Noel Pearson

This post will basically be a potted summary of Noel Pearson's ideas, as outlined in the various talks and essays that make up his new book, Up From the Mission. I'm a massive fan of Noel Pearson (the head of the Cape York Institute and currently working for the Cape York Land Council) and am profoundly impressed by his wise mix of pragmatism, conciliation and standing firm. As someone who thinks that neither the truth nor the wisest course of action is the exclusive domain of either the Left or the Right, Pearson is a welcome figure in Australian public life. I am only just scratching the surface here and would urge all Australians to read what this Aboriginal leader has to say.

Pearson says:

My generation at Hope Vale cannot honestly point to colonisation and dispossession as the immediate causes of our social problems. The generations before us are an example of how the maintenance of true Aboriginal traditions within the context of adaptation to a Christian mission produced a successful community.1

He highlights one key cause of the current disfunction in Aboriginal society:

The right to self-determination is ultimately the right to take responsibility. Our traditional economy was a real economy and demanded responsibility (you don't work, you starve). The whitefella market economy is real (you don't work, you don't get paid).

After we became citizens with equal rights and equal pay, we lost our place in the real economy. What is the exception among whitefellas - almost complete dependence on cash handouts from the government - is the rule for us. There is no responsibility and reciprocity built into our present artificial economy, which is based on passive welfare (money for nothing).2

This [welfare] mentality is internalised and perpetuated by recipients, who see themselves as victimised or incapable and in need of assistance without reciprocation. Everyone in a passive welfare economy is susceptible to irrational (mis)appropriation and (mis)expenditure of money, because that is the very nature of the money. Money acquired without priniciple is expended without principle.3

He explains the factors behind the beginning and continuance of a second key cause of disintegration:

Substance abuse originally got a foothold in our communities because many people were bruised by history and likely to break social norms . . . . But when a young person (or an older non-addict) is recruited to the grog and drug coteries today, the decisive factor is the existence of these epidemics themselves, not his or her personal background. And for those who did begin using an addictive substance as an escape from a shattered life and from our history, treating those original causes (if indeed you can do anything about those original causes) will do little. The addiction is in itself a stronger force than any variation in the circumstances of the addict.4 Addiction is a condition in its own right and it is just as difficult to do anything about an addiction if you are a socially and economically strong white professional who became addicted through the careless drinking of exquisite wines, as if you are an unemployed member of a decimated and dispossessed Aboriginal tribe.5

My own view is that the most significant causal chain is this: (i) substance abuse and the chaos it causes lead to (ii) violence and other crimes, which lead to (iii) over-representation in custody and in the criminal justice system. This is as plain as day to anyone who knows life in our communities6

Pearson discusses how Aboriginal people might best respond to their circumstances:

I would urge people to draw a distinction between that trauma which is personal and immediate and which may incapacitate individuals or families, and that trauma which is inherited and more remote, and which renders people susceptible to problems, but does not leave them incapacitated . . . . Personal trauma needs to be recognised and attended to. Inherited trauma needs to be recognised, but it is also imperative that we recognised that economic and social empowerment is ultimately the best - and arguably the only - cure . . . . The danger with ideological fixation on inherited tauma is that we promote a culture of victimhood, rather than a determination to get back on our feet as a people. We must never let the true history of our people be forgotten or obscured, but we must avoid creating an ideology that turns history into a personal disability for able-bodied members of our community.7

Pearson explains why polarised politics fail:

[T]he distance between good and bad policies is most often very fine - they are seldom poles apart. People from both sides of the cultural and political divide usually believe the distance between their own correct policies and their opponents' wrong policies to be substantial. Politics is given to stark caricatures . . . . This polarisation leads to problems: a failure to distinguish between a potentially correct policy (for instance, policing relatively minor misdemeanours to restore order to crime-ridden , disadvantaged neighbourhoods) and an obviously incorrect one (police harassment and violence) . . . . The tensions involved in policy debates about crime in neighbourhoods centre around questions of freedom and social order. Obviously too much social order undermines freedom. Less obviously, too little social order also undermines freedom. People who live in optimally free and ordered communities often fail to appreciate the fact that a hight degree of social order underpins the freedom they enjoy.8

He provides some practical ways forward:

The truth is that, at least in the communities that I know in Cape York Peninula, the real need is for the restoration of social order and the enforcement of law.9

The High Court's ruling in the Mabo case has now recognised Aboriginal laws and customs as part of the legal system applicable to Aboriginal society and Aboriginal lands. This is a fundamentally important step in the right direction.

Central to the recovery and empowerment of Aboriginal society will be the restoration of Aboriginal values and Aboriginal relationships10

First, the strategy must be aimed at creating an environment in which there is no more unconditional support for irresponsible lifestyles. Second, the strategy must include enforced treatment.11

Together with a strong foundation of social norms and investment in capabilities, we need to make sure that people have the right incentives to ascend the staircase . . . . This is why I have been so critical of the passive welfare state. It creates perverse incentives that tell sixteen-year-olds that it is better to go on the dole than to finish school, or that tell parents they will receive money irrespective of their
child's wellbeing and educational participation.12

One of the country's most successful industrialists, Forrest has inititiated an idea without parallel. The extraordinary feature of the Australian Employment Covenant is that Forrest and his private-sector colleagues are setting the goal of guaranteeing 50,000 jobs for Indigenous Australians. It cannot be overstated how fundamentally this opportunity changes the landscape.13

Pearson's desire is to see Indigenous people embrace:

'Everything that enables our younger generations in Cape York Peninsula to achieve their fullest potential, talent and creativity, so that they have the confidence and capacity to orbit between two worlds and enjoy the best of both.'14

1 N Pearson, Up From the Mission (Melbourne: Black Inc., 2009), 27.
2 ibid, 143.
3 ibid, 153.
4 ibid, 174.
5 ibid, 175.
6 ibid, 179.
7 ibid, 162.
8 ibid, 246-47.
9 ibid, 240.
10 ibid, 149.
11 ibid, 177.
12 ibid, 277-78.
13 ibid, 320-21.
14 ibid, 331.