Doomadgee cesspools condemned
05.12.1998



By: KOCH A Source: QNP



DOOMADGEE and similar Aboriginal communities are ``cesspools'' that should be done away with, according to Aboriginal leader Murrandoo Yanner.
He said this would allow people to live on out-stations away from alcohol.
Mr Yanner said ATSIC had given Aboriginal land councils money to buy land, but they would not allow the people to then occupy that land.
Instead they were forced to stay on communities where, according to Mr Yanner, some council officials were ``ripping off'' administration costs and building up empires because they controlled all the welfare payments made to community people.
``We know Doomadgee is a cesspool of violence, a cesspool of hopelessness and despair and suicides, child abuse and domestic violence,'' he said.
``We know this. We don't want to live like that. Our choice is to go bush.
``But the Government has never ever accepted our choice and ATSIC in particular has promoted the opposite _ so we are forced to continue to live in these circumstances simply for expediency.
``It is easier to count heads and distribute pay and all that crap when everyone is in the same box.''
He said he had seen men badly affected by alcoholism who were chronic child and family abusers, but when they were taken to out-stations away from grog, they turned back into ``cultural warriors''.
``We don't need jail to get that result. They can go bush. That is the future for our mob,'' Mr Yanner said.
Doomadgee chairman Clarence Walden said the overcrowding in his community made it impossible to maintain decent housing, and he also was a strong advocate for people moving to bush out-stations.
Mr Walden escorted South African brothers Samora and Hlumelo Biko around the community, where they were shocked at the filth and squalor.
Mr Walden has been community chairman for nine months.
``At the moment, I have more than 30 people staying in my three-bedroom home and I'm the chairman,'' he said.
``I have been trying to get funding to repair the homes before the wet season is on us, but it is getting too late now. It is just impossible to get co-operation. Contractors come here and bring in their own labour.
``We have 80 percent unemployment, yet we can't get more than one or two workers on buildings being put up on our own community. That's going to stop, I can tell you.''
Doomadgee now has a new community centre at which films are shown and cultural and dance events are held.
The new police station, watchhouse and police residences are all contained within a wired-off compound following riots a couple of years ago.
Police statistics show Doomadgee is one of the most violent communities in Queensland. For many years, young Aboriginal boys on the community bragged that they would commit a crime just to ``go down the line'' _ go to jail.
They reason that the meals are better, a lot of their mates are in there and it is a ``coming of age'' event to go to jail.