Charlie Perkins

I watched a great documentary about Charlie Perkins on TV last night. I knew practically nothing about him before watching the programme, but it was the sort of TV that leaves you with with a lump in your throat.

Having knocked Australian TV in an earlier post I’m forced to retract it (a bit) as it was an excellent show. Unfortunately I discovered that almost everyone at work had watched Biggest Loser (a game show in which people lose weight). How sad.

Charlie Perkins was an aboriginal activist, who in his youth also had trialled for both Liverpool and Man United. He later rose to be Permanent Secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He was throughout his career a critic of the Australian Government’s policies on indigenous affairs and seemed to be a man who told it like it is.

What came across was that Charlie was an incredibly sharp and driven man with a dedicated fight for Aboriginal (and indeed human rights). Amongst others he crossed swords with the loathsome former Prime Minister John Howard and Charlie’s death in 2000 seems to have left a real gap in Australian politics and focus (or otherwise) on aboriginal issues.

I’m no expert on aboriginal issues, and am too unqualified and inexperienced to get into a debate about it. Some things I’ve encountered in my life have been easy to work out from a common sense or moral point of view, others less so.

One thing that constantly puzzles me though is why World Vision is Australia’s largest charity (raising $350m annually) and with the Australian public’s help works hard to help children in Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and India. They obviously do good work there, but there exists a huge social problem on epic proportions on Australia’s own doorstep.

That said I’m not sure if money really fixes every problem. The documentary made the point that white Australia was both increasingly competitive and increasingly capitalist, two things which stretched the boundaries between white and aboriginal life even further apart.

Canberra where we live is a predominantly white middle class town. Aside from a few rare sightings of people in the tented embassy in town you never see an indigenous person during the course of your typical day/week/month.

If people speak in public in Canberra the speaker gives a token recognition that we are on Ngunnawal land (a tribe long since vanished from the region), and occasionally a country show will dig someone out to blow on a didgeridoo, or do a dance but that’s about it.

I’m sure if we lived in Alice Springs my experience would be different (and probably a lot more depressing) but it’s amazing how people are willing to support a happy smiling children’s face thousands of miles away in Cambodia but not one that’s living up the road.

Every stat you read on indigenous/aboriginal life is depressing, drug use, infant mortality, education, life expectancy.

As I say I don’t have any answers, but having learnt a bit more about him, I’m absolutely sure, the world needs more Charlie Perkins'.