I went this morning to the Cultural Centre of the Koorie Heritage Trust (Koorie is the name used for the Aborigines of southeast Australia), a fine museum with interesting contemporary art galleries. At their shop I nearly bought a souvenir eraser, purest white in a little white paper wrapper with the Trust logo with the Aboriginal flag on it, wondering if this was someone's idea of a joke. Or maybe it's hope: as the white erases the black, it eventually gets worn down and disappears, too?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
White out?
As the drought finally seems to be ending - lots of rain throughout the land - controversy over the Prime Minister's "takeover "of Aboriginal lands in the N.T. heats up by the hour. Howard announced that this issue was "our Katrina," an unfortunate claim since Katrina, too, revealed that neglect had allowed part of a western country's non-white population to live in third-world conditions - and inviting the retort that his comportment has been like his pal Bush's, reacting way too slowly after ignoring repeated warnings! Elders in Mutitjulu, the (Pitjantjatjara- speaking ) community near Uluru which will be the first place to get a government makeover, say they've appealed for help in vain for years even as there have been no litigable cases of abuse in their town. "This is our black children overboard," they say, a reference to lies Howard told about refugees in a boat off Australia throwing their own children overboard which swung his most recent reelection. Not sure why it took a few days for these responses to hit the papers and the airwaves, but the place is on fire.
I went this morning to the Cultural Centre of the Koorie Heritage Trust (Koorie is the name used for the Aborigines of southeast Australia), a fine museum with interesting contemporary art galleries. At their shop I nearly bought a souvenir eraser, purest white in a little white paper wrapper with the Trust logo with the Aboriginal flag on it, wondering if this was someone's idea of a joke. Or maybe it's hope: as the white erases the black, it eventually gets worn down and disappears, too?
I went this morning to the Cultural Centre of the Koorie Heritage Trust (Koorie is the name used for the Aborigines of southeast Australia), a fine museum with interesting contemporary art galleries. At their shop I nearly bought a souvenir eraser, purest white in a little white paper wrapper with the Trust logo with the Aboriginal flag on it, wondering if this was someone's idea of a joke. Or maybe it's hope: as the white erases the black, it eventually gets worn down and disappears, too?
