Indigenous public servant suspended after Gaza support
An Aboriginal public servant says it is incredibly disrespectful to be invited to play music in parliament, then be punted for expressing anti-genocide views.
Jayden Kitchener-Waters Pic: Instagram
A First Nations public servant and singer due to perform at an awards dinner in front of a premier has been suspended for showing solidarity with Gaza.
Jayden Kitchener-Waters, 25, says he was moments from going on stage to sing a song dedicated to his niece at NSW parliament when allegedly told messages written on his guitar were deemed too political for the public service event.
The Gomeroi and Ngiyampaa artist works for the NSW Aboriginal Languages Trust, an arm of the Premier’s Department.
“It’s incredibly disrespectful to tell an Aboriginal man being invited to a colonial building with colonial messages and monuments … then tell him he cannot have the messaging of ‘No Pride in Genocide’ on his guitar,” he told AAP.
After posting about the incident on social media, he was disciplined by his superiors for sharing letters threatening to fire him which he claims amounted to censorship.
A snap rally is due to be held outside parliament on Thursday, defending his actions.
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Citing his family history, Mr Kitchener-Waters said he was resolute in his position despite being suspended from work.
“It’s in my blood. We’re freedom fighters, we speak for the truth .. that there’s a genocide happening in Gaza,” he said.
“I am a human being and … human beings being killed by a genocidal regime matters far more than any political party, any job, any suit and tie or any title I’ll ever have.”
The phrases “Free Gaza” and an expletive directed at the Israeli Defence Forces were also scrawled on the guitar, but he claims the department staff took particular issue with the phrase about genocide.
A landmark report by a United Nations legal commission found in August that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza with the killing of more than 67,000 Palestinians including 20,000 children. Israel has flatly denied the charges.
Image: Instagram
Senior cabinet minister Penny Sharpe said it was important to note the incident took place at the premier’s public service awards, rather than being “a random activity on the street”.
“No one is debating whether those words are good or bad, or whether the government endorses them,” she said when the matter was raised in parliament.
“This matter is about the way in which we support and protect public servants.”
The department declined to address specifics about the musician’s allegations, while pointing to its code of conduct requiring employees to act “impartially, apolitically and professionally”.
Macquarie University law academic Shireen Morris says it is a tricky balancing act for public servants to express their views on social media while maintaining impartiality.
“Public servants often do find it difficult to walk that line, particularly because social media guidelines may at times be unclear,” she said.
“The consequences of this vagueness is that it has the potential to chill public servants’ free speech and participation in public debate.”
By Farid Farid/AAP
If you don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, all you are demonstrating is what an idiot you are.
If Kitchener-Waters felt that way about entering the colonial building with its colonial monuments, he should have refused to attend in the first place. If he really means what he says about genocide, then he should be aware that the charter of Hamas is genocidal and that Israel never at any time had the intent or wish to erase the Palestinian people, only to defend itself against Hamas and other terrorist organisations in the area, as well as those aligning themselves with those groups. Calm down and do your homework is what i say to him, and resist painting completely inappropriate slogans on your guitar.
As for Shireen Morris from Macquarie Univ., what’s so tricky about public servants developing enough clarity and discipline to be able to conduct themselves intelligently on social media?