Kalgoorlie Community Consultation Report
Racism and civil society: A community consultation held at the Graduates' Hall, Curtin University, Kalgoorlie WA, on 15 June 2001
Speakers:
- James Murphy,
ATSIC Chairperson, Wongatha Regional Council
- Bryan Wyatt,
Director, Goldfields Land Council
- Darren Dick, Director, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Unit, HREOC
Theme 2: Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Theme 1: Sources, causes, forms and contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Participants agreed that racism is perpetrated at many different levels in Australia, often in covert and insidious forms. Some participants agreed that racism also exists within Indigenous communities.
In Kalgoorlie the Indigenous community is seen as separated from the rest of the community. In the view of many Aboriginal people, they are blamed for all problems in the Goldfields, and Indigenous youth are blamed in particular.
Participants felt that one of the problems in addressing racism in Kalgoorlie is the extent of denial that racism is in fact a problem. They spoke of white people who say they don't see there is racism in the town. Some white people, including one participant in the consultation, believe that Kalgoorlie is one of the most tolerant towns in Australia. This view was not shared by the majority of participants, who argued this denial of racism is a factor that allows it to continue. It was said that in Kalgoorlie half the community denies that racism exists and the other half suffers from its ill effects. Many people are afraid to name what is happening to them or to others because of racism, fearful of the criticism they will receive for doing so.
People experience racism in a number of ways, including discrimination in schools, covert forms of discrimination in the provision of services, and cultural and structural forms of racism.
Participants reported that much racism is covert and therefore difficult to fight. Often the people who suffer from it lack the information and skills to challenge it. If they do wish to challenge it, the victims of racism ask themselves with each instance whether it is worth it and whether they are likely to receive any satisfactory form of redress.
At a societal level, racism is about the cultural dominance of one group of values and practices over all others. Judgements in society are made according to the values of the white man and there is no acknowledgement or valuing of Aboriginal systems and values. Other groups which differ from the "cultural norm" are seen as different. At the same time racism functions to prevent them from fully appreciating or expressing their own cultural uniqueness.
Non-Indigenous people have introduced skin colour as a marker of racial and cultural identity. Participants reported being defined and judged by white people according to the darkness of their skin and therefore whether or not they are a 'real Aboriginal'. It was noted that black people help perpetuate racist language with their own pejorative use of terms such as 'half-caste' and 'fringe-dweller'.
Participants gave several examples of racism and racial discrimination in Kalgoorlie:
- White shopkeepers who keep any Aboriginal person under close surveillance, treating all black people as if they are preparing to steal something.
- An Aboriginal person whose neighbour of three years - a teacher - crosses the road to avoid him and his family.
- A Maori woman who enquired about an advertised vacant property for rent, to be told the house was no longer available. The house was advertised as still vacant a few days later.
- Police officers monitoring any group of Aboriginal people gathered in a public place.
- An Aboriginal man who was banned from the local hospital - one participant conceded the man was a difficult patient, but said the hospital had a duty of care to the man.
Participants spoke about many instances of racism in the local newspapers in the Goldfields region. Newspapers report a person's race or ethnicity only when the person is Aboriginal or Filipino and only when the story is a negative one. They said there was a need to address this practice with the media, and in particular to look at what policies and procedures are in place in the newspapers and how these are implemented.
An example of structural racism was given in the WA Aboriginal Affairs Planning Authority Act. The act permits any public servant to enter Aboriginal lands without a permit and without adhering to appropriate protocols or paying respect to the Indigenous people who live there.
One of the main factors contributing to racism in Australia is the profound ignorance in white Australia about Aboriginal culture and life. This ignorance causes prejudice and misunderstanding and allows racism to go unchallenged. It also encourages the reproduction of false or inaccurate information about Aboriginal people and government programs for their benefit. Participants said they are frequently challenged by white people who question them on the basis of prevailing misinformation. For example, they are asked if they receive government money to buy food for their dogs or if they are given a payment of $50 each from the government to spend at the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Fair. The specific content of these 'facts' changes over time, but the basic theme of Aboriginal people receiving generous, undeserved and inequitable levels of support from the government remains the same.
One participant said that this sort of racism is one reason why Aboriginal children drop out of school, because these are the messages they are constantly receiving about their Aboriginal identity.
In the view of some participants, the recent history of Kalgoorlie has caused an increase in racism in the town, or at least an increase in the opportunity to express pre-existing racist views. In the past Aboriginal people lived out of the town and were largely absent from the white community. They were accepted in some contexts such as in the mines, although they did endure much discrimination and racial vilification from workmates. In recent decades the black and white communities have lived in closer proximity and racism against Aboriginal people is now more obvious and confronting. The mining industry has also changed the dynamics in the town and eroded the strength of the community. Mining has brought a large transient population of 'fly in - fly out' miners and the town has changed in response to the 'big money' that gold mining earns in the region.
Participants believed there is no leadership within the community to address racism and a significant failure of leadership in those who exploit racism for political advantage. There is no support for a process that would bring together various groups to air concerns and to address issues relating to racism, to consider people's experiences of racism or to discuss to what extent it exists.
The disturbing exploitation of racism in the community for political advantage both causes and illustrates racism in Kalgoorlie. Participants highlighted a recent state government election campaign, which they saw as essentially an anti-Aboriginal campaign. The current Member for Kalgoorlie campaigned and was elected on the basis of two main issues: attacks on native title and the need to move Aboriginal 'fringe dwellers' off the streets and out of town. They said the campaign on fringe dwellers, Aboriginal people from outer-lying areas who were living in camps on the edge of Kalgoorlie, created a great deal of racist feeling towards Aboriginal people and an intense discussion of the need to "get these people back to where they came from".
Participants noted that once in office, the Shire Council does not provide adequate services for Aboriginal ratepayers, despite their human rights and their legal rights as ratepayers for service on an equal footing.
The workshop agreed that the current native title process is a source of great division within the Aboriginal community and of racial problems between black and white people. The current arrangements have divided some Aboriginal communities, setting rival claimants to native title against one another and creating differences over negotiations. The process has been structured in such a way that Aboriginal people are unable to make the most out of their supposed right to negotiate.
It has also driven a serious wedge between black and white people, encouraging racist attitudes against Indigenous people and illustrating that, in the white population, there is no acceptance of the cultural relationship between Aboriginal people and the land.
Issues of racism affecting Indigenous people cannot be addressed in the same manner as those issues facing people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
We need to recognise that there is at least some racism within each of us. One participant said he tends to spend time with people who think in similar ways, and identified this tendency as a form of xenophobia.
In relation to the past, we need to acknowledge the cultures and rights of Australia's Aboriginal people, and the significant and ongoing costs to them of colonisation. The history that is taught in schools is not taught from an Aboriginal perspective but is rather the history written by the winning party in the conflict.
Some participants identified a positive example of people negotiating two cultures in the children of some Asian migrants, who learn their own culture and language at home and achieve highly at school.
In Kalgoorlie the local newspaper has run some positive stories about local Aboriginal people, but it was noted these stories were the result of intense lobbying of the editor by the Aboriginal community. These stories need to be built upon by addressing the media practice of routinely reporting on Aboriginal issues in negative terms. Participants said that stories usually take the approach that Aboriginal people are a 'problem', even when the story is about Aboriginal people helping each other.
Theme 2: Victims of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Anyone who is seen as different from the dominant norm in Australia can be a victim of racism, but it was acknowledged that Aboriginal people are the primary victims. Participants believed that, at its most fundamental, it is not recognised that Aboriginal people even have basic rights -the same basic and inherent rights that everyone has - by virtue of the fact that they are human beings.
Racism has created serious divisions between groups of Aboriginal people. Participants noted that racism has created the conditions that stop Aboriginal people working together as a community to address the issues that face them. One participant said there is a need for the Aboriginal community to reconcile with itself. Others stated that divisions within the Aboriginal community strengthen the position of those white people who are opposed to the advancement of Aboriginal interests.
Participants discussed a number of problems in Aboriginal communities that many believed have been caused largely by racism in Australia. Forms of institutional racism built on the dominance of white culture are operating to the disadvantage of Aboriginal people.
In particular there was considerable discussion of the education system and the causes of poor educational outcomes for Aboriginal students. The majority of Aboriginal school students are not reaching Year 12, a situation that has not changed throughout the 1990s. The workshop debated whether this due to an inappropriate and structurally racist education system or other factors.
Many participants believed that the education system is failing the needs of Indigenous children. Their culture, history and perspectives on the process of colonisation are not taught in schools. Significantly Aboriginal languages are not taught. Several participants noted that the white education system is attempting to teach Indigenous children to speak Indonesian in schools but it is making no effort to teach them in their own languages. Furthermore Aboriginal styles of experiential learning are not incorporated into the school system and the curriculum is therefore being taught using culturally inappropriate models of learning.
Black children are subjected to racist harassment by non-Indigenous students in schools. Participants believed that Aboriginal children are usually blamed for any inter-racial trouble in the schoolyard. They are separated or threatened with suspension if they gather in groups of three or more since any 'group' of Aboriginal children is seen as a sign of trouble.
Schools in Kalgoorlie also face problems with teachers who, it is believed, do not want to be there but are simply 'serving their three years' before returning to Perth. They are seen as coming to the town inexperienced and ill equipped to teach Aboriginal students and to negotiate the diversity in their classrooms.
Participants disagreed as to whether Aboriginal students should continue to be taught in mainstream schools or whether they should be taken out and educated in a more appropriate and conducive environment. Some believed their children should remain in the mainstream education system learning the same material as other students, since "our culture and our language are not going to get us jobs at the end of the day". Others pointed out that some Aboriginal parents are removing their children from mainstream schools because they believe that Indigenous-specific schools will better serve their children's educational needs.
Outside of school, many Aboriginal children become involved in anti-social or self-destructive activities, such as glue or petrol sniffing, particularly while unsupervised on the streets. Some participants pointed out that Aboriginal parents must take responsibility for their own actions and the behaviour of their children. It was agreed though that good parenting cannot be seen simply as an individual imperative. Aboriginal people need to be supported appropriately in their families and related to this is the need to tackle the institutional structures that stand in the way of their full participation in all areas of their lives.
Inter-generational factors were also noted, including the difficulty for Aboriginal parents in teaching their children to make the most of education when they have not been educated themselves.
One Aboriginal participant spoke of the operation of racism and the denial of opportunity in his life. He had achieved high marks at school but was not able to find work after leaving school. As his white friends grew older and more aware of racial difference, they distanced themselves from him. Many of his white classmates now own their own businesses but the ambitions he had when he was younger and his plans to pursue certain occupations remain unfulfilled.
Theme 3: Measures of prevention, education and protection aimed at the eradication of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance at the national, regional and international levels.
Participants said one of the most important measures to address racism must be education at several levels. There is a serious need in Australia for white people to be taught about Aboriginal culture and for white children to be taught respect for Aboriginal people. In order to assist this process, individuals must take responsibility on themselves to confront racism whenever and wherever they see it.
Schools need cultural awareness training programs for teachers, students and parents. The education system also needs to address the question of teachers who do not wish to be in Kalgoorlie. It was noted that some teachers do not have the knowledge to teach successfully in Kalgoorlie, some are unwilling to learn and some are unwilling to implement what they already know.
Government agencies, including complaints bodies such as HREOC and the WA EOC, should implement local programs to inform people how to enforce their rights. This should include their options under state and federal legislation as well as other avenues such as complaints processes in hospitals. Ideally these programs would promote the regional visibility of HREOC and the WA EOC.
However, it is not adequate to simply generate awareness of people's rights under legislation and the mechanisms to enforce those rights. It is also necessary to create an environment in which people feel safe to raise questions of racial discrimination. One step towards this environment would be the implementation of community-level programs that confront racism and condemn it for what it is. Other programs already in place address issues such as the impact of violence and cigarettes. Participants said this condemnation should be extended to send the message that there is 'zero tolerance of racism' in the community.
It was agreed that state and local governments have an important role to play, particularly given the divisive and discriminatory conduct of recent state government election campaigns in Kalgoorlie. In Kalgoorlie there are other particular difficulties caused by the influence of the mining industry. Many local processes are distorted to meet the needs of the miners, to the exclusion of the needs of a number of groups including Indigenous people. Local government must work to strengthen the local community, including building a harmonious and inclusive community and ensuring that the council itself functions in an inclusive manner.
Finally there is a need for programs to target employers and managers with the anti-racism message. It was suggested that HREOC could carry out an audit of companies for racism, measuring their performance against indicators such as levels of Indigenous employment.
One participant spoke about the formation of the Goldfields Homeland Task Force as a place for Aboriginal people to teach their language and culture to their children, in a family-based setting.
Another participant described a program at Kununarra to address the needs of Indigenous students in primary school education. The school community involved parents and teachers in cultural awareness training and introduced Indigenous studies in the school.
Acknowledgement and celebration
The majority of participants felt that there is no acknowledgement or valuing of Aboriginal cultures and values. One participant pointed to the funding provided for a Prospectors' Hall of Fame in Kalgoorlie, celebrating the town's gold mining history and heritage, when there was no money available for an Aboriginal cultural centre.
Theme 4: Provision of effective remedies, recourse, redress, [compensatory] [1] and other measures at the national, regional and international levels.
For many people the question of adequacy of laws dealing with racial discrimination does not arise, since they are unaware of their rights under the current laws. The workshop agreed that many people in Kalgoorlie do not know what the provisions are under anti-discrimination laws or the complaints mechanisms open to them.
Theme 5: Strategies to achieve full and effective equality, including international cooperation and enhancement of the United Nations and other international mechanisms in combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, and follow-up.
It was noted that in Kalgoorlie the tension between the interests of large, often multinational, mining companies and the Indigenous claimants to native title has created a new environment for the expression of racist attitudes against Indigenous people. The deep divisions created within Aboriginal communities by the native title process have also made it more difficult for them to work together to combat racism and racial discrimination against them.
Recommendations
1. That compulsory Aboriginal education and cross-cultural training programs be implemented in schools, involving students, parents and teachers.
2. That the issue of the inappropriate reporting of race and ethnicity in the media be examined and policies and procedures be developed to eliminate it.
3. That HREOC carry out an audit of companies for racism, measuring their performance against indicators such as levels of Indigenous employment.
4. That complaints bodies such as HREOC and the WA EOC implement local programs to inform people how to enforce their rights under state and federal legislation and other complaints processes.
5. That the Australian Constitution be amended to include recognition of the country's Indigenous peoples.
6. That the City of Kalgoorlie Boulder, WA state government, police and other government agencies that deal with Aboriginal people implement a policy of referring all Aboriginal issues to a representative advisory group of Aboriginal people. This group would be asked for Aboriginal perceptions of, and responses to, these agency issues and would oversee the management of these issues.
1. Note: The word compensatory was in brackets as there was no consensus among governments to include it under this theme.
