The political right often tries to denigrate the political left. Occasionally it’s by writing articles accompanied by horrific imagery and slurs about the activism occurring on the left.
Sometimes it backfires. Spectacularly. For example, when the Herald Sun decided to refer to protesters against the forced closure of Aboriginal communities under the former WA Barnett government as a selfish rabble”. Next rally, #selfishrabble trended on Twitter and was accompanied by banners on the street. In the past week though, Andrew Bolt’s attack on the Darebin city council and the Yarra city council (who have recently voted to remove the celebration of “Australia Day” from their calendars as a mark of respect to Aboriginal communities) has led to a similar wondrous backfire.
Bolt’s column was full of vitriol. Accusing the Darebin city council of “totalitarianism” and wiping out “our history” (the “Taliban left”? Really?), he particularly focused on mayor Kim Le Cerf – accusing her of being “sneering” while likening her leadership on this issue to that of Stalin and Mao. He also bemoaned the name change of John Batman Park, which Bolt stated Batman “bought from local Aborigines”. Never mind that Batman paid mainly in blankets and handkerchiefs, Aboriginal concepts of land ownership were different to those of Batman’s, forgery allegations have been raised over the Aboriginal signatures on the treaty and the governor of New South Wales ruled it void anyway.
But exaggerations were not going to stop this column running. What the Herald Sun should have really rethought though was an uncredited cartoon designed to vilify the decision made by Darebin city council: a woman resembling Mayor Le Cerf (but also managing to resemble a number of local Aboriginal sovereignty activists) striking forward with a clenched fist, wearing a beret with a communist star done in Aboriginal colours and an Aboriginal flag in the background. It was adorned with the words “Cultural vandals gaining strength”.
Next thing, lefties were calling for this image and its accompanying words to be put on T-shirts, plastered on billboards, printed as posters and put all over the city. If Bolt’s idea of a “cultural vandal” is a strong woman standing with an Aboriginal flag then frankly, we’re happy to run with it. The stories of this country have been dominated by conservative privileged white men for long enough and moments like these just show how fragile their identities and their grip on power really are.
Let’s get real for a second here. Earlier this year, 50,000 people marched in Melbourne in protest of the celebration of Australia Day. It was not a “change the date” rally, as has been so often misreported by the media, but an assertion of Indigenous sovereignty, a questioning of the celebration of invasion and subsequent genocide and a massive act of solidarity from everyday Melburnians. As the Aboriginal population in Victoria falls well short of 50,000 we can safely assume that most of the people were non-Indigenous progressives marching in support. Considering the current elected composition of both the City of Darebin and the City of Yarra, we can also safely assume that a number of those marchers reside in these progressive councils.
It’s more than this though. Councils are local government and they have a responsibility to represent their constituencies. Both of these councils contain within their borders strong histories of Aboriginal political struggles, and Darebin has the second highest number of Aboriginal residents of any metropolitan Melbourne council.
The signing of the dishonoured treaty of Batman that Bolt mentions happened in one of these two councils. If people want to know some Indigenous history of the City of Yarra, all they need do is take a walk down Gertrude Street and along some side streets where they pass several significant sites such as pastor Doug Nicholls’ church and the original Victorian Health Service. In the City of Darebin, as well as numerous Aboriginal businesses and organisations, sits the Victorian Aborigines Advancement League – the oldest Aboriginal organisation in the country and marked by an impressive historical mural on St George’s Road.
In addition to this history, both areas saw some of the first waves of post-war migration and due to this became vibrant, multicultural localities. All this considered, both the City of Darebin and the City of Yarra have represented their diverse constituencies in a respectful and appropriate manner – no matter how much others wish to pretend that all this culture and history doesn’t exist and we’ve all morphed into Australian flag apron-wearing, sausage-flipping ignorami.
So while I personally feel a lot more work and truth-telling needs to be done nationally before we are even near ready to discuss a date change of Australia Day at that level, I applaud the City of Darebin and the City of Yarra for embracing their history at a local level. If recognising Aboriginal history amounts to “cultural vandalism”, then I know I’m proud of the councillors working in my area as I walk around the streets in my own Aboriginal flag-starred beret.
- Celeste Liddle is National Indigenous Organiser at the National Tertiary Education Union
