To be talking about your father, mother, uncles and aunties on the web is serious business in your both your culture and in mine. There is risk of offence which is of concern to me.

If you wish me to take down the articles and videos of your mother (Cheryl Buchanan) and your father (Lionel Fogarty) on Workers BushTelegrpah I will do so even though it is difficult to do. One reason is that your mother and your father are all over the web and so too on Workers BushTelegraph. This is because they are public figures in both your culture and in mine.

The reason I have written about them is that I am proud to have been a street marcher in the struggles for justice led by your mother and father. During the commonwealth games, for Daniel Yock, for Mulrinji among many others.

I am proud to have been in the back of paddy wagons and in the cells with your aunties and uncles during the street marches against Joh Bjelke-Petsersen’s racist government.

Your mother, Cheryl Buchanan was one of the leaders of the protests against the commonwealth games along with elders who have now passed away.

I remember Cheryl Buchanan as the chairperson of a large demonstration in Roma Street Forum in 1982 during the commonwealth games.

She called on elders Oodgerroo, Neville Bonner and Mick Miller to speak. Cheryl pointed out that whitefellas, over the years, in their own way, had supported the struggle for aboriginal land rights. Cheryl then asked the shadow minister for aboriginal affairs, Susan Ryan, to speak.

This moment was important, an aboriginal leader reaching out to a whitefella for help — an especially powerful message because it came from Cheryl Buchanan.

People may not understand the significance of this — but I do, and so does John Tracey.

That hot afternoon in 1982 in the Roma Street Forum, the future aboriginal affairs minister in the Hawke government, Susan Ryan, stood up on the podium and promised Land Rights for aboriginal people — a promise that she was unable to keep.

Many years later, the ALP government finally passed Native Title legislation which has been a means of taking away aboriginal land rights.

But then, it was never their land to give, so who can be surprised that the promise by Susan Ryan was never kept.

Gary Foley spoke after Susan Ryan and he explained why society deprived aboriginal people of their land. Gary said that it was the worship of money, that the banks and the corporations that resided in the buildings all around us that day were out after money and profit from our sweat.

To make the profit they took the land.

They are still doing this.

On this day one of the biggest land grabs in Queensland is being done by Hancock Mining in the land around Alpha in the Galilee coalfieds.

This land belongs to the Wiri people, of the Birri-Gubba language group, of Central Queensland.

The descendents of the Wiri people can trace their connection to this land being stolen by Hancock Mining.

One of these descendents is refusing to sign the contract that hands over aboriginal title to the land. But he has the state against him. The Bligh government is offering to sell Hancock the port terminal at Abbot point as an incentive for Hancock to delevope the coal field.

This port was built by workers with public money.

The sale of this port is crime, the state government is stealing workers labour to permit Hancock and other companies make profit in exactly the way that Gary Foley, with sweat on his brow, said so many years before at the Roma Street forum in 1982.

We made our stab for freedom and we lost.

Don’t let anyone tell you that to make a stab for freedom is easy. History has taught us that.

I direct this poem at no one person in particular, but to anyone who has tried and failed.

“Did we not do well
to stab for freedom and miss wide the mark !
so that our inmost honour now is gold,
and bankers rule us, all at odds with thieves,
and humped attorneys have us in their hold
who press us dry between dead parchment leaves.”

— Robert Fitzgerald, from Moonlight Acre, published in Melbourne in 1938.

Ian Curr
November 2009

Despite the communication blackout which has allowed only a one way message in a bottle form of communication, we know that at least 35 of these people are recognised refugees.

We also know that they have been warehoused in Indonesia since Howard’s time under a cruel policy of deter and deny, in an effort to force them to give up and go home.

Events in Sri Lanka for Tamils have made this impossible. No way forward- no way back – just fed and watered like cattle by IOM at Australia’s cost with no future.

These people have been our responsibility long before they were rescued and taken on board the Australian Customs vessel. We have paid to warehouse them for the past few years.

We do not have the exact data becasuse the Australian government has denied access. We have this information becasue of the ingenuity of the refugees who have been messaging the world in bottles.

Now it is time for Mr Rudd to demonstrate his respect for the actions of Bonhoeffer by acting with generous compassion to these refugeees. By his actions in defeat we will know him.

We can assist in this difficult decision making by emailing the Prime Minister and asking him to Bring the refugees to Christmas Island where their claims can be processed now.

See http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/Email_your_PM for a range of communication options- no bottles.

–
Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)
12 Batman Street Melbourne 3003
Tel 03 93266066/ fax 0393265199/mob 0417517075
http://www.asrc.org.au

…Lots of people are encouraging me to participate in a trip to Gaza being planned for early January. I’d love to participate, but would need a plane ticket in order to do so. If anybody has the resources to arrange for such a thing please let me know…

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY AND SONG

So my website got hacked a couple weeks ago (whoever did it stuck a big Israeli flag on my bio page — who knows), and in the process of working with Harvey, Tao and John to reconstruct it I realized I really wanted to make improvements on the “This Month in History and Song” section, so over the course of several days I did… The results are now up and the direct link is:

http://www.davidrovics.com/historySong.php

Please let me know what you think, if you notice any broken links, if you have suggestions for other dates I should put in there, etc. And of course feel free to spread the word about it if you like it. I think it might be of particular interest to teachers and radio programmers. It’s now updated to include my most recent songs and it includes direct links to download or stream each song, plus a “read more” link that gives people more info on the subject at hand.

TOUR OF DENMARK AND THE CLIMATE TALKS

In other breaking news, the midwest tour with Anne Feeney that ended a little over a week ago was fantastic. There are some photos from it on my Facebook page (mostly of my daughter Leila, who charmed the entire midwest of course). Next comes Denmark, and a little in Belgium and Norway as well. Tomorrow I fly from Portland to Copenhagen! Info on my tour of Denmark (and my gigs in Norway and Belgium) is up on my main page:

http://www.davidrovics.com

I know most of you receiving this don’t live in Denmark, but I thought I’d make a general announcement about it because many people are traveling to Copenhagen for the climate talks and accompanying conferences and protests. I’ll be there for that, too, and if you’re going and need any help on how to figure out what’s going on let me know. I’m not organizing anything there but I’m singing at various events and I know Denmark better than I know most places. (I love it, too…)

WEST COAST TOUR WITH DANBERT NOBACON

In March I’ll be doing a tour of the west coast of the US and Canada with Danbert Nobacon of the band Chumbawamba, and a great solo artist as well. The basic plan is to go from British Columbia to northern California, north to south, from March 7-21. There are spiffy new posters for the tour up here:

davidrovics.prognet.dk/index.htm

If you live in BC, Washington, Oregon or California and might be willing to be roped into organizing a show on the tour I’d love to hear from you! Or if you have friends who might be in that position please tell them about the tour and tell them to get in touch with me!

OTHER NEWS

My new “Pirate Santa” song will soon be up on the web as a cartoon, and it’s sure to be the Next Big Thing, so stay tuned… My two new CDs, Ten Thousand Miles Away and my retrospective CD, Waiting For the Fall, should be up on my estore (“buy stuff” link on http://www.davidrovics.com) by next week… I’m thinking about possibly going to San Francisco in mid-January for a large rally being planned around homelessness and poverty. Anyone have ideas on gigs or other things to do in the SF area in mid-January? Or en route from Portland if I’m driving? Lots of people are encouraging me to participate in a trip to Gaza being planned for early January. I’d love to participate, but would need a plane ticket in order to do so. If anybody has the resources to arrange for such a thing please let me know… I’m very open to ideas as far as what else I might do in January and February, as I’ll otherwise be hanging around Portland then, which is great, but a couple of gigs would also be great… Lastly, plans for another fabulous tour of Britain with Attila the Stockbroker in late April/May are under way. More on that later, but if anybody especially from other countries in Europe have any interest in organizing a show or two around that time I’d love to make plans to go to additional countries, and it’d be good to start making such plans early…

All for now! Hope to see you on the road and in the streets!

David

It is not a matter of I might have been introduced, you know full well the situation because it was raised at the tribal meetings you speak of. You may not have liked the answers Graham B or DBW gave at those meetings, but you were aware of them.

Can you remember who introduced us first? You were just a boy at the time and perhaps you can’t remember but I do. – DBW at IPCHAC.

Do you remember who brought me to visit Coominya to meet your family? – your Aunty Jeannie.

Anyway,

Perhaps you have only read Ian’s comments about what I have said rather than reading what I actually did say.

You seem to be agreeing with me when you say ” you putting some on pedistels by dragging others down”. This is exactly the point I have made about picketing against Noel Pearson and calling for his book to be withdrawn from the writers’ festival.

I raised the issue of your uncle and the CMC because Yabu Bilyana and the Socialist Labour League made similar criticisms of your father and Sam Watson to what is being said of Noel Pearson today – that they acted as agents of the white government against their own community.

Socialists have a tendency to divide the world between good guys and bad guys, this is their whole political framework. When this division is applied to Aboriginal politics, they divide “good” blackfellas from “bad” blackfellas.

As you properly say, I have no authority about what Murries say and do. But this blog is a white socialist blog and I believe the issues about how white activists engage in black politics is very relevant to the readership of this blog and I claim an authority and a right, by Aboriginal law and the responsibilities of the things that I have been taught by lawmen and law women – including your Jagera Aunty Jeannie, to raise these issues amongst white activists.

I am sorry if you are offended by the things that I have to say to white activists but I consider myself an elder within the white activist community and will continue to agitate against the colonisation of Aboriginal politics by white people and ideologies. They are as much a part of the cultural assimillation process as the church has been.

JT

Two of the musicians in the quartet are members of the Divan Orchestra, made up of Arab and Israeli musicians, and founded by pianist Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian intellectual Edward Said.

—Mary-Jo Capps, the chief executive of Musica Viva quoted by ROBIN USHER in the The Age, October 29, 2009

In Melbourne, there are two performances and we urge supporters to join Australians for Palestine before each recital Tuesday 17 November at 7.00pm and Saturday 21 November at 8.00pm, Melbourne Recital Centre, cnr Southbank Boulevard and Sturt Street, Southbank to hand out the leaflets below. Copies will be brought on each night, but are also available from our office if anyone wishes to distribute them earlier. Please contact Moammar on 9818 5080 or email him at info@australiansforpalestine.com .
The leaflet can be downloaded from our website by clicking here.

Details of protests by interstate activist groups are also available on our website under “Events in your State”.

JOIN IN THE 2009 EUREKA STOCKADE!

FRIDAY 27 NOVEMBER
5.30PM
State Library steps
Cnr Swanston & LaTrobe sts, Melbourne

Continue the spirit of the Eureka rebellion for justice, democratic rights and sovereignty in today’s Australia.

stand up for the rights of working people and communities
defend civil liberties
support Australia’s Indigenous peoples struggle for justice
demand renewable energy to stop climate warming
Unite under the Eureka flag for a truly democratic, just and sovereign Australia.

Speakers include: Fr. Bob Maguire, Rob Stary, David Spratt and others
Street theatre and performances

Endorsed by: Victorian Council of Civil Liberties (Liberty Victoria), Victorian Trades Hall Council (VTHC)

Organised by Spirit of Eureka (Victoria)
contacts: contact@spiritofeureka.org; 0417 456 001 or 0418 328 833 http://www.spiritofeureka.org

Spirit of Eureka acknowledges the Indigenous Australians as the traditional carers/owners of this land and supports the Indigenous peoples struggle for justice and a meaningful Treaty with non-Indigenous Australians. We pay tribute to the Indigenous people as the first fighters for justice and sovereignty in this land.

The Eureka Stockade rebellion of 29 November – 3 December, 1854 laid the foundation for future struggles of Australia’s ordinary people for democratic rights, justice and an independent Australia. The spirit of the Eureka rebellion continues to inspire and give hope to the struggles of ordinary people in today’s Australia.

Australia’s multiculturalism was born at the Eureka Stockade rebellion that united 20 nationalities under the Eureka flag and has become a symbol for all who fight for justice, unity and an egalitarian society.

Stand Up for the Rights of Working People and Unions

• Many rights of working people and their unions to defend and improve workplace conditions, won over many years of struggle, are being wound back.

• The anti-democratic Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) makes criminals out of building workers and their unions who dare to defend workplace rights and safety. They face secret interrogations and fines and six months’ gaol if they refuse to answer questions to the ABCC. South Australian building worker, Ark Tribe, is facing gaol for simply refusing to answer questions about a health and safety meeting on his job. The ABCC powers can also be used against community members.

• Health and safety rights won by unions and working people over past 150 years are also being eroded under the Federal Government’s proposed ‘Harmonisation’ laws. This will lead to more injuries, illness and deaths In the workplace.

Defend Civil Rights and Liberties
The wide sweeping powers of anti-terror laws introduced by the previous Howard government, and now continued under the Labor government undermine many long held civil liberties and democratic rights. The new anti-terror laws can be used against people involved in legitimate social, political and industrial activities.

Stop Climate Warming
The overwhelming majority of Australia’s people want governments and big business to take urgent action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and stop climate warming. Many scientists and experts have practical solutions for the development of renewable energy but are ignored, sidelined or ridiculed. Instead, wealthy big business vested interests are being protected through a weak carbon trading scheme, while the main cost of reducing carbon emissions will be put on ordinary people. Many more jobs can be created in newly developed renewable energy industries of manufacturing, research and development.

Defend democratic rights in the community
The rights and powers of local councils and communities to reject or approve developments are being removed to fast track big developers’ projects. Local councils and communities are fighting to retain their rights, while the Property Council is pushing for removal of the democratic rights of local communities.

Multicultural Australia
“I call on my fellow diggers, irrespective of nationality, religion or colour, to salute the ‘Southern Cross’ as the refuge of all oppressed from all countries on earth.” Raffaelo Carbonni, an Eureka rebel leader from Italy, November 1854.

An Independent Foreign Policy
Withdrawing from US military alliance, closing down foreign military bases and an independent foreign policy that opposes wars of aggression, is the best way Australia can promote and build global peace and security.

2. Was the KUAMG too small to take 40 people? Or did the Captain of the vessel not wish to waste time with passengers-maybe he thought that the Australian government would refuse to take them and he would get stuck with them ?

3. So no one rescued the people until 11.15pm when it was dark and the boat had sunk?

4. The distress call was received on Sunday at 7.10am – The RAAF Orion Patrol plane was dispatched on Monday at 1.30pm – 30 hours later.

5. This boat was in our Search and rescue zone – when was the boat first sighted?

7. Why are asylum seekers left on failing boats instead of being transferred onto safe boats? This has happened before and is a cause of death.

8. Why are asylum seekers rescued at the last possible moment? It would not happen to millionaire Yachties.

In the Meditteranean refugee boats are regularly ignored even in extreme distress.

It would be a moral tragedy if this approach was adopted off Australian shores.

We need answers.

–
Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)
12 Batman Street Melbourne 3003
Tel 03 93266066/ fax 0393265199/mob 0417517075
http://www.asrc.org.au

You are correct to demand that non-Aboriginal people respect the private family business of Aboriginality. When I was first exposed to the land rights movement the leadership, including your parents, were very strong on Aboriginal self determination and this included excluding white radicals from the leadership of that movement. In the Commonwealth games and expo protests white people were asked to leave their own slogans and placards at home and join the Aboriginal nation on its own terms and under its own leadership.

Today the radical Aboriginal movement has been colonised by socialist groups who run campaigns in exactly the same way they run all of their other campaigns. Aboriginal rights has become just one of the issues of the white left now, along with all the other white issues. Then there are the wishy washy liberals – ANTAR, again run by predominantly white people with only minimal Aboriginal connection.

ATSIC took a generation of Aboriginal leaders, those who came after your parents, and turned them into bureacrats. They learnt all about how to operate in the white scheme of things and forgot how to operate in the community. Then ATSIC was disbanded and even they dissappeare as a leadership class.

What has risen since the demise of ATSIC has been Aboriginal people struggling away in their own communities and generally failing in their struggles. Meanwhile white radical have moved in to fill the void of a radical leadership capable of a vision bigger than, for example Tom Calmas representative body.

Murries such as Uncle Don Brady or Denis Walker in times gone by articulated a vision for Aboriginal culture. law and land as the vehicle for Aboriginal liberation. But todays radical leadership is a choice between European socialism in the tradition of Lenin or wishy washy Tom Calma-style bureacracy as promoted by ANTAR.

Today, where is the radical black vision that can match the defiant independence and spiritual power of men like Don Brady and Denis Walker? It cannot be found in a Socialist Alliance or Aboriginal rights coalition meetings. There is no time and room for any serious business in these white dominated organisations who obsess with the next meeting, picket or public meeting but have no real direction at all and certainly no direction capable of going with the flow of serious cultural business.

I urge you to abandon paranoid theories of me being in ASIO, but I don’t care what you think of me. Those who invited me into your community were Harold Hopkins, Qawanji and later on Denis Walker. When I first worked in your community serious research was undertaken into my background, connections etc. by Qawanji – Talk to him about your paranoia.

Those who you should really be worried about are the white socialists and liberals who have colonised the radical Aboriginal movement. They are not from ASIO, they are just ordinary white Australians with ordinary white attitudes.

It is the socialists who picketed against the Cape York trial and against the will of the elders and councils of the four trial communities, who are spreading division amongst Murries by way of their white socialist ideology.

White folk such as myself who have supported elders and lawmen such as DBW, Q, Babi Wawu (and I assume you are aware of my history with IPCHAC and Nunukul Kunjeil) – and come under their authority, are not the white folk you need to look out for. It is the self appointed socialist leadership who try to put you into their box that you should watch out for. They are much worse than christians. As the Murri leadership has declined these new white campaigners have moved in to fill the void and consequently made land rights and self determination look like all the other white socialist campaigns.

I believe Ian has sent you my email if you would like to discuss this privately.

JT

I am not saying your dad has sold out. I am saying that Noel Pearson has not sold out. As you say, it is family business and Noel Pearson, with the authority of his elders, speaks for his own country and family, just as your father did when Danny was killed.

Your father was living with me before and after the killing so I am aware of what was happening at the time.

All murris have to make compromises and do deals to try and get a better deal of some sort. Your father decided to go to the CMC for help, Pearson went to John Howard for help.

I speak for nobody except my own family, I would not condemn Noel Pearson or anyone else for making their own decisions about their own country and family. However, that does not seem to be the way it is with the brisbane Murries and socialists in this video, who publically condemn Pearson and the Cape Yoprk Elders. Do these Brisbane people speak for Cape York?

I am glad that you remember me being at some tribal meetings. I have never been to a tribal meeting without an elder insisting I attend for some particular reason. There are two such meetings in the South East that I remember you being there, on the first I was asked by Graham Brady and on the second I was asked by Denis Walker. If you have concerns about my attendance at those meetings I suggest yo take the issue up with those people.

JT

this Sat Nov 7 at the Joynt, Kooii is performing. Start 9pm, 2 sets with DJ in between.

For those of you not familiar with Kooii, in brief I’ll say it’s a meld of african, jazz and reggae. I write most of the seeds of the songs but the growth of the sound and engaging nature of the group comes from the musicianship and feel of it’s members.

We’ve been recording a new album and we’ll be performing songs from that. We have a new rhythm guitarist, Conan, who’s joining rolls with the evolving of the sound. We will be without our sax player Darcy unfortunalety, he live’s in Melbourne these days and we can’t always have him join us.

Free entry, though we very much appreciate a donation placed in the bucket at the bar or through buying a ‘I support Live music’ wrist band at the bar.

We’re touring to New Zealand next January with Kingfisha and funds raised from the gig will help us buy airfares. We’re playing at the Parihaka International Peace Festival as well other gigs around New Zealand. We’d appreciate your support.

come if you please. join in the feel of it.

Peter

Amnesty International has called the Gaza blockade a “form of collective punishment of the entire population of Gaza, a flagrant violation of Israel’s obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention.” Human Rights Watch has called the blockade a “serious violation of international law.” The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Richard Falk, condemned Israel’s siege of Gaza as amounting to a “crime against humanity.”

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said the Palestinian people trapped in Gaza are being treated “like animals,” and has called for “ending of the siege of Gaza” that is depriving “one and a half million people of the necessities of life.”

One of the world’s leading authorities on Gaza, Sara Roy of Harvard University, has said that the consequence of the siege “is undeniably one of mass suffering, created largely by Israel, but with the active complicity of the international community, especially the U.S. and European Union.”

The law is clear. The conscience of humankind is shocked.

The Palestinians of Gaza have exhorted the international community to move beyond words of condemnation.

Yet, the siege of Gaza continues.

Upholding International Law

The illegal siege of Gaza is not happening in a vacuum. It is one of the many illegal acts committed by Israel in the Palestinian territories it occupied militarily in 1967.

The Wall and the settlements are illegal, according to the International Court of Justice the Hague.

House demolitions and wanton destruction of farm lands are illegal.

The closures and curfews are illegal.

The roadblocks and checkpoints are illegal.

The detention and torture are illegal.

The occupation itself is illegal.

The truth is that if international law were enforced the occupation would end.

An end to the military occupation that began in 1967 is a major condition for establishing a just and lasting peace. For over six decades, the Palestinian people have been denied freedom and rights to self-determination and equality. The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who were forced out of their homes during Israel’s creation in 1947-48 are still denied the rights granted them by UN Resolution 194.

Sources of Inspiration

The Gaza Freedom March is inspired by decades of nonviolent Palestinian resistance from the mass popular uprising of the first Intifada to the West Bank villagers currently resisting the land grab of Israel’s annexationist wall.

It draws inspiration from the Gazans themselves, who formed a human chain from Rafah to Erez, tore down the border barrier separating Gaza from Egypt, and marched to the six checkpoints separating the occupied Gaza Strip from Israel.

The Freedom March also draws inspiration from the international volunteers who have stood by Palestinian farmers harvesting their crops, from the crews on the vessels who have challenged the Gaza blockade by sea, and from the drivers of the convoys who have delivered humanitarian aid to Gaza.

And it is inspired by Nelson Mandela who said: “I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. … I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.”

It heeds the words of Mahatma Gandhi, who called his movement Satyagraha-Hold on to the truth, and holds to the truth that Israel’s siege of Gaza is illegal and inhuman.

Gandhi said that the purpose of nonviolent action is to “quicken” the conscience of humankind. Through the Freedom March, humankind will not just deplore Israeli brutality but take action to stop it.

Palestinian civil society has followed in the footsteps of Mandela and Gandhi. Just as those two leaders called on international civil society to boycott the goods and institutions of their oppressors, Palestinian associations, trade unions, and mass movements have since 2005 been calling on all people of conscience to support a non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel fully complies with its obligations under international law.

The Freedom March also draws inspiration from the civil rights movement in the United States.

If Israel devalues Palestinian life then internationals must both interpose their bodies to shield Palestinians from Israeli brutality and bear personal witness to the inhumanity that Palestinians daily confront.

If Israel defies international law then people of conscience must send non-violent marshals from around the world to enforce the law of the international community in Gaza. The International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of Gaza will dispatch contingents from around the world to Gaza to mark the anniversary of Israel’s bloody 22-day assault on Gaza in December 2008 – January 2009.

The Freedom March takes no sides in internal Palestinian politics. It sides only with international law and the primacy of human rights.

The March is yet another link in the chain of non-violent resistance to Israel’s flagrant disregard of international law.

Citizens of the world are called upon to join ranks with Palestinians in the January 1st March to lift the inhumane siege of Gaza.

لمزيد من المعلومات الرجاء الاطلاع على بيان السياق

Behind Australian Doors: Examining the Conditions of Detention of Asylum Seekers in Indonesia.

A Report by Jessie Taylor BA(Hons) LLB(Hons) MSc(HA) (see attached)
3 November 2009

Contact: Jessie Taylor +64 22 638 6076 (until 12 November)
+61 432 589 488 (from 12 November)

A new empirical report released today describes poor conditions across many Indonesian
immigration detention facilities. The report, produced by lawyer and refugee advocate Jessie Taylor, highlights cramped conditions, grossly inadequate hygiene and sanitation, rodent infestations, inadequate and inappropriate food, polluted water, and a lack of medical care available to asylum seekers.

‘Behind Australian Doors: Examining the Conditions of Detention of Asylum Seekers in Indonesia’ is based on Taylor’s examination of detention facilities throughout July 2009,
during which she met with over 250 asylum seekers in 11 places of detention and
accommodation across the Indonesian archipelago. Along with Taylor, film-maker David
Schmidt obtained many hours of footage of conditions inside detention centres, and
interviews with detainees, including children.

“Particularly confronting were conversations with unaccompanied minors, many of whom are housed in immigration jails with adult male populations”, Taylor said.

According to the report, families are generally housed in more appropriate accommodation, when there are women and babies. However, there are many 13 to 17 year old children in adult jails, slipping through the cracks because they are alone and do not have parents or siblings to look out for them. The report observes that many are orphans with no family at all, while some have families who sent them away from home after older siblings were killed.

Taylor expressed her surprise at the hesitance of asylum seekers to get on a boat. “On one thing, the Australian government and the asylum seekers agree completely: that it is a terrible idea to attempt the boat journey to Australia. Asylum seekers are horrified at the prospect, and are driven to make an attempt only after they are convinced at the hopelessness of their situation. At the moment, there is just no viable prospect of a safe, formal resettlement into Australia”.

Department of Immigration and Citizenship figures indicate that in 2008-2009 there was
resettlement of 35 people from Indonesia. According to Taylor, “these figures display the
gross inadequacy of Australia’s resettlement program in dealing with the ‘queue’ in Indonesia.

It must come as no surprise that, given the apparent impossibility of resettlement, asylum seekers make the frightening decision to attempt the boat journey, channeling profit to people smugglers”.

The report recommends that in order to stop boats from coming, the Australian Government needs to install a controlled, robust and fair assessment and resettlement process from Indonesia to Australia, wiping out the demand for people smugglers. It must also increase its resettlement intake slightly to accommodate those found to be genuine refugees, in accordance with international obligations.

“Given that there is no sign of a decrease in global refugee numbers, it is in the best interests of all parties (except people smugglers) that Australia should increase its resettlement intake and bolster the processing capabilities and efficiencies of the UNHCR, taking a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, and satisfying its obligations under international law”, Taylor said.

Taylor and Schmidt hope to produce a documentary with the footage they have obtained,
and are in the process of seeking funding to do so.

Contact: Jessie Taylor
+64 22 638 6076 (New Zealand – until 12 November)
+61 432 589 488 (from 12 November)

Taking the next steps

21c social contradictions gather apace
& we’re on the edge of perceptual chaos
While as of now the boozh-wah-zie control
the news as well as agitprop infotainment

meantimes proletarians create the social wealth &
‘ave the numbers & history on their side. so dear reader
“What the bleeding hell is it still doing in the bosses hands?”
seeing the problem & complex solution be taking the next step?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
jim sharp

You do not need to be a mathematical genius to work out the odds of resettlement.
Life is Indonesia means no work, noschool even for primary school children and no future. People are fed and waterd and sheltered by IOM at Australia’s expense. However people are not cattle and need more in life than this which is why they take matters into their own hands- wouldn’t we?

Senator Fielding said today it was the first he’d heard of the development but questioned whether the group, whose spokesman is a man called Alex, really were legitimate asylum-seekers.

NOTE Alex explained that he had worked in India in a call centre and had “Accent Training”.

Pamela Curr
Campaign Coordinator
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC)
12 Batman Street Melbourne 3003
Tel 03 93266066/ fax 0393265199/mob 0417517075
http://www.asrc.org.au