Deference Overdone

I have just attended a major health conference somewhere in South East Asia which had delegates from over 40 countries. Australia and Canada were well represented.

I have been to both Australia and Canada many times and I love both countries. But, increasingly, kow-towing to the indigenous peoples is evident. It has moved from polite respect and the occasional vestige of their existence such as totem poles in Canada and, well, nothing in Australia as the indigenous people there built nothing, created next to nothing, and mainly wandered endlessly in ‘the dreamtime’. The Australian aboriginals were nomads; they owned nothing but, ironically, they now own everything.

As a young man, with both Australian and Canadian relatives, I cringed – and still do – at the treatment meted out to the indigenous people. This was especially the case with the Australian aboriginals as it was recent and ongoing at the time. Much of it still is, such as the way a blind eye is turned to the widespread sexual abuse of children within some aboriginal communities. One can be sure that these children, once grown up, will not forgive the white Australians their indolence.

The Canadian Indians fare little better and still, like their American counterparts, suffer social and economic disparity and live shorter lives. Both, like their Australian counterparts, seem to have an undue fondness for and an uncommonly low tolerance of alcohol.

So far, so bad, but not all Canadians and Australians have discriminated against their indigenous brethren. Indeed, many I know have made a life’s work of highlighting the problems of their indigenous people and, more than words, have taken considerable action to improve their circumstances. In my view, they get little thanks in return and their solicitude is often called patronising, colonialist and one of any number of tropes designed to keep the big white menace in its lane, and constantly to remind it of its guilt.

The sense of entitlement among some of the indigenous people, especially in Australia, is palpable. The application of double standards and irony is astonishing. They both take and shun the helping hand offered them. They speak about self-determination, but seem to want massive handouts from the white Australians to achieve it. Thankfully most Australians, including many indigenous people, voted to stop the ridiculous proposals for an Aboriginal style parliament, the Indigenous Voice.

I once visited the ‘Aboriginal Parliament’ one Sunday afternoon in Canberra, hoping to speak to some of the ‘members’. The ‘parliament’ is a ridiculously fragile looking shack at the top of The Mall, which the authorities seem to tolerate. The run-down state of the political HQ of the indigenous people of Australia perhaps gives us some idea of what Australia would look like if they were in charge. Anyway, the ‘parliament’ was closed. It seems even those fighting for indigenous rights need a day off.

But back to my international conference. Many times, in Australia I have heard conference speakers acknowledge that the land we were standing on belongs to the something-or-other people of the something-or-other tribe, and that they acknowledge the elders and so on. All nonsense, of course, as the Aboriginals traditionally owned nothing. Their interest in owning things only became apparent when the big bad white man discovered coal, oil and minerals under the ground. Funny that.

I have been invited to give the ‘acknowledgement’ prior to speeches I have delivered in Australia. I have always refused. Nothing untoward happened.

Here in South East Asia the Australian delegates, most but not all, were issuing the acknowledgement prior to their speeches, even though we were several thousand miles from the land of the tribes and elders. This was a new twist to the tale. Not only are Australians expected to self-abnegate at home, but they must also undergo ritual humiliation abroad.

There was a further twist, additional to the usual acknowledgement, and that was to add words to the effect that they respected the ancestors of the tribe, ‘to whom true knowledge belongs’. I resisted the temptation, even as chair of some of these execrable sessions, to stop proceedings and ask the speaker precisely what that ‘true knowledge’ might be, given that we were at a health conference. Was snake oil and chanting to cure cancer and heart disease ‘true knowledge’, or were we going to stick with surgery and chemotherapy?

Just when I thought it could get no worse, three Canadians took to the stage to give a combined presentation; all women, two of whom were white Canadians and one a first nation Canadian. Think Big Chief Sitting Bull rather than Hiawatha, by the way. True to her ancestor, while the white ladies stood to present, Sitting Bull sat down.

The thrust of the talk was doing whatever it was that the white ladies did, while ensuring that the first nation perspective was considered at every juncture. Sitting Bull contributed, still sitting, by mumbling incoherently into the microphone while people in the audience strained to hear her indigenous pearls of wisdom. The pièce de résistance was the point at which one of the white ladies – surely an umpteenth generation Canadian – described herself and colleagues as ‘white settlers’.

It is obvious, if things do not change, that the white people of both Australia and Canada are finished. Any group of people that has to apologise for its existence has lost its dignity, and can have no future other than to bend over whatever indigenous barrel their first nation people point them to; prostate themselves in front of the false god of endless apology, and seek salvation in domination by people who were, literally, throwing spears at each other and dying even earlier than they are now from all manner of dread diseases until they arrived. Strangely, that was not a theme at the conference.

By all means, let us acknowledge where mistakes were made, help and reparate where appropriate and in proportion. But it is surely time to stop the indigenous tail wagging the guilty dog of the people who have brought economic prosperity, religion, education and health care to countries like Australia and Canada.

John Macnab is a nom de plume.

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