This article presents a case study in Australia's race relations, focusing on tensions between urban Aborigines and recently resettled African refugees, particularly among young people. Both of these groups are of low socio-economic status and are highly visible in the context of a predominantly white Australia. The relationship between them, it is argued, reflects the history of strained race relations in modern Australia and a growing antipathy to multiculturalism. Specific reasons for the tensions between the two populations are suggested, in particular, perceptions of competition for material (housing, welfare, education) and symbolic (position in a racial hierarchy) resources. Finally, it is argued that the phenomenon is deeply embedded in class and race issues, rather than simply in youth violence.
Mirrabooka and surrounding suburbs are lower socio-economic areas of Perth, with cheaper housing and considerable public housing, where many refugee arrivals have settled over the past fifteen years. There is also a concentration of migrant services in these areas.
2.
The ritual gift-giving which the Africans at the community events participated in may be seen as a sign of reciprocal hospitality, with the usual implication of mutual obligation.
3.
Noongar (also spelt Nyoongar) is the Aboriginal tribal grouping of the south-west of Western Australia.
4.
Norman Aisbett , `African refugees in pact for unity', The West Australian (22 March 2006), p. 18.
5.
Cassandra Pybus , `A touch of the tar: African settlers in colonial Australia and the implications for issues of Aboriginality', London Papers in Australian Studies No. 3 (London, Menzies Centre for Australian Studies , 2001).
6.
The ethnic composition of the refugee intake has changed over the postwar decades, from the influx of eastern Europeans in the 1940s and 1950s, Chileans, Lebanese and Vietnamese in the 1970s and 1980s, to Iraqis and ex-Yugoslavs (mainly Bosnians) as the largest components of the 1990s intake. Humanitarian Program 2006-7 - Discussion Paper (Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, 2005).
7.
Gebre Asekeh and Farida Tilbury, `A different life: African migrants in Western Australia', in Raelene Wilding and Farida Tilbury (eds), A Changing People: diverse contributions to Western Australia ( Perth , Office of Multicultural Interests, Dept Premier and Cabinet, 2004), pp. 134-49; L.T. Udo-Ekpo, The Africans in Australia: expectations and shattered dreams (Adelaide , Seaview Press, 1999); Val Colic-Peisker and Farida Tilbury, `Employment niches for recent refugees: segmented labour market of the 21st century Australia', Journal of Refugee Studies (Vol. 19, no. 2, 2006), pp. 203-29; Anita Tan-Quigley, All Dressed Up and Nowhere to Go: implementing strategies to address issues affecting unemployment in young people from new and emerging communities (North Perth , Ethnic Community Council of Western Australia, 2004); Farida Tilbury, ` ``I feel I am a bird without wings'': discourses of sadness and loss among east Africans in Western Australia', Identities (Vol. 14, no. 4, July 2007 ), pp. 433-458.
8.
The African communities have grown rapidly since the 2001 census. However, data from the 2006 census is not yet available. This figure is based on estimates by local police and Department of Immigration arrival statistics.
9.
The `white Australia policy' started with the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 (the year Australian federation was created) and lasted until the early 1970s.
10.
`Experiences of discrimination, vilification and prejudice' , in Isma: Listen! (Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, 2004); B. Hodge and J. O'Carroll, Borderwork in Multicultural Australia (Melbourne, Allen and Unwin, 2006); Michael Humphrey, `Humanitarianism, terrorism and the transnational border', Social Analysis (Vol. 46, no. 1, 2002), pp. 118-26; Stephen Castles and Mark Miller, The Age of Migration (London, Macmillan, 2003).
11.
Bryan Turner , `Citizenship and the crisis of multiculturalism' , Citizenship Studies (Vol. 10, no. 5, 2006), pp. 607-18; Suvendrini Perera and Joseph Pugliese, ` ``Racial suicide'': the re-licensing of racism in Australia', Race & Class (Vol. 1, no. 39, 1997), pp. 1-19.
12.
Michael Hjerm , `Multiculturalism re-assesed', Citizenship Studies (Vol. 4, no. 3, 2000), pp. 357-81; Paul Kelly (ed.), Multiculturalism Reconsidered: culture and equality and its critics (Cambridge, Polity Press, 2002); Kenan Malik, `Cultural wars' , in The Meaning of Race: race, history and culture in western society (London, Macmillan Press , 1996), pp. 178-216.
13.
Hodge and O'Carroll, op. cit; Malik, op. cit; Ghassan Hage, White Nation: fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society ( Sydney, Pluto Press, 1998); James Jupp, From White Australia to Woomera: the story of Australian immigration (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2002).
14.
Isma: Listen!, op. cit.
15.
Andrew Fraser, a law lecturer from Sydney's Macquarie University, warned against accepting black African refugees. His comments were published in dozens of newspapers and broadcast on radio and TV programmes throughout Australia in the second half of 2005. See, for example, `Australia losing its identity: professor', The West Australian (16 July 2005), p. 10.
16.
`Hanson slammed over the African disease claims', The Australian (7 December 2006), p. 5.
17.
`Tamworth divided over rejection of refugee families', The 7.30 Report (Australian Broadcasting Corporation , 15 January 2007), <http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1827409.htm>; `HRC mulls legal action over Tamworth anti-refugee leaflets', ABC News Online (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 30 January 2007), <http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1836319.htm> .
18.
Frank Robson , `Another Country', The Age (21 October 2006), p. 78.
19.
`Refugee settlement program grows in Toowoomba', The 7.30 Report (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 16 January 2007), <http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2007/s1828115.htm> ;.
20.
David Hollinsworth , Race and Racism in Australia ( Thomson, Melbourne, 2006); Suvendrini Perera, `Australia: racialised punishment and mandatory sentencing', Race & Class (Vol. 42, no. 1, 2000), pp. 73-8.
21.
Michael Morrissey , `The Australian state and Indigenous people 1990-2006', Journal of Sociology (Vol. 42, no. 4, 2006), pp. 347-54.
22.
Hollinsworth, op. cit.
23.
Aileen Moreton-Robinson , `Towards a new research agenda? Foucault, Whiteness and Indigenous sovereignty', Journal of Sociology (Vol. 42, no. 4, 2006), pp. 383-95.
24.
Veronica Brady , Can These Bones Live? ( Leichardt , Federation Press, 1996 ); D. Graham (ed.), Being Whitefella (South Fremantle, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, 1994).
25.
When considering the question of spatial rights and their link to material and identity claims, the case of New Zealand is illustrative: there, assertions of biculturalism, rather than multiculturalism, have been maintained for many years by Indigenous Maori as part of their claim for special status in relation to white settlers and all other immigrants (known collectively as `Tau Iwi' or `foreigners').
26.
Perera and Pugliese, op. cit.
27.
Following the Wik decision in 1996, which allowed that Aboriginal people retained rights to land which co-existed with pastoral leases (although if there was a conflict of interests, the interests of the farmers were to prevail), the Howard government passed a set of amendments to the Native Title Act to reduce Aboriginal land rights. Another example of the retreat from support for land rights is found in the government's response to a West Australian land rights victory. In September 2006, the Noongar Aboriginal people won an important legal victory when their title was recognised to all vacant land in and around the capital city of Perth. The claimants proved to the satisfaction of the law that they had retained their law and customs since white colonisation (1829), in spite of having been subjected to `pretty incredible interference and dislocation' (Fred Chaney, the governor of Western Australia, quoted in The Australian, 2006). This proof of cultural continuity is what sets the successful Noongar claim apart from its predecessors. However, the Western Australia state government (Labor) appealed against this decision, thus joining the federal Liberal government in its opposition to the Native Title claims.
28.
`ATSIC abolished after bill passes Parliament', Sydney Morning Herald (16 March 2005), <http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/ATSIC-abolished-after-bill-passes-Parliament/2005/03/16/1110913660843.html> .
29.
Aisbett, `African refugees in pact for unity', op. cit.
30.
Ben Spencer , `Race tension blamed on misconceptions', The West Australian (14 January 2006), p. 58.
31.
Deng Mador Koch , `Community needs support in curbing anti-social behavior among youth', EthniCity (Ethnic Communities Council of Western Australia, Dec 2005-Feb 2006), <http://www.multicultural.online.wa.gov.au/cgi-bin/dpms/dpr.cgi/dpmsref36/eccwa/original/DecemberECCWAUpdate.doc>.
32.
Aisbett, `African refugees in pact for unity', op. cit.
33.
Spencer, op. cit.
34.
Renato Castello , `Teen arrests trigger talks', Sunday Mail (11 February 2007), p. 7; Paul Anderson, `Race gangs terrorise inner city', Herald Sun (3 March 2006).
35.
Cited in Robson, op. cit.
36.
Reproduced in Hodge and O'Carroll, op. cit., p. 111.
37.
Ghassan Hage, Against Paranoid Nationalism: searching for hope in a shrinking society (Sydney, Pluto Press, 2003).
38.
Tom Pettigrew , `Intergroup contact theory', Annual Review of Psychology (Vol. 49, 1998), pp. 65-85; Henri Tajfel and J.C. Turner, `The social identity theory of intergroup behavior', in S. Worchel and W. G. Austin (eds), Psychology of Intergroup Relations (Chicago , Nelson-Hall , l985).
39.
Ien Ang , `From white Australia to fortress Australia: the anxious nation in the new century', in L. Jayasuriya, D. Walker and J. Gothard, Legacies of White Australia: race, culture and nation (Perth, University of Western Australia Press, 2003), pp. 51-69.
40.
Hollinsworth, op. cit.; Hage, White Nation, op. cit.
41.
Pettigrew, op. cit.
42.
Western Australian Community Profiles, 2001 Census: Horn of Africa (Office of Multicultural Interest, 2003), <http://www.omi.wa.gov.au/omi_profiles.asp>; `New Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander statistics for Western Australia' (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 23 June 2004), <http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyReleaseDate/F675D158DBFFC61CCA256EBC0004F372?OpenDocument> .
43.
This parallels the US situation where recent non-white, mostly Latino, immigrants compete with African Americans for low-skilled jobs and cheap housing: Latino and Caribbean immigrants are seen as a more pliable workforce and American employers do not hide their preference to hire them rather than African Americans. See Joanna Shih, ` ``Yeah, I could hire this one, but I know it's gonna be a problem'': how race, nativity and gender affect employers' perceptions of the manageability of job seekers', Ethnic and Racial Studies (Vol. 25, no. 1, 2002), pp. 99-119.
44.
Norman Aisbett , `Out of Africa: from famine and massacres to milk and honey', The West Australian Weekend Extra (18 March 2006), pp. 4-5.
45.
See Susan Horsburg, `Finding freedom', The Weekend Australian Magazine (22-23 January 2005), pp. 12-16; Aisbett , `African refugees in pact for unity', op. cit.
46.
Jock Collins , Greg Noble, Scott Poynting and Paul Tabar, Kebabs, Kids, Cops and Crime: youth, ethnicity and crime (Annandale, Pluto Press, 2000). Categorising violence between young people from `ethnic' backgrounds as `ethnic gang violence', the Australian media regularly whip up `moral panics' about the state of law and order, the legitimacy of culturally diverse immigration and the threat that the latter may represent to social cohesion. Groups of visible minority youth are then by implication seen as non-assimilated. See Chris Cuneen, `Ethnic minority youth and juvenile justice: beyond the stereotype of ethnic gangs', in C. Guerra and R. White (eds), Ethnic Minority Youth ( Hobart Tasmania, National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies , 1995). As discussed earlier, police have made efforts to downplay both the race and `group' aspects of the Aboriginal/African conflict, due to awareness of the possible negative perceptions a focus on these might create and apparently to try to avoid another `moral panic'. All concerned parties - the local African and Aboriginal communities, police, settlement and social services and most media - claim these hostile encounters have been isolated and opportunistic rather than the work of organised gangs.
47.
V. Colic-Peisker , ```At least you're the right colour'': identity and social inclusion of Bosnian refugees in Australia', Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (Vol. 31, no. 4, 2005), pp. 616-38.
48.
Elizabeth Povinelli, The Cunning of Recognition: indigenous alterities and the making of Australian multiculturalism (Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 2000).
49.
Hage, Against Paranoid Nationalism, op. cit.
50.
B. Attwood and J. Arnold (eds), Power, Knowledge and Aborigines ( Bundora, Vic., La Trobe University Press, 1992).
51.
Yin Paradies , `Beyond black and white: essentialism, hybridity and indigeneity', Journal of Sociology (Vol. 42, no. 4, 2006), pp. 355-67.
52.
M. Banton, Racial Theories (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998).
53.
Cassandra Pybus , Black Founders: the unknown story of Australia's first black settlers (Sydney, University of North South Wales Press, 2006); Manning Clark, `Unmasking Mudrooroo', Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial Writing (Vol. XXIII, no. 2, 2001), pp. 48-62.
54.
Pybus, Black Founders, op. cit. The `stolen generation' is the term commonly used to refer to the mid-twentieth century practice of forcibly separating `mixed race' children from their Aboriginal mothers and Aboriginal communities in order to be brought up in white society.
55.
Hage, White Nation, op. cit., Hage, Against Paranoid Nationalism, op. cit.; Ang, `From white Australia to fortress Australia', op. cit.; John Stratton, `Multiculturalism and the whitening machine, or how Australians become white' , in G. Hage and R. Couch (eds), The future of Australian multiculturalism: reflections on the twentieth anniversary of Jean Martin's `The Migrant Presence' (Sydney, Research Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Sydney , 1999), pp. 163-88.
56.
Ien Ang`Racial/spatial anxiety: ``Asia'' in the psycho-geography of Australian whiteness', in Hage and Couch, op. cit.
57.
Herbert Gans , `Race as Class', Contexts (Vol. 4, no. 4, 2005), pp. 17-21.
58.
See Colic-Peisker and Tilbury, `Employment niches for recent refugees', op. cit., for a discussion of African refugees' position in the secondary labour market and Tan-Quigley, op. cit., for a discussion of issues for minority youth.
