Urban outcasts

As with his Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRAs), which have been a complete national disaster, Brough’s new policies will prove equally as catastrophic.

These views are shared by a significant number of respected Australian Indigenous leaders, and also by many eminent Indigenous leaders world wide, with whom I’ve consulted during the past fortnight.

On the March 27-29 I had the good fortune of being invited to present a paper at the United Nation’s International Expert Meeting on Urban Indigenous Peoples and Migration held in Santiago, Chile.

With no prior working experience with United Nations (UN) forums I decided to discuss UN protocols with Megan Davis, Director of the Indigenous Law Centre, University of New South Wales and renowned international law expert. Megan was most generous with her busy time and guided me through correct processes that she considered prerequisites for successful preparation and delivery of papers to the UN.

After purchasing the Lonely Planet pocket book to do some research on Chile; where it was in South America, the population and climate this time of the year, food, currency, politics and so on, I was ready to take my seat on a flight across the vast Pacific Ocean.

Two days later when I arrived at the United Nation’s centre, ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean), in the fashionable outer Santiago suburb of Vitacura, I was transfixed and in awe of the colourful parade of the swirling international flags off to the right of the entrance.

Once inside the impressive UN building I simply followed the signs, until I arrived at my location and was directed to a seat in the inner circle of a large room. I discovered later that the first circle of seats was reserved for the 26 expert presenters - the outer circles were for non-speaking government officials and non-government organisation (NGO) representatives.

Perched high above the speakers, in small petitioned rooms, were a myriad of interpreters whose role is crucial to the effective running of the conference. On several occasions expert speakers started their paper before the interpreters were ready and were embarrassingly brought to a halt by the presiding chairman until such time as the interpreters were organised. I sat for most of the day with my ear piece in place and control set at station 5 for the English version of presentations.

The general focus of papers was on Indigenous migrations into cities and the problems associated with the maintenance of culture while trying to provide for families in an alien environment.

What I heard was that most of humanity will soon live in cities, and the trend of global urbanisation is irreversible. Cities in general are seen as the engines of economic and social development, creating jobs as well as generating creative civic cultures. Cities today, however, can also generate and intensify social exclusion, limiting the benefits of urban life to the poor, to women, to youth, and other marginalised groups including Indigenous peoples.

I was pleased with my presentation and learnt much from the experience. Some of the pertinent recommendations noted from the forum included:

Improved access to urban services: