http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com Colin McKinnon-Dodd Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:23:21 +0000 http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com en http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/A-Grim-Picture http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/A-Grim-Picture Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:23:21 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2051654 A grim picture, say Aboriginal artists of their city stay. A group of central Australian Aboriginal artists has been housed in isolation in the Dandenongs and left there short of money or transport, according to neighbours. There they lived, the neighbours said, while producing paintings worth at least $100,000 for a Bourke Street gallery. Their situation was uncovered when, complaining of cold and illness, they sought help from a neighbour. Neighbour Sue Wheatland said she lent the group, led by painter Adrian Young, a heater, and arranged extra clothing and food for them. "Some of the older ladies have no English," she said. "They were totally isolated. They had no car, no money. They were frightened to use the phone in the house. They were coming to my house to use the phone. "We were just so concerned for those people. They were lovely family people." Ms Wheatland said she contacted Aboriginal Affairs Victoria and was informally referred to Colin McKinnon, the director of another gallery, where the group has been staying this week since fleeing the original accommodation. Ms Wheatland said the artists became frustrated when their sponsors - Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Galleries, in Bourke Street - had difficulty arranging their return home for a funeral, and asked to be removed from the Sherbrooke house. She said she had been aware of the group for about three weeks. Adrian Young said he had been told to stay at the Sherbrooke house "and paint in the room". He said the group was promised $25,000 for three months' work, but was still owed money by Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Galleries from a previous trip. Mr McKinnon said 62 paintings produced by the group were worth up to $300,000, but Tony Hesseen, proprietor of Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Galleries, put their value at $100,000. Mr Hesseen defended the treatment of the group, whom, he said, had been to Melbourne before without complaints. Mr McKinnon said he paid $1600 in air fares for the group to return home for "sorry business". They are due to leave Melbourne today. Mr Young said yesterday he would never work for Mr Hesseen again. Another central Australian painter, Mitjili Napurulla, has been brought to Melbourne by Original and Authentic Aboriginal Art Galleries, to the distress of her community at Mount Liebig, 340 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. Mount Liebig community art co-ordinator Glenis Wilkins said Mitjili's septuagenarian husband, Long Tom Tjapanangka, was frail and fretting for his wife. If he were to die while she was away, tribal law would dictate that Mitjili be severely beaten for abandoning him. Adrian Young, left, and neighbour Sue Wheatland, who arranged extra clothing and food for the group. Constable Barry Bahnert, of the NT police, said he had investigated concerns from Mitjili's family about her whereabouts, but by the time he spoke to family members last weekend, they had heard from her, and knew that she was well. Mr Hesseen said Mitjili was happy in Melbourne, and was due to return home on October 6. But could return sooner if necessary. Mr Hesseen said the artists were not isolated, as he had visited them every second day and acted as their driver for outings. "We spent $637 on clothing from St Vincent de Paul for them," he said. "Every room has a heater. Every heater was turned on. I have been taking them to the doctor, I have been taking them on outings." The Sherbrooke group had been offered a choice of places to stay, and opted for the Dandenongs. He said he had spent $22,000 on travel, art materials, accommodation, food, medical care and entertainment. He would pay $11,000 for the paintings produced so far. "The treatment they get when they are down here, it far outweighs any services they would get in their own community," Mr Hesseen said. Mr Hesseen said he had been bringing Aboriginal artists to Melbourne to paint for six years, but: "This is probably the last time." Bill Nuttall, the director of Niagara Galleries, said he would not assume travelling to the city was accepted practice among indigenous artists. "It's a matter of what the artist wants," he said. "The Aboriginal or indigenous artists I show as part of my gallery all prefer to remain in their own environment. In my experience, that's where the best work comes from." A grim picture, say Aboriginal artists of their city stay. A group of central Australian Aboriginal artists has been housed in isolation in the Dandenongs and left... http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Aboriginal-works-and-artful-dodgers http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Aboriginal-works-and-artful-dodgers Sat, 24 Sep 2011 21:03:35 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2051610 See the full article online available on The Age's Website. See the full article online available on The Age's Website. http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Indigenous-sacrifice-for-mining http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Indigenous-sacrifice-for-mining Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:34:05 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2047015 This article was first published at ABC Online's Indigenous Voice Website. Few non-Indigenous Australians understand the depth of connection between my people, their land and our Dreamtime. It has been interwoven by tens of thousands of years of family life, cultural practice and sacred ancestral burials. Our heritage is the country that we walk on and live with. It is deeply embedded in our cultural identity. Every culture is motivated to preserve their history. Despite being so much younger in comparison to Aboriginal culture, Western culture has serious laws that protect its sacred places and religious sites. This protection stops many activities like abseiling down St Patrick's Cathedral or setting up camp at the Shrine. Yet Western laws do not accord anywhere near the level of respect for sacred Aboriginal land. They allow tourists to climb the most sacred of sites, Uluru, and they allow for mining to occur on sacred land. Can you imagine the extent of trauma experienced by my people when the family/land connection is severed? The impact of this separation can be too devastating for any amount of monetary compensation. In perspective, it would be far less painful for the chief executive of Fortescue Metals, Andrew Forrest, to be forced to give up his house for a pittance, watch his church demolished and his family gravesite dug up. 2011 is a critical time in relation to issues of mining royalties, tax and Aboriginal rights. It is now clear that after many decades of open slather, miners have become used to bloated profits far in excess of what they were entitled to; firstly because of exploitative and unfair treatment of Indigenous people and secondly because governments have seriously under-taxed them in the past. Indeed governments have been paying welfare to traditional landholders to make up for the debt that miners should have been paying. It has led to a scandalously inefficient welfare system that has been weighed down by excessive bureaucracy and a regime of sit-down money that has caused irreparable damage. For too long bucketloads of money has been misdirected and wasted rather than invested in the future. There are two salient facts about mining in Australia: Aboriginal people have been forced to make far bigger sacrifices than anyone else to accommodate mining. Mining has brought fewer benefits to Aboriginal people than to anyone else. Many of these issues, which have been 'invisible' for so long, must now be placed onto the agenda. After several decades of lost opportunities, there are some dreadful imbalances that need to be redressed. There is no question that this conundrum should have been resolved long before the current debate about the carbon tax and the super-profits tax. But unfortunately a combination of incompetence, greed and short-term power politics has sabotaged the solution; which of course has suited the mining industry. The great concern for Aboriginal people is that they will miss the boat - that these two highly legitimate taxes will take precedence over the most important tax of all - a fair and just royalty system for traditional landholders. It is high time to raise the status of Aboriginal people at the negotiating table. The Mabo decision acknowledged our rightful place as 'stakeholders'. We've got to stop being seen as 'recipients' and start seeing ourselves as landlords. Miners cannot be trusted in this deregulated environment. They need to be regulated by appropriate legislation to stop them from exploiting Indigenous people. Negotiators for traditional landholders, in our case the Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation, need to be reminded that they represent the interests of all tribal people and carry a huge responsibility to negotiate for fair and competent outcomes - this has not happened in the past. Currently they are paid either by the Government or the miners - and often their loyalties are determined by those that pay them. Negotiating terms also need to be redirected - away from welfare handouts and sit-down money, and towards more proactive involvement. Whatever happened to allocation of shares in the industries that service the boom? All future mining deals must include Indigenous people as participants in the service industries to ensure that Aboriginal people receive the necessary training and experience to become self-sustainable. Miners should be permitted access to our land only when deals are equitable and benefits are widespread. One mining company that appears to be the most progressive and balanced is Rio Tinto. Their superior awareness has led them to strike a $2 billion deal with traditional owners and prompted them to commit to employing at least 14 per cent of its workforce with local Aboriginal people. Rio Tinto's chief executive Sam Walsh said: "It's good for the Aboriginal community. It's good for our business. It also happens to be the right thing to do." Yet while the deal is impressive, there could be a sneaky devil lurking in the detail. Rio Tinto has cleverly commissioned experts to create a package deal - instead of negotiating one mine at a time they have sealed up 40 mines with the one deal. Their public presentation has been cosmetically enhanced by multiplying payments of $50 million a year for 40 years to equal an impressive looking $2 billion. This is the closest that we get to the middle ground. In contrast to Rio Tinto's real slice of pie is an insulting offer of a lonely breadcrumb from Fortesque Metal Group to the Yindjibarndi people. Fortesque's offer of just $4 million cash and $6 million on housing from billions of dollars of profit equates to less than 4 cents in every $1,000. This represents a continuation of the darkest days when mining companies ruthlessly pursued advantage at the expense of traditional owners. Yet Mr Forrest says that he is a friend of Aboriginal people and a philanthropist. He says that the more time he spends with Aboriginal people the more he loves them. In truth all this is making us nauseous and wary. If he genuinely wanted to make a difference he could single-handedly liberate Aboriginal people from third-world conditions. Yet Fortesque is applying for the right to mine more than twice the land of BHP and Rio Tinto put together. Aboriginal people are closely watching Mr Forrest and his close friendship with WA Indigenous Affairs Minister Peter Collier. Mr Collier is soon to be adjudicating over whether or not to grant an exemption to Fortesque Metals and enable mining on sacred Aboriginal land. Where are the safeguards to protect sacred sites and to uphold the integrity of the governmental decision-making process? Aboriginal people want the following to be implemented: We want Mr Forrest and Fortesque Metals to hand their existing leases to BHP or Rio Tinto. There should be an international body that protects the integrity of land negotiations with Aboriginal people. Government decision-making processes need to be fireproofed against the influence of big business interests. Aboriginal people should have equal access to Government decision makers. A second daily newspaper needs to be established in WA to provide diversity of opinion and balance on Indigenous issues. This article was first published at ABC Online's Indigenous Voice Website. Few non-Indigenous Australians understand the depth of connection between my people,... http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/The-Mining-Agenda http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/The-Mining-Agenda Fri, 23 Sep 2011 09:22:52 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2046984 The mining agenda from a Yamatji perspective This article was first published at ABC Online's Indigenous Voice Website. The mining industry deserves credit for contributing to the success of our society and for improving quality of life. It has been brilliant in maximising its efforts and investment through the transformation of minerals into benefits. But there is a lingering travesty that has created a raft of problems; the people that benefit least from mining are the people removed from the land to allow it. Indeed the mining industry's track record with Indigenous landholders is appalling. Time and again the big miners have shown that they cannot be trusted in their negotiations with Aboriginal people. For a very long time economic giants such as Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortesque Minerals have been taking advantage of their negotiating power with traditional owners in Australia and overseas. The vast majority of the deals have occurred in a ‘David and Goliath' scenario. On the one side, a team of mining magnates, expertly-trained negotiators and top lawyers have been armed with technology and strategic action plans. They routinely have access to and support of politicians and have often indulged in ethically-flawed tactics to divide the other side. The other side has usually consisted of community representatives without the training or skills to negotiate at this level, many of whom could not even read. It was the same farcical situation that led to the vast land of Melbourne being handed over in return for blankets and scissors. This has resulted in uniformly and outrageously lop-sided arrangements in favour of mining companies - the history of mining is littered with such travesties. But if you added up all the money that has gone on tax-payer funded welfare it would resemble much of the money that mining companies should have been paying traditional owners. The taxpayer has been subsiding the mining industry's moral debt. Every year billions of tax-payer dollars are squandered into reimbursing what the mining companies should have been paying. Every year traditional owners continue to be fleeced of hundreds of millions of mining royalties that should rightly be paid to them by the mining companies. It is now time to address this appalling situation, regulate the behaviour of mining companies and ensure that more equitable deals are established with Aboriginal people. Legislators need to investigate better options. Clearly there is a case for a mining tax – but priority should be given to allocating the first money raised by it to those displaced from their lands to allow mining to take place - the traditional owners. Yet welfare can only be part of the answer. There is a more exciting option that would engender new life into the future of Aboriginal people: investing in private enterprise partnerships with the local people - and there is a working precedent. During the oil boom in Saudi Arabia, big companies were behaving as mining companies usually behave, making their profits, taking them off-shore and importing their own workforce to mine the oil boom on the homelands of tribal people. This occurred until one member of the Saudi royal family identified the iniquity of the working scenario, stepped in and called in experts to create a profit-sharing model. Private enterprise was directed to forge new business models that were more equitable. This included part-ownership of the service industries with traditional tribes-people. Tax concessions were given as a lure for companies from outside Saudi Arabia to participate and they were required to educate, train and include the local tribal people in the business enterprise. This model is a beacon for best practices and has been operating for 25 years. It has liberated Saudi tribes-people from the third-world conditions that they were living in. Such models need to be established in Australia. Why has Australia been so slow to implement this kind of model? Because of the power of the mining companies. But there is now a model for Australia. Both Rodney Little and I are traditional land owners from Geraldton and we have created the "Four Fish model" for the Oakajee Port and Rail project in Western Australia. We have consulted with the same professionals that created the Saudi model and adapted it to Australian conditions. This model has been endorsed by the Amangu Claim Group. But to date there has been a lukewarm response from Western Australian and federal politicians. Perhaps they are concerned about a similar backlash from the mining companies as occurred in 2010. But the current system is a bleeding mess and only the mining companies are benefiting from it. This economic boom should be presenting Aboriginal people with the opportunity break out of the welfare cycle. Just like in Saudi Arabia, the socio-economic gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people can be erased after just one or two generations. But this can only come with economic empowerment via ownership of some of the economic pie and participation in the service industries. The Mabo decision rightly acknowledged Aboriginal people as traditional owners of their land. They have a fundamental right to benefit from the wealth that lies within their land. The mining companies have a fundamental obligation to share their profits with traditional owners. The mining agenda from a Yamatji perspective This article was first published at ABC Online's Indigenous Voice Website. The mining industry deserves credit for... http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Interview-with-Clifford-Possum http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Interview-with-Clifford-Possum Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:54:44 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2046851 http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here-3 http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here-3 Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:43:06 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2033536 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033536/_DSC0011_640.jpg" width="640" height="419" width_o="2048" height_o="1341" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033536/_DSC0011_o.jpg" data-mid="10115131" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here-2 http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here-2 Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:33:06 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2033521 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033521/_DSC0008_640.jpg" width="640" height="381" width_o="2048" height_o="1220" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033521/_DSC0008_o.jpg" data-mid="10114966" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Artwork-Title-Here Tue, 20 Sep 2011 23:17:45 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2033473 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033473/P10105781_640.jpg" width="640" height="340" width_o="2048" height_o="1088" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033473/P10105781_o.jpg" data-mid="10114822" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Emu-Egg-Carving http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Emu-Egg-Carving Tue, 20 Sep 2011 22:06:58 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 2033221 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0057_640.jpg" width="640" height="428" width_o="2048" height_o="1370" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0057_o.jpg" data-mid="10114341" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0064_640.jpg" width="640" height="428" width_o="2048" height_o="1370" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0064_o.jpg" data-mid="10114297" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0068_640.jpg" width="640" height="428" width_o="2048" height_o="1370" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0068_o.jpg" data-mid="10114313" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0069_640.JPG" width="640" height="428" width_o="2048" height_o="1370" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/4/141467/2033221/_DSC0069_o.JPG" data-mid="10113738" border="0" align="left"/> http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Interview-Colin-McKinnon-Dodd http://www.colinmckinnon-dodd.com/following/colinmckinnon-dodd.com/Interview-Colin-McKinnon-Dodd Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:51:14 +0000 Colin McKinnon-Dodd 1877685 Source: Made by Hand Source: Made by Hand