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straight to the top An Intervention prepared by Jenny Fraser, Panangka Production, for:
9th Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 19 -30th April 2010, NYC, USA.
* Special Theme – Indigenous Peoples: development with culture and identity; Articles 3 and 32 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I would like to congratulate the Australian Government for following through on the official Apology to the Stolen Generations with the announcement that an interim team would assist with consultation towards the development of a Healing Foundation. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation Development Team recognizes cultural renewal as part of a spiritual process towards healing. “For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples to properly heal, they will need to re-connect to, and strengthen their sense of cultural identity. This may involve language, dance, song and custom, but this does not have to be only in a “traditional” context.”
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healing Foundation Team Discussion Paper, 2009, FaHCSIA, http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/indigenous/progserv/engagement/HealingFoundationDevelopmentTeam/Pages/DiscussionPaper_ATSI-HFDT.aspx
Australia looks to Canada, where they already have a Healing Foundation and importantly, it was established as an Aboriginal-managed, national, not-for-profit private corporation that was independent of Government, yet representative of Aboriginal Organisations. If Australia is genuinely interested in “Closing the Gap” on the appalling health statistics that exist between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians, the Government may look at relinquishing control to let us be the masters of our own domain, allowing Aboriginal management to drive the proposed development of the Healing Foundation.
So far however, Australias current commitment of $26 million to be used only towards a consultative process for the Healing Foundation (with no further investment towards infrastructure or programs) follows on from extensive reports over the past decades including the Womens Taskforce on Violence Report, The Gordon Inquiry Report, The Victorian Indigenous Family Violence Taskforce Final Report, The Western Australian Child Health Survey, The Little Children Are Sacred Report and The Bringing Them Home Report among others. The findings in these reports should be enough to provide the basis for the alarming need for commitment towards considerable compensation, especially given the importance of “moving-on” in the public discussion about the Apology.
As Chairperson of the Townsville Indigenous Human Rights Group, Gracelyn Smallwood has commented post-Apology “My expectation was that culturally appropriate programs would be put in place to address the trans- generational trauma that has been passed down. That day opened up a lot of wounds. If you’re going to make such an incredible statement you’ve got to have infrastructure in place to follow on. They did this in Canada and South Africa. Unfortunately we’re not seeing any of those fruits.”

However, let us not mistake these calls for action as another good excuse for struggling mainstream (non-Indigenous) arts organisations to prop up their own program with the Aboriginal Dollar or fund their own unique Aboriginal experience or indeed expect to draw on the resources of already stretched Indigenous communities. Instead allow us to utilise compensation funding to get on with it ourselves. Because without the qualities espoused by certain Aboriginal Artists and others at the community level, there is no spirit of striving and no capability of improving the lot for self or others, for there is no vision and no confidence to transform the vision into reality. The vision is that our humanity might be more than it is.

Arts for Healthy Communities, Big Story Country: great arts stories from regional Australia 2008, Regional Arts Australia, p46
The Healing Arts have the expressive potential for us as a multitude of Aboriginal cultures to enable and effect change for ourselves, while also participating in the mainstream social constructs known as “health”, “culture” and “the arts”. Utilising the potential of the Healing Arts, by using the old and new ways, making art and putting a high value on storytelling as a way of bringing cultural values into the mainstream, is a holistic approach towards wellbeing, as well as a way of participating in society and having an authentic Aboriginal voice.
It is therefore highly recommended that the Australian Government provide a meaningful injection of monetary investment towards the proposed Healing Foundation and also instigate a health and wellbeing regeneration in which contemporary Aboriginal cultural practice and healing arts should naturally be the spearheard.
image: the General Assembly at the ninth United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, 2010, day 1
more info on the United Nations PFII http://www.un.org//esa/socdev/unpfii/index.html
Posted by jenny fraser at 2:50 PM No comments: Labels: 2010, Aboriginal, Arts, digital storytelling, Government, Healing Foundation, Indigenous Issues, Talking Circle, Torres Strait Islander


Road Kill These works are part of a wider series titled 'hit the road' which are all based on roadkill of native animals on lands in the Bundjalung Nation that encompass a diversity of terrain to include rainforest and coast. The photographs highlight the distinct beauty of our animals, even in their death, and are also symbolic of how native people are treated by wider society in Australia - widely ignored and denied after impact, just like road kill.
With regard to the power of communication between people, the Super Highways and other road networks of Australia now could be likened to the ancient songlines of old, but with such devastion caused by our thoroughfare, what song are we offering to the victims? A death march? Clearly the minds of progress do not have much consideration for the movements and habits of our animals. showing at the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, New York City, USA,
opening April 20 until June
see the previous works : 'Hit the Road' 2005
and the essay:
Posted by jenny fraser at 2:21 AM No comments: Labels: bundjalung, conceptual art, contemporary art, kangaroo, land mullet, photography, rainbow lorikeet, road kill, seagull
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