Kooris Protest ATSIC
 
Despite considerable lobbying, an application for a court injunction and
nonviolent protests by the Koori community, elections for the Australian
Government's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) went
ahead as planned on 3 November 1990.
 
ATSIC is the latest Federal Government initiative for the non-Aboriginal
control of Koori affairs.  The elections were to elect 600 members of sixty
regional councils throughout Australia, which in turn are to elect seventeen
members of the Commission.
 
It is clear that there is widespread Koori dissatisfaction with ATSIC; this is
obvious from the low voter turnout at the ATSIC elections. For instance, in
the election for the Melbourne regional council, just 324 of the 5000 eligible
Kooris actually voted. The national boycott was so effective that of the
one-third of eligible Kooris actually on the electoral roll and thus entitled
to vote, only 30% did so.
 
To many Kooris, 'ATSIC is another step down the road of assimilation', and
just another stage in the ongoing denial by Federal Governments in Australia
of the right of Kooris to sovereignty, land rights and self-determination.
 
There are many concerns about ATSIC. They include the long-standing objection
to giving names and addresses to intrusive government authorities; this also
accounts for the low number of Kooris on the existing electoral roll.
 
Another objection is based on the limited powers of the ATSIC regional
councils. They have no say in the amount of the budget or in state and federal
programs (such as housing, health care, legal services and education).
 
There is also objection to government control: the government appoints the
head of ATSIC, can sack the elected Koori commissioners and effectively
controls the ATSIC administration through its public service employees.
 
More fundamentally, it is felt that the acceptance of ATSIC could undermine
the legal status of future land rights claims: "If we become Australians, how
can we claim land rights? If we vote we weaken our claim as the owners of this
land".
 
The government's promotion of ATSIC is one of the reasons for the declaration
of the Aboriginal Provisional Government on 11 July 1990 and the launch of the
'Pay the Rent' scheme. Only Kooris can decide the appropriate forms of Koori
governance.
 
In order to encourage Kooris to express their feelings on the issue, Koori
activists advocated an electoral boycott of ATSIC: 'Don't vote; don't
participate; don't assimilate yourself'. In addition, activists associated
with the Koori Information Centre staged a well planned nonviolent action at
the ATSIC office in Melbourne.
 
Robbie Thorpe, Salina Bernard and Charlie Williams arrived at the ATSIC office
wearing the black, yellow and red colours of the Aboriginal nation and
carrying a waddie (fighting stick), shield and boomerang. After a brief media
conference, they cast their votes in an imitation ballot box erected outside
the ATSIC office. Their ballot paper read as follows: 
HOW TO ASSIMILATE:
1. Physical Genocide
2. Cultural Genocide
3. Psychological Genocide
4. Forced Conformity
 
After 'voting' they walked into the ATSIC office foyer, removed their
traditional gear and dressed in suits and shoes. They then walked outside
carrying 'white man's law books' and painted their faces white in order to
indicate that they had been fully 'assimilated' into white society!
 
As is usual with Koori actions, given the vested interests which control the
media, there was virtually no news coverage of their protest and the issues
underlining it.
 
While the Federal Government and the Australian people continue to deny Kooris
their moral and legal rights, Australian society can never be whole. And the
Koori struggle will go on.
Robert J. Burrowes