Paying the Rent
The Responsibility of all Non-Aboriginal Australians

A small group of young Aboriginal people sat deep in conference on the beach,
oblivious for a while to the two strange large wooden vessels moving closer
to the shoreline.  News quickly spread of their arrival as two Koori people
ran to the group, excitedly announcing the sighting of these unknown aliens. 
The strange newcomers moved closer to shore in smaller craft, finally
alighting on the beach, where they seemed to form lines and move further away
from the water, robed in strange and colourful dress and carrying a strange
coloured piece of cloth on a pole which they treated with great reverence. 
The fear on the face of one very young Koori child became too much to
contain.  "Uncle, I'm scared"  To which came the reply, "Don't worry, they
are only whitefellas, we'll soon fix them."  The longer one spent examining
these creatures, the stranger they seemed.  The more colourful male ones with
the strange hats were making all sorts of loud noises and actions, directed
in an aggressive manner at the others dressed in the plain, torn rags.  Other
strange rituals emerged - the palefaced newcomers knelt while one of them
raised the strange red, white and blue cloth on the stick, and then all burst
simultaneously into the most awful sounding corroboree song called "God Save
The King."

Unable to suppress their curiosity, the Kooris moved down the beach to
inquire as to the intentions of these latest white arrivals.  (Many had come
and gone in the past, these certainly weren't the first.)  "As there is no
recognisable civilisation here, we have come to claim this land on behalf of
the King", replied the particularly colourful one, who identified himself as
"Phillip".  To this information the Kooris reacted strongly.  Their
spokesperson, Djuran Bungaleenee, strongly and clearly informed the new
arrivals of their rights and obligations.  "When you come to someone else's
country, you must respect the law of the land.  Otherwise you will always be
a problem for that land.  If you want to enter our country, you must
recognise Aboriginal sovereignty, respect our law, and Pay the Rent, and then
you can stay."

A heated exchange ensued.  Captain Phillip, clearly unsettled by these
assertive and proud natives, informed them that henceforth, British law was
valid, and that these people no longer had any rights.  The Kooris stood
firm, continuing to argue their case in front of this group of soldiers,
officers and convicts, strong in the knowledge of the ethical, legal and
moral validity of their arguments.  Finally, two of the convicts leapt to
their feet.  "You can't do this - this is theft - this land belongs to them."
This line clearly had a lot of support amongst Phillip's group.  Despite his
protests, more and more of the convicts and then the soldiers began to join
in the revolt, until finally Phillip was left standing alone.  The Koories
gave him a chance one last time - either recognise Aboriginal rights and Pay
the Rent, or leave.  Loyal to crown and empire to the last, Phillip was
unceremoniously loaded back on the sailing boat and sent back out to sea,
while the rest of the landing party entered Aboriginal customs - were checked
for disease, handed over any military clothing or weaponry, and then
proceeded to sign the Pay the Rent registry.

The Invasion Day re-enactment was the second organised by the Pay the Rent
collective, and was a vast improvement on the successful event staged last
year.  As well as the reenactment, onlookers were able to take part in a day
of Aboriginal culture that consisted of musicians, poets, speakers, dancers
and information stalls.  As organisers we were able to effectively liaise,
work with and involve a far wider cross-section of the Koori community than
in previous years, building links and transcending factionalisation within
the community.  This process was only enabled through patience, respect and
honest communication between the parties involved.  Through open dialogue
with a range of people, we were able to get support from a range of sources
including prominent performers, St Kilda council and Community Aid Abroad,
and expect that this support will become even easier to attain in years to
come as more people see for themselves the power and effectiveness of good
creative well organised nonviolent actions such as this one.  Although as an
organiser I found the day emotionally exhausting, I came away feeling that we
had achieved another step forward in shifting our community further forwards
in forging an honest relationship with the original Australians.

Another positive benefit of the day was the fact that 125 new people signed
up with the Pay the Rent scheme.  The Pay the Rent campaign is one of the
oldest continuous and most relentless social justice campaigns in white
Australian history.  Since the invasion of 1788, Aboriginal people have been
struggling to maintain their survival and basic human rights, and have
challenged non-Aboriginal people to recognise and respect Aboriginal
sovereignty and rights to self determination.  The Pay the Rent concept was
first acknowledged in Australia by the Quaker settler Robert Cock in 1837 in
the Sydney settlement of NSW, who recognised that the land he was on was
taken by force and was morally and legally Aboriginal land.  He decided to
pay the interest from his land to the Kooris as rent for his use of their
land.  In 1993, the Pay the Rent campaign has only reached a fraction of its
potential, but more non-Aboriginal groups and individuals have taken the
progressive step of forging an honest relationship with the Aboriginal
community by Paying the Rent.
Brendan Condon