Atkinson, Judy --- "Book Review - Alcohol Report: Race Discrimination, Human Rights and the Distribution of Alcohol" [1995] AboriginalLawB 67; (1995) 3(78) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 22

• Book Review-Alcohol Report: Race Discrimination, Human Rights And The Distribution Of Alcohol

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Book Review -

Alcohol Report:
Race Discrimination, Human Rights and the Distribution of Alcohol

by the Race Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1995

Reviewed by Judy Atkinson

The Alcohol Report: Race Discrimination, Human Rights and the Distribution of Alcohol explores issues of alcohol misuse and its impact on some Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory; the self-determining action by Aboriginal organisations to achieve the right to regulate alcohol access to members of their communities; the Northern Territory policy, legislation and application of the Liquor Act 1978 (NT); and the tension between the individual rights encased in legislation such as the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) versus current thinking on indigenous collective rights now being debated as a result of the High Court decision on native title (Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) [1992] HCA 23; (1992) 175 CLR 1).

Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory believe alcohol misuse to be a critical factor in the ill-health and distress of their communities. Many people, particularly women, believe restricting sales, and hopefully the consumption of alcohol, to be essential to enable communities to begin to deal with other serious issues (such as family violence). The Pitjantjatjara Council submission was cited in the Report as showing considerable evidence that the availability of alcohol near dry areas contributes to community dysfunction ('dys' - people functioning with difficulty and in pain). It has been shown that there are definite improvements in community health and cultural life when alcohol is restricted.

As communities have tried to restrict the sale of alcohol to community members, they have encountered a number of problems. One of these has been the possibility of breaching legislation which was designed by well-meaning legislators to provide justice to Aboriginal people, for example the Racial Discrimination Act.

While justice enforcement is necessary for dealing with incidences of alcohol-related crime, particularly for acts of personal violence, Aboriginal people believe the punitive criminal justice system would be the least effective way to deal with individuals who abuse alcohol.

The Report provides some well-argued points about individual over collective rights, and their interface with self-determination. It makes the point that the protection and promotion of collective rights is pre-requisite for the exercise and enjoyment of individual rights. As an example, the individual right to drink cannot take precedence over the collective right of our Elders, women and children to be able to live free from violence in their homes and within the communities in which they reside.

While the Report attempts to be empathic and constructive, it underlines, for me, the complexities of our interface with and our subordination to the powerful western legal system. An historical study of the various attempts to rectify injustices imposed by the ongoing impacts of colonisation will show that the implementation of well-meaning solutions often creates further problems, that for each gain we make, that gain will be turned around and. used against us. The implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is an example of this.

Reading the Alcohol Report enabled me to see more clearly that to legislate is not enough. Legislative reform is only one small part of the process we must engage in to heal the pain of our past and present situations. In fact, I am no longer convinced that real answers are contained in our interaction with the cumbersome legal system.

As indigenous Australians, individually and collectively, we only have so much energy. It is imperative that we make choices to use that energy, in the context of both human and material resources, to the best benefit of our people. My question is, do the energies used in the production of this Report equal the benefit our people will receive from the Report? They may. Only, however, if we see the Report as just another small step in the ongoing process of justice reform.

We also need to ask how much power does such a Report place in the hands of ordinary Aboriginal community people to make choices for themselves? Will such a Report support and sustain the processes of decolonisation fundamental to the healing work we must be engaged in , or does the very process of the Report further subordinate us to the very system which enable that colonisation to occur in the first place? We need to ask such questions at many levels on many issues if we are to be about the work of healing our people.