Post Colonial Dialogues

Thabisa Bata, Secretary and Mandisi Aplom, Coordinator, Ginsburg Youth Council

'We have the chance to see anew the problems of our peoples', Dr.Xolela Mangcu, Executive Director of the Steve Biko Foundation said on 8 July.

In this respect the Learning from the Past, Thinking about the Future conference represented the beginning of new dialogues between South African and Australian indigenous peoples. The conference explored the terms on which there could be a closer working relationship between Indigenous Australia and the philanthropic and corporate community.

'The issue is to escape the strait jacket of our colonial past', Dr. Mangcu said.

'The cultural base of our people has been under assault and this is what above all we must recapture'.

'The language of results is not the answer because it denies the importance of recapturing our culture, identity and memories which bore the full assault of colonialism'.

The key challenge economically is to develop a situation in which the economic institutions we develop do not create dependency.

'Welfare was the bargain for dispossession of land and our indigenous self sufficiency and the price paid by indigenous peoples was dependency', Dr. Mangcu argued.

Dr Mangcu's message was reinforced by Chairman of the Steve Biko Foundation, Nkosinathi Biko. Quoting E.G. Whitlam, Mr Biko argued that case for the recognition of Australian indigenous peoples is important 'not just because the case is beyond argument but because all Australians are diminished while Aborigines are denied their rights.'

One of the most important of the Biko Foundation's tasks is to develop a new post-colonial development strategy for South Africa. Creating new identity is all important in this.

The stereotype of the Ginsburg township in colonial discourse was of a lazy and obese people. Two young people Thabisa Bata and Mandisi Apiom described a project to reclaim the imagery of Ginsburg. Steve Biko and other internationally respected figures came from Ginsburg. The new and prouod concept of Ginsburg is very different from the imagery of colonialism.

Mr. Biko argued that there are great many similarities between South Africa and Australia. In both countries there was an implicit assumption of the racial inferiority of indigenous peoples.

Australia had indigenous mission statements and reservations, South Africa had the Bantus or homelands.

Australia had a system of race based pay for many years, so too did South Africa.

For many years Australian aboriginals were prohibited from participating in governance of the country, the same was true of the indigenous peoples of South Africa.

In South Africa, solutions were imposed on indigenous peoples, the same was true of Australian indigenous peoples.

In the new era Mr. Biko said most of the answers will come from the communities. He argued that, good intentions were not good enough, and that white Australians needed to make the same journey as White South Africans and recognise that the future was about working with indigenous people not for them.

Mr. Biko cited an example of his father Steve Biko who said if you give a person 50c you encourage them to come back for more, and you encourage dependency. The future is about creating innovative ways of earning funds that support sustainability.

Mr. Wayne Bergmann, Executive Director of the Kimberly Land Council said that we need a different approach than the welfare approach to support the indigenous peoples of the Kimberly.

He suggested the development of an economic development fund under indigenous management that would support innovative sustainable projects in which government, philanthropic and contract payments contributed.

Mr. Bergmann said to the corporate and philanthropic organisations present: 'We don't want you to walk ahead of us. We don't want you to walk behind. We want you to walk alongside us. Later when you are gone we will walk alone'.

Richie Ahmat, Executive Director of the Cape York Land Council, said that the task was 'to transform the welfare given to indigenous Australians and that the support from experts from the private and coporate sectors had made an enormous difference to his people'. The problem is that only a small part of indigenous activity is involved in wealth creation. We have to move beyond passive welfare dependency.

'Indigenous Australians don't own their own homes,nor are they involved in businesses.'

'Indigenous Australians are given the keys of houses, but they are only consulted about the colour of the paint, there are no jobs for the communities.', Mr. Ahmat said.

'What if the $500 million dollars of housing for indigenous peoples over the past 30 years had been invested in economic development?' Mr Ahmat asked.

'A massive amount of the services going to our communities are tied up in passive welfare administration and it is not coming to where it is needed'.

'Many non-indigenous businesses thrive on the indigenous passive welfare economy and this must change' said Mr. Ahmat.

'The goods and services industry is an incredibly good evaporator of indigenous funds, of the Wednesday welfare cheque, or the Thursday CDEEP cheques.'

'The drugs and grog industry is the most ruthless evaporator of all.'

'We want to maximise business activity. Our priority is to transform the welfare economy into as many businesses owned by indigenous peoples as possible'.

Full conference program.