Vincent Forrester facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Quick facts for kids Vincent Forrester

Born	1952 Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
Nationality	Australians
Occupation	Activist, artist
Years active	1970s–present
Style	Western Desert painting
Notes
Forrester is of Luritja and Aranda peoples.

Vincent Forrester (born 1952) is an Aboriginal Australian activist, artist, and community leader. He helped start many important Aboriginal groups in central Australia. He lives in Mutitjulu, where he has been the chairman of the community council. In the 1980s, he advised the governments of Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke on Aboriginal issues.

Forrester has always been a strong voice for Aboriginal Australians. He has spoken out against the Intervention in the Northern Territory. He also believes that communities affected by it need more jobs and better education.

Early Life and Work
Working for Change
Artwork
Images for kids
See also

Early Life and Work

Vincent Forrester was born in 1952 in Alice Springs. His family comes from the Luritja and Aranda peoples. One of his grandfathers was Scottish. Vincent grew up on a cattle station in the Angas Downs area.

He learned many things from his grandparents. They taught him about the traditional stories of his land. He also learned about bush foods and traditional medicine. When he became an adult, he went through a special ceremony called initiation.

As a teenager, Vincent worked on the station, looking after cattle. Later, he worked in a meat processing factory. He also spent three years in the army in Townsville. At different times, he was even a horse-riding clown and a rodeo rider!

Vincent's first language is Luritja. He also speaks English and Arrernte.

Working for Change

Vincent Forrester has been an activist for Aboriginal Australians for most of his life. When he was young in the 1960s, he felt angry about the lack of human rights for Indigenous people. He disagreed with the government's policies that tried to make Aboriginal people live like non-Aboriginal people. He then joined the fight for Indigenous land rights.

Starting Important Organisations

In the 1970s, after leaving the army, Forrester helped create the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress (CAAC). This group provides health care for Indigenous Australians. He worked there as a field officer and later as its secretary. He also helped start the Central Land Council.

In 1982, he represented Australia at the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations in Geneva. In the mid-1980s, he helped set up the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). He has been a treasurer, manager, and board member for CAAMA's TV network, Imparja.

The National Aboriginal Conference

In November 1977, when he was in his mid-20s, Forrester became a founding member of the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC). In October 1981, he was chosen as the chairman for the Northern Territory. In this role, he advised the governments of Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke on issues affecting Indigenous people.

In 1979, a group called the National Aboriginal Government set up the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Canberra. Protesters, including Kevin Gilbert, asked the federal government to talk about a treaty with Aboriginal people. Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser said he would only talk with the NAC, as it was the elected group representing Aboriginals. Soon after, the NAC started working on a plan for this treaty. The government did not like the word "treaty," so the NAC chose a Yolngu word, Makarrata.

After becoming NAC chairman for the Northern Territory, Forrester joined the group writing the Makarrata plan. This plan was for a treaty that would recognise Aboriginal nations in Australia as independent. People wanted the Australian government to treat Aboriginal nations like other independent countries under international law. Support for this treaty grew throughout the 1980s. After talking with Aboriginal communities, Forrester believed his people wanted a treaty. He thought the talks should happen with the help of the United Nations.

The Hawke government closed the NAC in 1985. However, planning for the Makarrata proposal continued, and Forrester stayed very involved. The campaign for the treaty remained strong, especially in 1988. Forrester even discussed it with Kevin Gilbert on CAAMA radio in 1989.

Jobs and Education

As more Aboriginal people near Uluṟu became involved in tourism, Forrester started working as a tour guide at Kings Canyon. He later became a ranger for Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park. He also mentored young Aboriginal people at Alice Springs Desert Park, training them as guides and park rangers. He believed tourism and conservation offered great chances for Aboriginal people. He was against economic development from uranium mining. Many central Australian communities rely on money from mining companies, but Forrester argued this dependence should end.

While working in tourism, Forrester spoke out about the lack of job opportunities for Indigenous people in central Australia. He said this led to poverty in communities. He believed the situation would worsen unless the federal government talked directly with the communities. Forrester claimed that much of the problem was due to racism, calling it "economic apartheid". However, he also noted that most people from Indigenous-speaking communities could not read or write English well enough for jobs. Many adults lacked literacy, and younger people did not have enough access to education. Because of this, Forrester worked for years on developing school curricula.

In May 2011, the Ayers Rock Resort at Yulara was sold to the Indigenous Land Corporation. At that time, only two out of 700 workers at the resort were Indigenous. By early 2013, the number of Indigenous workers had grown to 170. About 35% of them were from Muṯitjulu.

Even though he criticised Malcolm Fraser when he was Prime Minister, Forrester later said Fraser was one of the few leaders who truly talked with Indigenous communities about their issues.

The Intervention

In 2006, an ABC TV show reported problems in Muṯitjulu. This caused anger among Muṯitjulu leaders. When Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough visited the community in October, Forrester demanded an apology from him.

A formal investigation later found serious social problems in remote Aboriginal communities. In response, in 2007, the government of John Howard introduced a series of measures to address these issues. This was often called "the intervention." Many people, including Forrester, saw these measures as racially unfair. Forrester was already a leader in Muṯitjulu at the time.

In February 2008, he went to the Tent Embassy in Canberra to hear the new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, formally apologise to the members of the Stolen Generations. While there, he spoke with other Indigenous people from the Territory about how the intervention affected them. The group then met with politicians at Parliament House to discuss their requests. Forrester called the intervention an "occupation" of Indigenous lands by the military. He demanded that the policies be stopped. He encouraged Aboriginal people in the Territory to disobey the intervention laws as a protest.

Forrester argued that social problems can be avoided if the government provides the right schools and services. He claimed that the government has been too slow to fix the main problems, like jobs and education. He said life in Muṯitjulu had only gotten worse since the intervention laws.

In 2009, Forrester became chairman of the Muṯitjulu Community Council. He remained chairman until about 2012. He has since partly retired and lives with his wife and a daughter in Victoria. He continues to work on projects related to traditional plants, Indigenous history, and Indigenous land management around Australia.

Artwork

Forrester started painting in the early 1990s. He paints stories from the Dreamtime. He has said that his art tells a story and is a "spiritual legacy" for his descendants.

He first used acrylic paints. Now, he uses natural paints made from ground-up materials found at Uluṟu. Traditional methods and tools are used to grind natural pigments into powder. This powder is then mixed with a binder to make a thick, sticky paint. The colours Forrester uses are the traditional colours used for ceremonial body paint.

His painting Resurrection at Mutitujulu Waterhole was made using these methods. It was chosen as a finalist for the Togart Contemporary Art Award in 2012. This painting shows the waterhole at Uluṟu and the story of Wanampi (Rainbow Serpent). It was part of a series of artworks dedicated to women.

Images for kids

Vincent Forrester