On the weekend, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese returned to the Garma Festival in north-east Arnhem Land, where he spoke for the fourth time in as many years. This year’s focus was less on symbolism and voice, and more on education and empowerment, as the gap between Indigenous and other Australians remains achingly wide.
Yolnu leader Djawa Yunupingu said he was hoping the PM would ‘work for the young people, the Aboriginal people from around Australia, and look for a better way’, but following the failure of the Voice referendum, the national response to issues such as truth-telling, deaths in custody and economic stagnation appears to have fractured back to a time when Australia was no more than a warring group of colonies.
In Victoria, for example, the Yoorrook Justice Commission recently concluded four years of harrowing work by concluding that First Nations communities in that state have been subject to crimes against humanity and genocide, but the federal government has made no meaningful response, such as doing something similar nationally. (In Queensland, the Truth-Telling and Healing Inquiry was abruptly stopped in late 2024.)
In the Northern Territory, a government has just been elected which seems determined to get back to the dark ages as quickly as possible, although there’s been zero consultation with the people most affected, let alone the politicians in distant Canberra.
Albo’s Education Minister Jason Clare has recently made noises about withdrawing funding to the NT if their draconian policies continue, saying ‘I want kids in school, not in jail’, but this would be a constitutional nightmare and is probably just talk.
Costly mistakes
NT politician Yiniya Mark Guyula has been raising the alarm over the rising number of Indigenous adults and children being imprisoned in the Territory for some time, noting the inhumane conditions in watchhouses, and the end of the principle of detention as a last resort.
Speaking at Garma, My Guyula said the NT government’s policies sent a message to Aboriginal people that they were ‘animals’.
‘You are making costly mistakes, you are not listening,’ he told the NT Aboriginal Affairs Minister, Steve Edgington, who at least had the decency to show up to Gama.
Edgington’s federal leader, Sussan Ley, declined her invitation, choosing instead to go to a remote community in the Kimberley. She was photographed in various exotic locations while chiding the PM by saying, ‘It’s not good enough to be there for the photo op, Australians are expecting the follow up’.
So what is the follow up? Albo’s latest prescription for Closing the Gap is millions of dollars for clean energy and mobile TAFE for remote Indigenous communities, new economic partnerships, and more money to help native title holders secure better deals and faster project approvals on their Country, which presumably means mining in many cases.
In his speech, Albanese memorably described the culture wars of his predecessors over Indigenous issues as a ‘dry gully’, but Labor has also been criticised for its ‘performative’ approach to Indigenous Affairs, including from Uluru Dialogue Co-Chairs Megan Davis and Pat Anderson.
Walpiri elder Uncle Ned Jampijinpa Hargraves said he was unable to get a meeting with the prime minister at Garma to talk about the deaths of Kumanji Walker and Kumanji White at the hands of police, and will now pursue him in Canberra, having received no response to his letters.
Deaths in custody
Renegade Victorian MP Lidia Thorpe brought another solemn reminder of Aboriginal deaths in custody into federal parliament last week, carrying a message stick with 602 markings etched into it.
‘If we can’t in this building – through both the Senate and the House of Representatives with all of the politicians – if we cannot stop these killings of innocent people, then what are we doing here?’ she asked.
‘I came into this place with this message stick with 441 deaths in custody… Now 602. When does it end?’
It’s a good question.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
You can find more of his writing at Patreon and Gumroad.
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