From Nicholas Kerr, Friday, July 9

Indigenous people in Australia are going through a crisis, WCC general secretary, Rev Dr Samuel Kobia, said at a press conference in Adelaide, South Australia, today.
And, he said, there are racist tendencies in the Australian Government’s policies.
Dr Kobia condemned the Australian Government’s moves to disband the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).
Legislation to end ATSIC has been introduced Australia’s Federal Parliament.
Indigenous people have welcomed moves by the Federal Opposition and minor parties for a Senate inquiry into the right of Indigenous people to determine their own future.
“The decision to abolish ATSIC is very unfortunate,” Dr Kobia said.
“The Government wants to replace ATSIC with a hand picked advisory council.
“The Aboriginal people see this as a way of denying them their rights to self determination and what they see as the legitimate voice of the Aboriginal people.
“The commission was composed of people who were elected by Indigenous people themselves.
“To replace this with a Commission of handpicked people – they think that would be undemocratic. It will not to provide them with a legitimate voice that will represent the aspirations of the aboriginal people.”
Dr Kobia was asked if he thought that Australian Government’s policies were racist.
“When I consider the way the Aboriginal people are treated here, and listening to them, I would say that one cannot avoid detecting some racist tendencies,” he said.
“I wouldn’t, however, call the Australian people, or Australia as a country, racist in the same way I would have called South Africa racist in the apartheid period.
“There are very commendable initiatives and efforts that the Australian people have made, both the churches as well as communities of people here.
“But in any society like this you will find individuals, or maybe some extreme organisations, that would want to continue with racist attitudes.
“So it would be, I think, unfair to say ‘blanket’ racist.
“On the other hand, I can’t say the racist motivated treatment of Aboriginals has completely ended. There is still someway to go before you can achieve that level.”
Dr Kobia said the World Council of Churches has had contact and a supportive relationship with the Aboriginal cause in Australia for many, many years.
“As far back as 1974 the WCC donated the first seeding money for the centre I visited yesterday in Port Augusta.”
Pika Wiya, the Aboriginal health service, was started with $30,000 seed funding from the WCC 30. The State and Federal Governments at that stage were not interested in funding an Aboriginal health service.
Now it is a large, mainly government-funded centre.
“I am not new to the Aboriginal cause here,” Dr Kobia said.
“I am greatly encouraged by the process of healing and reconciliation that has been initiated by the churches in this country, leading to the covenant (between the church and the Indigenous arm of the church).
“This, I think, is the right thing to do. It’s a good example of how to deal with the issues of Indigenous people, even in other parts of the world.
“But, then, listening to the Aboriginal leadership yesterday I got the impression that they are going through a crisis.”
Yesterday Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone said she was at a loss to understand Dr Kobia's criticism.
She says ATSIC was scrapped because the system was not working.
"The changes we are making to Indigenous Affairs will improve the value that Indigenous Australians get," she said.
"No one could say what's happening at the moment is the best we can do. And I for one am determined to do better."
Church leaders have agreed that there have been problems with the way ATSIC has operated.
Rev Professor James Haire, president of the National Council of Churches in Australia, said today: “ATSIC should have been fixed – not scrapped. And the Government should not have taken any action without consulting Indigenous people first.”

Photo: Sam Kobia accepting a painting during his visit to Port Augusta