ABORIGINAL RIGHTS - ANIMAL RIGHTS: The Michael Veganarchy Interview

Interviewed by Claudette Vaughan

Michael Veganarchy is an Australian indigenous animal activist. He speaks to the Abolitionist-Online on what it's like being an animal rights activist in a land equally hostile to both nonhuman animals and the indigenous people of Australia.

Q.  How did you first become vegan Michael?

A.  My mother educated all the family on indigenous rights and raised us vegetarian.  She, herself, didn't eat meat.  This wasn't for animal rights reasons.  It was because we lived in the country and meat was often dodgy there.   My mother showed us how injustice manifests itself for indigenous people and this opened my eyes to other related forms of abuse.

At 15 I got involved in animal rights and around the same time became a vegan.   My family was clearly supportive of it all.

Q.   You have made a strong case for identifying similarities between bobby calves sold at saleyards and the Stolen Generation of Aboriginal people back in the 50's.  

A.  I want to point out I have no desire to offend any indigenous person, as some people might take this the wrong way.  Having said that, by taking a child away from her mother because she is Aboriginal-born at 3 months is no different than taking a calf away from her mother because she was born into a particular species.  In fact calves are taken from their mothers immediately so they won't 'steal' their mother's milk for humans.      

As far as animal rights go, white Australians must improve their human rights record and own up to past injustices done to the indigenous people of Australia.   This alone has the capacity to educate and enlighten other people.   From this point of departure parallels can be developed between one identical form of abuse perpetrated on humans and another form of abuse perpetrated on dairy calves.

Q. Affluent white Australia has always been touted as ‘the lucky country’ and has a successful history of multi-culturalism going right back to the late Al Grassby’s time in office.   Yet we see with the refugee crisis a continual ugly face of racism rearing its head along side multi-culturalism.   Would you care to sum up your thoughts on the matter when almost 1 in 4 citizens in Australia have been born overseas?

A.   We're not the 'lucky country'.  If that were true this country would have rushed to sign a Treaty years ago.   If we are so 'lucky' why is there so much poverty in Australian communities, especially in the Outback?   This country needs to remember it was built off the sweat and labour of refugees arriving from other countries,  mainly England.

 Q.  Why do you think succession after succession of governments have resisted a Treaty and who is answerable for all the Aboriginal deaths in custody that still continues to the present day?

A.  Ultimately the police force is responsible as agents of the government.  I work with young aboriginal kids as a youth worker and the stories they tell me about what police have done to them is absolutely disgusting.  Deaths in custody is solely the governments responsibility.  They both have blood on their hands.   What happened at Palm Island and the riots in Redfern over T.J.Hickey's murder is just a reaction to what's being done to aboriginal people to this day.   Indigenous people have endured years and years of police oppression.  When the media jumps on the bandwagon all they show is drunk aboriginals on the street but they never show aboriginal living in watertanks in the middle of nowhere.  As a result,  the stereotype is one of 'lazy drunks'.   There's a lot of crap going on that never gets reported.

Q.  Being a city boy have you ever been to the Outback?

A.  (laughter)  Yeah.  It's a terrible place (more laughter)

Q.  I always say the Outback is no place for women, gays or animals.

A.  I agree.   I have to go there regularly to do animal rescue.  I think it's really scary.  I take all my own food.  I take everything I need with me so I don't have to get out of the car in country towns.  The people of the Outback know you're not one of them.  I also take my piercings out to avoid the inevitable question, "You're not from around here are ya mate"?    What a nightmare!  I'd hate to see how women get treated and it's an animal's nightmare as well.  I know openly gay people would get mauled in the streets because of their sexuality.   Like they say,  you are what you hate.   All those homophobic cowboys better watch out!

Q.  What's your stance on animal rights people telling indigenous people not to hunt and kill kangaroos?

A.  As an animal liberationist I obviously do not think any animal should be hunted but if animal rights people are going to waste their time telling indigenous people not to hunt then they are obviously not up with the figures of how many kangaroos are hunted by the white man. (see the John Kelly interview) 

For every one complaint about an aboriginal person in the Outback hunting their own food, there are 100's of complaints on how the white man kills his food.   And everytime I hear how indigenous people hunt kujongs and kangaroos I want to say to these people: "99.9% of the problem is with institutionalised cruelty and intensive farming practices."

If we are serious about animal rights let's look at where the most harm is being done. 

Q. How can we expect full personhood rights for non-human animals when it took the white invader over 200 years to recognise indigenous Australians as having any rights?

A.   Well,  there is still no Treaty and that would be a good start to build and heal some wounds of the past.  Aboriginal people weren't even classified as 'people' until the 1960's.   They weren't allowed to vote until the 1960's and there are still areas in Australia where you can go where there's a black person's pub and there's a white person's pub.

The country is still racist.  It's taken so long for indigenous Australians to get to vote and have a voice because the white man didn't want to admit he had fucked up by stealing the land and resources off the original owners.

Q.  In many ways Australia’s racial prejudices follows the old apartheid regime in South Africa. 

A.  Did you know that the South African apartheid regime based most of their policies off the Queensland government?   NSW Aboringinals are only 2% of the total population but 60% of the prison population.    I was at a fur demo in Melbourne recently and the police pulled me out of the peaceful demo.  I heard them say over the police radio they had caught a "gang of Aboringinal youths."  

Another time, I was part of a large demo against live exports.  I was chained by my neck with a bike lock and if anyone has ever done that you know how extremely uncomfortable that is.  So there I was chained to the gates for 2-3 hours and I got set upon by the truck drivers and farmers.  They started punching and kicking me.  A couple of my friends tried to get inbetween but the police were holding them back.  I received a letter from the police afterwards saying I was trespassing and was lucky I didn't receive a fine.   I explained to them I was going to lodge an assault charge because the farmers beat me up and the police just sat there passively and watched it all.

Q.  Animal liberationists in Australia are still portrayed in the media as lone, one-off ratbags instead of being judged as serious contenders for abolitionist animal liberation.   Why do you think this is?

A.  There are plenty of animal welfare groups working in Australia which are not abolitionist. If a few abolitionist groups worked together then we could start seeing some major changes.  I don't necessarily see the ALF actions as the be all and end all answer to things but we must send out a clear message to really shake things up in a unchanging psychological environment prevalent in the farming community.

Q.   Do you know the difference between animal rights and animal welfare?

A.  I surely do and I reject welfarism based on that knowledge.  Animal welfarists want the sheep and pigs to be running free up until the time they get their throats cut.  An animal rights person recognises nonhuman animals has having no rights and equally you have no right to touch her, let alone mutilate and kill her either.   Rightists and welfarists shouldn't work together as they have different agendas.  Personally I don't align myself with any one group.

Q.  Why has the abolitionist message been sidelined to accommodate welfarists  yet the fact is ignored that 'animal rights' welfarists are increasing 'the problem' as well.

A.   It's true that hard-line animal rights activists raise the middle ground making even the most conservative welfare groups in Australia appear good in the media.   These same welfare groups are conciliatory to the abuse industries by rolling over and agreeing with them.  The bottom line is this: Unless you are an abolitionist and act in accordance with that belief, then you are not a true advocate for animals.

If you are saying free-range eggs are good then do you think that same chicken will appreciate the fact after you have cut her throat?  Isn't it the most obvious thing in the world that this sentient, breathing, gentle chicken wants to live instead of advocating 'humane slaughter' for her?  Leave that to the farmers to do if they would only  receive enough resistance from animal rights people.

Q.  What's in store for you in the future?

A.  I'll keep on doing what I've been doing for the past 5 years.  I'll never give up.  I'll stay vegan.  That's the most important thing.  Everytime every one of us goes into a supermarket and purchases  any animal free product then we are acting for the animals.    If we walk out of that supermarket with an animal related product,  then we are holding their liberation back.    In its truest form, abolition is not an ideology, it's a way of life.  At this point in time the abolitionist is the smaller team on the field but as we grow we are getting stronger and people are going to start to see we are right for insisting on a hard line for nonhuman animal rights.

Q.  What else gets under your skin apart from 'compassionate' slaughter animal rights cum welfarists people?

 A.  Another thing that really gets under my skin are vegans  working in meat restaurants, serving up dead animals.  That's not the way to go.