This post was first published on 17 November 2010

Buenos dias amigos,
In another century on another continent (Alla lejos y hace tiempo- Far and long ago),
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr822-ap-Mg
my father on occasions hired Toledo’s taxi to travel to the city and buy materials for his engineering workshop. On one occasion Toledo pulled up to ask a traffic policemen for directions. The policeman duly pulled out his directory and studiously leafed through it and then started telling Toledo what he wanted to know. Suddenly without warning Toledo threw the car into gear and sped off. Rather impolite, thought my dad “¿Porque hiciste eso?” (Why did you do that?), “¿No te diste cuenta?” (didn’t you notice?) … “the guy was holding his directory upside down”

On another occasion, a Saturday, dad took me with them. I remember us sneaking in the back door of the warehouse. It was the metal merchant’s Sabbath.

A few years later, dad was weeding his small garden in the Netherlands. A neighbour walked past with his nose up in the air and refused to greet dad. The neighbour was a Christian fundamentalist. It was a Sunday.

Pondering this, I realise that all my life I have witnessed and/or taken part in acts of cross cultural compromise, tolerance and intolerance. What I’m witnessing now in Yuendumu is the most uncompromising intolerant assault on Warlpiri identity in the half a lifetime I’ve lived here.

When I was 12 years old, our school (San Miguél High School) went to a piano concert given by a 13 year old “child prodigy”. I now believe that it was Daniel Barenboim. In a documentary film, Daniel celebrates his “Multiple Identities”.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DdPng_HGoo

In my opinion to deliberately deny multiple identities (and its interlinked multilingualism) to anyone is nothing less than a crime.

Like the Buenos Aires policeman, Warlpiri people often tell you what they think you’d like to hear. Many a public servant has left Yuendumu thinking they convinced a group of Warlpiri people to agree to whatever they were sent to Yuendumu to “negotiate” or “consult”, only to find that they were made “non-core” promises, or that the “agreement” they reached has got very little community support, or that the people that “agreed” had no authority to do so. Anyone that speaks up against such proposals is dismissed as a “troublemaker” and subsequently avoided or ignored. Alternative suggestions are given token recognition “that is a very good suggestion” in a patronising tone of voice (and then unspoken “did you think of this all by yourself?” and with surprise “my oh my but you are intelligent”), and then never mentioned again. “Committees” are continuously being set up whose main raison d’être appears to be to rubber-stamp pre-made decisions.

If you read the Australian press, you will know that a group of Yuendumu people went to Adelaide following a serious “family dispute” the result of a stabbing death in Alice Springs. Several cars were burnt and several houses were trashed at the height of the disturbances. My understanding is that the group originally left for Adelaide to give the grieving family some “space”. The media have since relabelled the dispute a “riot” and have portrayed the group as “fearing for their lives”. The media hype and actions by the authorities have exacerbated the tensions. The outside world has successfully driven a wedge into Yuendumu society, whose social fabric was already unravelling under the relentless assimilationist attack.

I have spoken to a few people that attended a “housing” meeting held in Yuendumu yesterday. To what extent I was told what these people thought I would like to hear, I have no way of assessing.

Five public servants descended on Yuendumu to hold the meeting. Yes, five of them. The houses that were damaged are in the process of being repaired. Territory Housing are paying for the repairs which are (as has become the norm) being carried out by outside contractors. At the meeting it was pointed out that these houses had originally belonged to the Yuendumu Community Council (since “amalgamated” out of existence into the Alice Springs run Central Desert Shire) but had been appropriated by Territory Housing. Ever since these houses were built, people have had rent taken out from their pay or Centrelink payments. Rents have been charged (admittedly at low rates) regardless of how many people were living in any particular house, and there have been quite a few cases of people absent for long periods or living at an “outstation” (which receive no Shire “services”) that have had rent deducted automatically. The Shire gets paid by Territory Housing to carry out certain tasks and functions. It is unclear to me who receives the rent payments.

I’m told that at this meeting the head Government “negotiator” mentioned the word “leases” at least five times. Rental agreements were also mentioned several times. The meeting was purported to be about “what should happen to the houses that we repaired”. Quite a while ago I heard some authority figure (I forgot who) say that “yes we will repair the houses at Yuendumu, but residents will have to sign tenancy agreements”. It was then that I first smelt a rat in relation to this matter. Political opportunism had raised its ugly head.

The meeting in Yuendumu came to naught in as far as it was decided that “before we tackle the housing problem, we should deal with the social problem first”. In other words: “piss off we have bigger fish to fry”. But they won’t, they’ll be back, like an incurable rash.

Yuendumu to date has not agreed to the Federal “offer” of houses (under the SIHIP programme- The Northern Territory’s own “Pink Bats” fiasco.) in exchange for 40 year leases. We are “last man standing”.

“…Not backing down, not giving in

I wouldn’t lose, I couldn’t…..”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOmMZBZGBps

I’ve said it before “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t necessarily mean no one’s out to get you”. When I told my sister this, she retorted “Just because you’re misunderstood, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an artist”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aIhh9nFYv4

Even better, she told me that:

“He who seeks for applause only from without, has his happiness in another’s keeping”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPMYkITzxn0

Adiós
Franklin

PS. el tipo que toca el tambór es geniál, tiene lo que los franceses llaman “joie de vivre” (de-code Google Translate: Spanish to whatever you like)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9wVcuwG-Xw