Invasion Day the Way it Should Have Been

Whilst 20,000 people grooved their way around the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds
at the Big Day Out, an alternative music extravaganza, there was a very
special performance happening on the other side of Port Phillip Bay.  There
may not have been 20,000 people but there was a spirit alive, sunshine, two
or three thousand people, good food, plenty to drink, good music to dance to,
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people talking and laughing together, sharing a
beer, sharing a smoke and most importantly, we were rewriting the history
books.

For most Australians, January 26 marks Australia Day, but for Aboriginal
people it marks and will always mark Invasion Day, the day when the white
people came to this country and began the systematic course of genocide
perpetrated on the oldest living culture in the world today.

Down here in Melbourne we don't like to see this day celebrated as a tribute
to the white settlers, the pioneers.  We don't like to see people raising the
flag and singing nationalist songs and praises.  Instead we recognise the day
for what it is and we certainly don't celebrate it, but organise a colourful
nonviolent protest that rewrites history.

This is the third year we have done this and like years before it was a
tremendous success.  After a great deal of preplanning from a small group of
activists we put on an action and concert that demonstrated clearly the
conflict between the white and black history of this country.  The theme for
the day was Pay The Rent, for your use of Aboriginal land and we encouraged
people to acknowledge Aboriginal sovereignty of this country and to Pay The
Rent.

But unlike most open air concerts there was an interesting twist, in the
middle of the day we reenacted the white invasion and told the story the way
it should have been.  So instead of having white settlers come into the land
and forcibly take control of the land and the people, the white people came
to the land and attempted to take control of the area and force their white
Euro-centric values onto the Aboriginal people.  They didn't get very far,
the Aboriginal people on the beach made it pretty clear that they weren't
about to happily hand over their land, their livelihood and their culture. 
Instead they offered to share all these things with these strangely attired
white people.  But there were a few conditions: the white people had to agree
to abide by the lore of the land, recognise Aboriginal people as people, not
as some primitive native bunch, undertake to care for the land and not to
disturb the ecology of the place.  If they did this then they were welcome to
stay and enjoy the country.  In short all the white people with the exception
of Governor Phillip, who looked suspiciously like Melbourne activist Brendan
Condon, agreed to abide by this and to Pay The Rent for their use of the
land.  As for Governor Phillip, he was last seen sailing to the middle of
Port Phillip Bay, alone, and looking very confused.

The rest of the day was filled with a concert featuring a variety of
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal bands and dancers, each performing their own
special message about the land, their connection to the land and to their
people.  All the acts donated their time, which enabled us to organise the
day at minimum cost, it also allowed the non-Aboriginal bands to Pay The Rent
in a different way.

The concept of Pay The Rent has a very long and illustrious history.  In
1835, the British Colonial Office instructed the settlement of South
Australia to Pay The Rent for use of the land, this request was repeated in
1837, this time in Western Australia.  The history books tell us that this
request was NEVER fulfilled.  The concept was adapted and crystallised in the
1970's by Aboriginal activist Dennis Walker, who was at the time working with
the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation. In his works Dennis
encouraged the conscientious white Australians to pay 1% of their gross
income to a local Aboriginal controlled community organisation.  In the
1980's and early 1990's the Koori Information Centre in Melbourne formalised
the process by which non-Aboriginal people could Pay The Rent.

The Pay The Rent Action Group, which is the group who organised Invasion Day
is the result of relationships formed at the Koori Information centre.  The
group which has a white membership, but receives direction and guidance from
Aboriginal people, is determined to promote Pay The Rent in an honest and
forthright way.  We recognise that many non-Aboriginal people are skeptical
of this concept and ultimately of the true history of this country, so
instead of focussing all of our energy on converting the institutions that
spend a great deal of energy maintaining the racist structures that oppress
Aboriginal people, we will be spending our energy on encouraging the wider
community to act with honour and form a meaningful relationship with
Aboriginal people, by Paying The Rent.

Although the Pay The Rent campaign has had many tentative starts, I believe
that the Pay The Rent Action Group will be able to achieve solid results this
year.  We are a small group, and that is not by accident.  After four years
of working with groups of different sizes, I have come to the conclusion that
I am most effective as an activist, when I work with a small group of friends
who have a passion deep in the pit of their bellies and who believe in what
they are doing.  If this is the case the group doesn't have to spend large
amounts of time and energy whipping up inspiration for their members.  And
that is not to say that we will be ignoring our group maintenance
responsibilities, but it will allow us more time to act as a group of people
who are inspired by our beliefs.

The other conclusion that I have reached is that this is the campaign that I
want to work on for a long period of time.  Through my work with the
Aboriginal community, which has been a part of my activism for the past three
years, I have developed friendships and understanding of the issues involved
and the problems that face the community.  I now have the confidence and
maturity to initiate a group and help to lead that group.

Historically the Melbourne nonviolence network has been involved in many
solidarity campaigns, for example the Rainforest Action Group and Australian
Humanitarian Aid for Bougainville and the Pay The Rent Action Group is
another chapter of this important solidarity work.  I think that members of
the Melbourne nonviolence network has collectively a large pool of skills and
resources, which when shared, has the ability to boost struggles of
indigenous peoples.

1993, was the International Year for the World's Indigenous People and was
dominated by the Mabo decision and the Native Title Bill and yet we see very
little has changed for Aboriginal people.  Aboriginal people are still
struggling for recognition as the sovereign owners of this country, they are
still struggling to maintain their right to an education and they are still
struggling against the institutional frameworks that continue to oppress
them.  The Pay The Rent Action Group are determined to make 1994, a different
story.  The time has come to Pay The Rent.

If you would like more information on Pay The Rent and the campaign please
contact: Bernadette McCartney, P.O.Box 222, Fitzroy  3065. Ph. (03) 419 0752.
Bernadette McCartney