Speaking this week ahead
of Australia Day on January
26, otherwise known as
Survival Day, Fowles, who is
the Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander (ATSI)
women's project officer for
the AIDS Council of NSW
(ACON), said she believes
Australia's so-called reconciliation process was
"nowhere".
"It seems to be that we
have to do everything ... all
this onus is put back onto
[Aborigines] and we're only
minute, " she said.
Although the response
from the lesbian and gay
community had been positive, a lot of reconciliation
events were a "one-off", she
said, but it "should really be
a concerted effort" in supporting Aborigines.
She said racism toward
indigenous Australians was
probably more prevalent
outside inner city areas, due to the lack of education, but it did exist within the gay and lesbian community.
"The gay community is a community which I see as only purely brought together by our sexuality and that's it.
"We all have different backgrounds, we're quite diverse but all of us only
recognise one specific area
and that's our sexuality.
"I think it's really funny
when one minute some of
the community are screarning 'don't stereotype us' and
then other folks have to stereotype in order to identify with the people they want
ta identify with."
Fowles also questioned
the notion of reconciliation.
"Why do they call it reconciliation? What are we reconciling?" she asked.
"It doesn't mean anything
[to me] because I haven't
had a falling out with these
white folks, I didn't do anything, and all of a sudden
we're reconciling with you,"
she said.
ATSI men's project colleague Chris Lawrence
agreed.
Reconciliation was something that happened after a
marriage breakdown, but
indigenous Australians were
never married to white
Australians, he said.
Lawrence said reconciliation was about "self autonomy" and "self determination" and he agreed the
process had stagnated particularly with the Federal
Government's dismantling
of the Abodginal and Torres
Strait Islander Commission
(ATSIC) and the abolition of
Abstudy.
Fowles said NSW ATSI
sexual health workers were
dring a "fantastic" job, and
because ACON is well
resourced, they were able to
provide essential support to
their services.
"My ideal would be net to
have specific 'Aboriginal
workers when [non-Aboriginal] people can work in
these areas and they themselves have an understanding of those issues, " she said.
Australian Federation of
AIDS Organisations (AFAO)
president Peter Grogan said
the "individual level" is often
ignored in terms of reconciliation and he suggested
there should be more dialogue within the community
on the issue.
However, from an organisational level, AFAO was
"headed in the right direction", he said. Grogan said
AFAO'S National Indigenous
Gay and Transgender
Project has produced a
Consultation Report and
Sexual Health Strategy for
indigenous transgenders
and gay men.
Among their recommendations the Commonwealth,
State and Territory governments should include
indigenous gay, transgender
and homosexually active
men in education prograrns,
ensure the programs are
funded specifically, and
AIDS Councils and
Aboriginal Medical Services
and networks of indigenous
gay men should establish
local support groups.
Meanwhile, the queer reconciliation group, Black,
White and Pink, are seeking
participants for their Sydney
Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
float.
Like last year, the float is
being built in Moree by local
Aborigines. In 1998 there
were over 400 participants in
the float. For more information contact the AVP at avp@eagles.bbs.net.au
Reconciliation
between indigenous Australians
and the lesbian and
gay community
could succeed if the community's own stereotypes
were broken down, according to indigenous health
worker, Sue Fowles.