Opinions

A few nights ago I was lucky enough to attend the first preview showing of a new play - The Turning, a production that is part of The Festival of Perth on at the moment. It’s an adaptation of the book of short stories by West Australian author, Tim Winton.

I am a huge fan of Tim Winton’s books, with Cloudstreet being high up on my list of favourite books of all time, and the stage production of that book was a fantastic play. The Turning is an incredible book; so beautifully written (as all his books are) - touching, funny, sad and very very West Australian. I guess that’s one of the appeals of his writing, that the stories are set in such familiar places and tell of many familiar experiences. I usually don’t like short stories but this one was an wonderful read, perhaps because the characters were so well-developed even just through the snippets of their lives that we see. The Turning tells the story of the evolution of a family, growing up in a seaside town in WA and then in Perth, the action spanning 30 years or so.

There’s always some trepidation when approaching an adaptation of a much loved book, whether in film or on the stage (although plays always seem to do it a lot better than movies) but this production of The Turning was beautifully done. It was innovative and engaging, the actors were superb and the direction fantastic. I laughed, cried and hung on every word. It was the perfect celebration of the things I love about Western Australia.

I’m not sure exactly what a preview performance is. It was much more than a dress rehearsal, but the tickets were slightly cheaper and perhaps it is a chance for the crew to fix any glitches before the official opening night. The production was quite technical, using video screens to show landscape images (like beach scenes) and as active backdrops. One character delivered her monologue into a handheld video camera which was beamed to the screen. It all worked so well together and really portrayed the locations wonderfully, which are such an important part of the story. We had seats right up the back and were able to see the tears glistening in the eyes of the actor using the video camera. It was very powerful. It was also really funny, with a great mullet-haired character, Ern, with classic Aussie lines such as

“It’s not a f…ing truck, it’s a Landrover!”

All the actors were excellent, with some of them playing multiple roles. The ease with which they switched from one character to the next, often with quite emotional scenes, was impressive.

I can’t recommended this play enough. It was wonderful. If you’re in Perth, do whatever you can to see it. If you’re somewhere else in Australia, find out if it’s coming to you soon. If you’re overseas, I’m sorry . (Actually I saw the production of Cloudstreet in London, so it might end up touring there)

Today is an historic day in Australia, and a day that I am proud to say I am Australian.

Today our government finally apologised to the first inhabitants of this island, the indigenous people of Australia, for the way they were treated by European settlers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

For any non-Australian readers out there, there is a long history of oppression, violence and prejudice against Aboriginal people in Australia. Much like the Native Americans and tribal people in many colonised nations, the indigenous people were badly mistreated when the British settled in Australia.

From the late 19th century to the mid 20th century at least 100,000 Aboriginal and mixed race children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in church missions, orphanages and internment camps on the premise that Aboriginal families were unable to provide proper care and that these children should be assimilated into white society without the cultural history and influence of their own communities. In many cases there was no justification for the removal, no parental permission was given and the children were violently taken from their families, sometimes from hospital straight after birth. In Western Australia, the Aborigines Act 1905 removed the legal guardianship of Aboriginal parents and made their children all legal wards of the state, so no parental permission was required. This was basically institutionalised racism. This group of children has become known as the Stolen Generation.

The problems encountered by the Aboriginal people are a complex issue, but in my opinion a major reason for those problems has been the attitude of white Australia and a reluctance by the former government to take responsibility for the circumstances that Aboriginals find themselves in today. As individuals and as a group, they bear responsibility too for their own situation, but reconciliation and mutual respect are such an important part of the process of resolution.

For their entire period of power the Liberals prevaricated and ducked the question of how to acknowledge the acts of previous governments. They were reluctant to apologise, primarily, it seems for fear of opening the door to compensation claims. I’ve yet to hear an argument for why the government shouldn’t pay compensation to the genuine victims. Just because there may be an enormous amount claims is no reason not to accept responsibility.

It is such a relief to finally have a leader and a party in power who are prepared to make the hard decisions and do what’s right. When Parliament opened yesterday for the first time since the Labor Party took power there was a traditional “Welcome to Country”, which allows the Traditional Owners of the region to give their blessing for an event to take place.

And most importantly, today our government said the word that was so long overdue.

SORRY

Here is the full text of the apology:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations - this blemished chapter in our nation’s history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia’s history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

I cried watching the session of parliament. That’s not something I’ve ever done before! I feel sick at some of the comments the leader of the opposition, Brendan Nelson, made. Today was not a day for political posturing, yet he could not resist referring to compensation and why was it necessary to talk about Australians fighting overseas today? That is a debate for another day and not relevant to the Stolen Generation.

There is still a long way to go and a symbolic acceptance of responsibility is only the first step, but hopefully this is an indication of a shift in the collective attitude of Australians and the beginning of a real attempt to work and live together.

Its great to see a politician making good on an election campaign promise - Kevin Rudd’s first official act as Prime Minister was to formally ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

I am probably being naive; I’m sure there’ll be things our new government does that disappoint me - maybe the distance has curbed my cynicism, but I’m filled with hope and pride for our country at the moment.

How great is it that the new frontbench has a diversity of sex, age, sexuality and race amongst its members? Seven female ministers, our first female deputy prime minister, an Asian-born Australian, an openly gay woman, the youngest minister ever (30) and people of all ages, with young children, older children or no children. There was an even split between those who swore their oath on the bible or gave an affirmation - maybe there’s a chance this cabinet and government can truly represent the diverse Australian population.

I woke up this morning to great news that Australia FINALLY has a change of government. After 12 years in power, John Howard and his liberal cronies can fade into the past and Australia can move on with important things like ratifying Kyoto and getting our troops out of Iraq. Now all we need is the Democrats in power in the US next year and all will be sweet.

OK, that’s enough of my own personal political views. Everyone’s entitled to their own views, its the bedrock of democracy and all that, I just had to express my pleasure at a change in direction for my country.

It’s strange being so far away from home when there’s an election on. I access a lot of news from Australia online and probably get a more balanced dose of current events than I would if I lived in Perth and only read The West Australian, as I used to do. I was up late last night and thought I’d check how the counting was going on the ABC Election site before going to bed. The seat count was a bit mesmerising so I’m feeling a bit bleary eyed today. You know you’re getting old when you stayed up late following the election, not partying till the wee hours. Even though I’ve read a lot of news stories about the election campaign in the last few months, I still feel very removed from it. I didn’t even get the chance to vote, which was pretty disappointing. We “fell off” the electoral roll last year when we sold our house in Australia and moved to Mexico and didn’t manage to get back on the roll in time for the election. I don’t think our vote would have made much difference though since our future electorate (ie the one we’ll be in when we move back home) is a safe Liberal seat.

We hear a lot about the US elections here, with a lot of exposure to US news. I can’t get over the difference in the process, although I guess its not surprising. The US campaign machine is an enormous beast and even though the election is a year away there is a truckload of money being spent by candidates, and only a couple of them will even end up in the running for the presidency. Its incredible to me how much goes into the campaign just to be the nominee for each party (is nominee the right word?). It seems like such a waste for all those billions of dollars to be spent on a candidate who isn’t even chosen by his/her party to run for President. Its an interesting time in American politics, though, with a woman and an African American emerging as frontrunners for the Democratic Party.

By contrast, the Australian elections are very low-key. The parties have been unofficially campaigning for a while now, but the official campaign was only 6 weeks long. Even after that short period everyone must be thoroughly sick of election talk! I can’t imagine if we had to put up with it for another year.

Well, that post gave the old mother’s brain a bit of workout - I can hear it creaking now! Might have to post something about the kids or food or something next, just to even it out

Today I read this post and it got me thinking about why women change their names when they get married. The Legal Soapbox was thinking about it too and the thinking is catching. She was talking about an article by Catherine Deveny in The Age (I use the word “article” loosely here) who can´t understand why Jana Pittman changed her name to Rawlinson. Personally I was more impressed by the fact that she had won the 400m hurdles only 8 months after having a baby than about what surname she had. I have an 8 month old baby and I can tell you, there´s no way I´m even running 400m, let alone jumping over hurdles in world championship winning time.

But I digress….my brother’s new wife has taken his name, which surprised me at first but was a decision I completely respect - it’s her choice after all and who am I or anyone else to say whether she should or shouldn’t. I didn’t change my name when I got married and I still haven’t even after the birth of our 2 daughters. I just could never see any valid reason to do so. I certainly needed a better reason than tradition and I didn’t expect my husband to change his name so why should he expect me to change mine? (he didn’t) Plus I was just too lazy to be bothered with changing credit cards, passports etc (That’s about the only point of Deveny’s that I agree with). However, I don’t feel so strongly about it as to take offense if someone uses my married name. Both our kids have my husband’s surname and it never really seems to cause a problem or confusion because I have a different name. *Most* people are enlightened enough to understand when I explain I didn’t change my name. I certainly wouldn’t judge anyone for choosing to keep or to change their name and opinions like Deveny’s are no more than that - her opinion, which maybe she should be keeping to herself, rather than getting paid to spout. To me the *feminist movement* is essentially about choice and saying that you are “deeply insecure, deeply conservative or deeply stupid” is denying that choice, not to mention offensive.

Here in Mexico, the custom is to have two surnames, both the father´s and the mother´s. Some women drop their mother´s name when they get married and take on their husband´s name after the father´s, with a “de” meaning “of”, so for example Maria Fernandez Ortiz (father´s surname Fernandez, mother´s surname Ortiz) might become Maria Fernandez de Gonzalez if she married José Gonzalez Perez. The only surname carried on is the first one, the father´s. The Mexicans are a little confused when we say we only have one surname. An expat friend with a kid in Guerita´s class was worried people would think she was a single mother because her son only had one surname. Someone once suggested to me that my children might be teased or confused because their parents have different surnames and *people* might think we were not married. Shock Horror! I mean, really, there are a lot worse things than the parents of your child´s classmates thinking you´re an unmarried or single mother! Is this one of the reasons women change their name when they get married - so they can brand themselves as married and therefore acceptable? So far we´ve told Guerita just that Mum & Dad have different surnames, she´s not old enough for this to seem anything other than perfectly normal to her. The plan is that when she and her sister are old enough to understand we´ll explain that some people choose to change their name, some do not, and that all families are different.

So, my decision was not to change my name when I got married. For me, it´s easier than the government red tape of changing my name, and I´m not particularly fussed whether other people make assumptions based on our surnames. I have no problem explaining to my kids why their parents have different names. In fact, hopefully, the explanation we give our kids about how everyone makes their own choices and not all family situations are the same will re-inforce the bigger message we want our kids to have - tolerance of the differences in the world…