The following opinion pieces have been published by the President and Commissioners. Reproduction of the opinion pieces must include reference to where the opinion piece was originally published.

One's identity is for the individual to determine

Author: By Mick Gooda the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner

Publication: The National Times, 24 November 2011

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are sick of having their identities interpreted by others, not just colonisers, but other indigenous people. Photo: unknown

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it is our beliefs, our culture, and our family histories that contribute to our sense of who we are and what we mean to others.

They are our source of belonging – and they anchor us and steer our course through our lives.
Given their importance, then, surely it is vital that every individual has the power to shape their own identity – to stand up and say "this is who I am and this is what I believe" without that certainty being challenged?

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For Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, however, this has rarely been the case.

Anyone familiar with this nation's history will know that colonial authorities used Aboriginality – and the extent to which anybody claimed it – as a powerful mechanism of control.

In fact, from colonisation onwards it was the privileged and the powerful that controlled the labels applied to this land's first peoples.

These labels were invariably toxic – with "full-blood", "half-caste" and "quadroon" becoming common parlance; people herded on the basis of their skin colour; children removed from their mothers – all as part of a legislated and unabashed policy to assimilate and, ultimately, to eliminate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity, therefore, was shaped to suit the purposes of the colonisers – self-appointed arbiters of who was indigenous, who wasn't and exactly how much of this identity counted.

Sadly, it is not only voices in mainstream political or media circles that can succumb to these one-dimensional models of Aboriginality. Some members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities also express suspicion of those who do not fit their model of indigenous authenticity — questions of identity becoming a powerful mechanism to run each other down.

Negative behaviour like this is known as "lateral violence".

Often described as "internalised colonialism" and including organised, harmful behaviours that we do to each other collectively as part of an oppressed group, the theory behind lateral violence explains that this behaviour often results from disadvantage, discrimination and oppression.

Already there is substantial acknowledgment across and within communities of the problem that lateral violence presents.

Rather, lateral violence can take the form of malicious gossip or rumour about an individual or family group; the imposition of derogatory labels; or doubts cast over a person's right to belong or to speak for community.

These kinds of negative behaviours, of course, are not unique to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. But what makes lateral violence different for us is that it stems from the sense of powerlessness that comes from oppression – a powerlessness that has been acknowledged in the context of colonised and oppressed peoples around the world.

While Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples deal with broader community ignorance and insensitivity about who is a "real Aboriginal person", it is distressing in the extreme that so much of the venom about identity comes from within our communities.

Disputes over identity can manifest as a form of lateral violence even in processes that were developed to further reconciliation. Despite the undeniable benefits and good intentions in the recognition of native title, for example, the processes developed to establish its existence at law can often inadvertently prompt or perpetuate intra-community conflict.

The most promising overarching response to lateral violence in my view is a human-rights framework based on the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Applying the declaration as a standard would require our internal relationships, and those with governments and other third parties, to contribute to creating communities where each member feels secure in their identity and role. This is because the rights contained within the declaration are about empowering our communities to take control of our destinies.

The declaration also protects our rights to culture. It characterises culture and identity as dynamic – recognising that they can and do change over time.

Any understanding of culture must recognise the diversity within our communities. It is of fundamental importance that this point is grasped – that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders have the right to maintain a cultural identity while also participating in the mainstream. The two are not mutually exclusive.

We call it walking in two worlds, yet our capacity to do this often eludes the understanding of the wider population.

It is time, then, to shed the negative labels – those of the coloniser and those used by communities against each other.

After all, we've been sold the negative stereotype for so long, we've started to believe the hype. It's time to take back control of our rich, resilient, and varied Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity.

For when we celebrate our strengths through our own eyes and in our own words, we enable others to do the same.

Mick Gooda is Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner. He is releasing his 2011 Social Justice and Native Title Reports in Sydney today.



Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/ones-identity-is-for-the-individual-to-determine-20111124-1nwew.html#ixzz1oHt0PnIO