Gentle Genocide: The Government of Aboriginal Peoples in Central Australia
1994; Volume: 21; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2327-641X
Autores Tópico(s)Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights
ResumoIntroduction: The Mystery of the Ungoverned Center Late in 1956, Aboriginal people who were evicted from the Maralinga Lands in South Australia to make possible the testing of atomic weapons were reported to be roaming the Warburton Ranges and surrounding areas of the Central Australian Reserve, starving, diseased, and dying of thirst. The Aboriginal people of lands - primarily the Ngaanyatjarra - were believed to be dying in large numbers due to the combined impact of the additional population and drought conditions. In response to rumors, the Legislative Assembly of the Western Australian State Parliament moved that a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into all matters appertaining to the health and general welfare of, and future plans for, the aborigines in the Laverton-Warburton Range (WAPR/LA, September 26, 1956). The Committee traveled by truck from the remote mining town of Laverton to the Warburton Ranges. The 470 kilometer journey took nearly three days. When the Committee's report was debated in Parliament, the Chair summarized its findings. Despite stressing that they out of our way to avoid extravagant language and to submit as moderate a report as the Committee unanimously had been appalled: It seems incredible that we are living in Perth less than two hours flying time away by modern aircraft from people who are starving to death, and in addition, dying of thirst. There are natives dying and going blind through a lack of medical attention. We are inclined to read reports of starvation in other parts of the world and think that that sort of thing could not happen here; but it is actually happening in Western Australia (Grayden, 1957). He went on to comment that just north of the area investigated, were large numbers of nomadic desert natives and their plight could be even worse than that of the ones we investigated. Responses were not slow in coming. The Western Australian Commissioner for Native Welfare called the report grossly exaggerated. Yet he was in no position to know, for he had visited the area concerned only once, by air, three years previously and then only overnight. Officers of his department had visited the area only twice in the previous seven years and then had travelled only to the small Mission on its western fringe. Shortly after, the (then) Adelaide newspaper editor Rupert Murdoch, apparently seeking no formal approval to enter reserved lands, took it upon himself to charter a plane and inspect the situation in person. Murdoch reported back in banner headlines that the reports were hopelessly and that these fine native people have never enjoyed better conditions (The News, February 1, 1957; see also Daily News, February 2, 1957; The Sunday Times, February 3, 1957). The Select Committee retorted that Murdoch's claims were substantially false and provided a point by point refutation (Grayden, 1957). Shortly thereafter, a team of anthropologists investigated further and found that while the findings of the report were exaggerated, there is sufficient truth in them to warrant immediate attention (Berndt and Berndt, 1957).[1] While observations are alarming in many human respects, the concern of this article is with issues of government raised by this political fracas. How could it be possible, in the late 1950s in a sophisticated, administrative welfare state, for a considerable area of the country to be so completely ungoverned that this debate was possible? How could it be that the question of the health and safety of the population should be unofficially and officially dealt with by such an extraordinary rag-bag of expeditionary, almost adventurist investigations? How could it be that was no available estimate of the population of the area - let alone records of births and deaths? Indeed, formally the area was declared to be uninhabited, at least until 1957 (Fletcher, 1992). …
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