By Chris Spindler
ADELAIDE — Patrick Dodson, chairperson of the Aboriginal Reconciliation Council, spoke to more than 200 students and staff at Flinders University on August 18 on the results of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody and the role of the council.
Dodson's opening comments related to the fact that more Aboriginal people, in particular young Aboriginal people, are now coming into contact with the police despite the express aim of the Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody to reduce that contact.
Dodson said, "Of the 339 recommendations of the Royal Commission, we have to ask why they haven't been implemented. Little has changed in the custody rates for Aboriginal people. In fact, there seems to be a greater concentration on the juvenile section of the community. What has to happen is to break the interaction between the police and ourselves."
Dodson went on to explain that the role of the "Reconciliation Council" is to heal the wounds between people that have resulted from the takeover of the land.
"We have to deal with the legacy of the policy — the taking of Aboriginal children, the sending of Aboriginal people away from their homes, the victims of that procedure — by the laws of the government", he said. "This legislative control of the Aboriginal people has been there at every turn. We aim for participation so that Aboriginal people might get what they desire through negotiation.
"There needs to be a procedure worked out that is controlled by Aboriginal people, to work out a code of conduct for entry of miners to land, compensation and Aboriginal involvement in industry. This involvement has to be broader than being given a few quid and then walking away. Involvement must mean to have some sustainable economic basis for individuals."
Dodson was critical of the Mabo decision, saying it approached the problem in a piecemeal fashion.
"It's a very narrow judgment", he said. "It does nothing to help those who have been dispossessed. What is happening now as a result of that decision is still a piece by piece approach to the same activity — of maintaining the status quo.
"All the mining companies want to do is deal. They're in it for the short term — about 20 or 30 years — and then go off and repeat it somewhere else. There is a view that as soon as the land is in Aboriginal hands, it is locked up and won't be used. This isn't true. Aboriginal people should have the right to deal with the land economically.
"The community has got to fix up the legacy of the past. The politicians aren't going to do it for us; get the people to look at the issues and deal with it."