'Sorry? Nothing's changed!' Uncle Bob Randall on the national apology - Part 1 of 2

We caught up with Uncle Bob in May'09 while he was in Melbourne and took the opportunity to chat with him and ask him 3 questions:

1. Have you seen any improvements since the Australian Government's Apology (to the Stolen Generations)?
2. What do yo do to maintain your culture; and how can people become part of indigenous culture?
3. In light of the current crises we face - environmental, financial etc - how do you see us progressing into the future?

Filmed by Sheryl and Felipe of PluginTV with TheJuiceMedia. The video is split into two parts for YouTube.

About Uncle Bob:

[from the Kanyini Website: http://www.kanyini.com/subject.html]:

Bob Randall was born in 1934 at Middleton Pond on Tempe Station in the Central Desert region of the Northern Territory. He is a member of the Yankunytjatjara people and one of the listed traditional owners of Uluru. His mother, Tanguawa worked as a housemaid at Angus Downs cattle station for Bob's father, station owner, Bill Liddle. At a young age, Bob was taken away from his mother under government policy, whom he never saw again.

Bob: 'I was institutionalised because I didn't wear clothes or live in a house. In that natural way of living, there was no need for me to have anything other than what I had.'

Bob was sent to the Bungalow Telegraph Station in Alice Springs, which was the receiving home for Indigenous children from Central Australia. Bob: 'They gave me clothes to wear and put me in a house - I didn't like it.'

As a young child, Bob was moved north to the Croker Island Reservation in Arnhem Land. He remained at the reservation until he was 20, working at various jobs, including as a carpenter, stockman and crocodile hunter. While still a teenager, he married Amy, a member of the Amadjera Tribe who had also been stolen from her family.

In the mid-1960s, the family moved to Adelaide, where Bob completed a welfare residential worker's course. Bob: 'A lot of our kids were being locked up in jail at this stage and I thought I would like to help them.'

In 1970, Bob helped establish the Adelaide Community College for Aboriginal people and lectured at the college on Aboriginal cultures. He began to gain recognition for his songwriting in the early 1970s, when his song, 'My Brown Skin Baby [They Took Him Away]' caught the attention of an ABC journalist, David Roberts. This led to the ground-breaking ABC documentary of the same name, which won the Bronze Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and focused national and international attention on the issue of separation. Bob also appeared in the documentary films Buried Country (produced by Film Australia) and Secret Country by John Pilger.

His work with Aboriginal communities has taken many forms. He served as the Director of the Northern Australia Legal Aid Service and established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander centres at the Australian National University, University of Canberra and University of Wollongong. He continues to present his cultural awareness programs at schools and other institutions and in workplaces. His life-long efforts were recognised in 1999 when he was named 'Indigenous Person of the Year' at the 1999 National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Celebration (NAIDOC) awards.

In 2004 Bob was inducted in the NT music hall of fame for having written such classic songs as Brown Skin Baby and Red Sun, Black Moon about the Coniston massacre. Bob is also the author of two books: his autobiography "Songman" and a children's book 'Tracker Tjginji" which was part of the 2004 Sydney Writer's Festival.

Check out the trailer for the film Kanyini - well worth a watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvoAE27I9gg

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[thejuicemedia]

yes, before whites arrived they were 'rich' - in the sense that the concept of 'poverty' was invented, and imported to australia, by europeans. 'Rich' can refer to forms of wealth which have nothing to do with material possessions. But most of us have forgotten this.

[Kerbinpro]

This bloke seems like a nice enough old dude but crikey all these comments.

Troops you need to get a life. I worked for many years in the Aboriginal Industry and I experienced the hate Aboriginals have for whiteys almost every day.

For the sake of your kids BURY THE HATE AND GET ON WITH LIFE!

Kevie Mudd-Slinger only apologised because he wanted to feel good but at the end of the day honestly Aboriginal people just can't get anymore than they do!

YOU NEED TO MAKE A LIFE FOR YOURSELF!

[regalforever]

The government doesn't listen to any people, don't forget that we are all forced to do what the government wants.

[jimbomil1]

Karbinpro, I wonder why they hate whites? It was only 1967 when the Australian Referendum occurred. Thats only half a generation ago. What you have to remember is that they're indigenous people. For over 40,000 years they lived as indigenous people and then only 200 or so years ago white people come and invade the country and introduce english traditions. Think of it in the reverse, if we were to live like indigenous people, we'd be fucked. It's not just as easy as BURYING THE HATE!

[zwiiyt]

@thejuicemedia Apart from the times when aboriginal tribes were invaded and apart from the times when famine struck aboriginals, you were never poor -) Stop bashing whitey.

[artiguista18]

excellent!!!!!!

[brothernumzy]

aboriginals need to start to act for them selfs for to long the black man sits on the dole sayin white cunt this white cunt that but do nothing to change there situation and u can say they disadvantage well thats just lazy i know lots of disadvantage whites who dont get anywere near the fundin abooriginals are given, eg a white is put on work for the dole earn o dallars for 6 months , aborginal can go to cprs mow lawn and maintain there communtie they get wages and quilfications people

[MsAnangu]

@ImSoJohnDeleted Yes I do know that. They also practised sustainable land management.

[ImSoJohnDeleted]

We know we've done wrong... we're trying to improve things (how much money has Australia spent on supporting Aboriginals? Billions of dollars... )

so, what does Bob Randall want from us?

[ImSoJohnDeleted]

@MsAnangu Did you know that Aboriginal people used to regularly practice infanticide? Google it, there's quite a few academic sources that state this is true.

They massacred their own children (up to 30%) due to a lack of resources.. for some reason they didn't grow livestock or plant crops (farms) so they to keep tribe sizes to a manageable size.

[Inconvenientruths]

@SuperPoyda

Hiya SuperPoyda.

Crikey mate you are going to have every civil libertarian, drug addict, cryer, apologist and lefty in Oz after your blood!

Thats why its politically incorrect to tell the truth.

[MsAnangu]

The negative comments towards Aboriginal people is evident that there are some people that lack any historical knowledge of Australias history especially SuperPoyda. It is only recently that the National School Cirriculm compulsively must teach a truthful account of our black history. This will hopefully educate the future generations of Australians who are offspring of the narrow minded and uneducated racist Australians.

I know Bob Randall and he is accepted by his Anangu family.