Many of us are born to be Political. Why? Because we have to be!
My name is Cheryl Axleby-Keeffe, a proud Narungga woman. My mob are the Traditional Aboriginal owners of the lands of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.
I am a daughter, sister, auntie, wife, mother. Since the age of 17, with the love and support of many Elders, many who have passed, I was taught the importance of us having to stand up to improve the quality of lives of our people. The many valuable lessons I have learnt from our people, our culture and our fight for our rights, has made me the person I am today.
We are a proud and resilient people. Yes, we are diverse, proud, and resilient peoples despite the many challenges we have had to wear. We have strength in our 60 thousand years of Culture, and pride.
I myself along with many others, have walked the halls of Parliament House in Canberra, for a couple of decades now, meeting with politicians from both major parties, the Greens, the Teals, often with their advisors, sharing the impacts and experiences felt within our communities, calling for support to improve the quality of lives of our mob and for a much greater investment and resources to our communities.
We tell them we must be resourced properly to run our own programs and services, we need greater investment in our self-determination and to inform government agencies what programs and services they should deliver, because we know we achieve better outcomes in meeting the needs of our own communities. We know what we need to do to improve our quality of lives…And…we already prove we can stretch the dollar, as we have had to all of our lives!
We have seen many written submissions, briefing papers, and many reports, which propose solutions with recommendations. We write opinion pieces to highlight the critical issues to educate and to create awareness.
Yet again we will be standing with cap in hand, like we should be grateful for the breadcrumbs governments of the day offer, to deliver our services, despite the fact that our people represent at least 25-30% as users of service providers, if not more in some cases, i.e. of services provided by governments.
We must lead our own destiny, to be empowered, to lead our own services and to tell our own stories about what our priorities and needs are, that often conflict with those in power, with those that hold the purse strings.
Our leading and telling our stories should provide better direction about our needs and our solutions, and the outcomes we know we can achieve will make a major difference in our communities. Yet, we still stand with cap in hand, in hope we will be listened to, and our voices are heard, and hope that one day governments will step up to the plate.
Critical issues for the majority of Aboriginal communities, families, and individuals, at this very point in time, are the prominent levels of poverty and the low level of housing availability within our communities. These in itself are serious issues, whether we live in the city, rural or remote.
Whilst it is acknowledged more and more mainstream Australians are battling with cost of living, it is important to highlight, many of our mob have been battling with the cost of living since we were dispossessed of our country and traditional homelands, the very commodity that mainstream Australia are benefiting from! Making a living off our disadvantage!
Ever since I can remember, our peoples have always had to bear the brunt of political parties’ game playing especially at Election time, often at our expense, without any regard nor care factor given of the impact, the re-traumatisation, the racism, the stereotyping and minimising of our Sovereign and our basic Human Rights.
It is like groundhog day! We have been here time and time again. Our Ancestors have experienced it, and we will continue to experience it time and time again.
We have had to be political, to march the streets, to protest, because we have to, not because we want to!
I often reflect and think about our Aboriginal political and local community leaders, our warriors, men and women, of the past, the present, and those in the future who have and will continue to have to step up to the plate, to take up the gauntlet, to fly the Aboriginal flag, to utilise any opportunity to push forward, to create visibility of our needs, seeking a true commitment to improve the quality of lives for our peoples.
I know that many of us as Traditional Owners, the First Peoples, the First Nations People, the Sovereign People or however we like to identify ourselves, or how others who oppose us of our basic rights (often with racist connotations, negative stereotyping, the degradation, the labelling) are getting ready for the ‘Election Battle Games’ to begin – yet again.
Political point scoring on Aboriginal issues causes us grief, pain, and trauma. It is still overly concerning that many of the political parties and mainstream Australia often do not give a second thought to it. Fearmongering and scaremongering and mistruths have become normalised. We are aware of the ones that purposely do it, and we are aware of the ones that do not.
What hurts the most, is that we now have some of our own mob, who have voices in parliament, speaking up as if they have our support, advocating we should all just be treated as equals, when many of our mob are struggling to live day to day, are still living in poverty, have the highest homelessness rates in comparison to other Australians, have shorter life expectancy, experience the highest rates of imprisonment and child removal, numerous Aboriginal Deaths In Custody without any Justice, and most of all we continue to experience trauma through daily doses of Racism.
We have the population with the highest levels of disadvantage in this country. That is a fact! It is well documented! The evidence is there in black and white print.
The reality is, we are not equal. We do not have equity. We are not all one people. We in Australia are not one Race of peoples.
Every picture tells a story, or so they say. The below map of Australia, reported in the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census, shows highest level of disadvantage is predominantly within Aboriginal communities or those LGA’s that have a high Aboriginal population.
Whilst there is minimal progress, it does not nearly touch the surface to redress the many layers of disadvantage many Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders still experience today. The evidence of Closing the Gap and numerous reports on gaps we face, proves we are not on an upward trajectory towards improving the quality of lives of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples. The commitment to Closing the Gap requires a lifetime time commitment and has to be funded to make any positive change.
We cannot re-dress years of oppression of a race of people in a decade. We cannot Close the Gap without revisiting the current funding formula based on population rather than the required needs based funding; without increased investment of funding and resourcing; and without self-determination of our communities. Closing the Gap is all about this, but we need the commitment to be more than just words, and to fix the issues without any increased and targeted investment. Communities making decisions about funding in their communities is true empowerment.
Despite our political advocacy, we keep being put back in our place.
Just like when we are at the shop… we are invisible and often the last to be served.
This blog is about how our mob are born to be political because we have to be.
We must continue to ‘show up’ and be ‘loud and proud’ until we have achieved equity and living a life free of oppression, poverty, free of incarceration and racism. What we need is mainstream Australia and political parties to walk with us, not in front of us.
No matter what the outcome of the Election is, I propose we will see:
But…most of all, we will see little, or no justice nor the level of investment needed, based on our needs, despite it being well documented by the many reports that continue to gather dust on the shelves.
Why are our issues not Election issues?
Because Aboriginal issues just do not win major Parties votes! Many will play the political game, that we are given preferential treatment, when in fact the evidence proves that the opposite is the truth.
Every election, we brace ourselves, waiting for the ‘Political games to begin.’
We experience this time and time again. The most recent during the Voice Referendum. We experienced the intentional campaign tactics, the promotion of misinformation, to create confusion to promote fear campaign and doubt and the inciting of racism with voters. We will highly likely experience this again in this election.
So, until we have achieved equity, not equality, TRUE EQUITY, we will need to continue to march the streets, to hold protests. Many of us are born to be political. Why? because we have to be!
Imagine, if the school room debating tactics, which promotes division rather than joint solutions, were replaced with both major parties developing a bi-partisan approach to properly re-dress through true investment of a National Plan focussing on our needs, and with upholding our Rights under the Declaration of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples as outlined in the National Convention of Human Rights!
…If only!
