Sydney in the news

littlek

This was Deb's response to the question in one of her threads yesterday. I hope she doesn't mind me posting it here, but it's as good an explaination as I could give:

Well, hopefully margo will come along, cos it is a Sydney thing.

Redfern is the pits - major urban Aboriginal community - one of the most troubled spots in Oz. Huge drug, alcohol, violence, crime problems - everything you can imagine.

Also, a centre of Aboriginal activism and radical pride. Lots of money has been poured in, to little effect, it seems.

Bad relationships with police - there have been police "no-go" zones - some efforts to repair things, Aboriginal community leaders involved - some Aboriginal dissonance re police role - some want crime fought, and see police non-presence as racist - many see police as violent agents of white supremacy.

Sadly, an Aborigina youth impaled himself and died when he fell off his bicycle yesterday.

Police say a police car DID pass him, but was about other business - did not even know of tragic accident until summoned to it.

Some/one (?) Aborignal young folk say said youth was being chased by police - and this is why he fell from bicycle - see this as part of police persecution.

Grief +politics + anger + maybe alcohol = riot.

I have no idea if the cops did anything to inflame the situation or not.

40 cops injured - don't know how many residents.

All due to start again tonight.

I do not know where the truth lies.

I'll see what else I can dig up.

Here's an article from the Sydney morning Herald:


Back on Eveleigh Street it's still us versus them
February 17, 2004


Police claim to be experienced in the area, but locals say they acted like stormtroopers, writes Connie Levett.

TJ Hickey's mother and extended family were sitting under the big tree at the top of Eveleigh Street on Sunday morning, quietly grieving. Nearby was a group of teenagers, many of whom had known Thomas.

How that scene descended into the fiery violence of Sunday evening remains in dispute. In Eveleigh Street, locals say about midday, patrolling police officers taunted the teens, calling them c---s, sparking a heated verbal exchange across the street between the two groups.

By about 1pm, Redfern railway station's Lawson Street access was closed. The community saw this as "immediately antagonistic", according to Victoria Dunbar, who has lived in the community for nine years and runs an alternative education program for young Aborigines not in school.

Later in the afternoon, between about 4pm and 5pm, police sealed off Lawson Street to cars and started to gather in large numbers at both ends of the street, she said.

The inner metropolitan area commander, Assistant Commissioner Bob Waites, said the closure was a response to a build-up of people in the area. He said that for many months police had been on the beat there, constantly in the precinct. "They took the decision that crowding was too much and it needed to be closed for a period," he said.

Ms Dunbar was in Eveleigh Street throughout Sunday and into the night. Her times were estimates, she said, because she does not wear a watch. In response to government claims that the youths were fuelled by alcohol, she said she did not see any of the crowd drinking.

Though nothing else happened throughout the afternoon, Ms Dunbar said the police presence kept building. "We kept going up [to look] and there were hundreds of them, arms locked, visors down. I've never seen so many police. Finally the kids started yelling, 'C'mon, bring it on'."

Police said the trouble started about 7.30pm when patrols on Lawson Street were attacked by a group throwing bricks at them from Eveleigh Street. They called for specialised support from the Operational Support Group. They say that back-up arrived about 9pm as the crowd began to throw bricks and bottles and attempted to set fire to and damage Redfern railway station. They were forced to retreat to Lawson and Gibbons streets.

The Hickey family sought peace further down Eveleigh Street. Thomas's great aunt Phyllis said "we tried to keep some of the boys out of the streets".

Ms Dunbar said Redfern station became the target of youths' attacks because "it was the only thing they could take their anger out on".

"The kids were angry, they know their mate was killed, they feared it could be me next," she said. She refused to discuss the teens' weapons, thought to include bottles, stones, firecrackers and petrol bombs, saying there was plenty of television footage of the conflict, and she wasn't going to add to it.

Lyall Munro, a community spokesman, said: "I saw some firecrackers. We didn't see any petrol bombs." A 13-year-old girl who said she took part in the riot said it was mainly young people involved, most of whom had known Thomas.

The children, some of primary school age, according to community members, with T-shirts obscuring their faces, ran at the line of police and the police kept trying to push them back. The wave and counter wave of attack and retreat took place in Lawson Street over several hours from 10pm.

At the height of the violence, no more than 80 to 100 protesters were involved, according to Ms Dunbar. Police put the number at up to 150 people.

At 1am, there were about 250 police assembled in riot gear. Soon after, they advanced, dispersing the crowd using shields and a fire hose. Police said the riot was contained about 4.20am.

The final police surge, Ms Dunbar said, came between 1am and 2am. When police moved into the top of Eveleigh Street about 2.30am, the youths had largely dispersed. Ms Dunbar said police found an empty street with a few curious residents, including herself, watching from a lane.

"The police came down in two flanks, arms locked, about 20 in each line and stood like stormtroops down each side of the street. They stood there until 7am."

Hmmm - probably the children of the lost - and children's children - in SOME cases.

But a lot of non-lost Aboriginal folk have huge problems - think Native Americans - but only 200 years from invasion.

Here's what I wrote for somebody else...

"Well, hopefully margo will come along, cos it is a Sydney thing.

Redfern is the pits - major urban Aboriginal community - one of the most troubled spots in Oz. Huge drug, alcohol, violence, crime problems - everything you can imagine.

Also, a centre of Aboriginal activism and radical pride. Lots of money has been poured in, to little effect, it seems. Some damn fine things have started there - sort of a crucible.

Bad relationships with police - there have been police "no-go" zones - some efforts to repair things, Aboriginal community leaders involved - some Aboriginal dissonance re police role - some want crime fought, and see police non-presence as racist - many see police as violent agents of white supremacy.

Sadly, an Aborigina youth impaled himself and died when he fell off his bicycle yesterday.

Police say a police car DID pass him, but was about other business - did not even know of tragic accident until summoned to it.

Some/one (?) Aborignal young folk say said youth was being chased by police - and this is why he fell from bicycle - see this as part of police persecution.

Grief +politics + anger + maybe alcohol = riot.

I have no idea if the cops did anything to inflame the situation or not.

40 cops injured - don't know how many residents.

All due to start again tonight.

I do not know where the truth lies."

I think it pretty clear now that the cops were NOT chasing the young fella - they seemed very traumatised by the horror of it, too - tried to staunch the hole in his neck. A total nightmare.

This is years of stuff erupting on rumour and misunderstanding - and hate.

Oh, snap.

Good article, Msolga.

Doesn't it seem odd that the police were piled up in anticipation?

As I type this out I am about 5 minutes walk away from the site of the clashes (riots, whatever). I have just started working again in the Redfern area, the third job I have had around here.

I'm not going to say that the folks here are good or bad or misunderstood. This area of Sydney has been the 'rough end' of town since the 60s-70s when there was a lot of building of public housing amongst an already depressed working class area.

Traditionally the area called 'The Block' has been left to the Indigenous inhabitants. I would point out that these are not the direct descendents of the tribal peoples of Sydney, they were very quickly wiped out by disease and the survivors packed off to areas west and south of the Sydney proper.

The lot of Indigenous Australians has improved little, even in recent years. Of all Australians they have the highest rates of mortality and ill-health and have a rate of imprisonment far greater than any other population.

Change the names and this could be an article in just about any newspaper in the US.

In Sydney, there is a definite underclass. Indigenous people are part of it, but not all of it. As with an excluded people who are easily identified, there has been a huge problem connected with policing. Aborigines are automatically considered as 'criminal' and the police have long used this as a legitimate excuse to isolate and victimise them.

We had a documentary a few years ago commissioned by the national broadcaster with reporters riding with police in patrol cars in the Redfern area. It was called 'Cop It Sweet' and there was a genuine outcry at the outright racist and abusive manner in which the police operated. Sydney is also a city with other ethnic populations and there would have been no way that literate and wealthier peoples such as Hong Kong Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, or Indians would be subjected to the same scrutiny and treatment.

Most of the Indigenous citizens of Sydney don't live in 'The Block'. It was earmarked for demolition years ago and the majority moved to areas nearby, but dispersed in a wider community. The area left has become one where the ugliest side of any society can be seen; homelessness, poverty, alcohol and drug abuse, little chance of improvement and violence. There's anger as the wealth and comforts of a wealthy nation slide away from them and all they seem to have is bad press and overzealous policing.

Mr. Stillwater, blacks, American Indians, Mexicans in those neighborhoods experience the same thing, all too often with tragic results. Hatred begets hatred in a neverending tragedy. Even northerners are condescending about southerners and automatically assume that a southern accent means uneducated redneck.

I get the sense, don't know for sure, that the indiginous people of australia are like a combination of native-americans and african-americans in one package.

Diane, I was just explaining that american accent thing to my Italian housemate. I included any thick regional accent: Southern, Bronx, Southie, Texan, etc. Travel helps to dispell that kind of view point. If you have a thick accent and travel, likely it'll get tempered. If you have traveled to various parts of the country, then you learn that an accent doesn't equate to any given intelligence level.

Thanks for the comments.

Having dark/black skin doesn't help, but it's more than just an issue of 'race'. When the British landed here in Australia, they adopted the schizoid view that although the land was obviously populated the country was 'terra nullus', a blank state. The natives had no discernible 'government' and relied on authority that was 'bottom up', not from above (like a monarchy).

For the practical purpose of settling whites, they did not exist. The deprivations of disease, warfare (denied by mainstream Australia) and dispossession lead the colonists to believe that Indigenous Australians were fated to die out, the best thing being to treat them as a combination of children and/or savages and let them pass away, the result of introducing 'civilization' to lesser creatures.

What a pack of dickheads. At the very same time as these sentiments were being expressed Koori peoples were being instrumental in opening up the country to whites, passing on valuable information on climate and geography, and working for free on stations and reservations. Except in the instances when they actively resisted the taking of land and property (and their children) they were non-existant to White Australia.

As it is now Indigenous Australians account for about a percent and a half of the total Australian population but cause about 50% of the general anxiety. I think it may be worth a separate thread to cover some of these issues, but I'd like some input from some of the other Aussies.

Fascinating input Mr Stillwater. You should continue the discussion either on this thread or another, but I'd love to hear more.

Yeah - go for it Pondy. Actually, it is interesting, what Pondy raises about warfare.

The current conservative government have actually mangaed to get what might otherwise have been an issue mainly for a part of the academic community, and the hyper-politicised folks, into a mainstream issue - the so-called "history wars".

There is currently huge debate in the history,and political, communities re the nature of English invasion (in itself a highly political term) and subsequent treatment of Aborigines.

Recent progressive thinking has tended to believe there was an organized attempt tp wipe out the Aborigines - or at least a lot of very intentional massacres, and that there was significant Aboriginal armed resistance.

An alternative riposte is emerging that says this is wildly exaggerated - and scholarly books have been published on both sides - often focussing on Tasmania.

Our beloved PM, Howard, in riding the crest of a populist backlash wave into power - using racism, inchoate anger against "them" and the casualties of economic rationalism to speed his ascent - developed a rhetoric about the "them's" "black armband" view of history - and the "Aboriginal industry" (ie Aboriginal community and political and legal organisations etc) to vilify his opponents - thus elevating the "history wars" to the front page of the nation's newspapers. The battle still rages....

i would like to hear more about this myself, so far it sounds close to what happened, and is still happening to some extent in hawaii.

I think, at the very least that in the North American US, Oz and HI, there was deliberate killing of natives. To what extent may be in question to some degree.

Sign me up, this thread or another, and pueo, hawaii gets another, doesn't it, with cross references? I am interested in all of this and more, but, projecting long term interest, maybe locales should have sep threads. On the other hand, they could branch off later, gather steam now. Whatever, ears here.

Mr. Stillwater amd Pueo, I'm sure that a thread about atrocities commited on aboriginal people in our countries or states would find plenty of interest.

Dys once tried to post something on the Sand Creek Massacre here in Colorado, but it never went anywhere. Perhaps if the thread listed the treatment of natives in different parts of the world it would receive more notice and it might even attract more stories of historical significance in the treatment of conquered natives within recent history.

Since mistreatment of indigenous peoples continues to be a problem (a serious problem), I think a thread on the subject would provide lots of food for thought--certainly a much better understanding of parts of history that are not usually taught in schools.

Here is a link to some history of Sand Creek with an excerpt taken from the insert from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. If a thread is started, I would copy this to the new thread.
========

http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/chivington.html

According to John S. Smith, Colonel Chivington

knew these Indians to be peaceful before the

massacre. Smith witnessed, as did helpless Indian

mothers and fathers, young children having their

sex organs cut away. U.S. soldiers mutilated

Native American women, cutting away their breasts

and removing all other sex organs. After the

Massacre, soldiers displayed the women's severed

body parts on their hats and stretched them over

their saddle-bows while riding in the ranks. The

sex organs of every male were removed in the most

grotesque manner. One soldier boasted that he

would make a tobacco pouch with the removed

privates of White Antelope, a respected elder.

Conner witnessed a soldier displaying the body

parts of a woman on a stick. The fingers of

Indians were cut off to get at the rings on them.

Connor remembered a baby only a few months old who

had been hidden in the feed box of a wagon for

protection. When the soldiers discovered the baby

some time later, the baby was thrown onto the

frozen ground to die. In going over the site the

next day, it was noted that every corpse was

mutilated in some way, and scalped.

just something to start you off with. i'll try to start a thread on this later.overthrow