BY KATE CARR
SYDNEY — The march for reconciliation across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on May 28, and the series of protests against the racism of the federal government which came before and after it, introduced many people to the newly formed Indigenous Students Network, which is seeking to organise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the struggle against racism. Green Left Weekly spoke to two members of the ISN, JOEL BRAY and KIM BULLIMORE, about the group's aims and hopes.
Bray, ISN's convenor, says that the group's formation, at an indigenous students' conference at Sydney University last year, was aimed at overcoming the isolation that many indigenous students face, many having left their rural and regional homes for the first time.
The network also hoped that it could overcome the difficulties of mounting indigenous student rights campaigns, given the small numbers of indigenous students on any given campus.
"To run proper campaigns and form some sort of student movement out of small numbers is virtually impossible", Bray said. "So the idea was to start forming links across campuses and to be a space for activists to share information, skills and ideas, as well as provide social support for indigenous students."
Establishing the ISN has not been easy. Student organisations do not have a history of having indigenous affairs officers and indigenous students have often relied solely upon the support provided by university administrations. Much basic knowledge of how to run campaigns and what can be achieved from them has been missing.
For Bray, one of the ISN's "greatest triumphs" has been the involvement of indigenous students who have previously felt unable to be active on campus.
One of the ISN's most visible impacts has been its efforts to politicise "reconciliation". It burst onto the public stage, literally, when Bullimore interrupted Prime Minister John Howard's May 27 speech to the Corroboree 2000 gathering, unfurling a banner which read, "No reconciliation without justice". ISN members and supporters staged a demonstration outside the Sydney Opera House as the ceremony was going on.
The following day, the ISN organised a demonstration of its own in an effort to give the bridge march a greater focus. The demonstration of 300, which became one of the more spirited contingents on the bridge march, demanded a treaty and real land rights, the overturning of mandatory sentencing, an apology and compensation for the stolen generations and the reinstatement of Abstudy; vague statements were not for them.
The ISN has not only affected indigenous students, it's also boosted the whole student movement. In a year marked by the difficulties students have had in responding to the federal government's "tinker around the edges" approach to higher education, the ISN has provided a much needed political focus for campus activists.
Bray believes the ISN's indigenous week of action on campus, from May 22-26, is a case in point. As well as providing an example of people taking collective and direct action, it was "an example of creative campaigning" that other student activists could draw on.
Bullimore hopes the ISN can repeat that feat during the Olympic Games. Indigenous activists are presently organising three tent cities to protest for Aboriginal rights during the Olympics.
Bullimore says the ISN will follow the lead of the Metropolitan Land Council, whose mandate covers the land at the Olympics site at Homebush Bay. She argues, however, that the ISN will seek to bring together the different courses being pursued by different indigenous leaders.
Bray says that the ISN, as a group of younger activists not involved in the disagreements of the past, can be a positive force for greater unity. He said, "If we can't work as one, at least we can cooperate and tolerate".
The ISN is already in the thick of more specific plans for Olympics protest. It's helped establish the Anti-Olympics Alliance, which involves all the groups planning protests during the Olympics, and will be participating in the September 15 opening day march on the Homebush stadium, which will involve both indigenous and non-indigenous people.
It's also planning a conference during the games to educate activists, and the world's media, about the history of Aboriginal struggles for justice and against racism.
Bullimore says the ISN will also seek to inject radical politics into the campaign for Aboriginal rights, especially given the present ascendancy of the most conservative Aboriginal leaders. She sees indigenous protests during the Olympics as providing the more militant indigenous leaders with an international platform, perhaps for the first time.
Bray says he thinks the ISN will "provide a radical black student edge to the campaign, which has tended to be taken over by more bureaucratic bodies".
The ISN meets regularly and provides phone link-ups for those who cannot make it in person. It is a group for indigenous students only; those interested in getting involved can phone Joel Bray on 0403 138 877 or Kim Bullimore on 0401 082 527.
The Anti-Olympic Alliance will meet on June 28, at 6pm, Newtown Neighbourhood Centre. For more information phone 9690 1977.