This is the first book for lawyer and indigenous activist Noel Pearson. Pearson is a well known Australian commentator on political and indigenous affairs through his frequent television appearances and numerous articles. For this collection, we are presented with a selection of Pearson’s writings from 1987, when the author was a young man of 22, to today.
The major concerns of Pearson’s writings can be broken into two main themes: land rights and the corrosive effects of welfare dependency. The first section of essays, Fighting Old Enemies, deals mostly with the question of land rights.
Australian Native Title and the 1992 Mabo Judgement
In 1992, the High Court of Australia, in the famous Mabo case, found that native title did indeed exist in Australia.
Previously, the concept of terra nullius had been predominant. Terra nullius meant that no one before white settlement had owned the land – it was considered barren and unoccupied.
The original occupants of the land, having no European concept of land title, could hence not be considered in any way to hold legal title to the Australian continent.
Furthermore, as the Aboriginals were never granted status as English subjects, they could have no recourse to the English common law to get redress for their grievances. The land was grabbed; might made right.
When the High Court of Australia overturned the idea of terra nullius, it also stood Australia’s previously understood land title system on its head. It established that the Aboriginal people had been the undisputed owners of the land before white settlement. While this ruling would cause enormous controversy in Australia, freehold and pastoral titles would not be adversely affected in any way.
It is Pearson’s discipline as a lawyer that brings many fascinating insights into the subject of land title. He demonstrates superb skill in examining and explaining complex legal concepts and making them accessible for the common reader.
Here Pearson explains the challenges for native land title claimants:
“Non-indigenous parties to land claims can never lose any of their rights or titles, because these are indefeasible under the common law – and if they were ever invalid, the Native Title Act has now cured any invalidities. The only party that can truly lose in a native title claim is the Indigenous claimant. The non-indigenous parties – including the Crown – have nothing to lose, other than an argument to the effect that the Indigenous people have no entitlement.”
The Corrosive Effects of the Welfare State on Indigenous Australians
The other subject that Pearson tackles through his writings in this volume are more personal. The degradation of indigenous communities through drug and alcohol abuse is something he has seen at close quarters in his own community of Hope Vale.
The 1970s ushered in many positive legal and constitutional changes for indigenous Australians. The flip side of this positive was to push them more and more into welfare dependency. Whereas before this period of political enlightenment day to day existence had been hard for indigenous Australians, they could at least work and be self-sufficient. Now, however, indigenous Australians are on a constant welfare drip and do not participate in the broader economy. They are permanent dependents, and this has had a devastating effect.
Pearon’s Solutions to the Problems of Welfare Dependency
Pearson’s solution to this is simple in theory, if not difficult in practice. He says the left wing ideological bias toward handing out welfare has – whether this was intentioned or not – entrenched misery for Aboriginal people.
The reality now is that the Australian economy is a capitalist one, and for indigenous Australians to succeed, indeed to prosper, they must carve out for themselves a position as participants in the economy. Participation in the economy necessarily means the acceptance of responsibilities along with the enjoyment of rights (one essay is titled “Our Right To Take Responsibility”).
While it is imperative that indigenous Australians become active participants in the Australian economy, accepting the disciplines and responsibilities that the economy imposes, indigenous Australians must also retain their culture and heritage.
The Importance of Aboriginal Australians Becoming Bicultural and Bilingual.
Pearson discusses the importance of his people learning to become ‘fully bicultural and fully bilingual.
“It is about the ability to walk in two worlds,” writes Pearson. “To prosper, Aboriginal Australians will have to be integrated into the national and global economies. But we also want to remain distinctly Aboriginal and to retain our connection with ancestral lands.”
While land rights and the economic status of indigenous Australians are at the centre of Pearson’s concerns, he is also a talented political analyst. There are many essays in this collection which provide compelling portraits of major Australian political players, most notably former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating. The volume ends with three pieces on Australia’s current prime minister Kevin Rudd.
The lecture provided for the Ben Chifley Memorial Lecture, The Light on the Hill, affords a penetrating look at the creation of the welfare state by the politically organised working class of previous generations. The ideas put forward in this essay are both original and insightful. Up From the Mission is worth getting just to read this essay alone.
This first collection of selected writings from Noel Pearson will provide much intellectual food for thought, and will challenge political partisans from both the left and the right. For anyone wanting to learn about the political and cultural struggles that go on in Australia today, but are rarely given much media coverage, Up From The Mission is an excellent place to start.
Published June 2009, by Black Inc. Books.
Chris Saliba - Chris Saliba is a freelance writer. Read more of his workplace articles at chrissalibafreelancewriter.blogspot.com
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