tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/larrakia-nation-aboriginal-corporation-2133/articlesLarrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation2016-09-19T19:58:47Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645852016-09-19T19:58:47Z2016-09-19T19:58:47ZTo move forward on reconciliation, Australia must recognise it has a race relations problem<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136517/original/image-20160905-20228-wnc1di.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows most Indigenous people feel judged, stereotyped and disregarded by white people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Marianna Massey</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/these-six-charts-show-the-state-of-discrimination-towards-indigenous-australians-20140729-zy6fa.html">know a lot</a> about what Australia’s non-Indigenous population thinks of Indigenous people, but not much is known about what Indigenous people think of the non-Indigenous population, or of how they experience race relations. This is an obstacle for reconciliation which, by definition, <a href="https://www.reconciliation.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/State-of-Reconciliation-Report_SUMMARY.pdf">must be a reciprocal process</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://tellingitlikeitis.com.au">Our research in Darwin</a> shows most Indigenous people feel judged, stereotyped and disregarded by white people. Rather than always asking what Indigenous people can do to change the relationship, we need to start asking non-Indigenous people to:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>consider how their attitudes and behaviour impact on Indigenous people;</p></li>
<li><p>be open to the possibility that not everything in white culture is desirable or good; and </p></li>
<li><p>consider what they need to do to engage in equal and respectful relationships.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Early analysis of our interviews and survey with a representative sample of Aboriginal residents of Darwin has found more than 90% of our 474 survey respondents say non-Aboriginal people talk to them as if their views don’t matter. A similar number say white people judge them by stereotypes. </p>
<p>Nor is the relationship improving. Three-quarters of survey respondents say race relations are not very good or bad. And nearly 60% rated race relations as worsening over the last decade.</p>
<p>These findings challenge assumptions that racism in Australia is a thing of the past, or is something that only happens elsewhere. </p>
<p>While Australians might comfortably compare themselves <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36826297">with the US</a>, this misunderstands the nature of racism today. Whereas “old racism” was based on arguments about biological differences and manifested in violence and verbal abuse, “new racism” rests on notions of cultural inferiority and is manifested in everyday disregard.</p>
<h2>Living with disregard</h2>
<p>Indigenous peoples live in societies where their sense of cultural worth is constantly undermined.</p>
<p>Interview respondents described Darwin as a place where there is only room for white culture, with little or no space to do things their way and practise culture on their terms. </p>
<p>They valued aspects of white culture, but were critical of its individualism and materialism – which they saw as creating loneliness and damaged communities. Many contrasted their strong sense of identity and the enduring, <a href="https://theconversation.com/community-wellbeing-best-measured-from-the-ground-up-a-yawuru-example-64162">connected nature</a> of Indigenous culture with the shallowness and disconnection of white culture.</p>
<p>Assumptions about the superiority of white culture and white people have multiple dimensions. This hits the headlines when it involves the public mistreatment of well-known Australians such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/booing-adam-goodes-racism-is-in-the-stitching-of-the-afl-45316">Adam Goodes</a> and <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/andrew-bolt-x-racial-vilification-court-case/story-e6frg996-1226148919092">Larissa Behrendt</a>, but is also present in the way white Australia understands the place of Indigenous peoples within Australian society. </p>
<p>Indigenous people are celebrated only when they fit the model of the “good Aboriginal” who conforms to the demands of neoliberal citizenship and whose cultural practices are limited to art and entertainment. </p>
<p>Even then, they experience racial disregard. Of survey respondents who hold a bachelor degree or above, around 70% reported they had been disrespected because they were Aboriginal.</p>
<p>Disregard and the lack of space for Indigenous culture are deeply damaging for Indigenous peoples. This impacts on all Australians by contributing to Indigenous disadvantage and social exclusion, as illustrated in these comments by interview respondents:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I go out I just want to go to that place and come straight back … It’s how people are raised … to be against Indigenous mob.</p>
<p>Democracy … gives you the illusion that you’re being heard and … respected … I don’t like the word Australia because it doesn’t include us … I’m not in that Aussie dream.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The survey shows similar segregation between black and white Australians: 60% say they do not think white people choose to be around Aboriginal people much, and 45% say they themselves are not around white people much. More than three-quarters of respondents agreed voting is a waste of time – because things never change for Indigenous people.</p>
<p>Disregard has <a href="https://www.dpmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/indigenous/Health-Performance-Framework-2014/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-health-performance-framework-2014-report/racism-and.html">direct impacts on well-being</a>. More than 80% of survey respondents agreed that the way white people behave makes them sick and tired of everything. Interview respondents described their daily experience as one of loss and failure – where the odds are stacked against them no matter what they do.</p>
<p>One respondent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We’re fighting, fighting all the time, and none of us mob are winning. You get asked, ‘Where’s the fair go?’ There is no more fair go.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>What now?</h2>
<p>While it is essential to maintain programs to tackle Indigenous disadvantage, what is missing from the picture is an understanding of the problems caused by white attitudes. </p>
<p>White Australia must consider the damage that disregard generates, and understand that from the Aboriginal perspective, white ways are not the only ways, or necessarily the best ways. </p>
<p>Many of our survey respondents expressed a willingness to improve the relationship. But so long as white Australia is resistant to Indigenous inclusion on any terms but its own, it’s hard to see how progress can be made.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64585/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This research was undertaken in partnership with Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation and funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant and Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation. Daphne Habibis has no other disclosures.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>This project was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage grant in partnership with Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation. Maggie Walter is Chief Investigator 2 on that grant. She has no other disclosures. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny Taylor receives an Australian Postgraduate Award.</span></em></p>Indigenous peoples live in societies where their sense of cultural worth is constantly undermined.Daphne Habibis, Director, Housing and Community Research Unit, University of TasmaniaMaggie Walter, Professor of Sociology, University of TasmaniaPenny Taylor, Head Researcher, Larrakia Nation Aboriginal CorporationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/456062015-08-06T20:09:46Z2015-08-06T20:09:46ZWhite Australia needs to take responsibility for reconciliation too<p>The controversy about Adam Goodes’ <a href="http://www.afl.com.au/news/2015-05-30/proud-goodes-stands-by-war-cry-celebration">expression</a> of his cultural inheritance provides a litmus test of race relations in Australia. Rather than embracing what is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-all-know-and-admire-the-haka-so-why-not-one-of-our-own-45432">inherently Australian dance</a>, and sharing in the AFL footballer’s celebratory moment, for months the response has been one of outrage. </p>
<p>For at least some Australians, it seems that Indigenous culture is acceptable only as an object of consumption for tourists visiting the remote north.</p>
<p>There is a hypocrisy in Australia’s demand that to receive any entitlements that come with the special status of “Aboriginal”, people must continue to live their culture – yet if an Aboriginal person displays their culture in a way that challenges mainstream comfort zones, their actions are deemed inappropriate and vilified. </p>
<p>There is a hypocrisy in Australia’s bewailing of the scarcity of proud Indigenous men and its instant demonising of a public display of Indigenous pride and power as arrogant and provocative. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2014/webprogram/Paper47258.html">current research</a> on the views of a diverse group of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tellingitlikeitisindarwin/timeline">Aboriginal residents of Darwin</a> on white Australia and race relations provides some insights. Almost all are interested in reconciliation, but they are tired of being the ones who must make this happen. </p>
<h2>Hear what Indigenous people have to say</h2>
<p>Much of the media coverage has centred on the question of whether the booing of Goodes is racially motivated, but the issue goes beyond racism to the question of the place of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia. Who gets to define appropriate behaviour? What does this controversy say about whether mainstream Australia perceives Indigenous people as equal and integral to the nation?</p>
<p>Most of the debate has centred on the views of non-Indigenous Australians, but non-Indigenous Australia needs to listen to what Indigenous people have to say. </p>
<p>In the interview phase of our research, most of our 45 respondents speak of their sense of separation from white Australia. Even if they live in the same physical space, they occupy different worlds. Their perception is that white people “think they’re better than us”; white disregard and disrespect are an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/30/i-can-tell-you-how-adam-goodes-feels-every-indigenous-person-has-felt-it">everyday experience</a>. </p>
<p>One respondent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I go out … I just want to go to that place and come straight back without any hassles … It’s how [non-Indigenous] people are raised, you know, how you raise your child to be against Indigenous mob.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many spoke of the incompatibility of Indigenous and non-Indigenous values, the destructive social consequences of some white values and the experience of being controlled by a culture not their own: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As soon as we move out of the house we’re white. We feel like we’re in a straightjacket. We can’t be who we want to be.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They feel that when it comes to who defines Australia, there is no space for the Indigenous view: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You always hear white Australians … but you never hear what the Indigenous have got to say because … we’re not running the headlines.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>They want the non-Indigenous population to take responsibility for learning about Indigenous culture and to consider how they might be viewed from the outside. They point out that this is what Indigenous people face every day under the critical gaze of the mainstream. </p>
<p>Instead of non-Indigenous Australians <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/the-adam-goodes-fire-was-lit-by-his-conduct-not-his-race-20150729-gimxzy.html">getting defensive</a> about the naming of racism, Indigenous people want them to show a desire to understand and accept Indigenous people on their terms and to recognise that indigeneity is intrinsic to Australia’s social fabric. </p>
<p>There is much in the Goodes controversy that confirms these experiences. The events capture the daily grind of race relations in this country. The refusal of so many public commentators to <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/opinion/those-who-boo-adam-goodes-have-the-courage-to-admit-youre-racist/story-e6frg7uo-1227463882737">name the racist nature</a> of Goodes’ treatment, the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/afl/afl-news/a-golden-chance-slips-for-afl-20150803-giqql9.html">unwillingness of the AFL</a> leadership to take responsibility for it, Goodes’ efforts to improve relations by meeting the young girl who had abused him, and his <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-25/goodes-gutted-but-places-no-blame/4712772">concern for her</a> despite his obvious hurt, attest to a one-sided nature of race relations in Australia that is concerning.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"338122203436572672"}"></div></p>
<p>The poor treatment of Goodes went on for months, as did the denials of its racist nature. It was only when Goodes, one of Australia’s most celebrated athletes, <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2015/07/31/adam-goodes-leave-afl-weekend-should-fuel-shame-bartlett">took leave</a> from the game that support flowed in. </p>
<h2>Displays of pride met with hostility</h2>
<p>Goodes joins a long list of elite black athletes whose efforts to challenge white hegemony have met with attempts to silence them. When American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2012/s3571974.htm">gave the black power salute</a> on the podium at the 1968 Olympics they were expelled from the Olympic Village. The silver medallist, Australian Peter Norman, supported them and his career also <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2012/07/31/3557693.htm">suffered as a result</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bWI9raEM1-4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Tommie Smith and John Carlos were punished for their protest, as was Peter Norman for supporting them.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cathy Freeman’s <a href="http://nga.gov.au/federation/Detail.cfm?WorkID=27708">display of the Aboriginal flag</a> during her victory lap at the 1994 Commonwealth Games attracted similar criticism and controversy. She was <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/hooper-apologises-after-aboriginal-flag-reprimand/story-e6frgdg6-1226439805703">not the last athlete</a> to be rebuked for such a show of pride.</p>
<p>That a proud Aboriginal man can divide the nation by performing an Aboriginal celebration on the footy field is a sobering reminder of how far reconciliation in this country has to go. For Australia to be a genuinely global nation it needs to change its self-understanding, the belief that there is only one valid culture in Australia. This is particularly important for Indigenous people because they are Australia’s First Nation and have never ceded sovereignty.</p>
<p>The support now <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/08/04/goodes-return-afl-action">being displayed</a> for Goodes is heartening. But Australia would be richer if, instead of engaging in denigration and denial of the contribution of Indigenous culture to the nation, we embraced expressions of Indigeneity as an opportunity.</p>
<p>It has taken an Aboriginal man – Warren Mundine, the prime minister’s Indigenous adviser – to <a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/08/05/mundine-calls-aboriginal-haka-afl">suggest</a> that sports games begin with an Aboriginal war dance, but it is time for non-Indigenous people to drive acts of reconciliation.</p>
<p>These need to go beyond gestures of inclusiveness to a mature and informed debate about whose space this is, who has the right to express themselves in it, what is positive or problematic in both black and white culture and how we can all learn from one another.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The authors will be one hand for an Author Q&A between 5 and 6pm on Friday, August 7. Post your questions in the comments section below.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45606/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daphne Habibis receives research funding from the Australian Research Council and Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Penny Taylor is employed by Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation which has received funding for research from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>For at least some Australians, it seems that Indigenous culture is acceptable only as an object of consumption for tourists visiting the remote north.Daphne Habibis, Director, Housing and Community Research Unit, University of TasmaniaPenny Taylor, Head Researcher, Larrakia Nation Aboriginal CorporationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.