I am totally ready to walk into the Newtown Mission on this Wednesday afternoon and interview some Aboriginal people.
After all, I have already conducted two interviews with indigenous inner city dwellers. I know my subject matter: the bias of the Australian media and how it has perpetuated the struggle of Aboriginal people within our community; the Howard government’s Northern Territory intervention; ongoing racism in Australian society.
But despite these hard-hitting topics and my previous discussions, I still feel nervous.
Actually, I don’t feel nervous. I feel like I am going to shit myself.
As I stand waiting at the gate of the Newtown Mission I feel stripped bare. Who am I to these people? Another yuppie university student, filled with white guilt. How can I pretend to understand their struggles?
So, wearing my $200 “vintage” jeans and an expression of pure terror, I walk into the kitchen of the Newtown Mission. Without thinking, driven by the adrenalin of fear, I spot the nearest dark skinned man and sit down next to him.
He doesn’t notice me.
I clear my throat hesitantly.
“Excuse me, hey…” I stumble.
He briefly looks up from his meal.
“I’m doing an assignment for school. It’s about the bias of the Australian media and how it has perpetuated discrimination against the indigenous population.”
He turns his face towards me and stares me straight in the eye.
“What the fuck makes you think I’m “indigenous”, girl? I’m a fuckin’ Maori! You think every black fella in here is Aboriginal? I’m on my lunch break from the construction site, just trying to get a fuckin’ feed…”
I am looking at my shoes. God, why did I come here?
He seems to sense my mortification and his face softens.
“Look, lovey, you wanna talk to an indigenous bloke? Go see Darren Bloomfield. He’s a sort of indigenous activist, just the type you’re after. Should be here soon, alright? I’ll tell ya when he comes in.”
So while I wait I look around and notice that yes, there are a number of indigenous people here. But there are also loads of people wearing fluoro vests and work boots. Caucasians and Asians and men wearing dresses.
The Maori gentleman suddenly nudges me.
“There he is, Darren. To your right.”
I look over and see a tall man with a head of dark, curly hair. He’s stopped to talk to the pastor. Now an Aborginal cross dresser has joined their conversation. How will I get his attention?
“Oi, Daz, this little girl over here wants to have a chat with ya!” Yells the man next to me.
It proves a nice icebreaker and Darren Bloomfield strides over to our table and sits down next to me.
“And what would you like to talk about, then?”
I briefly explain why I am here. His eyes light up and he calls over to the pastor.
“Hey, Charlie, you mind if I borrow your office for a few moments? This girl and I have some serious issues to discuss. We need somewhere quiet.”
There are laughs and winks exchanged around the room but Charlie chucks the key over with a smile.
The room is cramped. Darren takes the office chair and I sit on the couch opposite.
I pull out my tape recorder and ask him to tell me about himself.
“Well I’m Darren Bloomfield. Born and bred in country New South Wales. Part of the Stolen Generation. I am a Tent Embassy Spokesman.”
In 2003 Darren appeared on the ABC news after the Aboriginal Tent Embassy site opposite the old parliament house in Canberra was burnt out. Important documents and items relating to the Embassy’s 31-year history were destroyed. For Darren, the damaged Embassy is a constant reminder of racism in Australia. He was arrested after 40 police raided the damaged structure and assaulted those who stood by it.
In 2007, Darren did what he was “given the right to do by Clover More” and set up an Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Victoria Park, Sydney to assert his sovereignty.
“The council didn’t seem to think I had the right to be there, but it is Aboriginal land, always was, always will be.”
He was forcibly removed by what he calls the “stormtroopers”.
Darren helped launch a “peace walk” in January 2009, from Sydney to the steps of Parliament House in Canberra to protest against the continuation of the NT intervention and the mining of nuclear materials on Aboriginal land.
He is then, a fully fledged Aboriginal activist.
We begin to discuss the role of the Australian media in the discrimination of the Aboriginal people.
Stories on Aboriginal health are so few that they do not rate as a major news category. The annual number of news stories on Aboriginal health in 2008 was 255. The annual number of news stories on random animal attacks was 286.
Stories that Australians do get about Aboriginal affairs must fit the definition of what is newsworthy.
Take for example when Four Corners, a program claiming to be investigative journalism at its best, described The Block in Redfern as “a small, squalid, shameful slum”. Or, the Lateline report which told Australians that Aboriginal children as young as six were being raped by their fathers.
Alcohol, child abuse and rape appear to be the stuff of good news.
The press published articles claiming widespread pubic support for the Northern Territory Emergency Response, a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenue and other measures introduced by the Howard government in 2007.
The intervention came after the publication of Little Children Are Sacred, a report commissioned by the NT government, written by Rex Wild and Patricia Anderson. It claimed that child sex abuse and neglect was rampant in NT Aboriginal communities.
According to Darren, the government used that report and the public’s reaction to it as their medium to move into the NT and establish “this system of quarantining and rationing.”
That was how the Australian government dealt with Aboriginal people on missions in the early twentieth century.
“What the media is portraying to people outside the NT is that the intervention is good. If you go there and ask why Aboriginal people are being treated this way you will be told that they are not feeding their children… that there have been incidents of…” Darren struggles to form the words, “…child rape.”
After all, I have already conducted two interviews with indigenous inner city dwellers. I know my subject matter: the bias of the Australian media and how it has perpetuated the struggle of Aboriginal people within our community; the Howard government’s Northern Territory intervention; ongoing racism in Australian society.
But despite these hard-hitting topics and my previous discussions, I still feel nervous.
Actually, I don’t feel nervous. I feel like I am going to shit myself.
As I stand waiting at the gate of the Newtown Mission I feel stripped bare. Who am I to these people? Another yuppie university student, filled with white guilt. How can I pretend to understand their struggles?
So, wearing my $200 “vintage” jeans and an expression of pure terror, I walk into the kitchen of the Newtown Mission. Without thinking, driven by the adrenalin of fear, I spot the nearest dark skinned man and sit down next to him.
He doesn’t notice me.
I clear my throat hesitantly.
“Excuse me, hey…” I stumble.
He briefly looks up from his meal.
“I’m doing an assignment for school. It’s about the bias of the Australian media and how it has perpetuated discrimination against the indigenous population.”
He turns his face towards me and stares me straight in the eye.
“What the fuck makes you think I’m “indigenous”, girl? I’m a fuckin’ Maori! You think every black fella in here is Aboriginal? I’m on my lunch break from the construction site, just trying to get a fuckin’ feed…”
I am looking at my shoes. God, why did I come here?
He seems to sense my mortification and his face softens.
“Look, lovey, you wanna talk to an indigenous bloke? Go see Darren Bloomfield. He’s a sort of indigenous activist, just the type you’re after. Should be here soon, alright? I’ll tell ya when he comes in.”
So while I wait I look around and notice that yes, there are a number of indigenous people here. But there are also loads of people wearing fluoro vests and work boots. Caucasians and Asians and men wearing dresses.
The Maori gentleman suddenly nudges me.
“There he is, Darren. To your right.”
I look over and see a tall man with a head of dark, curly hair. He’s stopped to talk to the pastor. Now an Aborginal cross dresser has joined their conversation. How will I get his attention?
“Oi, Daz, this little girl over here wants to have a chat with ya!” Yells the man next to me.
It proves a nice icebreaker and Darren Bloomfield strides over to our table and sits down next to me.
“And what would you like to talk about, then?”
I briefly explain why I am here. His eyes light up and he calls over to the pastor.
“Hey, Charlie, you mind if I borrow your office for a few moments? This girl and I have some serious issues to discuss. We need somewhere quiet.”
There are laughs and winks exchanged around the room but Charlie chucks the key over with a smile.
The room is cramped. Darren takes the office chair and I sit on the couch opposite.
I pull out my tape recorder and ask him to tell me about himself.
“Well I’m Darren Bloomfield. Born and bred in country New South Wales. Part of the Stolen Generation. I am a Tent Embassy Spokesman.”
In 2003 Darren appeared on the ABC news after the Aboriginal Tent Embassy site opposite the old parliament house in Canberra was burnt out. Important documents and items relating to the Embassy’s 31-year history were destroyed. For Darren, the damaged Embassy is a constant reminder of racism in Australia. He was arrested after 40 police raided the damaged structure and assaulted those who stood by it.
In 2007, Darren did what he was “given the right to do by Clover More” and set up an Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Victoria Park, Sydney to assert his sovereignty.
“The council didn’t seem to think I had the right to be there, but it is Aboriginal land, always was, always will be.”
He was forcibly removed by what he calls the “stormtroopers”.
Darren helped launch a “peace walk” in January 2009, from Sydney to the steps of Parliament House in Canberra to protest against the continuation of the NT intervention and the mining of nuclear materials on Aboriginal land.
He is then, a fully fledged Aboriginal activist.
We begin to discuss the role of the Australian media in the discrimination of the Aboriginal people.
Stories on Aboriginal health are so few that they do not rate as a major news category. The annual number of news stories on Aboriginal health in 2008 was 255. The annual number of news stories on random animal attacks was 286.
Stories that Australians do get about Aboriginal affairs must fit the definition of what is newsworthy.
Take for example when Four Corners, a program claiming to be investigative journalism at its best, described The Block in Redfern as “a small, squalid, shameful slum”. Or, the Lateline report which told Australians that Aboriginal children as young as six were being raped by their fathers.
Alcohol, child abuse and rape appear to be the stuff of good news.
The press published articles claiming widespread pubic support for the Northern Territory Emergency Response, a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenue and other measures introduced by the Howard government in 2007.
The intervention came after the publication of Little Children Are Sacred, a report commissioned by the NT government, written by Rex Wild and Patricia Anderson. It claimed that child sex abuse and neglect was rampant in NT Aboriginal communities.
According to Darren, the government used that report and the public’s reaction to it as their medium to move into the NT and establish “this system of quarantining and rationing.”
That was how the Australian government dealt with Aboriginal people on missions in the early twentieth century.
“What the media is portraying to people outside the NT is that the intervention is good. If you go there and ask why Aboriginal people are being treated this way you will be told that they are not feeding their children… that there have been incidents of…” Darren struggles to form the words, “…child rape.”
However, it cannot be said that indigenous opinions of the intervention have not been voiced in the mainstream media. After all, Noel Pearson, director of the Cape York Institute for Policy and Leadership, had his opposition and then strong support of the government’s move widely publicised.
“Quite frankly,” Noel Pearson told Lateline in June 2007, “I couldn't care less whether John Howard or Kevin Rudd ruled this world. My priority is to take advantage for immediate intervention for the protection of children.”
Pearson denied that the intervention was a land grab, asking “Who wants a land grab in main street Hopevale, for goodness sake?”
But Darren Bloomfield questions whether Noel Pearson can even be considered an indigenous voice.
“That Noel Pearson should be speared by his own people. He decided to support the intervention because of money involved and the positioning. And he was offered it. Noel Pearson has used his White Man’s education. He knows the only way up to the top of the ladder is to break as many eggs as you can along the way. And he is breaking eggs. He is breaking black ones.”
The government then won the support of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the Northern Territory's most powerful Aboriginal leader. Until Mr Yunupingu met Mr Mal Brough in a secret meeting in August, 2007, he had been one of the fiercest critics of the intervention, telling people at an indigenous festival only days earlier that the Government's actions were "sickening, rotten and worrying". The meeting is believed to have been brokered by Noel Pearson. Details of the negotiations were kept secret.
Going back to the subject of media coverage, Darren recalls the Redfern Riots. On 14th February 2004, 17-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Hickey died after being pursued by police. He crashed his bicycle and was impaled on a fence.
Dozens of images depicting Aboriginals rioting in Redfern were published across Australia.
“A Molotov cocktail explodes during a violent confrontation between police and Aboriginal youths, triggered by alcohol heat and grief.”
This was the caption of a photograph in Daily Telegraph.
“Try it,” Darren challenges, “Try reading stuff like this about yourself everyday, ‘you’re all drinkers, you’re all violent’.”
The perceptions of Aboriginal people that Darren mentions have been the basis of warnings amongst non-indigenous Australians in Sydney. Do not go to Eveleigh Street, do not go near The Block.
“Ask these people? Who has told you this?” Darren demands, “Ask them if they have been to Eveleigh Street and if they have been bashed. No, they haven’t. It’s always a friend, or a friend of a friend. Because they’re working off word of mouth. I will take you to The Block and show you how our people live because of racism like this.”
Darren is referring to the high level of drug usage on The Block. The NSW Health Department deposits up to 4,000 needles at The Block every week. Darren informs me that it takes no more than five minutes to score heroin on Eveleigh Street.
“I worked needle exchange with my brother down there. We had to. It was an AIDS epidemic. Floors littered with needles. Young girls have diseases like hepatitis. Hepatitis A to hepatitis Z, they’ve got it. And this is what the outside entity wants. They say ‘destroy yourselves, we will give you the means’.”
The Koori Mail and The Indigenous Times provide an alternative news source for Aboriginal people. But these publications have limitations.
“These papers get the message out,” Darren concedes. “Its honest, but it is controlled by the government… all they do is take photos of Aboriginal people shaking hands with white fellas.”
The news is one of our senses. It is an eye for what occurs beyond our sight. This is why the media must change its portrayal of indigenous affairs. Darren is sure that the number of Aboriginal suicides would decrease if the media changed the way they report on indigenous issues.
He has one message for the editors of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian.
“Stop using Aboriginal misery to sell papers.”
“Quite frankly,” Noel Pearson told Lateline in June 2007, “I couldn't care less whether John Howard or Kevin Rudd ruled this world. My priority is to take advantage for immediate intervention for the protection of children.”
Pearson denied that the intervention was a land grab, asking “Who wants a land grab in main street Hopevale, for goodness sake?”
But Darren Bloomfield questions whether Noel Pearson can even be considered an indigenous voice.
“That Noel Pearson should be speared by his own people. He decided to support the intervention because of money involved and the positioning. And he was offered it. Noel Pearson has used his White Man’s education. He knows the only way up to the top of the ladder is to break as many eggs as you can along the way. And he is breaking eggs. He is breaking black ones.”
The government then won the support of Galarrwuy Yunupingu, the Northern Territory's most powerful Aboriginal leader. Until Mr Yunupingu met Mr Mal Brough in a secret meeting in August, 2007, he had been one of the fiercest critics of the intervention, telling people at an indigenous festival only days earlier that the Government's actions were "sickening, rotten and worrying". The meeting is believed to have been brokered by Noel Pearson. Details of the negotiations were kept secret.
Going back to the subject of media coverage, Darren recalls the Redfern Riots. On 14th February 2004, 17-year-old Thomas “T.J.” Hickey died after being pursued by police. He crashed his bicycle and was impaled on a fence.
Dozens of images depicting Aboriginals rioting in Redfern were published across Australia.
“A Molotov cocktail explodes during a violent confrontation between police and Aboriginal youths, triggered by alcohol heat and grief.”
This was the caption of a photograph in Daily Telegraph.
“Try it,” Darren challenges, “Try reading stuff like this about yourself everyday, ‘you’re all drinkers, you’re all violent’.”
The perceptions of Aboriginal people that Darren mentions have been the basis of warnings amongst non-indigenous Australians in Sydney. Do not go to Eveleigh Street, do not go near The Block.
“Ask these people? Who has told you this?” Darren demands, “Ask them if they have been to Eveleigh Street and if they have been bashed. No, they haven’t. It’s always a friend, or a friend of a friend. Because they’re working off word of mouth. I will take you to The Block and show you how our people live because of racism like this.”
Darren is referring to the high level of drug usage on The Block. The NSW Health Department deposits up to 4,000 needles at The Block every week. Darren informs me that it takes no more than five minutes to score heroin on Eveleigh Street.
“I worked needle exchange with my brother down there. We had to. It was an AIDS epidemic. Floors littered with needles. Young girls have diseases like hepatitis. Hepatitis A to hepatitis Z, they’ve got it. And this is what the outside entity wants. They say ‘destroy yourselves, we will give you the means’.”
The Koori Mail and The Indigenous Times provide an alternative news source for Aboriginal people. But these publications have limitations.
“These papers get the message out,” Darren concedes. “Its honest, but it is controlled by the government… all they do is take photos of Aboriginal people shaking hands with white fellas.”
The news is one of our senses. It is an eye for what occurs beyond our sight. This is why the media must change its portrayal of indigenous affairs. Darren is sure that the number of Aboriginal suicides would decrease if the media changed the way they report on indigenous issues.
He has one message for the editors of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Daily Telegraph and The Australian.
“Stop using Aboriginal misery to sell papers.”
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