Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 6, 1 June 1988 — Meets with OHA, Other Hawaiian Groups [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Meets with OHA, Other Hawaiian Groups

Australia's Aboriginal Director Airs Concerns

By Deborah Lee Ward, Assistant Editor Ka Wai Ola O OHA The shared concerns of indigenous peoples worldwide and their efforts to address eommon problems is the subject of a round-the-world study being conducted by Glenda Humes, Director of the Office of Aboriginal Women, Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Australia. On the first leg of her trip, Mrs. Humes visited Hawaii in late April to discuss various issues in meetings with Hawaiian groups and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. She recently received an overseas study award from the Australian government to see how different countries and ethnic communities develop and implement policies and programs that may be used by the Australian aboriginal community. After Hawaii, Humes visited the mainland U. S. to meet with native American groups. She then spent three weeks in England to study ethnic minorities there — West Indians, Pakistanis, for example, and to meet with loeal organizations funded by the government. Her return to Australia will complete the global circuit. By reason of her position — in whieh she has served six months, Humes, herself of aboriginal descent, is one of the highest-ranking women aboriginals in the national government. She reviews governmental and departmental policies concerning aboriginal women and Torres Strait Islanders. Her office recently launched a national campaign against domestic violence, designed to be culturally accessible to aboriginal women. The Office of Aboriginal Women has also provided input on a National Aboriginal Health Policy being developed to address the differing needs of aboriginal women in rural, traditional to urban communities. One goal is to provide health services to remote rural areas, perhaps via mobile health clinics. To encourage pre- and post-natal care, the Office is also looking at developing birthing centers where traditional birth ceremonies ean be held. Humes also looks for a role for aboriginal women with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islands Commission being established by the Australian government to oversee their affairs.

Humes' professional background in social work has prepared her for her current position. She has worked in aboriginal health and in aboriginal welfare departments, developing policies on adoption and foster care, and training aboriginal staff to provide health and social services. She notes that she is part of the generation of women who started their families early, but now her Office is encouraging young women to get their education and careers started before having children. She is now going back to school to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree. While in Hawaii, Humes participated in wideranging informal discussions with OHA staff. These revealed many shared cultural and socio/political experiences eommon to the two native peoples. Like native Hawaiians, Australian aborigines are also struggling to strengthen their identity in the face of westernization, maintain the integrity of cultural traditions, regain control of lands and to find solutions to social disorders, family and educational troubles, employment and crime-related problems. Humes was born in Victoria, a state in Southeast Australia. While young her family moved to

Sydney, where she attended suburban schools, and she has since lived in the state of New South Wales. She and her husband have two teenaged children. Humes shares the blood of two tribes, and is proud of her traditional links, through her grandmother from the Northern Territory. Her husband is of another tribe. She explains that by long-stand-ing tradition rooted in ancient rivalries, aboriginals were not able to intermarry without knowing eaeh other's tribe. One reason was due to ancient tribal enmities, another was to avoid physical handicaps in a highly nomadic people. She said it is very hard to forget tribal enmities, admitting that until aboriginals ean get unity as a people, "We have a longwaytogo . . . but atleastweareconsciousof this." The government of Australia, according to Humes, defines an aborigine as one who identifies oneself as an aborigine, who is identified by the aboriginal community, and is accepted by them. It may seem a simple definition, but it is not easy for aboriginal people to have unity, says Humes, because the country is so big, and there is no generic language. Rather, there are about 400 different dialects. An ancient people that viewed themselves as separate tribes in a vast land now find that in unity there ean be strength. Striving for unity is part of a developing cohesiveness. In 1988 aboriginals throughout the country have joined in a year of "mouming" as the govemment still does not recognize sovereignty of aboriginals. Groups have demonstrated wearing the traditional mourning clay. "Yet," Humes says, "our people have under gone 200 years of decimation, but we still celebrate our survival as a people. We have a phrase, 'One voice, one land, one mob (group of people)."' And throughout the country, aboriginals have adopted "the colors" — black for the people, red for the earth, yellow for the sun — as a unifying symbol, representing a shared consciousness and pride in aboriginal heritage, a beginning of unity as "one mob."

Glenda Humes