BY EMMA MURPHY
The February 5 edition of the National Indigenous Times featured a cover article profiling Indigenous leaders who have spoken out against Prime Minister John Howard's support for war on Iraq.
The anti-war leaders the Times had spoken to were former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chairperson Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, WA ATSIC commissioner Farley Garlett, Torres Shires Mayor Pedro Stephen, Alice Springs ATSIC commissioner Alison Anderson, Tasmanian ATSIC commissioner Rodney Dillon, Reconciliation Australia co-chair Shelley Reys, NT ATSIC commissioner Kim Hill, Cairns ATSIC chairperson Terry O'Shane and deputy-mayor of Dubbo Warren Mundine.
Indigenous activists across Australia are pointing to the need to concentrate on problems within Australia, rather than creating more by becoming involved in a war that "had little or no relevance to Australia", the article stated.
Howard, US President George Bush and British PM Tony Blair hide behind the rhetoric of defeating terrorism and creating a "stable democracy" in Iraq — opting to portray themselves as freedom fighters and global heroes. Meanwhile, Aboriginal people in Australia have to fight for things so many of us take for granted, including adequate healthcare, land rights and acknowledgement of their cultural and linguistic heritage.
Indigenous people everywhere have good reason to oppose a war waged by the world's most powerful nation against some of the world's poorest people. As Dillon told the Times: "We know first-hand what happens when countries get invaded. We're probably one of the worst-off people in the world, in terms of living standards."
While Australian troops are involved in a war which will be of no benefit to ordinary, working-class and Indigenous Australians — and be of tragic and fatal consequence to ordinary innocent Iraqis — there is a silent war happening right here, one which the government would prefer we forgot about.
Aboriginal people in Australia are still much more likely to be imprisoned, unemployed, sick or dying than their non-Indigenous counterparts. Their lives — by and large — will be shorter, poorer and harder than the rest of the population. Any government claiming to be fighting "terror" should start at home, by addressing the horror of institutionalised racism that some Australia live with every day.
[Emma Murphy is a member of the Socialist Alliance.]
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, February 26, 2003.
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