Goolum Goolum Aboriginal Co-operative Newsletter

JUNE 2020

Ceo Corner CEO corner Spread the message – not the virus:

Sticking together

Every week I will repeat the message – stay safe

Keep your distance - social distancing is still the key!

Gather if you need to – provide support to immediate family etc...

Only travel if you absolutely have to.

Congratulations to the H&WB team who organised the Run Rona activity – absolutely delighted to

see so many of our community out and about on the weekend – and all looking good!!

https://www.health.gov.au/resources/apps-and-tools/covidsafe-app#how-covidsafe-works

Reconciliation week:

Thanks to our board members for their reflections which come from their lived experiences and

own insights – the message is clear to all that there is still a long way to go to achieve true recon-

ciliation and that reconciliation can only be endorsed by Aboriginal people. We are a very rich, sta-

ble and democratic nation and we only have to look at the Governments response to the recent

Bushfires and Covid-19 across both State and Federal jurisdictions to understand the enormous

capacity we have as a nation to deal with crisis, matters of life and death to understand that we

can and should do so much more to deliver justice, equality and opportunity to Aboriginal people.

We don’t have to look far to see what centuries of racism, bias and disadvantage can do to socie-

ties. I think it was Ghandi who said “the greatness of a nation can be judged by how it treats its

weakest member”. We can do so much better and the optimist in me says we will do so much

better – as long as we are in this together.

Ants

KEY CONTACTS: All staffs are now working from home – but we are all contactable.

Our CEO (Ants) Mob: 0413 529 999

Our Clinic: 5381 6330

Family Services: Luke Baker (Mob: 0439 691 609) Renee Secombe (Mob: 0439 135 368)

HACC clients: Johnny (Mob: 0417 665 169) Dee (Mob: 0429 898 942) Kylie (Mob: 0429 879 297)

Health & Wellbeing: Dean (Mob: 0429 873 726)

Hi all,

Appointments

We are continuing with telephone consults when possible and are

now offering video consultations as well- please discuss when ring-

ing reception to make your appointment.

Vaccinations

We still have flu vax in stock so please contact us to make an ap-

pointment. During this COVID-19 virus, it is so important that as

many of us as possible are vaccinated. The flu season is nearly up-

on us.

Allied Health

Gayle our Diabetic Educator will be attending this Wednesday 3rd

June so if anyone would like an appointment please ring reception

to book in.

Take care,

The Clinic Team

Reconciliation week 2020 In This Together

In This Together, pretty ironic that they came up with this slogan last year and it means so much more this year with the current situation we are in due to the pandemic happening. Normally I would talk about the week and what it means to us as Aboriginal people and myself but in light of a link that was sent to me by Robbie Fry I will share a cou-ple of stories and I‟ll get to Reconciliation later in this piece. Before I clicked on the link I was thinking “I wonder what funny clip this will be” as Robbie usually sends me funny clips from YouTube or Facebook, but as it turns out it was so far on the opposite side of the spectrum. As I watched what unfolded I thought to myself, I‟ve never seen anything like this and yet again it ended with another African American man killed by the police in America. There is a lot of similar incidents in Australia where people of authority have treated Aboriginal people terribly and continue to do so in places around the country and some have resulted in death with no one held responsible also. This clip was different though and it was truly hard to watch and it took me a while to get to sleep that night. Whilst laying there I started to think of how myself and other young Aboriginal boys were treated which started at age 13 when Mum, Colin and I moved back to Horsham in 1995. I also thought about how we are treated by people of authority, community service organisations, government departments and people in general. When we were kids we‟d get pulled over and searched whenever they seen us, one of us even got strip searched at a Blue Light disco. It was the second time I went and also the last. We were lined up and searched near the BP up near the bridge. They said “What are you doing here? You‟re on the wrong side of town and we shouldn‟t be there”. Robbie and I also got accused of drinking in public when we were ordering a pizza and carrying chocolate milks. Things got worse as I got to my 20‟s. Some of the lads started getting into some trou-ble, majority of us didn‟t, but that didn‟t matter because to the police, if we were to-gether in a group, we were ALL guilty by association. We were even labelled a gang because all the Aboriginal boys would be together in social situations. Again they did-n‟t treat the non-Aboriginal groups like that. Stereotyping of Aboriginal people is a huge problem and goes back to the points

above. Being an Aboriginal male I hate when all Aboriginal males are labelled as alco-

holics, drug addicts, perpetrators of family violence and rapists. Then there's the ones

where we all receive free money, cars and houses. I don‟t know where non-Aboriginal

people come up with this but it sure gets a lot us angry. What is even more stupid is

that non Aboriginal people swear they know the Aboriginal people who are getting

this „free stuff‟.

The police aren‟t the only ones, there is child protection and this is a bad one. Whilst Victoria is making some changes to the way they deal with Aboriginal people and how kids are placed, we still have way to many children in out of home care. I know there are certain circumstances where this needs to happen but in smaller towns it is different. In smaller towns you‟re judged differently particularly if you have a bad reputation or someone in your family does, you have a certain last name and if they knew you from school. It‟s almost a universal approach to Aboriginal people and affects us when we go to service providers or even trying to get private rental, particularly in a small regional town like Horsham. Let‟s touch on the education system, there are a lot of problems but the glaringly obvi-ous is not changing the curriculum to learn Aboriginal history. How can one of the most important parts of Australian history be glossed over and not even mentioned? Australi-an history doesn‟t start when Captain Cook arrived. With all these problems every time a prominent person of colour stands up for any so-cial injustices they are ridiculed pretty quickly. Look at what they did to Adam here in Australia and also an African American man by the name of Colin Kapernick. He took a knee during the national anthem in America to raise awareness to police brutality and the people in power over there slammed him. Not everyone is bad though but individuals have the freedom to make a choice in how they behave. Unfortunately they don‟t always pick the right one. Reconciliation is a journey and it involves all of us. For there to be true change so that Aboriginal people are accepted as equal, all of us need to be In This Together.

Johnny Gorton

Chairman

Reconciliation Week - In This Together From walks of life, you see me and I see you. Then I realise you, is me and I are you. Educate yourself of Aboriginal people and what once was. Then I an Aboriginal won’t need Reconciliation. In This Together Jake Goodes Vice Chair

Run Rona Run Rona 30th-31st of May, Rona doesn’t Run us, we Runrona

Aunty Regina has just completed a

1500 piece jigsaw puzzle.

Brody, Tyra

and Hunter

are watching

the Marngrook

video being

projected on

to the town

hall during

reconciliation

week

Jandamurra went fishing and

got to rep his new clothing

the gap beanie

If you would like to share

with the community what

you have been up to.

Send us a picture and a

description as we love to

hear what our mob has

been doing.

Banana

Milkshake

Cheesy

Strawbs

Cabanossi sausage rolls