Aboriginal?

[2020hindsight]

J, rewording then, let’s just say it is another strong motivation to teach them English. (and I believe they are working on the school attendance aren't they? - nothing that can be changed overnight incidentally, they have enough trouble getting teachers to go bush to teach in the bigger towns)

Maybe I'm being unfairly suspicious here, but I'd be wary of some accused child molester pleading in court

a) “me no speaka da English – only speak (pick some obscure dialect) ” –
b) in fact “me the only person in the world who speak my dialect”
c) and the case being dropped because there were no reliable interpreters. (which you could infer is happening to a lesser or greater extent in some areas for some court appearances)

That also goes for prosecution - or defence - witnesses obviously, whose story maybe cannot be told because there might not be an interpreter.

PS When I think about it, I'm sure this is a massive problem every day in our multi-lingual court system. Just that I'd never thought of it applying to the Abs before

http://www.dnathan.com/VL/austLang.htm
Aboriginal English
Anjumarla
Arabana
Arrernte
Awabakal
Ayapathu
Bardi
Bunganditj
Bunuba
Dalabon
Darug
Dyirbal
Ganai/Kurnai
Garawa
Gooniyandi Gumbaynggir
Gunggari
Gurindji
Guugu Yimithirr
Jagera/Yuragubul
Jaru
Jingulu
Jiwarli
Kala Lagaw Ya
Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay
Kaurna
Kayardild
Koko-Bera
Kriol, pidgins
Kukatja Kuku Yalanji
Kutthung
Malyangapa
Marriammu
Martuthunira
Mawng
Meriam Mir
Murrinh-Patha
Narrungga
Ndjébbana
Ngadjon
Ngalakan
Ngarrindjeri
Ngiyampaa
Nhirrpi Noongar
Nyangumarta
Paakantyi
Pakanh
Palawa Kani
Pitjantjatjara
Pitta Pitta
Tiwi
Tjapukai
Uw Oykangand
Wagiman
Wambaya
Wangkatha
Wardaman
Warlmanpa Warlpiri
Warrungu
Warumungu
Wemba Wemba
Wiradjuri
Yaegl
Yandrruwandha
Yanyuwa
Yindjibarndi
Yolngu
Yorta Yorta
Yugambeh
Yukulta
Yuwaalaraay

 

[nioka]

J, rewording then, let’s just say it is another strong motivation to teach them English. (and I believe they are working on the school attendance aren't they? - nothing that can be changed overnight incidentally, they have enough trouble getting teachers to go bush to teach in the bigger towns)

Maybe I'm being unfairly suspicious here, but I'd be wary of some accused child molester pleading in court

a) “me no speaka da English – only speak (pick some obscure dialect) ” –
b) in fact “me the only person in the world who speak my dialect”
c) and the case being dropped because there were no reliable interpreters. (which you could infer is happening to a lesser or greater extent in some areas for some court appearances)

That also goes for prosecution - or defence - witnesses obviously, whose story maybe cannot be told because there might not be an interpreter.

PS When I think about it, I'm sure this is a massive problem every day in our multi-lingual court system. Just that I'd never thought of it applying to the Abs before

I doubt that there are many who do not understand english. Centrelink, the local pub, motor registries and mining companies don't need interpreters to talk to them.

 

[Happy]

I doubt that there are many who do not understand english. Centrelink, the local pub, motor registries and mining companies don't need interpreters to talk to them.

Just another trick to get away with.

 

[Happy]

From ABC, 10 Jul. 08
INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TOLD TO DO MORE ON HEALTH

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon has called on Indigenous Australians to take more responsibility for closing the life-expectancy gap by tackling high rates of smoking.
Indigenous Australians have a life expectancy that is 17 years less than white Australians.
Ms Roxon says the Government is working to close that gap, but she says Indigenous communities should also do more.

She says Aboriginal people have much higher smoking rates than the general population of Australia and reducing the rates would make a significant difference.
"I'm asking Indigenous communities to work with us and to take some individual responsibility for closing the life-expectancy gap," she said.

"Because smoking rates, excessive reliance on alcohol and poor diet are all things that will help turn around what is an appalling difference in life expectancy and we need them to be part of that solution."

I came past this comment and find it hard not to agree with

 

[fordxbt]

well my friend you gotta say
i wont pay
i wont pay ya, no waaaay
na na why dont you get a job

 

[Happy]

From ABC, 03 Nov. 08

NO INTERPRETERS FOR NT SEX CASE

A committal hearing for a man charged with sex offences has been postponed in Darwin because no interpreters are willing to take on the case.
The committal hearing for the 32 year old man from a remote Aboriginal community was due to start at 10:00 am at the Darwin Magistrate's Court.
Ten witnesses from the community are in Darwin to give evidence, but they were left waiting outside the courtroom as defence lawyer Greg Smith told the magistrate he couldn't find a suitable interpreter who wanted to be involved in the sensitive case.
One man was available to interpret, but Mr Smith said the defendant didn't trust him.
The court also heard that police had trouble finding interpreters during the investigation.
A search is now on to find someone to translate so the hearing can resume today.

Looks like trick: no interpreter still working, only question what will lawyers think of next?

 

[2020hindsight]

Looks like trick: no interpreter still working, only question what will lawyers think of next?

Happy, Sounds fishy alright. Think I said something similar in #641. (Probably happens with other languages too I guess)

The Palm Island matter is interesting. (Mulrunji Doomadgee / Chris Hurley / Lex Wotton). Wotton has been sentenced for starting riot - 7 years, eligible for parole in 19 months. Still he was reacting to one of his friends being taken to a police watchhouse - only to die there with 2 broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Wotton's family are happy with the sentence (as I understand it), "judge showed wisdom of Solomon" etc - which is admirable imo.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/11/07/2413572.htm

Last year, Queensland Police Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was found not guilty of Mulrunji's death and this week police involved in quelling the riot were awarded bravery medals.

Palm Island mayor Alf Lacey says he respects the judge's decision to put Wotton behind bars.

Mr Lacey says his community has to accept the decision and provide whatever support they can for Wotton's family.

"In light of what had happened and what's been happening for the last couple of weeks, certainly the family needs everybody's support at this point in time and the judge has made his decision," he said.

"I think we need to simply take that on board and respect that and certainly give as much support as possible to Lex's wife."

 

[noirua]

Happy, Sounds fishy alright. Think I said something similar in #641.

The Palm Island matter is interesting. (Mulrunji Doomadgee / Chris Hurley / Lex Wotton). Wotton has been sentenced - 7 years, eligible for parole in 19 months. Still he was reacting to one of his friends being taken to a police watchhouse - only to die there with 2 broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Wotton's family are happy with the sentence (as I understand it), "judge showed wisdom of Solomon" etc - which is admirable imo.

***************

Wisdom of Solomon maybe. They should look much deeper into police involvement here. Is it a whitewash?

 

[2020hindsight]

Wisdom of Solomon maybe. They should look much deeper into police involvement here. Is it a whitewash?

Hurley wants to overturn coronial enquiry.
CHRIS HURLEY APPEAL

Civil Law Compensation claims in the wings.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/new...gee-death-smear/2008/09/05/1220121488412.html

Hurley bid to remove Doomadgee death smear
Evan Schwarten | September 5, 2008 - 11:38AM

Mr Doomadgee's five sisters and his de facto partner, Tracey Twaddle, late last year launched a $900,000 civil lawsuit against Queensland Police over the death.
...
Next week, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, with the help of the Queensland Police Union, will attempt to have that "smear" removed - in a move that has the potential to inflame tensions between police and the Aboriginal community.

Snr Sgt Hurley is challenging the then Queensland acting coroner Christine Clements' September 2006 finding against him.

Ms Clements' finding ultimately resulted in Snr Sgt Hurley being tried for manslaughter in the Townsville Supreme Court last year.

He was found not guilty of the charge and has returned to work on the Gold Coast.

Aboriginal activist Sam Watson accused Snr Sgt Hurley and the police union of insensitivity towards the Palm Island community over the latest legal action.

"The Doomadgee family has conducted themselves with an enormous degree of dignity and restraint in the face of blatant and sustained provocation from Hurley and the police union," Mr Watson told AAP. ... etc

 

[chops_a_must]

How on earth can you be sentenced to 7 years for starting a riot?

You get less for murder.

 

[noirua]

How on earth can you be sentenced to 7 years for starting a riot?

You get less for murder.

They should get even less than one month for murder. They should be shot by firing squad.

 

[bluelabel]

Just found this thread and thought I would share a story. please note that i have not read the etire thread, just bobbys original post.

A number of years back, about 10, I was working for a now taken over supermarket chain in my early working years. There was this girl working there who only worked about 10 hours a week. I asked her if she would do any more hours and she said no. I asked her why, and she replied cause I don’t have to. I am aboriginal and to receive my benefit from the government I need only to work 10 hours per week. I though, ok that’s fair enough, except she was whiter than I! I queried, you don’t look aboriginal, and she replied well I am actually one tenth aboriginal and have a family tree to prove it and was very offended I questioned her aboriginality.

Apparently some distant relative was aboriginal, and then they weren’t even full blooded aboriginal. I found this to be a disgrace that she was classed as and had equal rights to full blooded aboriginals because she could prove a one tenth stake. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. This girl would never lift a finger more than she had to because she was classed as aboriginal. The sad part is that she was only 16 or 17 at the time so i feel it was fair to say that this attitude was drummed into her from a young age. I also found out later her mum was doing the same thing...

:bier:

blue

 

[2020hindsight]

How on earth can you be sentenced to 7 years for starting a riot?

You get less for murder.

Theory is that the family were told "he could well get life" etc etc
In fact he would never have got life - he was a seriously responsible member of the comunity. But anyway, given those expectations, the family were pleased when the sentence was read out

If anyone is interested, Radio National's Law Report on Lex Wotton is worth a listen (30 mins in all)
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2008/2416076.htm

There is vocal and also a transcript there - I might post some extracts "later". cheers.

eg

Damien Carrick: What's your reaction to the sentence, which could have been much longer?

Andrew Boe: It's a very complex situation, isn't it? I was surprised to hear such acceptance by the Indigenous community and the family. The framework must have been pushed to them that there's a possibility that he'd get life imprisonment, which is nonsense. I mean there's no prospect of that sort of penalty being meted on anybody convicted of this sort of offence, even though that is the maximum.

Andrew Boe (barrister): There's been no question at all that Lex regretted the outcomes and has great remorse about the harm caused to police physically in the emotional sense, and the fear that these people felt in this quite extraordinary situation. His challenge has been to deal with the fact that on that day, under high levels of provocation which I'll return to, he responded in a way that cumulated in this riot. He's never denied that, and he's always regretted that a man who has usually been very passive all his life, has responded in this way. But I think it's important to look at that issue of provocation. It is a matter that the judge referred to and that I spent some time in my reference speaking about.

You have to remember that the Palm Island community have had all its deprivations to this point as a community -- and that's fairly well recorded in many things that have been written about Palm -- was faced with a situation where one of their own, who they knew well and who they knew to be happy-go-lucky, went into a police arrest situation for swearing and was dead about 40 minutes later. And not long after that, we have an official release from the Coroner's Office saying, 'Listen, as a community, please don't speculate, it's all OK, it was just an accident.'

Now that was said in an environment when it was actually not true. Firstly there was a serious investigation being mounted by the CMC, they were in fact already on the island, but in the breakdown in communications, this community, who were grieving another tragic and violent loss, was being told 'Go back to your lives, wear this one, because it was just an accident.' And I really challenge people to embrace that, even without a history of 200 deaths in custody since the 1990s.

Even in a history where there was being such denunciation of the way authorities have dealt with this sort of death and faced with reality for those two or three days leading up to the riot, the person who is suspected of having caused the death [Hurley] was driving round with his investigators, entertaining them at his house, and taking food and alcohol with those people investigating him. And another example of how another grave injustice in their community was not going to be examined. I'm not entirely sure what it is that the rest of us would have done if we were in the same situation, and I'm not advocating, at all, that the violent response was at all the right response. But it's a certainly understandable one in the context within which Palm Island's history exists.

Stewart Levitt :- there was considerable evidence that Lex Wotten had done his best to protect the police from injury, that he had used his influence to disperse the crowds at various times, and had had from a more incendiary initial role, developed a conciliatory and negotiating role, mediation role, between the crowds and police. And moreover, not only had he managed to bring the riot to an end without any significant casualties being inflicted on anybody, but he'd also had demonstrated in his life an amazing sense of discipline, a constructive contribution towards the people of Palm Island, working to try to end youth suicide, to working to promote better conditions for education and jobs for Aborigines on Palm Island.

He'd been a member of the Palm Island Council, he brought one council down a few years ago and the Administrator appointed on the basis of the alleged corruption of the then mayor. And in addition to that, he had testimonials from people across Australia; white people, black people, radical people, moderate people, trade unionists, politicians, professors, all saying what a fine man he was, and the judge took all those factors into account.

 

[white_crane]

We often judge a group by the actions of a few. And first impressions can be hard to overcome as well.

I work alongside 4 aboriginals and get on really well with all of them, to the extent that we can make jokes that might otherwise be considered offensive or racist.


What is an aboriginal? Well, that is a personal matter of subjective opinion. What do you identify yourself as?

 

[Julia]

It's good to read something positive about a community which has been so vilified in the media. From today's Crikey.com.

Graham Ring from National Indigenous Times, reports from Wadeye, NT:



When the name Wadeye appears in the national media, it’s usually accompanied by excitable, if not spectacularly well-informed, commentary about "rioting youth", "teenage gangs" and "the break-down of law and order".

But on Monday the only thing on show in this remote Indigenous community, some 250 odd clicks south-west of Darwin as the crow flies, was academic achievement. The town is the sixth largest settlement in the NT, with a population approaching 3,000. Tropical blossom and patches of greenery make for a gentler physical environment than the uncompromising red dust of the central desert communities.

Community elder, Boniface Perdjert, offered some brief and dignified words of welcome to visitors who had travelled to the community for the big day. Then local teenage rock band "One Way" played a few tunes to acknowledge both the community’s timeless heritage, and the influence that the Catholic church has in the region.

Evil Warriors and Judas Priests were noticeably thin on the ground as some forty community members stepped forward to receive certificates of proficiency in English from the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Education. They were shy, but proud, and their families cheered wildly in support.

In a classy show of respect, Batchelor boss, Dr Tony Mordini, turned out at Wadeye in full academic regalia -- worn over a suit -- to make the presentations. It’s build-up time in the Top End now, and the weather is hideous. It was a hundred and plenty in the old language out there in the direct sun on Monday and the humidity was staggering. Good one, Tony.

The locals were dressed in a fashion more in tune with the temperature, with at least one recipient stepping forward to accept his award with his yellow academic stole draped over a sleeveless Collingwood footy jumper.

Batchelor Institute is well regarded in the Top End. It began life in the mid 60’s as an annexe of the Aboriginal boarding school, Kormilda College on the outskirts of Darwin. In 1999 the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education was established by Act of the NT Parliament, as an educational institution for the tertiary education of Indigenous Australians. Batchelor is perhaps best known for it’s iconic "Radio Rum Jungle" which has trained hundreds of Indigenous students in radio production and presentation.

Monday’s ceremony was a triumph for the Wadeye community, and for Batchelor Institute, who also used the occasion to launch Ku Kukpi -- Black-headed Python. The bi-lingual book, by senior elder, Kampawerr Patricia Karui, is a product of the Endangered Languages Project which strives to preserve local Indigenous languages.

"These projects help to keep language strong in communities, and contribute to the inclusion of Indigenous languages in schools, and in particular the bilingual program at Wadeye," Maree Klesch from Batchelor Press told Crikey.

Graduation Day at Wadeye was a practical demonstration of success in the sort of thing "we" have been demanding of "them" for a good while now. It would be a fine thing to see some formal acknowledgement from governments of the good citizens of Wadeye for their achievements, and of the Batchelor mob who make it possible.

 

[Whiskers]

It's good to read something positive about a community which has been so vilified in the media. From today's Crikey.com.

I recall seeing something like that on TV. Very encouraging to see.

There are a lot of very passionate teachers, many aboriginal trying to get better resources from the system to do that sort of thing.

There are some good aboriginal bands/musicans about. There was one I liked that SBS used to play as a filler of an aboriginal band shot along the beach. I think it was 'Dots on the shells' by Yothu Yindi.

Does anyone know the names of some aboriginal singers and groups?

 

[white_crane]

Does anyone know the names of some aboriginal singers and groups?

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Gurrumul_Yunupingu

His website:
http://www.gurrumul.com/

 

[Happy]

From ABC, 21 Feb. 09

INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES UNDER THREAT, UN FINDS

The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO says more than 100 languages in Australia are in danger of extinction.
The latest edition of UNESCO's atlas of world languages in danger was launched in Paris yesterday and shows almost half the 6,700 languages spoken worldwide could disappear.
Sarah Cutfield from the Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies says the map is a great resource for those working to preserve traditional languages.
She says there is still hope for languages such as Dalabon - from south-western Arnhem Land - as long as it is passed on to the next generation.
"There's only about five fluent speakers of Dalabon that are still remaining and they're spread throughout the Territory," she said.
"So there's a lot that needs to be done to document this language before these elderly speakers pass away."

Sooner we (the World) decide to adopt one universal language the better.
I know there is sentimental value, but communication is one of the reasons for many problems.

And we would not have problems like in post #641 and #646

 

[tigerboi]

Re:warumpi band: top blackfella band

Does anyone know the names of some aboriginal singers and groups?

checkout the warumpi band good bunch of kooris back in the 80's-90's,done the blackfella/whitefella tour with the oils i think

http://www.neilmurray.com.au/wb_history.html

on boobtube as well

checkout archie roach hes pretty good

 

[Happy]

From ABC, 23 Mar. 09
LET US RUN CROC HUNTING SAFARIS: ABORIGINAL GROUP

A Darwin Aboriginal group is appealing to the Federal and Territory Governments to allow it to run crocodile hunting safaris.
The Gupulul Marayuwa Aboriginal Corporation wants to run a 12 month trial targeting crocodiles that threaten people.
The group says the death of 11-year-old Briony Goodsell near Darwin earlier this month shows protected saltwater crocodile numbers have increased to a dangerous level.
Jida Gupilil from the corporation says he has written to the Government to ask for permission for his group to set up a crocodile hunting safari business.
Indigenous people should be allowed to make an income from running safaris and processing the skins of the animals, Mr Gupilil says.
"We are obviously targeting our own area and our own people, but it's probably not limited to other areas where other land owners are wanting to have removed problem animals.
"And that would also be not limited to places like here around Darwin, as long as we've got support of the local people."
He said: "Our outcomes are about value adding that animal, providing people with training about how to value add, how to make a quality product, how to manage and secure an area that's safe and also [put] more profits in the hands of the local owners of that crocodile."

Why Safari management has to do anything with race?