Email yesterday from Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price
so much maturity and practical sense -
The annual Garma festival beginstoday – the first after the resounding No vote – and the PrimeMinister and other leaders are once again attending. Garma has been around for sometime, and it’s been hyped up by the media as the big Indigenousfestival each year.It was, famously, the PrimeMinister’s launching pad for the Voice referendum.
It’s taken on a bit of a mythicalstatus in fashionable big city political circles. As a simple celebration andexperience of Gamatj and Yolngu culture, which is how it began, I haveno issue with it and I’m sure many attendees have a valuable timelearning about those cultures.
However, it’s not representative ofbroader Indigenous cultures and issues.And, in particular, I don’t think it’s good that it’sbecome a political platform for the specific type of Indigenousactivism that has so consistently failed in this country.
It’s a way for wealthy Australiansfrom eastern states to come to the Territory and feel good aboutexperiencing Indigenous culture without having to take on anyresponsibility.It’s an event that continues toemphasise separatism over our unity as Australians and the need tofind proactive solutions together.
What it’s not is a platform forbroader conversations about a way forward for Indigenous Australiansnor is it a chance to talk about real solutions.Economic empowerment, for example,is simply not a big part of the agenda. While Anthony Albanese sits in acircle and grandstands to the ABC this weekend, remember there aregroups like the Top End Aboriginal Coastal Alliance who are fightingfor concrete policy changes that will let them economically developtheir native lands. There’ll be a lot of talk at Garmaabout land rights but very little about the limitations of thelegislation around native title. Right now, remoteness and welfaredependency is the major driver of disadvantage for IndigenousAustralians yet the laws around their land use does not allow them tobecome job creators or start businesses on native titleland. In fact, the laws incentivisewelfare dependency and people being subject to bureaucratic anddysfunctional land councils. These are problems the PrimeMinister does not seem to have any awareness of, much less solutionsfor. But he’ll get the applause andadulation from city activists at Garma this weekendregardless. And then everyone will go home and the disadvantage will goon. Australians want REAL solutions.Not more political theatre. It’s a message Albo is determinedto never hear.
