watered down soon by the Abbott government) and a Bill of Rights to better protect our rights in these areas. Additions to the Australian/British constitution of our sovereign rights would also help against such government theft. Any informed person of sound and moral mind following the Aboriginal history since the invasion will find no surprises by viewing Utopia; they will already be aware of the horror shown by Pilger. As Julian Drape says “there is not a lot that is genuinely new” in the documentary. Even so that does not mean that Pilger should not have made it. Our survival history in all its squalor must be seen again and again until there is a real groundswell of righteous indignation that in such a rich country we Aborigines are living at a third world level. The fact that the film was commissioned in England, the historic invader, speaks volumes on the low social morals of the
governments in these stolen lands. I was appalled and angry when I first read Pilger’s book, The Secret Country, back in the early 90’s. John was highlighting during that time the criminality of deaths in custody, especially the son and brother of the Murray family, Eddie Murray, who was murdered by the Wee Waa police in 1981. After several coronial inquests, including the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, none were prepared to charge the police officers involved with murder or even a lesser crime despite the glaring facts of the event. The struggles of the death in custody families, including Arthur and Leila Murray, both now deceased, who fought for justice for over 30 years. Their passing has not lessened the hunger for justice of the sisters and other family members for Eddie’s murder. Over 400 other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families are also seeking justice. At least now there has been some tentative movement in the willingness of coroners and
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magistrates, along with some very limited assistance from the state and territory directors of public prosecutions, to actually charge police who become involved in death in custody events. Then Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley of the Palm Island death of Mulrunji Doomadgee springs to mind (he was acquitted by an all-white Townsville jury) and the death by torture of Roberto Laudisio Curti just recently by Sydney City police. After many months of legal deliberation the NSW DPP, Mr. Babb, decided that some of the officers involved in the torture and death of Roberto should indeed face a court of law but on much diminished charges. Other outstanding events concerning Mr. Babb include the death of adam Salter by NSW police and the assault and failed cover-up by Ballina police against Cory Barker. A further item of interest for ISJA, if not Mr. Babb, is his shelving of charges being laid against the Kings Cross police for their wildly erratic shootings of 2 youth and, still again, another cover-up. We want his decision reversed and the matter duly processed through a court of law. But to return to Pilger’s latest social expose. We owe John Pilger and other like-minded film makers for their good works of putting these truths before us all to see, much thanks for their ongoing support. Utopia should be shown in all educational establishments from primary school on. Governments will not like nor accept that this be done, nor will the mining and pastoral industries as they have too much to lose by the removal of the white-blindfold and strict justice being applied. One more final point. In his review Julian Draper informs us of comments made in the film by a white tour guide at the National War Memorial in Canberra who provides a succinct analysis of what might really be going on. “I
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Maurie Ryan with John Pilger
don’t know why we don’t embrace that history,” he says when Pilger asks why the frontier wars aren’t commemorated in Canberra. “Maybe we’re not overly proud of that history,” came the tour guides response. Not only not very proud but also because it is “too dark” and “’it might upset people with its mythbusting’,” as one film distributor stated when asked why he, along with all the other distributors, refused to handle the showing of the film. The control of history by governments is most essential when ignorance becomes a white bliss. All world governments are guilty of the social crime of wanting to rewrite history as the death of Nelson Mandela testifies to and governments will contort their hold on their own particular history to suit their own rewrite to their required means and ends. Ongoing political debates continue, mostly by well-meaning supporters of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, on two matters that must be of a concern and a deliberative choice of our own mobs. The first is our flag and its use. Most Aborigines I know and talk to about this issue agree that our flag is a separate flag; a land rights flag, and must not be incorporated into any other flag design. Amen to that. The second point is the inclusion of the Frontier Wars into the National War Memorial. Again, when this issue is raised, there is
very little interest in having the Frontier Wars enjoined to and swallowed up by the National Memorial. We want our own memorial to the Frontier Wars and the other wars. It is our history and our wars. There must be no watering down or white-washing of that history by governments. As the Jews have their Holocaust Memorials to maintain the truth of the genocide of Jews, so too we must have ours, and ours alone. There is too much bad history of sublimating our black and white invasion history to trust that task to governments. Those who fought in the mainly imperialist wars, with the singular exception of the fight against fascism in the Second World War, of course must be included in the National Memorial as a justified right. But their history too is shameful but whilst their bravery and sacrifice can, and must, be extolled so to must the racist treatment given to them be shown and explained and must be forever condemned. We must have our own War Memorial in our own agreed place - A place that is not shamefully hidden up a dirt track behind the National War Memorial. John Pilger’s Utopia clearly shows us why! And again, John, many thanks for your work and continued support. Go, see, learn, enjoy. There is strength in enlightenment.