John,

I don't think you article was as balanced as it could have been.

By ascribing the entire blame for the plight of the long grass people on white society, you're saying Aboriginals share none of the blame. Perhaps you'd like us to see them as 'noble savages' once again?

You say Aboriginals aren't provided with adequate shelter in Darwin or are escaping overcrowded shelter at home. This is true, but speak to any community Housing Officer and you'll find houses last around 10 years. There is a housing crisis because houses are constantly destroyed.

Speak to any Essential Services Officer in a community and you'll find things are broken again and again and again. But there are never any consequences. People like you just ask why we aren't spending more money.

You canvass the reasons why many Aboriginals end up in the long grass well, but gloss over the fact that alcohol abuse is the core of the problem.

The fact is, if you'd spent years building up a business only to watch drunken itinerants’ shouting and fighting scare your customers away, then you'd expect the police to move them on to. Otherwise you and your family would potentially be joining them.

While I agree with many of your suggestions, I feel you need to start from the premiss that governments have made a genuine effort to solve the problem, but while government policies can help, at the end of the day it's individuals and communities that need to take responsibility for their actions.

Finally, perhaps we don’t need to educate non-indigenous Territorians as much as ‘academics’ and ‘social activists’ that come to the Territory every 20 years or so, parachute into a community for a day or two for their ‘Aboriginal experience’, buy a painting, and then return home to tell us about how we need to be ‘educated’.

It probably helps that I've kept media eyes on John Tomlinson's defence of human rights over the years. He has been consistent and courageous in his condemnation of racism. Drewd may be a longterm resident of the high rise in Darwin but I rather doubt he even listens to opinions differing from his rather myoptic one.

As John Tomlinson stated, there are many reasons people (of all shades) live in the long grass. Alcohol is one reason. I rarely go into Darwin at night - preferring my much quieter rural community - but I've been more disturbed at the antics of 'club-goers' of predominantly non-indigenous types - than I have of indigenous long-grassers - when venturing into town after midnight.

Talk about disgusting! Young effluent-looking (thanks Kim and Kath) 'swingers' urinating and vomiting against walls and on their obnoxious friends and innocent passers-by, fighting with police and bouncers, bashing up taxi-drivers, refusing to acknowledge that they're doing anything wrong - 'just having fun'. Drinking 'alfresco' under the stars and abusing anyone who looks different.

Of course, I'm not inferring that Drewd fits this picture, I'm simply astounded that s/he stereotypes and further victimises people who often don't have the resources to defend themselves. Rather a military stance, isn't it? And yes, that's another sore point not alluded to by Drewd - I find the onslaught of defence transmigrants bringing their violent fear and loathing to a once tolerant town - far, far more upsetting than the long-grassers.

John Tomlinson has kept in touch with long-term (more than thirty years) residents of Darwin. He voices concerns that many non-academic, mildly-activist ordinary people have. It's called having a conscience and doing something about it. Missing in 'laissez-faire' politics today.

Personally I believe that the territory needs to introduce the circle courts from NSW. This would empower the elders of the various communities, and allow them to suggest the punishment that they believe that various offences deserve. Perhaps this would also allow them to prevent a lot of the violence and property crime so predominant in Darwin (& other centres) today.

For the information of others, circle courts are a viable alternative to teh mainstream justice system, and the sentences are normally harsher than those imposed by magistrates / judges in courts. It also places offenders in the position that their own community can signal their approbation of their actions.

follow these links for details;

http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/ajac.nsf/pages/circle3

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2005/s1478266.htm

http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/tandi2/tandi277t.html

perhaps this may remove some of the itinerants, and provide them with the capacity to reintegrate into their communities. NB I also suggest that maybe the NT could examine community based custodial / non-custodial corrections.

The Darwin 'establishment' has consistently avoided facing the problems of poor itinerents.
There has always been a denial that Aboriginal itinerants have need of a safe and secure place to camp with ablution and toilet facilities.
Because areas near toilet blocks became camping areas, City Council's response has been to either demolish the toilet blocks or close them at night.It's no surprise that people urinate and defecate elsewhere.
Over the 50 years I have lived in Darwin,camping sites close to the City have been declared "NO CAMPING" areas.
I camped on Mindil Beach for three weeks when I first arrived in 1956
It took me that time to find work and be able to pay for accommodation.
The One-Mile Dam area tucked away between Stuart Park and the CBD has long term Aboriginal Residents who are not Larrakias. With the expanse of Darwin it is now high value real estate.The Oil company tank farms of Shell, Mobil and BP are being demolished and relocated at East Arm Port, making way for high density residential development.
Pressure is being exerted on the residents to vacate the area because
an aboriginal ghetto in the midst of such development is not desirable.
This is the same policy that was employed in Victoria Street in Sydney and looks set to be implemented in Redfern too.
In both instances, the people affected are working class poor.
Darwin's 'long grass people' are unemployed poor, harrassed by Council,who suffer in silence and are only visible when they are being 'antisocial'.
continued next post.............

.........Continued from earlier post

The Northern Territory Government is attempting to deal with the issue by enlisting the aid of the Larrakia Organisation to operate night patrols working in collaboration with the Police. Their main function will be to collect drunks and take them to an overnight shelter.
There is an irony in the fact that the Larrakia Organisation was established by the work of Bill Day who agitated for the Woodward Commission to consider the plight of the Darwin Larrakias who were becoming Squatters in their own land.
The Larrakias are now being saddled with the 'problem' of itinerent Aborigines in Darwin with the(unstated but covert) intention of coersing them to return to their own country.
It's not surprising police and Government agencies would not talk to John Tomlinson. He has been their social conscience for many years and they don't want to listen to alternative solutions they consider too radical that don't fit their vision of a city that is not too proud to exploit Aboriginal Culture for tourist promotion but reject the stark reality of the dispossessed and degraded Jetsam.
Thanks John

diri,

You have some misconceptions about me.

"Drewd may be a long-term resident of the high rise in Darwin "

I've actually been living in a remote Aboriginal Community for a number of years now.

You then go on to insinuate I'm some sort of alcoholic, an effluent-looking swinger urinating, fighting and vomiting - even while protesting you don't.

The fact is I live in a dry community and drink moderately when in town.

"that's another sore point not alluded to by Drewd - I find the onslaught of defence transmigrants bringing their violent fear and loathing to a once tolerant town "

You basically accuse all 40,000 or so ADF personnel of being violent, hateful, redneck racists. But you accuse me of stereotyping!

I can't claim to know exactly what you think but I'll take a guess and you can let me know if I'm right or not.

Everything Black = GOOD
Everything White = BAD
Anyone who questions = MYOPIC
Anyone who criticises = HATEFILLED RACIST

The problem is ‘tolerance’ has left indigenous Australians as the most disadvantaged group of people in the country. And blaming everything on white people isn’t going to help them.

Just more white indifference

The NT Labor government are not doing nearly enough to tackle the problems faced by the people with the lowest social outcomes in the Northern Territory.

Black incarceration rates are disgusting and obviously imprisonment is ineffectual.

"THE Northern Territory has a higher prison rate than international crime hot spots Kazakhstan, Belarus and South Africa."

"The Territory had the highest inmate increase in the country during the past year -- four times the national average."

"The Territory's jail rate is 580 per 100,000 people compared to the national average of 154 per 100,000."

http://dimc.axxs.org/?action=newswire&parentview=4849

Aboriginal people comprise 80% of the prison population here, and of those, about 80% are from rural communities.

The links between poverty, marginalisation and imprisonment are well established. There are very few rich non-Aboriginal people in the Berrimah and Alice Springs detention centres.

Mass programs in Health, Education and other forms of empowerment have been successful in other countries. Most notably in countries with a fraction of our resources. Cuba and Venezuela spring to mind. Teaching people to read and write and ensuring basic health care are not beyond our physical ken, so obviously there are other reasons to keep Aboriginal people in thrall.

And they are all to do with money.

The Aboriginal 'communities' are not run by Aboriginal people despite the 'self-determination' rhetoric of the 70's - which we are told failed. It's 'failure' is due to it never existing.

What is happening now is just the latest version of the genocide and dispossession that led to the present day conditions of Aboriginal people.

'Blaming the victims' - (a phrase now decried as somehow derogoratory - "victim mentality" etc...) is still the most succinct way of describing detractors, who seem to believe that Aboriginal people should "take responsibility" for white invasion and the horrendous physical and cultural impact it created.

When I read the revisionist rubbish that passes for 'academic' rebuttals of European causality for the contemporary plight of many Aboriginal people - I wonder are the authors blind or mad?

I can see the results all around me.

http://onemiledam.org/

Pariah,

And strangely enough if you look at the interim guidelines between police and the ombudsman - you will find that despite the RCADIC recomendations police are delegated the ombudsmans investigative jurisdiction to investigate police. Therefore once again the NT police have complete ownership of the polic complaints process. The effect of which is that despite the NT having similar rates of complaints (/1000 members) as other jurisdictions, it has the LOWEST rate of disciplinary or criminal actions resulting from these investigations.

The Interim Guidelines (nb see especially s.8.4.4.)
http://www.nt.gov.au/omb_hcscc/ombudsman/publications/app910001.pdf

The role of the ombudsman in th epolice complaints process
http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/omb/pdf/NT%20Police%20complaints%20Process%20report.pdf

Moreover, by this delegation, any evidence provided to the PRD investigation does not (apparently) have to be provided to a court, unless the other party can establish that the decision of PRD was made in bad faith.

NB> I wonder if such a decision would be judicial (R v Rogerson)? If the action is prima facie illegal the executive can not authorise or condone it (A v Hayden) nor may the judiciary (Coco v R; Plenty v Dillon). If so, obviously such a decision could not be investigated by the ombudsman (Booth v Dillon; Glennister v Dillon), or presumably a delegate thereof?

For the record:
Larrakia Nation is a credible organisation with a commitment to supporting and assisting people visiting or moving to Larrakia country. Larrakia Nation is not being co-opted to provide night or any other kind of patrol services. Larrakia Nation is not at all interested in this type of service. The organisation is however, about to begin provision of an intervention and transport service. The intervention will be based on a case work model - assisting people living in the long grass to meet their own identified goals. The transport will be in the form of a booking system for mini bus services to ensure people in the long grass are able to access services as identified in their goal setting and in vehicles appropriate to the need. Larrakia Nation has offered support services to people in the long grass for the past two years and are rolling those previous services over into a package of intervention and support to ensure that people have access to the services they may need.
Any who would like to know what we are doing and how we are doing it are welcome to contact the organisation

If only the aboriginal children could be properly educated and trained for real jobs, in time many of the present problems would vanish.
Same goes for white children .
Unfortunately all the outcry about "the stolen generation" has insured that children will never be removed from disfunctional families again and such children are as good as lost anyway.
While we import workers to fill vacancies in the workforce, generations of Australian children are given no opportunities to have a future.
It is only time and education that will put everyone on an even plane.
It has to be more than a pipedream.

Let the world still be told nothing much has changed.The Aboriginal (nation) not people,are still in the gutter of white society like it or not.A few weeks ago I surfed the net and came across a South African website,and was astouded to read some of the comments made by white South African EXPATS,about the Aboriginal Nation,and their comments were so typical of of the days going back to apartheid.Some of these EXPATS not being satisfied that they ran away from South Africa on the chicken run as it was termed,but what amazes me they did not leave their ignorant racists mentality behind oh no they seem to be spreading their racial opinions and trying to covert some gullible Australians to their way of thinking about the Black South Africans.in other words spreading the gospel of the now defunct Nat/goveerment.Also go to any International Cricket or Rugby Union game,when it happens to be teams from South Africa playing here,listen to their comments and make up your own mind.It even happened with the Brits cricketers,as they too have a racially mixed team.A social worker speaking to me some time back,when she was told that I came from there,told me the following,she had to visit a female from South Africa,and the (lady),should say women told her the following.I miss the old days back in South Africa,if I wanted a cuppa at anytime during the night I just press a button to call my maid to come and make me a cuppa,this I cannot confirm,but the female social worker seemed to be genuine about her story Note to Editor please edit this if you so wish

Let the world still be told nothing much has changed.The Aboriginal (nation) not people,are still in the gutter of white society like it or not.A few weeks ago I surfed the net and came across a South African website,and was astounded to read some of the comments made by white South African EXPATS,about the Aboriginal Nation,and their comments were so typical of of the days going back to apartheid.Some of these EXPATS not being satisfied that they ran away from South Africa on the chicken run as it was termed,but what amazes me they did not leave their ignorant racists mentality behind oh no they seem to be spreading their racial opinions and trying to covert some gullible Australians to their way of thinking about the Black South Africans.in other words spreading the gospel of the now defunct Nat/goveerment.Also go to any International Cricket or Rugby Union game,when it happens to be teams from South Africa playing here,listen to their comments and make up your own mind.It even happened with the Brits cricketers,as they too have a racially mixed team.A social worker speaking to me some time back,when she was told that I came from there,told me the following,she had to visit a female from South Africa,and the (lady),should say women told her the following.I miss the old days back in South Africa,if I wanted a cuppa at anytime during the night I just press a button to call my maid to come and make me a cuppa,this I cannot confirm,but the female social worker seemed to be genuine about her story Note to Editor please edit this if you so wish