#009 Pay The Rent On Stolen Lands
A grassroots campaign to contribute to reparations, until our government does. Even then — we should keep paying the rent.
This week is going to be a bit of a different piece.
I’m not going to be using many of my own words, but instead amplifying the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as much as possible.
If you get to the end of this piece and still want to talk about why paying the rent is important in the context of racial justice in Australia, please do reach out to me here— please don’t reach out to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people to do that work for you.
You can also make use of a wealth of resources that are online (we’ve made a tiny collection here, if you need a starting point) about reconciliation, racial justice and white supremacy in Australia, to further deepen your own understanding.
Here we go.
So, what’s the big idea?
[A] way that allies have been supporting and acknowledge this country’s real past is to Pay the Rent.
Pay The Rent is not a new concept. It’s something that our old people came up with over 40 years ago. It was developed and fully endorsed by the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation (NAIHO) in the 1970s. NAIHO (a uniquely grassroots, representative organisation of Aboriginal people from all over Australia) was how our people grew the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health movement from the first Aboriginal health services in Redfern and Fitzroy to a nation-wide network of over 80 services within 10 years.
It was a remarkably successful large-scale self-help movement. We are reviving it to help ourselves.
Pay The Rent enables us to look after our own people, to activate ourselves, and to be better resourced to steer Australia in a more equitable direction where we can all have a rightful place.
We need our allies to Pay The Rent because we can’t rely on the government. By the time the Aboriginal Affairs budget is filtered through the bureaucracy to our people, there’s nothing left. The competitive tendering process has also resulted in funding being snatched up by large non-Aboriginal welfare NGOs who are competing with our Community Controlled organisations.
And, if we look in the International context, South Africa, Canada and New Zealand have all made some form of reparations, leaving Australia out on its own still denying there is unfinished business.
Fundamentally, Pay The Rent is a form of reparations. And it’s something we need now. We expect that the Australian Government will in time make reparations, proper reparations for the atrocities.
If you’re someone who enjoys videos, here’s a great primer hosted by Luke Currie-Richardson.
Getting Started
There’s nothing too complicated about paying the rent — basically you choose an amount you have the ability to pay regularly, and commit to it.
If you’re in Victoria, here is where to go. If you’re in other states, you might need to ask around. I’ll be happy to update this post with links if you pass them on.
Instead, here are some more reasons why paying the rent is the right thing:
Every day, people consume food grown on Indigenous land or harvested from Indigenous seas; they drink water that flows across or under Indigenous land.
Every day, people who are not Indigenous to this land take shelter in homes built upon it; they socialise, gather, and make family and community here.
Every day, business is conducted on this land for the benefit of non-Indigenous people.
Every day, land belonging to Indigenous people is traded for profit.This land was never empty; the sovereignty of First Nations people was never ceded. Despite centuries of attempted genocide that continues to this day, Indigenous people have managed to hold onto and nurture culture and connections with country. At the same time, Indigenous health and wellbeing has been devastated; Aboriginal people are significantly more likely to be incarcerated, to die in custody, to be separated from family, or to suicide. While governments and individuals have said Sorry to the Stolen Generations, they have taken no meaningful action towards making right, nor towards preventing further harm.
Paying the Rent is a step towards acknowledging these facts. It is part of a process of restitution that all non-Indigenous people — individually and collectively — need to enter into, if we are to move towards justice and liberation for First Nations people.
— Pay The Rent website, the work of many great people over many years
Conversation Starters
If you need some ways to open the conversation with peers, seniors or even your own internal dialogue, here are some things you could ask:
- How do we support Indigenous businesses and people in our current practices?
- How are we equipping our teams to have conversations around race, racial justice and the history of Australia? What guidance and resources do we provide?
- How are we actively cultivating an anti-racist workplace? How might we do better?
Going Further
To learn more about the history and current experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders in Australia, so you can learn how to use your power to do more — here is a small but growing reading and action list.
If you have resources and writings to share, particularly from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, I’d love to add them. Please send them through to me here.
