A Wise Word

Nan always told me to be true to my inner self. I didn’t understand, and she died a long time ago – so no chance to check what she really meant after I grew up enough to think about it. I saw her picture yesterday – a young woman (tin-type, uploaded on someone’s genealogy site, so a relative?) with dark hair and straight fingers; tall and proud and dark-skinned. A tan? No.

Do my relatives who uploaded her picture really understand who she was? Did they find the piece of paper – a card – that gave permission for her to associate with ‘citizens’ (read white people) and to work in that city?

As a young kid, I always thought she was brown because she worked outside a lot – gardening, walking to the beach to collect the crab pots and seaweed (for the garden); cleaning for ‘old’ people (usually younger than she was). I didn’t understand. I didn’t think anything of it, and I thought the people who treated her ‘that way’ did it because she was a cleaner.

Now I see a different picture. I see how things have not changed. On the surface, maybe, but in depth? Not at all.

In Australia, how many people are unemployed? White, or non-Aboriginal >25yo is approx. 5-7%; 25yo is approx. 53% + 27% non-participant (something wrong with those numbers? Check employment figures of 2% for aboriginal people);

The numbers are not presented in the same manner or construct as the ‘normal’ stats. Why? Is it so bad? What are the problems?

Education, training, skills – yes; perception – big problem! Location – yes; but the biggest problem? Discrimination and poor health.

Only once in my life did I put on a job application form the tick that identified me as ‘ATSI’ – can you guess what happened? It got me an interview. It got me rudeness (‘you don’t look Aboriginal’ and that sideways look that says ‘you’re a liar’). Job? No.

This is only one example. There are many examples out there: discrimination by race, by accent, by age, by locale, by educational institution (or lack of), friends (yep, you gotta know somebody) – still happening.

Parochialism – the idea that if a person isn’t local, they aren’t good enough – is rampant. In sports, in housing, in employment. It also applies to community, race and level of courtesy extended.

We are all one – humans who originated in the same place, from the same moment of history. Marking difference marks the one who makes the difference! Different is only difference, it is not separateness. We (the other) are not aliens, not from another planet, not going to eat your children or steal your food or kill you in your bed.

Think – if you were the one who was in a situation where you are one of the few (oh, so few), would you like someone to help you stand up? Support you in your need to be independent? Help you become part of the community?

Yes?! So do it. Not words – actions! Now.