Whose WIN?
The federal minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Senator Herron, is planning to set up an organisation which would ostensibly represent indigenous women. It's to be called WIN, or the Women's Indigenous Network.
Senator Herron, in consultation with the head of the Office of the Status of Women, Pru Goward, has decided that within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) the "hierarchical structure of male domination" excludes women, most of whom play a vital role in their communities.
While it's true that sections of the Aboriginal community have criticised ATSIC for its bureaucratism, this is a far cry from Herron's claim, which, in the end, amounts to yet another attack on Aboriginal control of Aboriginal affairs.
The government's attempts to paint ATSIC as an unscrupulous, unaccountable organisation which misappropriates taxpayers' funds is a barely disguised attempt to cover for its own substantial cuts to the ATSIC budget (from which ATSIC is supposed to administer a host of housing, education and infrastructure projects), and affirmative action and welfare programs more generally.
Within this context, Aboriginal women face extreme hardships. Howard's cuts to welfare and social spending on health, child-care, domestic violence and substance abuse impact hardest on women, still those taking the main responsibility for child rearing, care of the sick and elderly and making ends meet.
Women's exclusion from decision-making bodies at every level reinforces their subordinate position both within the community and in broader society. But Herron's new group isn't about to change this. Perhaps stung by the very public dressing down over his attacks on the Aboriginal women in the Kumarangk Coalition (who are campaigning to stop the Hindmarsh Island bridge), Herron has decided, without consulting Aboriginal women or members of ATSIC, to set up his own women's organisation.
Herron has stated that WIN would allow indigenous women "to maximise their chance of getting funding". Maybe so — as long as it remains toothless and pliable. And whose interests would it then represent?
It is clear that the Liberal Party wants WIN to be a "respectable" pressure/lobby group that can compete with other Aboriginal groups for funding. It is also about trying to sow division in an already divided Aboriginal population — the result of having to fight among themselves for a few meagre crumbs which go nowhere near providing even basic shelter and education to one of the world's most oppressed indigenous peoples.
Herron calls for "the protection of women and children". This would be laughable if the situation weren't so serious. As communities are forced to depend more and more on their own resources without government help, women and children will bear the brunt of the increasing frustration, alienation and sense of despair.
Clearly Herron does not envisage that WIN would empower women to take control over decisions affecting themselves and their families. An organisation that genuinely addressed indigenous women's issues would have to come from black women themselves, and it would need to be controlled by them rather than "protect" them.
As the Liberal government faces worldwide and national condemnation for its racist Wik legislation, including from traditionally conservative bodies such as the church, WIN is a cheap — and very transparent — ploy to boost the government's "fair" image. It will not work.
Unless the Wik legislation is defeated, cuts to Abstudy and ATSIC are reversed and Aboriginal people are given control of Aboriginal affairs with the necessary financial and material back-up, there can be no justice or equality for Aboriginal women.
Pip Hinman and Sujatha Fernandes