AUSTRALASIAN LIQUOR LICENSING AUTHORITIES CONFERENCE

SYDNEY

4 – 7 SEPTEMBER 2001

BEYOND THE PLATEAU

NO MORE ITS OUR LAW

HARM MINIMISATION IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

Sean Flood 1

 

INTRODUCTION

Last year at the Australasian Liquor Licensing Authorities Conference I discovered Queensland’s No More It’s Our Law poster.

The use of indigenous artwork and the change from No More Its The Law to Its Our Law gave voice to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ownership of the problem and a role in a step towards alcohol harm minimisation in indigenous communities. In this paper I will examine some possible harm minimisation strategies for indigenous Australians.

PARTNERSHIP

An important consideration in any strategy to reduce alcohol related ill health, family and community strife, and crimes associated with drunkenness in indigenous societies is the development of self-help and the involvement of the affected groups. In the words of Professor Larissa Behrendt 2 writing on reconciliation in the Weekend Australian, January 27-28, 1996 page 20:

The next challenge will be to think about the formation of a political culture which recognises the different voices of minorities.

Also speaking of the High Court, Mabo decision in The Australian, November 28, 1995 page 3, she said:

Since Mabo, we’ve had a renewed belief in what the legal system can actually achieve for us.

I really think there are people who deal with the Aboriginal community who do want a good outcome for them.

To go on to Aboriginal land and sit with communities and learn about their culture would be of enormous benefit to people who are working with those communities.

Australian’s don’t have to be told that they’re bad people.

I think they need to be told articulately what our grievances are, and to be told about what solutions we have available to us as a nation.

I think we would be seeking a partnership with other Australians, but one in which we have much more control over the way our communities are run, much more respect given to our culture, and our own laws and the way that we do things.

In many ways, that’s no more than any other Australians would want.

In partnership with Aboriginal communities and respecting the culture and laws of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, problems associated with alcohol abuse can be reduced.

YETTA DHINNAKKAL

On 27 April 2001, I was privileged to travel to Yetta Dhinnakkal with the Hon Bob Debus MP, Attorney General for New South Wales, Chief Magistrate P J Staunton AM and a group of New South Wales public defenders. Yetta Dhinnakkal is an institution conducted by the New South Wales Department of Corrective Services located near Brewarrina for first time adult Aboriginal offenders 18 to 30 years of age who are sentenced to a maximum of 12 months imprisonment or less. There were about 30 trainees in residence that day. We were made welcome by the trainees who conducted a smoking ceremony and corroboree. I had with me No More It’s Our Law posters from Queensland and on the flight $1000 was pledged as prize money for a poster contest among the trainees.

Three trainees entered and shared the prize money with Steven Johnson receiving first prize $500 for The Alcohol Free – Old Watering Hole; second prize $300 to P W of Earlwood and third prize of $200 to K A from Walgett.

Mr Wally Neville, Manager, Industry and Corporate Development, Department of Gaming and Racing has indicated that the Department will propose purchasing the artwork from Steven Johnson and adapt it to be used in New South Wales editions of No More Its Our Law posters. These posters will be made available to Aboriginal communities and hoteliers in Redfern, Chippendale, Surry Hills and other Sydney suburbs with concentrations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and New South Wales country towns such as Brewarrina, Moree, Taree, Kempsey, Nowra, Dubbo, Burke, Central Darling, Walgett and Tamworth.

The appeal of the artwork submitted by Steven Johnson is in his words and Aboriginal motifs.

His messages and those of the other artists are:

The above was obtained on a single visit to the small Aboriginal group of young men.

None of the trainees had a background in arts and crafts and Yetta Dhinnakkal having been established in 1999 has not yet had an opportunity to develop a long tradition in their art program. I believe that what these trainees have done is an expression of the "different voices of minorities" referred to by Professor Behrendt quoted above. There are hundreds of the different indigenous voices in New South Wales and the States and Territories represented at this Conference which require recognition and expression.

HARM MINIMISATION IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

How is substance addiction reduced? The campaigns against smoking have, over time, lead to an observable decrease in the wider population while not having observably done so in Aboriginal society. The experience of the Aboriginal Medical Services is that a successful outcome is achieved by delivery of service and involvement in health issues by community members. Also it needs stating emphatically that statistics show that levels of Aboriginal alcoholism are no higher than among non-indigenous people. But there are areas where the problems are acute.

If we listen to Aboriginal people we will hear what solutions they have for grog abuse. If we act in partnership, providing resources to indigenous artists they will get the grog harm minimisation message across. As a nation we have a vast, largely untapped, rich cultural power available. Art by artists who know the country and how to represent it, speak for country, tell the stories, impart respect, demonstrate a depth of knowledge not only ignored by the colonial invaders and ourselves but sneered at as inferior, barbaric, primitive, useless like the people themselves. The reproductions of the few paintings we have looked at in this talk are properly regarded as significant works which rank amongst the best and most beautiful, contemporary modern art 3. Yet the artists, untutored and unsophisticated women and men whose names are largely unrecognised have nevertheless taken the international arts scene by storm. We are indeed blind if we fail to see the indigenous talent readily available to promote strong healthy communities that are free of the alcohol scourge.

In partnership with Government agencies indigenous singers, bands, actors and athletes should be approached and funded to give voice to a campaign built around the No More Its Our Law initiative.

A short list would include:

  • Leah Purcell
  • Jimmy Little
  • Yothu Yindi
  • Robert McLeod
  • Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter
  • Titas
  • Coloured Stone
  • Warumpy Band
  • Christine Anu
  • Paul Kelly
  • Lionel Rose
  • The Donevon Brothers
  • Debra Mailman
  • Foot Full of Bindies
  • Troy Cassar-Daley
  • Cathy Freeman
  • Anthony Mundine
  • Maureen Watson
  • Wesley Enoch
  • Kevin Smith
  • Frank Yamma
  • NokTuRNL
  • Kev Carmody
  • Mills Sisters
  • Aim 4 More
  • Emma Donevon
  • Andrew Walker (What a game!) 4

CONCLUSION

This gathering does not need evidence of the link between alcohol abuse and crime in any culture. It is, however, instructive to note that according to ATSIC, Australia’s indigenous population is projected to increase to 500,000 by 2006 of which nearly 50% aged 15 and over will be unemployed and more than 5,000 will be in prison 5. The potential for 250,000 unemployed, poor, bored, disadvantaged people turning to alcohol misuse is enormous and our respective Governments and Government Departments have to do something, in partnership with Aboriginal communities, to achieve the necessary cultural shift away from grog harm.

Since 1788 Australia has showcased indigenous culture. Now, "one-third of all tourists who come to Australia come to see Aboriginal culture" 6, says film maker Rachel Perkins. Ms Perkins is co-artistic director with Nigel Jamieson (Tin Symphony at the Olympic opening ceremony) staging the Yeperenya Festival in Alice Springs on 8 and 9 September 2001, a $3 million event funded by the Federal Government’s National Council for the Centenary of Federation (to be broadcast on ABC, TV on September 9). Millions of dollars are earned here annually because of the attraction of visitors to Australia’s indigenous cultures. Every industry covered by liquor licensing authorities reap the benefits. Hotels, restaurants, hospitality employees, transport companies, the entertainment sector and Governments, all profit. Surely then Australia’s First Peoples are at least entitled to equal and culturally appropriate crime reduction and health strategies which essentially is what harm minimisation programs are all about. It is heartening that the New South Wales Department of Gaming and Racing has decided to follow the Queensland No More Its Our Law initiative but it is now imperative to move beyond the plateau and do much more to reduce the harm of alcohol abuse in indigenous communities in line with the policy initiatives that have been taken for the wider community.

The last word goes to Wesley Enoch who in a recent speech said, in part:

In the Indigenous community we’ve got a history of relying on artists and athletes to champion our cause. Now, you have to work a little harder for this one. Think about this one. Tennis players, painters, footballers, boxers, actors, poets, hockey players, world champion 400 metre sprinters, singers, choreographers --- there is an expectation that being the best in their chosen field is not enough; they must also be the symbols of our hope as well. They have to carry that burden on their shoulders … our shoulders.

We speak the language of the intuitive, the lateral, the making of theatre that speaks with that kind of power defies formula because we as a community can outgrow it, we outgrow the tricks, we become immune to the stagnant idea of formula. We move beyond it because we evolve.

There is a voice missing, that we must address. These stories and artists have something to say that is of fundamental importance to the building of our humanity in this country.

I know that the theatre that comes from the voices of Indigenous Australia is a healing voice, and the stories being told with the pain, and passion, and truth are the stories which are in the process of giving this country a new language. Stories have power to move and to create the moments in your life which shape you into someone different. To make you more than a resumé, but a living memory of people and history and conversations and places.

We cannot deny our history or the power of symbols. 7


1 Sean Flood, NSW Magistrate & Member Liquor Administration Board. Mr Flood is also a member of the State Reconciliation Committee (NSW). His publications include:

2 Professor Larissa Behrendt LLB/BJuris(UNSW) LLM (Harvard) SJD (Harvard), Professor of Law and Indigenous Studies. Director of Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning, Faculty of Law and Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning. Author of Aboriginal Dispute Resolution published by Federation Press. She is the first Aborigine to receive a doctorate at the Harvard Law School.

3 PowerPoint presentation prepared by Wally Neville, Department of Gaming and Racing and used in the presentation of this paper included a painting by Harper Morris Tjungarrayi, Untitled in Dreamings of the Desert, Art Gallery of South Australia 1996, page 60 and the following works in Papunya Tula-Genesis and Genius, Edited by Hetti Perkins and Hannah Fink, Art Gallery NSW: Water Dreaming 1971, Walter Tjampitjinpa; Big Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa 1971 & 1972; Mural in the forecourt of Parliament House, Canberra, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra. Also songs played from Spirit Mother by Bobby McLeod.

4 My thanks to Kylie McLeod, NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs, who helped me compile this list.

5 Sydney Morning Herald 10 August 2001

6 The Australian, Preview, Friday August 31 2001 page 15

7 ‘We want Hope’: the power of Indigenous arts in Australia today. The Sixth Annual Rex Cramphorn Memorial Lecture delivered by Wesley Enoch, 4 November 2000, Australian Drama Studies 38 (April 2001) page 4ff. Mr Enoch from Stradbroke Island is now Resident Director at the Sydney Theatre Company. I am indebted to my daughter Jessica who brought this speech to my attention.


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