The Black Caucus

The Black Caucus is pleased to have contributed to the Victoria Multicultural Commission’s Regional Advisory Committees, and lead the four sub committees on Family Violence, Mental Health, Employment and Housing.

Under Family Violence we discussed:

Elder abuse 
– Children wanting to get there inheritance early.
– Elders feeling obligated to their children who look after them.
Learned behaviour.
Abuse of female in the family.
Family violence is not just physical, language.
Same sex violence.
Perpetrator behavioural correction.
Cultural competency.
Elders without support.
Family breakdown.
Men do not report family violence.
Family do not report the problems they see.
The effects of Prison.
Knowing what to look for within schools.
Intervention orders – lack of accountability for the perpetrator.
Understanding the measures available.
Training community champions who are culturally aware.
Prevention intervention. Schools and adults – need funding.
Emotional awareness – be careful with words – Listen.
Those unable to share.
Community with the wrong information.
Afraid families will be taken away.
Afraid visas will be taken away.
Agencies like – Orange door – In Touch.
Family violence that spills out beyond the family.
Only get help if you ask for help. Family members asking for help do not get the help.
A day where all social service come together so we can learn off each other. – Need funding.
Find our answers amongst ourselves – within the multicultural community. – Need funding.
International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Not all communities are treated equally – police – media – etc.
Community representation or elder support when police present at family violence incidents.

The Mental Health discussion created seven tasks for the VMC to action:

1. Census ethnic representation reinstated. VMC to lobby on our behalf.

2. Mandatory healthcare representation at festivals as a criteria for government funding. 3. Funding at local levels in schools, clubs, community organisations. Bottom up approach to needs.

4. Employment pathways. VMC to lead advocacy.

5. Funding bias beyond festivals into community programmes.

6. Consular support advertised as a mental health option.

7. Celebrating good mental health programmes and success stories through mental health awards. Funded through VMC et al.

The Housing sub committee discussed:

References availability for new migrants.

New Migrants – Cernterlink – Lower income.

Credit references for migrants.

Visa status – prejudice.

Government analysis of the data.

Rebate guarantee to landlords renting to new migrants.

Handing your house to the council to manage – UK model.

Converted container housing as a temporary / medium term option.

Discrimination against large families.

Migrants unaware of rental rights Minimal standards.

Cheatsheets for finding housing.

Standardised blind applications.

Standards of heating

Intersectional discrimination.

Preplanning before arrival in Australia Migrants resource centres.

Journey of the migrant guide or booklet with a checklist.

Comic strips for communication.

Family pressures on people staying with them Pressure and financial burden on host family .

Aid refugees to be self sufficient.

Fix it Friday.

Standardisation of housing facilities.

Advocacy.

Temporary housing has a knock on effect on children.

Migrants being chased away by landlords. The further use of hotel accommodation as an extended medium term solution.

This year’s NAIDOC week theme is ‘for our elders’. 

I like this theme. It pays respect to the tireless First Nation’s leaders who have done so much to improve the lives of their people.

For NAIDOC week this year, I’d like to pay my respects to & celebrate two female elders from Tasmania. One elder is from the past, and one is from the present.

I pay my respects to Truganini, whose country was Bruny Island, part of the south-east Nation in Tasmania. Truganini survived decades of abuse, violence and incarceration in the 19th century in Tasmania. Despite the loss of her country, her freedom, her family, and almost all of her people at the hands of colonisers she survived into her 60’s to be an elder, an educator for her people’s children. She helped keep their culture and language alive in Tasmania. Her incredible story (I can recommend reading ‘Truganini, Journey Through The Apocalypse’ by Cassandra Pybus) of courage, resilience and survival is one we don’t talk about anywhere near enough. We should be recognising and celebrating her life as we do other great Australian survival stories.

After reading Thomas Mayor’s brilliant book ‘Finding The Heart Of The Nation’ I was made aware of many female elders in Australia today who are working hard to improve the lives of their people. I pay my respects in particular to Darlene Mansell, a Pakana woman from northern Tasmania. Darlene has been driving several health & legal improvement initiatives in Tasmania. Darlene is helping keep her culture and language alive in northern Tasmania. Darlene is also a leading activist for indigenous and women’s rights in Tasmania and Australia. Darlene is an important female voice in the constitutional reform dialogues and is one of many First Nation women ensuring the female voice is included in these important political discussions that will shape how the ‘Uluru Statement from the Heart’ will be brought to life, starting with the referendum on ‘voice to parliament’ later this year. Darlene’s dream is for her grand-child to one day be elected as the ‘voice’ representative for her Pakana people. 

#NAIDOC2023 #ForOurEldersNote: National NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year (Sunday to Sunday), to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. You can support and get to know your local Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander communities through activities and events held across the country. 

By Sam Evans

My NAIDOC hero and inspiration is William Cooper. Cooper was a Yorta Yorta man (from northern Victoria around the yarra river), an Aboriginal activist and a human rights advocate in the early 20^th century. He was the founder of the Australian Aborigines League and he is also known as the Father of the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC), the annual event we are celebrating this week. 

In the course of demanding the rights of citizenship and “uplift”, Cooper repeatedly sought to draw attention to his ancestors’ prior ownership of the land and their subsequent dispossession, displacement and decimation. 

The successful 1967 Commonwealth referendum, which finally changed the Constitution so that like all other Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples would be counted as part of the population and the Commonwealth would be able to make laws for them, wouldn’t have happened without leaders like Cooper demanding & fighting for change from as far back as late 19^th century. 90.77% of voters voted in favour of the ‘Constitution Alteration (Aboriginals) 1967’, which was the highest ‘yes’ vote ever recorded in a federal referendum.

William Cooper inspires me to be patient and never give up on demanding reformative change. E.g. never tire in playing my role to help the first nations people of Australia achieve the objectives of the Uluru Statement of the Heart.

Sam Evans

I enjoy all kinds of “Black” or “Urban” music as it is now called.

I am not a prude, and I understand that the music of my generation introduced the ‘N’ word into mainstream society, through bands like NWA, Snoop Dog, Tupac, Notorious BIG, etc.

I understand that the genie is out of the bottle, and that the ‘N’ word has become a rhyming tool that is used by all the modern rappers, some of whom I enjoy. Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino and the like.

In the right environment, and amongst the right people, I have no objection to these lyrics, and where as I do not use the ‘N’ myself, I believe in the continued nuanced conversation about its use among black people.

In Australia I am encouraged by the increasing use of Black music as an incidental backdrop found in shops, restaurants, tv advertisements. However, a few situations have recently given me pause.

In the light of the rise of Nazis in Australia and the emboldened push from racists and the far right, I have found myself being more aware of my surroundings and attuned to potential dangers.

Over the past year I have noticed my gym is playing rap music that is almost entirely composed of the ‘N’ word. Amongst the right demographic this would not necessarily be a problem, however my gym is predominately made up of Asian and White people, which makes the use of this word blasted over the gym speakers unacceptable to me and the other Black patrons. I have spoken to the staff behind the counter, and written to the management of the gym, but have not received a response.

Last new years eve, I was in an expensive restaurant with my partner when the restaurant playlist started playing ‘N’ word songs that I similarly consider inappropriate for that setting. The only other Black couple in the restaurant were clearly also uncomfortable, so once again I approached the manager to discuss the playlist. This time I was brushed aside with excuses about it not being their playlist and them having no alternatives.

I think that there needs to be an awareness of the music that is being played in a public environment.

It would be considered unacceptable to play misogynist or sexist songs that made their female patrons uncomfortable, yet it seems acceptable to blast black racial slurs at decibels that are audibly comfortable in public places.

Jewish, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, or Mexican slurs would not be tolerated, not only by their communities, but by polite society, and would be instantly removed. So what is the difference with music that uses Black slurs and denigrates Black culture and people?

The use of these songs in public places encourages non blacks to openly and loudly sing along to inflammatory ‘N’ word lyrics that will insight violence if heard by a conscientious Black person.

Legally the ‘N’ word along with a combination of lyrics and situational context is an “incitement to racial hatred”.

I have been on a bus where white people were singing along to rap song containing the ‘N’ word, and I was forced to approach then and make my displeasure known.

I often find myself turning down or changing my music in the summer, when driving through predominately white neighbourhoods, because I do not want white people to feel encouraged on the use of the ‘N’ word because it is endorsed through my car speakers.

So what is the answer? How to we approach the inequality of unacceptable language? How do we stop the use of Black racial slurs in public places by non white individuals and corporations?

Answers on a postcard please.

The Black Caucus was represented at ‘Light supper with Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Robin Scott MP’ in Tarneit.

The audience was made up almost entirely of West Africans and Indians, both young and old, all migrants to Australia and potentially, all allies as people of colour (POCs) in the battle for equal recognition in a white dominated black country.

However, towards the end of the evening, an Indian community member was suggesting to the minister that education on obeying law and order should be mandatory to migrants in order to curtail a perceived rise in violence. The implication was that perpetrators of these crimes and the recipients of these lessons would be the African communities.

“These people need to be taught that violence is not acceptable in this country. They come over here and do not know how to behave.”

His comments suggested that African families allowed their children to run wild, without any understanding of the rule of law or discipline of any kind. His suggestion was that suddenly they get to Australia and do not know how to behave in polite society, despite being at the cradle of civilisation.

These comments were despite the fact that he was so obviously a migrant himself, and the implication that all of the crime was being carried out by the migrants from African countries, despite the evidence to the contrary provided by local and national police chiefs.

The minister made every effort to correct the man’s perceptions by stating that violence is unacceptable in any community and that teaching this to all children in schools would be a more appropriate solution to the overall general violence perpetrated upon society.

He was sat next to a Victorian Multicultural Commission Regional Advisory Member, who had previously voiced views that welfare should taken away from the black community as a whole, if members are found to commit crimes. In her eyes, everyone suffers for one person’s misdeeds.

As the evening drew to a close the minister’s aide asked for all those who were in the room to huddle around the minister for one collective photo. The Africans did as requested and the pictures were taken, however the Indians stood back, not wanting to associate, let alone be seen in a picture with the Africans. The minister was then whisked away, leaving the Indians angry and disappointed that they could not get their ‘Indians only’ picture.

The event was catered, and the room segregated once again with the Indians standing in one part of the room, and the Africans in another, seemingly nobody from either group wishing to discuss the issues that affect their communities and discuss the solutions collectively.

I wonder what it is that would put the Indian community at such odds with the Africans. Was it that the Indians felt themselves better educated than the Africans? Or was it the prominence of their caste system, so engrained in their culture, that they instinctively see Blacks as inferior? I think that there may be more to it, that in a society where recent migrants like Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and Africans are struggling, there is the potential to demonise the Africans in a way of ingratiating themselves with their white hosts. By creating a Black common enemy, the focus is no longer on them and they can prosper.

However, this is not the only community of colour swiping at the Africans.

Contacts in the Victorian Police have also noted an increase in friction between the Chinese/Asian community and the Blacks, not just Africans, but Aboriginal and Caribbean.

Reports of shop keepers shouting at Blacks, following them around shops and demanding money before service in circumstances where this is not the norm.

We have also received reports of increased passive aggressive behaviour, such as a deliberately not giving way on pavements even though they clearly see us approaching, preferring instead to charge into oncoming Blacks, a tactic seemingly not experienced by our white counterparts. This seems to be a minor aggression, until you find yourself constantly responsible for avoiding collisions on the street, and continually stepping into the road, whilst being gazed upon as a second class citizen.

I cannot deduce why this open disrespect is taking place, and I have researched Chinese culture specifically regarding this matter for quite some time for this article, still with no academic conclusion.

In the UK from the 40’s through to the 80’s, minority groups invited by the British government from British colonies to rebuild Britain after the war, were racially abused by the white British public, and harassed by the white police. At that time PoC communities united together to stand against racist policies that kept them in poor housing and menial jobs. This united front worked, and white British attitudes were slowly forced to change, moving a few steps closer to equal rights for all Britons.

I have seen PoC unity work, and lived this experience in the UK, which is why I was surprised to not see this same unity amongst the PoCs in Australia. Ethnic communities in Australia fall, as nothing more than divided minority groups, lacking the strength of numbers to directly impact policies and legislation. We are easy pickings for politicians, the media and white nationalists. While PoCs bicker amongst ourselves, white Australia simply sits back and waits for a weakened victor, one that they can then pacify and ignore.

Over recent years, it is generally accepted by law enforcement around the world that tackling the root of the problem vastly reduces crime, rather than incarceration.

In America, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton have gone on record to say that their policies of funding prisons to focus on punishment rather than rehabilitation were wrong. Obama has repeatedly espoused the virtues of fixing the employment and housing issues in America as the priority to lift the economic status of the poor, and reduce crime.

Social policing programmes have been instigated in the toughest parts of Glasgow and London, to better understand the lower socio-economic communities, and in each case these front liners have reported to government that raising the poor from poverty would stop economic crime.

In Australia, economic crime has been carried out by generations of migrants. Irish, Italians, Greeks, and Polish were organised but less subtle in the execution of crime, whereas the Chinese and Vietnamese have been more sophisticated, thus drawing less attention from the Police.

Europeans, Asians, Arabics alike have all been on the bottom of the economic ladder so why are Africans being treated differently? Is it because they stand out more than previous migrants? Is it because they are perceived as more physically threatening than those whom have come before?

The fact of the matter is that Africans, and by association, all Blacks in Australia are under attack from the media trying to sell bad news, politicians trying to rule through fear, and white Australia still wrestling with its genocidal past. Unfortunately where they expected to find allies, they have instead found disrespect and isolation. If you back anyone into a social and economic corner, and isolate them because of the selfish motives of a rising migrant middle class, what outcome would you expect? The fear is that the frustrations of the Africans will boil over into violence. Why would you not try to remove the fuel of social, political and economic injustice that stoke the fire, rather that fan the flames with the hot air of media and political sensationalism, and pour on the gasoline exclusion from other communities of colour?

There is a storm coming. Do we all act together to dissipate the problem? Or do we all stand around blaming each other and wait for the inevitable devastation? How will you account for your words, your actions?

There is a storm coming, soon.