aboriginal nation - yeah bring it orn

Germaine Greer's "Whitefella Jump Up"

'...wants every Australian whitefella and whitesheila to sit down in front of a mirror and say, "I live in an Aboriginal country . She says that this simple declaration could change Australia and its relationship with the rest of the world. "All the trappings of fake Britishness could be ditched" and "with one bound [Australia] could free itself from its spurious identification with the WASP 'axis of evil'". [Greer says that] "If we followed the Aboriginal course, we could follow the Aboriginal precedent and simply absent ourselves from activities that we knew to be evil and pointless." Most important, accepting that Australia is an Aboriginal country could save the environment. "Whitefellas simply look away when I point to the devastation inflicted on the island continent," she writes. "The denial of the disaster continues; the devastation accelerates."'

i'm reading Germaine Greer's "Whitefella Jump Up"... been looking for it for ages. i remember seeing her on Denton and some other tv interview some months ago, and feeling alligned with her fiesty comments - much to the dismay of the interviewers!

its extremely refreshing to read the anarchistic punches of Greer's assault at the spine of aussie culture. aussies have a distinct distaste for the irreverent academic. i love it. Germaine is the sort of person i could sit under a tree and yarn with for days...

all her points are salient and lucid. she cuts to the bone and makes no apologies. her strident ecological views and articulate embrace of a national aboriginality is remarkable in an unforgiving corporate culture now dominated by neo-conservative agendas. hers is an offering of antithesis toward some kind of synthesis to the current malaise. she is postulating a fresh and alternative solution to the horrendous social problems facing indigenous crew in the 21st century. and its not just aboriginal people that are affected by this cultural neglect - its tearing at the heart of aussie culture. its dividing us: we're crying inside - or becoming thicker-skinned.

her notions of the opening up of the aussie "interior" and the failure of whitefellas to adapt to the conditions of this country and its environmental management challenges are apt and cogent. her stark reflections on our use of language - ie: harsh descriptive words to explain the land to ourselves - the "desolation" poetry - is spot on.

personally, over the last few years, studying dissident media, and disecting the mainstream, from talking with all sorts of people [but radical activists in particular] i feel i'm obtaining a broader more succinct grasp of the underbelly of our aussie-ness and its languages of expression. i've been thinking this [what Greer and many others are saying] and attempting to articulate it for ages now. the longer i study and talk about these things the more i realise that its difficult to affect the struggle from suburbia. i wanna take my lil family and go lose myself in the desert - skillsharing the communities... lets go babe!

i'd like to read Greer's take on Refugee Rights. there is a crucial hub between the idea of a desperate indigenous people and asylum seekers in mandatory detention - the litany of inhumanity faced by refugees in this country is certainly worth consideration. in line with the persecution is the similar xenophobia. it's obvious: the perpetual jailing of asylum seekers, the "pacific solution", the treatment of the "other" particularly children; refoulment/forced deportations; an indefinate detention period for many - including children, compared with say, the Stolen Generation or Deaths in Custody or Land Rights etc. hmmm... hard to write about this.

when the rights of the individual - the Basic human rights ie: simple freedom of movement, good food, water, health, education, respect etc - have been threatened, restricted and removed.

[i'm not entirely sure how to articulate this though - might warrant some more research and some help - and a lot more writing and talking.]

one idea is that if the government can do this to a refugee [indefinate detention, deportation, bridging visas] - who has commited NO crime - then perhaps they can do the same to you...

that the struggles and persecutions of the aboriginal people have been perpetuated for over 2 centuries now - and their health is deteriorating further: currently rated "2nd worst in world" is indicative of australia's inability to face up to the aboriginality of this place.

Greer's hinting in her timely essay that if you are born in australia you are by default an aborigine is an interesting concept. if you consider yrself an aboriginie of this land you feel more "at home" here than anywhere else, it gives you a sense of belonging, perhaps an ownership of the "spirit" of this beautiful country. perhaps then we may feel like looking after the sacred places, fixing the environmental degredation, halting the ecocide.

so yeah - i can dig it - i live in an aboriginal nation and i want healing of this place.

one thing is definate though, we really need new ways of approaching the problem of eco-destructo corporate rape profit machines. perhaps Germaine's onto it. i certainly agree with her cogent rants.

i will add more to this rant later.

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Reviews of GG's Article:
Telegraph Kate Chisholm reviews Whitefella Jump Up by Germaine Greer Dreaming it big 18/07/2004