Letters

Tu Tangata, Issue 10, 1 March 1983, Page 32

Letters

Dear Sir,

Tu Tangata of October/November 1982 contained an article by Mr L.E. Scott ‘Writers from a Dying Race (Black Poets in Australia)’. Without wishing in any way to take issue with Mr Scott’s appraisal of the authors’ poetry, Mr Scott’s review contains some commonly held misconceptions about the Australian Government’s treatment of Australian Aboriginals. Over 160,000 Australians slightly more than one per cent of the population are Aboriginals. Today, the Australian Government offers those Aboriginals who wish to participate fully in the wider society the necessary opportunities and skills while, at the same time, it encourages self-management for Aboriginal groups who wish to adopt a different life-style. Aboriginal Australians possess legal rights, including rights of access to services identical with other Australian citizens. In particular, they are entitled to universal adult suffrage, the same employment conditions and industrial protection as any other Australian, access to the same social security benefits as other Australians, access to special additional education assistance and to government funded Aboriginalmanaged health and legal services. For the financial year 1981/82 the Austra-

lian Government allocated a total of A 5228.31 million on special programs for Aboriginals. I am surprised that Tu Tangata should give credence to the silly hyperbole of allegations of genocide contained in Mr Scott’s review. Suffice it to say that far from declining, the annual rate of natural increase of the Australian Aboriginal and Islander population is some 2.2 per cent, compared with the national figure of 1.4 per cent. In the 1971 census 115,953 Australians identified themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent; in 1976 160,915 people identified in this way. The Aboriginal population has nearly doubled in the last 50 years, and this trend is continuing. It may be of interest to your readers to note that Aboriginal authors are supported in their writing by the Aboriginal Arts Board and the Literature Board of the Australia Council, the Australian equivalent of the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. For example, in 1979/80 one of the authors mentioned in Mr Scott’s article, Mr Kevin Gilbert, received a Senior Writers Fellowship from the Literature Board. The Aboriginal Arts Board also assisted other Aboriginal authors, in-

eluding the novelist Colin Johnson, and Aboriginal theatre groups. While the authors mentioned in Mr Scott’s article are well known, to suggest, for example, that Ms Sykes is the closest thing in Australia to a national black leader is to diminish in your readers eyes the achievements of many other Aboriginal Australians, in the arts and in other wider fields of Australian life, including the achievements of Aboriginal politicians and administrators. The Australian Government does not claim that the progress made in recent years has resolved the Aboriginal predicament created, in part, by an earlier history of misunderstanding, neglect, and injustice. Australia is very conscious of the need for continued work to remedy the disadvantage still all too often suffered by Aboriginals and Islanders. Our policies in this respect are varied and extensive, and are constantly being developed in consultation with Aboriginal groups and representatives. Yours faithfully, G.R. Bentley Deputy High Commissioner Australian High Commission Wellington