Debunking The Aboriginal Myth - Part 2
When I type Aboriginal people into google I get - A picture of Bess Price, Anthony Mundine, Cathy Freeman, Tony Abbott (Yes - the irony), and a bunch of white 'experts.' I like to think I'm not an expert, I know stuff, not all of it, but a lot more than other people. I just don't have a PhD next to my name saying I know Aboriginal stuff; because rather than study it, (I did that too) I live it.
What's another word for Aboriginal?
"Nigger," came my reply when in grade 4, my class was asked what another word for Aboriginal people of that area was (Main Arm, Northern NSW).
I was told I was wrong, that it was Koori, then got asked to leave the classroom.
My dad was called and I almost was expelled for racist behaviour.
My dad could not stop laughing - keep in mind this is a white guy born in 1941, he was pissing himself with laughter, and my principal had a very stern look on his face, I had no idea what the problem was.
"She gets called Nigger all the time, so to her that is another word for Aboriginal people," my dad explained to my principal.
I didn't get in trouble in the end. How could I? My dad made an extremely fair point, I was 8 years old, I didn't realise it was a bad word until then. That's when I realised people at school who called me Nigger, were not being nice.
What not to call us
Nigger
For obvious reasons - do I really need to explain?
Coon
Not a nice thing to call people - It's a derogatory term white people came up with for Blackfellas - it was used with hate and distaste when spoken, just like how they felt about my people. Also, there were things such as "Coon Culls" and "Nigger Hunts" which isn't too hard to imagine what that stands for - but I'll spell it out really clear; White people would get together and hunt Aboriginal people like they were animals. Similar to the Kangaroo Culls that happen every few years - oh and lets not forget the current Shark cull they're doing in WA at the moment.
Boong
Same as above
Don't even try to google its origins, some white person just thought it was funny at the time and it stuck. It's mean.
ABC
Aboriginal Bum Cleaner - I'm not sure how well used this is, but did I use to get called it a lot. One time this boy in grade 7 called me one and I asked him what that meant and when he said what it was, I smashed his face into the wall and got in trouble.
Abo
Many people think it's just a short word for Aboriginal, and it's cute and totes okay to shorten it just like you shorten Australia to Aussie. This is not the case. People called Blackfellas Abo's not in a nice way.
E.G "Look at that dirty Abo over there, drunk as a fucking skunk, typical of a fucking dirty Abo Coon."
What it is OK to call us
Murri
It's what Blackfella's from QLD call ourselves. So even though I was born in Canberra, my mob is from QLD so I am a Murri.
Koori
Same as above, but not Queenslanders - Most NSW Blackfella's call themselves Koori or some spell it Koorie - there is no right or wrong.
Goori
Some in NSW call themselves Goori, some in SA call themselves Goori
Noongar
Blackfellas from WA
Palawa
Tasmanian Blackfellas
These are not clan names. Clan names are the name of your mob - so I am Wakka Wakka and Wuli Wuli from Queensland - that's my clan. Other clans are Ngunnawal - The Canberra/Yass region, Pitjantjatjara (pronounced in Occas Aussie as Pit-in-jar-ah) which is around central Australia, Larrakia which is up top of the middle of Australia, Nhuwala which is around the north east coast of WA... there are hundreds more - that's just a small few.
So when you say Aboriginal people call themselves Koori - this isn't entirely true, SOME Aboriginal people call themselves Koori, so don't refer to Aboriginal people as just Koori when refering to us. It shows your ignorance.
But the Aboriginals get more than us!
Really, you're going to play that card?
So you're telling me - let me get this straight - that Blackfellas that live in 3rd world country conditions in this land you call Australia, get more than you? I guess you're right; they do, they get more diseases than you because you have better equipt medical centres, clean living areas, working plumbing, running tap water, and no basic human rights.
Yep, you got me!
But but BUT The Government gives more stuff to Aboriginal people!
Oh yeah? Do you mean we get free houses, free cars, free schooling? DAMN! Let me jump on that wagon, coz I sure didn't get that just by being Black.
Check out the 2012 Face the Facts by the Human Rights Commission
"Generally, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples receive the same level of public benefits as non-Indigenous people. Individuals do not receive additional public benefits because they are from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.
Specific government programs – not additional income – have been introduced for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples because they are the most economically and socially disadvantaged group in Australia.
Examples include:
•Community Development Employment Projects, in remote Aboriginal communities
•Aboriginal Medical Services and Aboriginal Legal Services
•Indigenous Employment Program
•Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ education programs, such as the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme.
These programs supplement and provide a culturally appropriate alternative to those available to the non-Indigenous Australian community. They are also necessary because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples can face significant barriers to using mainstream services, including discrimination.
Specific medical and legal services are also available for other groups of people in Australia, such as low-income and migrant communities."
But they have Aboriginal medical services that I can't go to because I'm WHIIIIIIIIITE
It must be hard being white.
Well you're wrong. Priority is given to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients at Aboriginal Medical Services (AMS's) however some on these AMS's also treat non Blackfella clients that come in. It's just a normal bulk billing medical service, just like ones you can go to, just specific to Blackfellas, where we can go and feel safe and cared for, knowing the people that work there actually care about Aboriginal health.
You're all drunks
We are?
Well, drinking booze seems to be an Aussie tradition. Australia did begin as a rum colony, and that meant that rum was currency.
Alcohol abuse is throughout Australia, not just an "Aboriginal Problem."
But it's more obvious to you when an Aboriginal person is drunk compared to a non Aboriginal person. Do you think you need to ask yourself why?
37% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people do not drink alcohol at all - compared to 22% of Non Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
So if you look at those figures - Most non Blackfellas are dirty rotten drunks. But do I stereotype? No.
Instead of sitting at a pub like most drunk aussies, blackfellas mostly prefer to sit with their mob, be it under the shade of a coolabah tree in the park or at another park where community is - this appears a lot more 'public' then sitting at the local getting your drink on. Doesn't mean we're more inclined to all be drunks.
The popular belief is that we can't handle our liquor like white people because it wasn't here before white people came, another myth. My ancestors have been drinking alcohol made from different sources like the sap of gum trees, bauhinia flowers, banksia cones, juice of coconut tree buds etc etc. for donkey's years.
Some white people are drunks, some black people are drunks. It doesn't make ALL people of that race drunks.
I'm not really sure why this isn't understood, it's basic common sense.
Just like not all white people are racist, not all muslims are terrorists, not all African American's are gang bangers, NOT ALL ABORIGINAL PEOPLE ARE DRUNKS.
Is that so hard to understand?
But they're going to take my house away because of Native Title!
EEERH. Wrong.
Native Title doesn't have any hold over exisiting property rights because we can only assert our title over PUBLICLY owned land. This means Crown Land. Not your house, or your backyard, or your farm, or you apartment, or your privately owned property.
It really doesn't affect you at all if you look at it the right way - Crown land isn't anything you'll ever own, it's owned by... Get this - THE CROWN. Not you.
But with Native Title - we say it belongs to us, not the crown.
This really truely and honestly does not include your suburban 3 bedroom brick house with a square inch of backyard in Sydney, nor does it include your 45 acre farm with your horses and cows in Orange, or the land on which your bedsitter apartment was built in the centre of Melbourne.
If you own your land you have no big Blackfella person to fear.
Got it?
No? Read it again.
Also - Big difference between Native Title and Land Rights. But we'll come to that in Part 3.
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