The struggle for Australian First Nation people to recognition and reconciliation has been a long, tortuous for some, and winding road.
From Dispossession to Reconciliation
Research Paper 27 1998-99 John Gardiner-Garden Social Policy Group 29 June 1999
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This paper attempts to trace the rhetorical road which has led from the period of dispossession and the policy of assimilation to the later policy of self-determination and the present process of reconciliation.
The notional citizenship ascribed to Aboriginal people at the end of the 18th century was eroded during the nineteenth century-with dispossession from land being followed by dispossession from family. In the mid-twentieth century a rhetorically more benign period of assimilation was ushered in, but laws, including Commonwealth laws-intended to 'protect' or advance people's 'welfare' quickly became laws which further oppressed and alienated indigenous people. Indeed, during this period the removal of children from indigenous parents shifted from being an ad hoc State practice to a systematised strategy agreed on by all governments, State and Federal.
In the early 1960s, as more voices drew attention to the meagre achievements of the assimilation policy, the Commonwealth began to reform the system within its own jurisdiction, removing various legal liabilities it had imposed, or let be placed, upon indigenous Australians. The States soon began to follow suit, repealing most of their discriminatory legislation. The 1967 referendum, although simply clearing a broader way for the Commonwealth to make special laws in relation to Aboriginal people, was subsequently linked in the popular imagination with a wide range of developments which took place between the early 1960s and early 1970s-a decade which ended with the emergence of the new policy of 'self-determination'.
With the Fraser Government dropping 'self-determination' from Commonwealth rhetoric and showing no sign of following up its support for land rights in the Northern Territory with support for a national system of land rights, a campaign got under way for a more basic immutable recognition of indigenous rights in the form of a 'treaty', 'compact' or 'makaratta'.
When the Labor party returned to office in 1983, 'self-determination' returned to the Commonwealth vocabulary, the issue of national land rights was again on the agenda and work began on moving away from the Departmental model of service delivery towards that which became the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. However, when the Hawke Government subsequently limited that which it meant by self-determination and backed away from the pursuit of national land rights, calls for a treaty became even stronger. In 1988 Prime Minister Hawke committed his government to concluding a 'compact' by 1990. Failing, however, to achieve bi-partisan support for a treaty or even a resolution backing the right of indigenous people to self-determination, the Hawke Government started to see some merit in the concept of 'reconciliation' being advanced by the Christian Church leaders.
In 1991 bi-partisan support was achieved for the passage of a bill setting up the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation and setting in motion a formal ten-year 'process of reconciliation'. Prime Minister Keating, in his Redfern speech of December 1992 and his Government's decision to set up a national inquiry into the separation of indigenous children, sought to advance this process by encouraging some recognition of past injustices. In his government's native title and land fund legislation and proposed 'Social Justice Package' he sought to advance the process of making amends for the disregard of indigenous common law rights which the 1992 Mabo judgement had found to have occurred.
The new Howard Government dropped the terms 'social justice' and 'self-determination' and withdrew support from many of the initiatives and institutions for which these terms were the raison-d'etre and declared its new priorities to be 'accountability', 'improving outcomes in key areas' and 'promoting economic independence'. Many of the Government's subsequent administrative actions, together with the Prime Minister's perceived lack of action over responding to the rhetoric of One Nation, ended up, however, placing an enormous strain on its relationship with the indigenous community.
Upon his re-election in October 1998, Prime Minister Howard acknowledged at least one instance in which his words could have been better chosen and declared reconciliation would be a priority for his Government's second term. It soon became clear, however, that the reconciliation to which the Prime Minister had committed himself appeared to be a much narrower concept than that to which many others in the community were working. The Prime Minister did eventually express support for some form of constitutional recognition of indigenous people and declaration of reconciliation, but his own proposed constitutional preamble fell well short of recognising prior indigenous custodianship of the land or any past injustices, his impression of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's Draft Declaration was that it would need amendment and he has continued to resist calls to making a formal Government apology for past injustices.
On 4 June 1998 the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation formally opened a six month process of public consultation leading up to a National Reconciliation Convention on 27 May 2000 at which a final plan will be presented.
On 1 January 2001, the anniversary of the Centenary of Federation, the Reconciliation Council will cease to exist. What may be in place when it does so, in terms of documents, preambles, new bodies etc, is still far from clear.
Introduction
In the early years of colonisation indigenous Australians occupied an important place in the lives and writings of Australian settlers, but as indigenous dispossession became complete there descended that which the anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner dubbed 'the great Australian silence', an inattention, he argued, resulting not from an accidental oversight but from viewing Australian history and society through a window carefully placed to exclude a whole section of the landscape.(1) Over the last 30 years writers of histories, reports, commentaries and judgements have offered more and more windows onto once hidden parts of the landscape and this has resulted in a broadening of the public debate on indigenous affairs. This debate, which had been centred for most of this century on how best to implement 'assimilation', moved on to explore concepts of 'self-management', 'self-determination', 'self-government', and 'sovereignty', and to grapple with the possibility of a 'treaty', 'compact' or 'makarrata'. In more recent years the debate has progressed onto the issues surrounding a possible 'social justice package', 'preamble to the constitution' and 'an apology for past policies'. In June 1999 the debate received a new focus with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation releasing its draft 'Declaration for Reconciliation' and formally opening a final process of public consultation leading up to a National Reconciliation convention in May 2000.
No matter how far debate progresses, however, the past is never far behind. It is no surprise, therefore that protagonists in the debate sometimes label each other according to their purported attitude to the past, that is as being adherents to a 'black arm band' or 'white blind fold' view of history.(2)
This paper attempts to trace the rhetorical path which has led from the 'policy of assimilation' to the present 'process of reconciliation' and to identify some of the main obstacles still to be negotiated if the goal of reconciliation is to be attained in any meaningful sense by the centenary of Federation in 2001. In so doing many issues will be touched upon, but in an attempt to keep the chronology moving and the main themes in focus, discussion of some of these issues (for example land rights legislation and service delivery mechanisms) may be episodic and limited.
Most every speech is begun with an acknowledgement of the original owners of the land. Most every major speech or address, not only today but everyday.
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