Palm Island:

The aborigine reserve sends out mixed signals

by Nina ALAHAKOON

The name Aborigine comes from the Latin, meaning 'original inhabitants'. Before the white man came to the far southern land, the native aboriginals had lived there for at least 30,000 years. There is speculation that Australia could be the home to the world's first people. Archaeological evidence has shown that humans lived in Australia 12,000 years before they appeared in Europe.

To put this in perspective, there have only been 8 generations of settlers in Australia, but over 18,500 generations of aboriginals! These early people had their history, and a very rich and vibrant culture; they had their distinctive forms of music, art and stories. To them, the beginning of the world was called the Dreamtime; they were spiritual and deeply attached to their land. Today, sadly, the aboriginal population in Australia comprises only 2% of the total population.

The troubles between the White man and the native Australian aboriginals have persisted ever since Europeans came over and began to colonise the black man's land. The majority of the indigenous people of Australia have never accepted nor respected the white man's rule. Although over two centuries have since passed, the conflict persists.

Conflict

Initially, when the Europeans came to Australia, they lived alongside the natives. However, later it became clear that the white man was not going to leave and that the native was not going to be able to continue to live on and use his land as he had always done. Hence, the conflict over land began. There were many atrocities committed on both sides. The Europeans even committed acts of genocide; there have been instances of mass murder, attempts to wipe out the total native population. In one instance, over 1500 aborigines were herded to the top of a cliff and then pushed over to their deaths. The Europeans believed that the aborigine was the missing link between man and apes; they were seen as animals not human beings.

When the perpetrators of the Myall Creek Massacre in 1838 (where a large number of natives were hacked to death by white men) were taken to trial, one of the jurors proclaimed: "I look on the blacks as a set of monkeys, and the earlier they are exterminated from the face of the earth the better... I would never see a white man hanged for killing a black."

This was the general attitude towards the native blacks. In this way, as the white man proliferated the country, the black were herded off into barren reserves and forced to live like prisoners. One such reserve is Palm Island, also known as The Great Palm Island; one of the largest aboriginal communities today.

Mistrust

You won't find any reference to Palm Island in an Australian tourist brochure and that is because everyone tries to forget that there is such a place. The white man avoids going to it if he can. The mistrust between the whites and the aboriginals really comes into play over there.

Palm Island, also called Bwgcolman by the natives, is a beautiful island on the Great Barrier Reef. It was given its name by James Cook, and deemed as having 'nothing worth observing' when he sailed by in 1770. In the early twentieth century, after the advent of Europeans, it became a 'penal settlement' and indigenous people were relocated to Palm Island. It was ideal for this purpose as it was isolated; a good place for punishment. Aborigines from at least 57 different language speaking regions throughout Queensland were relocated to Palm. Here they lived under a rigid military-like rule. They worked for no wages; children were separated from their parents; they were punished for crimes among which were falling pregnant to a white man, being of 'mixed blood' or being disruptive.

One can only imagine the situations the natives had to face. With the mixture of tribes, cultures, languages and customs, chaos ensued. This is all still within living memory. One of the Aboriginal women that I met there, Barbara, about 65 related how she and her brother had been snatched away from home and kept in dormitories because they had 'white blood' in their veins. With tears in her eyes she said, "I remember my mother and grandmother crying to us to run away because they were coming to take us and put us in the dormitories. We ran, but they caught us. I used to cry everyday, because I missed my mother. I never saw her again. But it's all in the past now."

The island has only one small town, which comprises a few buildings; one supermarket, a post office, a fish and chip shop, a police station (which had been burned down a couple of years ago), schools, churches and so on. The youth often gather at the town square and kill time. It is common to see people fighting, swearing or just indulging in general lawlessness. On Palm Island natives drive around without their seatbelts on in clear view of the police, an offence that would cost them up to 300 dollars anywhere else in Australia. But here the white policeman only says wearily, "Well, if anything happens to you, don't blame it on us." And this is how things are done on the island. A sense of lawlessness and 'I do it my way' rules.

Today, Palm Island remains one of the largest aboriginal communities in Australia. Over 4,000 natives live there, often leading aimless, slothful, violent and unlawful lives. In fact, the island has been called one of the most violent places on earth. Break-ins, beatings, suicides, theft etc... occur at an alarming rate. Over 90% of the population remains unemployed, and as the government provides them everything they need, there really is hardly any incentive to better themselves.

While there, I spoke to a white pastor of a well known Christian church regarding the aboriginal issue in Australia. She gave me the white man's perspective of the issue. "It's always the same. The government does everything for them but they send out the wrong message telling the world that our government mistreats them." She then went on to cite several examples where the indigenous people deliberately vandalized property to give a negative image of the government.

There have been instances where aboriginal families have torn out the doors and other woodwork and have lit bonfires in the centre of new houses given to them by the government. These very people then proclaim that they are being discriminated against and ill treated. "In such cases like this, the world always believes the minority", said the pastor.

Role model

A huge role model to the people of the community is Cathy Freeman who rose to the ranks of Olympic gold medalist in 2000 at the Sidney Olympics, where she also lit the Olympic flame in that year. An Australian aboriginal who lived on Palm Island, Freeman has begun the Cathy Freeman Foundation to help the young people of her community. And these children need this stimulation and these kinds of role models. Most of those children who attend school often give up on lessons that are difficult for them to grasp by saying "I'm dumb, Miss, I can't do it".

This would include grade 6 or 7 students who cannot yet add 0+8 or read a simple sentence. A teacher from Papua New Guinea on Palm Island says, "We have tried and we continue to try to boost their self-esteem. But it must also begin at home and most of these children come from broken messed up families. There is no order in their lives, and what little they pick up from school is continuously disrupted." Not surprising considering that illegitimacy, drugs, sexual abuse, gambling schools, assault, theft, alcoholism and conflict is a part of their daily lives. There is a lot of promise on Palm Island, but it has yet to be tapped into.

But, these people are proud of who they are. Even the mixed children assert their indigenous qualities and when asked, proudly state they are aboriginals and not white. Most of them have lost their culture, language and customs.

They cannot remember the essence of their individual tribes, as they have all been mixed. But these people struggle to be what they once were.

Today the Australian government continues to atone for the mistakes of the past. In 2008, the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd offered a historic apology to the Aborigines and the 'Stolen Generations' for all the past atrocities caused by the whites towards the aborigines.

This atonement comes not only from the political level. Recently, at a Christian gathering, a white preacher symbolically placed a handful of Australian earth in the hands of an elderly Aboriginal woman, one of the Christians in the gathering, and apologized to her on behalf of all the perpetrators of the past. It was a powerful moment, one charged with emotion. At least one could hope for forgiveness if not for forgetfulness.