Divide and rule practiced against Aboriginal people.

Vanguard May 2011 p. 9
Nick G.

British colonialism refined the tactic of divide and rule over its subject peoples in an effort to prolong its reactionary domination.

Anyone with half an understanding of history can see this still being played out on a daily basis by the journalists of the capitalist media, particularly in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Noel Pearson, Warren Mundine and a handful of other indigenous “leaders” are put forward to advance positions which, in the name of the exploited, further oppress and marginalize ATSI peoples.

It is classic neo-liberalism: highlight existing inequality to create opportunities for the further enrichment of the few under the guise of some sort of “intervention” or “Superman-to-the-rescue” scheme involving private corporate interests.

The latest example is the publicity given to Walpiri woman Bess Price on the Q and A television show and the howls of outrage at Aboriginal academic Prof. Larissa Behrendt’s subsequent “tweet”.

Behrendt is currently one of nine people suing Murdoch press columnist Andrew Bolt under the Racial Discrimination Act after he challenged their identity as ATSI people.

The disgraceful rag, the so-called Australian, seized on Behrendt’s tweet to slur her under the heading “Aboriginal sophisticates betray bush sisters”.

Price was promoted as a supporter of the racist land grab, a.k.a. the NT “Intervention”, claiming that it had led to improvements for Aboriginal people in the NT.

However, Barbara Shaw, spokesperson for the Intervention Rollback Action Group in Alice Springs and resident of Mt Nancy Town camp says that comments by Price on Q and A about the "success" of the Intervention ignore the huge evidence of continuing failure.

IRAG says Mrs Price's comments have caused distress amongst people living in prescribed areas under the Intervention, whose experiences of deteriorating social conditions continue to be ignored by government and mainstream media.

"It is outrageous that Bess Price can continue to go on national media and spread false information on the Intervention while life in our town camps and communities gets harder and harder", says Barbara Shaw.

"We now have a massive crisis in Alice Springs as people come in from the bush because of the failure of the Intervention. On Monday night while Bess was on Q and A talking about our kids being safer, I was dealing with multiple situations of children needing emergency care."

"The Intervention has done nothing to help - I find it harder to look after my family because I am still on the BasicsCard. If things are so good, why do government statistics show more children being admitted to hospital for malnutrition and more young people committing suicide and self-harm? Why are more and more children being taken away from parents and put into care?” Ms Shaw asks.

"Bess says education is the key to improving lives. But she didn't say that Yuendumu school attendance rates have halved and are now down to only 30 per cent since the Intervention came in and bilingual education was banned by the NT government."

Ms Shaw says she is very concerned that Bess Price is misinforming the wider community about the feelings and views of NT Aboriginal people about the Intervention.

“Marcia Langton wrote in the Australian today that Bess Price ‘resides in Yuendumu’. This is untrue and the Australian needs to correct the public record. Bess does not live under the Intervention. She lives a comfortable lifestyle in the eastern suburbs of Alice Springs, not in a prescribed area. She does not have a Basics Card and she does not work for the dole. She doesn’t have her home raided. She doesn’t have her alcohol taken away at the bottle shop,” Ms Shaw concluded.

"Bess says Aboriginal women have been given a voice by the Intervention - but which ones? Thousands of women have lost their jobs as Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) close down, many women leaders have lost their positions of authority as community councils were closed and Government Business Managers and Shires took over."

An Alice Springs based community worker and IRAG member Marlene Hodder says, “Many Warlpiri women living in Alice Springs are very unhappy that Bess Price assumes she can speak for them. Last year they sent a strong recorded message to Minister Macklin as she refused to meet with them on more than one occasion. They are tired of not being listened to as they feel the Intervention is an insult to them as mothers, grandmothers and carers.”

”These women says they struggle to maintain their dignity with racist taunts being thrown at them as they walk into town and the unfairness of the BasicsCard when the reality is that there is no work for them.

Where there is oppression there is resistance. As the history of the British Empire can testify, where there are attempts to divide and rule, there are counter moves to unify and act.

End the racist intervention now!
Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs!
Unite against divide and rule tactics!