No win-win option for Aboriginal Australia

Name: Steve Gumerungi Hodder

Steve Gumerungi Hodder

Age: 30

Family status: lives with long term partner, 2 children

Job: Radio Journalist  

Religion: Lardil (the aboriginal religion of the Mornington Island tribe)  

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It is not before I get to Mbantua, that I face the full complexity of the aboriginal side of Australia. The recent apology of the newly elected Australian government made the international headlines, but other than that, little is known about the aboriginals, who are less than ½ million, or about 2% of Australia's population today. In the Northern Territory, aboriginals account for 30% of population. Steve is one of them.

He tells me - we, aboriginals, are not just running around with spears in our hands any more, which makes me laugh as I'm sitting across the desk form him in his sound proof studio. Steve is a radio journalist at CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) radio station, an aboriginal station that beams from the center of Australia to almost every corner of the country. His show Strong Voices is on aboriginal specific news one hour every week day. I caught Steve at a very busy time - a day before Alice Springs' Mayor and Local council elections. He talks to me in his studio, during the music breaks and in-between him interviewing and aboriginal woman, candidate for the Community counsel, and one of the Mayor candidates.

Steve jokingly calls himself Pomerigine. Pom is the Australian nickname for English. He has English mother and Aboriginal father. He is a bit unsettled about the life style choices he had to make. He tells me he is an exemplary Aboriginal citizen of Australia. He has a wife and two children, a job, a car and mortgage. He is also a writer, an actor and spoken word performer, and a board member of Read Dust Theater. Maintaining this life style, however, prevents him from carrying through his cultural duties as an aboriginal man. Like what, I ask? Very difficult to explain because it varies between cultural groupings, he pauses, but for example if a family member passes away, there would be "Sorry Business" (cultural mourning period) to do. That obviously doesn't go down well with employers. We both pause in contemplation, then Steve's phone rings. I put on the spare set of headphones and eves drop on Steve interviewing a local politician.

After Steve's show is over, we grab a coke drink from the near by convenience store and take a sit in the shade outside. Steve gives me the ABC's of aboriginal culture. Gumerungi, Steve's second name for example is called a "skin name". It gets passed on to every other generation - for example from grand parents to grand children - and it has a great significance to who you can marry and mingle with. More importantly, the skin structure sets up the roles of responsibility (regardless of age). Whoever shares your skin-name is treated as your brother or sister. Who you mingle with is also very important. Once a Lardil aboriginal man is "initiated", for example, he is no longer meant to talk to his sisters. All those "weird" rules, have a logical explanation of course - to prevent incest amongst people that are constantly moving. While aboriginals were not exactly nomads, in the old times, the families moved from place to place, in order to secure food in the harsh environment of Australia.

I want to learn more, but Steve has to go into a meeting with visiting aboriginal students. He says I can tag along and promises to show me some family pictures later. I enthusiastically agree. The students are 15-16 years old and way too shy for their age. It is another thing I learn about aboriginals - they are very humble people. Steve talks about his job and why he loves it. Being a journalist, he says, puts him in a position of power. When you ask a politician a question and put a microphone in front of them, they can't just walk away. You can hold them accountable. His job has also given him the opportunity to go to places and participate in important events. He was in the capital Canberra during the landmark apology speech of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Later, I ask Steve, how he feels about the apology. He tells me that it was a good thing. The symbolism helped him strengthen his spirit, but he had to take it with a pinch of salt, especially, after having attended a rally against the intervention only a day before that. (The intervention is a political initiative that in Steve's opinion has infringed upon aboriginal rights such as suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act in the Northern Territory.) I know where Steve is coming from. I asked the same question to every Australian I met in the past month and a half I spent in Australia. While most people thought that the apology was well overdue, there were people that were very militant that there was nothing to apologize for. And the Outback is a rather remote place in Australia. Here, I've met some rather shockingly racist, and proud of it, Australians. 

The aboriginals nowadays are facing a tough choice - integrate with a mainstream (European influenced) Australia and become a coconut (black on the outside / white on the inside - a derogatory term that suggests that someone is not behaving his own race) or stick to their aboriginal culture and lifestyle, but have no say in what's going on in the country they live in. And, there is a 17 year life expectancy gap between aboriginal and other Australians that needs to be closed too.