“OUR people are a noble people, but never savages,” says Reverend Sealin Garlett.
The softly-spoken Aboriginal minister didn’t fight fire with fire this week, but instead opted for dignified humility when he spoke about federal Liberal MP Dennis Jensen.
During a debate in federal parliament the Tangney MP backed the Barnett government’s plan to close a number of remote Aboriginal communities.
“In essence, if the ‘noble savage’ lifestyle, à la Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the same one often eulogised, is true, then there is nothing stopping any indigenous men or women from pursuing such an existence on their own,” he said.
“Just do not expect the taxpayers to subsidise it.”
Rev Garlett, chair of the WA uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian congress, says until Australia becomes an egalitarian society, Aboriginal people will require assistance.
“As a Nyungar man I long for the time when there will not be any discrimination in Australia and we will no longer need laws and funding to assist any particular section or group in society,” he says. “Sadly, we are a long way from utopia Australia. Our people are a noble people, but never savages. We have always belonged to the land and learnt how to live in harmony with the earth, the plants, animals, birds and the diversity of creatures in the sea.
“Regrettably, our people can no longer live in such harmony — the colonisation process included taking the land, the children and culture from our people.”
Dr Jensen, whose ultra-safe Liberal seat covers most of Melville, was one of a handful of Coalition MPs to boycott parliament the day Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to the Stolen Generations.
He further courted controversy by telling Australian indigenous people affected by European colonisation to “get over it”. The South African born MP, formerly a defence scientist, is also opposed to marriage equality in Australia and was the first Coalition MP to publicly deny climate change.
Fremantle Labor MP Melissa Parke says her neighbouring MP’s comments are ignorant and disrespectful.
“They harm the cause of reconciliation in Australia and betray a fundamental lack of awareness of indigenous connection to country and past colonial practices of removal that have contributed to the present circumstances of indigenous Australians,” she says.
“Furthermore, this is a vast country and we have long followed the principle of universality of service — if we abandoned that principle we’d have to de-fund much of white rural Australia, which costs far more money than Aboriginal communities do.”
Perth Labor MP Alannah MacTiernan described Dr Jensen’s comments as offensive and counter-productive: “The Member for Tangney tells us he witnessed the appalling conditions of Aboriginal communities around Broome from a car window. It’s a pity Mr Jensen did not stop the car, end his self-imposed apartheid and get to know the Aboriginal people in remote Western Australia whose ‘lifestyle’ he finds so disagreeable. Mr Jensen might meet Aboriginal leaders like the Dodsons and Watsons in the West Kimberley, June Oscar in Fitzroy Crossing or Ian Trust in the East Kimberley, who are working with their communities to create economic sustainability and social resilience.”
Rev Garlett says the plight of remote Aborigines is partly down to colonisation: “When the land was taken from us, our means of living was taken from us,” he says.
“We have lost our economic base and there is no treaty, no recompense and no rent payment.
“Please return sufficient land and finances to remote communities so they can be economically viable.”
We contacted Dr Jensen’s office for comment.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK
