Liberty and domination are joined in liberal thought like two sides of single coin: the value of one may appear on the face but the figure of the other is firmly stamped on the reverse. --Barry Hindess am all for individuals being able to determine their own destiny, said Phillip Ruddock, then Australian federal minister for indigenous affairs in the Liberal/National coalition government, speaking to delegates at the First Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Council (ATSIC) Conference in 2002. He went on to say, however: But in terms of the Australian community I am not about separateness, I am about inclusiveness.... I know that when some talk about the rights agenda they are talking about separate nation within nation. So far as we are concerned, this is not on the agenda. There needs to be new emphasis on supporting individuals to make decisions for themselves. To make better gains we need far stronger focus on encouraging and supporting individuals to become self-reliant, take responsibility for themselves. (1) Ruddock went on to propose the points of debate for the conference, the first and most significant of which was: Shift the policy emphasis towards individuals and families. (2) Indigenous leaders at the conference denounced the minister's statements as clear attempt to overturn the communal and corporate bases of indigenous sociality recognized over the previous thirty years in policies aimed at self-determination and to replace these with policy pursued in an earlier era--policy that rejected the communal life of indigenous peoples and sought instead their eventual into white The former director of the Kimberly Land Council, (3) Peter Yu, described Ruddock's statements as a misconstrued ideological push for He continued: Aborigines must critically assess the functional responsibility of our many institutions and organizations with firm eye on corporate and cultural governance. (4) Another indigenous leader, Professor Marcia Langton, said that the minister's speech was code for: need to become nation of small shopkeepers. (5) Bruce Smith, chairman of the ATSIC Western Desert Regional Council, also commented on the problematic nature of the minister's statements: In remote community doing business as an individual is very hard. We do it as collective, we listen to the old people. (6) Looking over the utterances of some of Ruddock's coalition government predecessors who have presided over indigenous affairs in Australia during the so-called policy era of assimilation, it is not difficult to see clear similarities between the present and the past. Take, for example, the words of former Aboriginal affairs minister in the last federal government to retain assimilation as official policy, Peter Howson. On January 26, 1972, Howson, delivering the Australia Day speech, declared that Aborigines would gain effective and respected places in single Australian society. Fundamentally, he said, the government's aim was to have one Australian society in which all Australians--including Aboriginal Australians--would have equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities. (7) There is strong affinity, too, between Ruddock's statements and those of his former colleague Paul Hasluck, minister for territories from 1951 to 1962--possibly the most energetic political exponent of assimilation. Assimilation, as Hasluck often stated, meant that Aboriginals would learn to live like white Australians. Through assimilation, he said, Aboriginals would come to enjoy all the benefits of citizenship and join the people of the Commonwealth [of Australia]. (8) This article examines the relationship between the current Australian federal government's policies in indigenous affairs and those assimilationist policies of past era, as well as attempts to move beyond them. …
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Oct 1, 2005
S E Venegas-Andraca + 3
Open Access
