dlowan wrote:
My experience does not mesh with yours re who are the main abusers, Hinge.
Hi Deb, I hadn't realised you'd been involved with remote communities - cool.
Yep, aboriginal society does have a bunch of structural problems that we've actively, if unwittingly, exacerbated. But for every Galarrwuy there's a Gatjil, or at least there was. The mere fact that we talk about our indigenous as a monobloc betrays our ignorance - they don't see themselves as one group, even with a language group you look after your own family first, in a more exaggerated many than is the traditional western mode. The family is more important than the community.
I've heard that there doesn't even need to be any threats to stop a witness from testifying - they voluntarily shut up shop, after all they have to go back to that same tiny community with it's web of kin-ties.
I still remember the idea of not letting truant kids use the local pool - what community member is going to police that? You'd have a feud in no time.
Quote:Like I said - I've not experienced life in a community, but I live with someone who has. And I believe her when she says she's seen 'long grass' women sell themselves and/or their kids for a bottle of plonk.
Quote:Vikor, I guarantee your friend's class had some English - it's not immersion if you're the only person speaking the language that has to be learned.
Quote:Quoting 'most documentaries/news articles' means limiting yourself to what was being reported and how it was being reported - I prefer my source, but I can't argue against yours.
I should think all sources have perspectives limited to what they experienced and want to tell. I understand that media do bias their reports to make them newsworthy.
Quote:Hmmm. You said:
Quote:"There is a major difference between the two. Remote white Australian communities mostly survive on a needs basis (ie where there is money and jobs to be made), but remote aboriginal communities survive to a large degree on handouts from the government."
I wonder how these communities survived before there was a government to give them handouts? Guess they fluked it for 50000 years....
(sorry about the flippancy)
No problem. They survived through being nomadic, which is not something they can properly do now. Settled communities by nature have great differences to nomadic communities.
Quote:And those white communities don't survive on their own merits - any remote community is funded by the public purse more per head of population than any urban/suburban community
That's true enough in Australia, and I left the wording of my original statement enough width for just that reason without distracting from the point I was making. That point being that the remote white communities do have jobs, and there is money there. There is little in the way of jobs and produced money in that of the Aboriginal Communities, especially the remote ones. Two of the biggest aboriginal communites are Yarrabah and Palm Island, but neither are exactly remote. Yarrabah, with a population of about 2,300 people, is about 30 kilometres south of Cairns. It isn't a remote community, yet it suffers similar if not exactly the same, problems. Palm Island, with a population of about 2,400 people, and about 30km from Townsville by boat, was once noted as the most violent place on earth (by a Brittish survey). It suffers similar problems, including an unemployment rate of around 90%. This is to say that it is not simply remoteness that is a problem to be solved.
Quote:- I'm just asking for parity.
Are you asking for parity between remote white communities and remote aboriginal communities? As I understand it, the aboriginal people receive more govt funding per head of population than white Australia. I'm not sure how the funding between remote white communities and remote black communities compares. That said, I'm not interested in parity, I'm interested in what works
which by the way, would mean significant funding over and above what white Australia receives. It's a choice between an eternal economic sinkhole (and ongoing aboriginal misery), or paying now to save later (by creating an avenue for hope).
Quote:I'm thinking that maybe you think I'm wearing a black blindfold
Not at all. I think you've voice what you said for reasons you believe sound.
Quote:I am yet to be convinced this Howard move is any different from what has gone on before. Since when did he care anyway? Couldn't even bring himself to say his sorry for what white society had done since settlement.
You're not the only one who's cynical at Howards moves.
vikorr wrote:Quote:Like I said - I've not experienced life in a community, but I live with someone who has. And I believe her when she says she's seen 'long grass' women sell themselves and/or their kids for a bottle of plonk.
A mere slip of the finger - yes, I meant 'to white men'.
vikorr wrote:
Quote:Vikor, I guarantee your friend's class had some English - it's not immersion if you're the only person speaking the language that has to be learned.
Sorry I was being nitpicky about the definition of 'immersion', I guess the point i was trying to make was that in Arnhem land there were a successful bilingual educaton program that the Howard govt strangled by cutting the funding.
vikorr wrote:
Quote:
I wonder how these communities survived before there was a government to give them handouts? Guess they fluked it for 50000 years....
(sorry about the flippancy)
No problem. They survived through being nomadic, which is not something they can properly do now. Settled communities by nature have great differences to nomadic communities.
And they can't have that life because of us - sounds like they have some sort of case for compensation.
vikorr wrote:
Quote:And those white communities don't survive on their own merits - any remote community is funded by the public purse more per head of population than any urban/suburban community
That's true enough in Australia, and I left the wording of my original statement enough width for just that reason without distracting from the point I was making. That point being that the remote white communities do have jobs, and there is money there. There is little in the way of jobs and produced money in that of the Aboriginal Communities, especially the remote ones. Two of the biggest aboriginal communites are Yarrabah and Palm Island, but neither are exactly remote. Yarrabah, with a population of about 2,300 people, is about 30 kilometres south of Cairns. It isn't a remote community, yet it suffers similar if not exactly the same, problems. Palm Island, with a population of about 2,400 people, and about 30km from Townsville by boat, was once noted as the most violent place on earth (by a Brittish survey). It suffers similar problems, including an unemployment rate of around 90%. This is to say that it is not simply remoteness that is a problem to be solved.
Now you're moving into my backyard. Read about the history of Palm Island - them fellas we shipped there from all over Queensland because they were trouble makers - it is a 20th century penal colony - and we're shocked they have violence? What's amazing is that they function at all.
I live about 20km from Yarrabah and I wouldn't say it's a model aboriginal community - however smaller white settlements further from Cairns get a lot better infrastructure. when indigenous communities do get infrastructure, typically a one off grant for a community centre, there is no ongoing funding, and there's bugger all rates coming in, and they can't fund a manager so the facility closes down. The Cape and NT are dotted with white elephants that suddenly appeared because a government agency had to drain their grant budget before June 30.
The few jobs available on community go to white fellas because the locals can't get the education they need to even apply for the jobs - and regardless family ties override your corporate responsibilities, so , 'sure take the council truck' happens all the time. And let's talk about education. Even communities near white settlements, like up Mosman way, tolerate the indigenous kiddies at school, give them passes to move them through, but they don't teach them. They come out learning bugger all - except that there's no place for them in the wider white society.
vikorr wrote:
As I understand it, the aboriginal people receive more govt funding per head of population than white Australia.
A furphy. Potentially they could, if they could compete on a level playing field for govt grants, and if they could have more babies and get the family payouts, but in actuality, if you think about relative intangibles like infrastructure, policing, educational (think about how much private schools get) and health services, et al - they get diddly squat.
vikorr wrote:
You're not the only one who's cynical at Howards moves.
Here's hoping there's enough of us come election time, and that no bugger blows anything up when it suits 'honest' John.
As Mrs Hinge relates when she was out on community the brighteyed smiling jamakooly would be bouncing all over the place laughing their heads off in joy de vivre and in the back of her mind she'd be thinking, 'In all probability, in ten years; you'll be in prison, you'll be a walking petrol sniffing vegetable, and you'll be dead.'
At least something to do with indigenous affairs is now seen as a votewinner, up until now it's been an irrelevance for Howard - he's done what he wants with impugnity - even killing ATSIS with ALP consent.
dadpad wrote:How did Pearsons cairns conference go hinge?
Hi Dad - didn't even know there was one! We're hosting an APEC trade conference at the moment so Noelly isn't big news - although I did walk past him and his little daughter in Smithfield shops a couple of weeks ago - even he won't live in 'his' community: Hopevale.
Can't believe that my folks down your way are now being flooded....
And I screwed up in my last reply to Vikorr
the Yolngu Matha word for children is spelt:
djamarrkuli
Hi Hingehead
I think we agree on the idea that something must be done. If you go back over my original posts on this (it wasn't bogged down in specifics of problems), you will see that I would advocate the idea of an overall plan aimed at restoring self respect and hope - the concept being that if these are restored then many other problems with be alleviated. So I think a multipronged, and multigenerational plan (as in a plan lasting 50-80 years) is needed to help solve the problems being experienced by aboriginal peoples. Of necessity, that means spending a great deal of money, but it is something I see as very worthwhile.
Back to the specifics :
Quote:vikorr wrote:
As I understand it, the aboriginal people receive more govt funding per head of population than white Australia.
Depends how you calculate expenditure I guess. Aboriginies did have their own ministry, their own Govt Corp (ATSIC until it was disbanded), and receives more public housing per capita than white Australia. And I have seen quotes saying that they received more per head that white Australia (but unfortunately, like many things, I don't know where I read that)
Quote:if you think about relative intangibles like infrastructure, policing, educational (think about how much private schools get) and health services, et al - they get diddly squat.
Infrastructure you are correct. Educational wise I should think so to.
In the policing respect, you are mistaken, for more police per capita are needed in the aboriginal communities than white communities. If I recall right, Palm Island Police Station has a police presence of 19 officers for 2,300 people. Indooroopilly Police Station (looking after perhaps the wealthiest division in the State) has a police presence of something like 70 officers for about 140,000 people.
Quote:Now you're moving into my backyard. Read about the history of Palm Island - them fellas we shipped there from all over Queensland because they were trouble makers - it is a 20th century penal colony - and we're shocked they have violence? What's amazing is that they function at all.
If that were all that contributed to the current situation, then where would Australia, a penal colony, be? Granted its founding history no doubt contributes to current day issues, but it's founding is the past, with nothing that can change it. The only thing that can be changed is the future, and that is what the govt should be aiming to build - the hope of a better future (without, hopefully, repeating the mistakes of the past)
Hi Vikorr
Only a couple of quibbles
vikorr wrote:So I think a multipronged, and multigenerational plan (as in a plan lasting 50-80 years) is needed to help solve the problems being experienced by aboriginal peoples. Of necessity, that means spending a great deal of money, but it is something I see as very worthwhile.
Not really a quibble, I'm just less confident than you about what the solution is.
Quote:vikorr wrote:
As I understand it, the aboriginal people receive more govt funding per head of population than white Australia.
Depends how you calculate expenditure I guess. Aboriginies did have their own ministry, their own Govt Corp (ATSIC until it was disbanded), and receives more public housing per capita than white Australia. And I have seen quotes saying that they received more per head that white Australia (but unfortunately, like many things, I don't know where I read that)
Sadly, probably in a One Nation brochure.
The aborigines did NOT have their own ministry - they didn't choose, want it, vote for it - counting that as funding for them is ludicrous. ATSIC was a chance for them to vote for board members of an agency that had SOME control of where its funds went but that board had ex officio govt members and reported to a Minister - who it was consistently at odds with (rightly or wrongly). So, in a sense, it wasn't even their agency, which Howard proved by splitting it into ATSIS (the public servants answerable to the Minister) and ATSIC the elected board. Legally ATSIC still exists but ATSIS was disbanded and it's programs 'mainstreamed' (ie the same services as everyone else) and all funding to ATSIC was ceased. Including ATSIC as an example of funding indigenous people get is nonsenes, now.
I won't argue with the public housing figures - but I'd ask you to consider how happy you'd be in a house with no power or sewerage. Near only one shop that gouged the bejeezus out of you 300k from a school or doctor, with no public transport.
Quote:if you think about relative intangibles like infrastructure, policing, educational (think about how much private schools get) and health services, et al - they get diddly squat.
Infrastructure you are correct. Educational wise I should think so to.
In the policing respect, you are mistaken, for more police per capita are needed in the aboriginal communities than white communities. If I recall right, Palm Island Police Station has a police presence of 19 officers for 2,300 people. Indooroopilly Police Station (looking after perhaps the wealthiest division in the State) has a police presence of something like 70 officers for about 140,000 people.
[/quote]
Palm Island is one community - out on the homelands in NT there are no police, but I guess we are talking about tiny populations.
Quote:Now you're moving into my backyard. Read about the history of Palm Island - them fellas we shipped there from all over Queensland because they were trouble makers - it is a 20th century penal colony - and we're shocked they have violence? What's amazing is that they function at all.
If that were all that contributed to the current situation, then where would Australia, a penal colony, be? Granted its founding history no doubt contributes to current day issues, but it's founding is the past, with nothing that can change it. [/quote]
Au contraire, if the past isn't acknowledged and addressed there can only be piecemeal progress. Palm Island was a penal colony until the 1960s - Australia was no bed of roses in 1838 - and the bulk of immigrants were not convicts AND they were white.
Surely you know an ex digger who can't stand the Japanese? Are you gonna tell him to 'just get over it, the past is the past'? But we expect our indigenous to forget and forgive things that are still happening, as well as the after affects of things that happened long ago.
Sorry, climbing down from the pulpit now.
I wonder if it would be instructional to compare the Torres Strait islanders with the mainland indigenous groups in how they have fared with white society. And ask why their experience has been different.
By the way does anyone listen to Hack on the Js?
They were talking to the author of the report that 'inspired' John Howard's 'urgent mission'. She was nearly in tears as she explained that people had trusted her, had wanted ownership of the problem and its solution. She had made 72 recommendations - Howard has not followed even one of them. She feared greatly for the damage being done and, yet again, the erosion of trust between the parties involved.
Hi Hingehead
Do you have the name of the Author of the report? Or is there a podcast available?
....................
Quote:Sadly, probably in a One Nation brochure.
This is a very strange thing to say. Why would anyone arguing for that a long term solution to Aboriginal problems needs to be implemented, give credence to Hanson, who advocated eliminating all extra help to them. Was it meant to be an insult?
Quote:The aborigines did NOT have their own ministry - they didn't choose, want it, vote for it -
I would see this as semantics, especially coming from anyone arguing for greater attention to the problems faced by aborigines. A Ministry could easily be argued as very necessary (excuse me on this point - though I know they have had one in the past, I can't seem to recall a present one. But perhaps I may be getting confused between State and Federal level)
Quote:Including ATSIC as an example of funding indigenous people get is nonsenes, now.
Quote:I won't argue with the public housing figures - but I'd ask you to consider how happy you'd be in a house with no power or sewerage...
The housing was used as an example of money spent, which was being discussed at the time. The second issue, which you raise here, relates to the housing standard and the standard of living. I'm sure you already know, I agree with you that it is appalling.
Quote:Au contraire, if the past isn't acknowledged and addressed there can only be piecemeal progress.
Quote:Surely you know an ex digger who can't stand the Japanese? Are you gonna tell him to 'just get over it, the past is the past'?
But we expect our indigenous to forget and forgive things that are still happening,
Vikorr, I'm not attacking you, but furphies about indigenous funding were a major pillar of One Nation policy, the Howard govt has drastically reduced indigenous funding and attracted vote away from One Nation.
You have also misconstrued my Japanese analogy. More properly you should have said if the digger continued to live in Changi and be brutalised he should just get over it. My point was that even someone who hadn't been brutalised by a tormentor for half a century found it hard to forgive - so I couldn't empathise with your comment that the Palm Island residents should just forget what was in the past - when the torment isn't even in the past yet.
Sorry too tired to go into point by point refutation, but I reiterate I'm not attacking you I just don't think white Australia fully grasps the issues - I know I don't.
Reading along with interest. Please continue.
Quote:Sorry too tired to go into point by point refutation, but I reiterate I'm not attacking you I just don't think white Australia fully grasps the issues - I know I don't.
Sorry, perhaps I should have said earlier. I'm Black Australian. I don't mention it much because it seems that it shouldn't make any difference in discussions, but it seems many people make the assumption that I'm white, which while understandable, can also be a bit like a sandfly that won't stop biting you.
Also, as I don't live in a remote community, or even an aboriginal community, I certainly don't know all the ins and outs of them.
As for arguing over funding to aborigines, and whether or not it is higher or lower than what white Australia receives. The only way to sort that out is to produce a related stat from the govt. Until it can be produced, I see little point in getting emotional about the matter, and arguments over it don't actually achieve anything.
By the way, having received govt funding for tuition during high school because of my aboriginal ancestry, and seeing white Australians not receive similar, there is definitely one area where funding is in favour of Aboriginals (these days, due to my limited aboriginal ancestry, I wouldn't have wanted this for myself, but that is how things are when one is a child). This sort of thing, while technically unfair to white Australia, is one of the things absolutely necessary to breaking the cycle of poverty facing aboriginal people.
But once again, I am interested in seeing greatly increased funding to aboriginal communities - but with a long term plan (as I think it's been shown short term plans just aren't working).
As for the issues involved. Many of them are plain to see, while others are not so obvious.
Issues as I see them :
1. Lack of Self Respect (and probably lack of own cultural/racial respect)
2. Lack of Hope
3. Boredom
Causes/Influences on the above 1 & 2, I see as :
1. High unemployment (which is influenced by) :
-Lack fo job infrastructure
-Lack of skilled labour creates maintainance problems
-Lack of outside sources of income (eg tourists, travellers, cattle, industry etc) means limited jobs
....................................
2. History
3. Current Situation
4. Disporportions between White & Aboriginal Australia
.....................................
5. Interpersonal Influence
6. Incarcaration rate
7. Suicide rate
8. Mortalitiy age (related to health infrastructure among other things)
(And yes, while suicide rate is from lack of hope, I have little doubt the high suicide rate contributes to others lack of hope)
Causes of Boredom include :
1. The dole (they don't have to do anything for it)
2. Lack of entertainment
3. Lack of Infrastructure
In relation to Alcoholism being an 'issue'. I see it as a symptom of much of the above (same with 6-8). Solve the above, and alcoholism will be greatly reduced (though genetics may still play a part in it)
Feel free to add any other issues that you can think of to the list
I asked an aboriginal man if land rights had gone some way to addressing the self esteem problem. He vehemently declared there was no self esteem problem among Aboriginal people, then proceeded to tell me about the vandalism perpertrated upon the (cultural) centre he worked in by young aboriginal youths.
I have no clue how to assist. Aboriginal people in remote communities seem to be trying to live a tribal life supported by government handouts provided by modern society.
Beth Gott an ethnobotanist at Monash university said the emu and Kangaroo cant move backward only forward and aboriginal Australians need to absorb that. My feeling is that there are plenty of animals that survive by staying very very still for a long time.
Interesting stuff circulating from Northern Territort doctors, which I got at work today:
Dear All
Implementation of the Fed govt's plans re child health checks is being coordinated with the assistance of many health professionals on the ground
here, with our Chief Med Officer coordinating the NT staff input. The Fed
planners are now very well aware that we have active child health monitoring in place constantly, especially in the under 5s. We also have an annual
school screening programme. I cannot estimate how many of the "23,000"
under 16 years children are seen regularly but for instance I saw about 70
in 4 days recently in 3 communities - so we are out there, believe me! In
the Top End, we the paediatricians are hoping to be part of the visits to our own communities. The message that we are trying to get across to all and sundry "wanting to get in here and fix the problem" is that we need the greater ONGOING resources to manage / treat / prevent the health problems.
We are only too well aware of the existence of the problems, but where is the housing, the nutritious food supply, the jobs, followed by the community GPs, teachers, dieticians, physios, speechies, OTs, social workers, dentists, dental therapists, ENT specialists, audiologists to assist?????????
Below I am copying some very valid comments from a member of staff (do not know in what position) working at Maningrida Health Clinic, in Anhem Land.
Maningrida is the second largest Indig community in the Top End, Wadeye being the largest.
" Dear people who are in my Address Book,
My apologies for contacting you out of the blue - however numbers of us Balanders (whitefellas) up here have decided we needed to contact as many people as possible and begin to get the message out that what Howard and Brough are proposing is not the way to go.
Picture sixty Aboriginal communities in the NT floundering in the sea of national indifference for decades. Suddenly, in a time of political crisis for the ruling party, an emergency that has been slowly emerging during those decades is grasped and radical, ill conceived (and some would say entirely cynical) measures are imposed with expressions of general self righteous indignation and opprobrium at the behaviour of those communities in flinging themselves and particularly their children, into the waters of dysfunction.
Shame and blame are two powerful weapons of the dominant culture and can only spell a further deterioration in the conditions for Aboriginal communities. I urge you to contact your local politician and in all other ways help to bring to light the ill-conceived nature of the responses Howard and Brough announced last week.
Few would question some of the desired outcomes protection of children, greater participation, motivation and self-esteem. However, what has been proposed is short-term, imposed, misdirected and unsupported by decades of evidence of what works and particularly, what patently doesn¹t work. To make impositions on functional as well as supposedly dysfunctional communities make even less sense.
It is, of course, difficult for anyone to speak out as it is so easy to brand them as indifferent to the plight of abused children. It is also so easy and convenient to trample the rights of whole communities in the scramble to remedy a situation that has been known and ignored for at least the last ten years and has it origins 200 years ago.
Let¹s leave aside our cynicism about why this issue suddenly needs such focus and closely examine what is being proposed to see if it can be done and if it will work. First though, a word about situations where perceptions of child sex abuse may in fact be children exposed to sexual situations leading to assumptions that the kids are directly the targets.
This is not to deny that there are not situations of direct physical sexual abuse. However, the more common situation may be less shocking.
The average household occupancy in this community is 17 people. Houses are small, miniscule by McMansion standards. People mostly sleep on foam mattresses scattered around the floors with two, three or more to a mattress. People don't like to be alone anywhere - you don't go out without a couple of family or friends - too scary. Privacy is rare and children from their first years no doubt witness sex occurring in all its manifestations much as they do in all societies where there is communal sleeping.
Therefore, the knowledge even very young children have about sexual acts is very much greater than in our single person per room culture.
In those circumstances it would be understandable that some young children might play act the scenes they witness most nights. It's also pretty lively in these homes at night with lots of people coming and going, tvs on, card games, lots of conversations and laughing. Kids don¹t get a lot of sleep sometimes. And it is pretty exciting with half a dozen brothers, sisters, cousins in your bed. If some of those brothers, sisters, cousins happen to be at the age of sexual awakening naturally there will be lots of 'investigation¹ and that may involve very young children. Not a good thing, but when you see how and why it arises you have an insight into how to begin to address it.
It¹s hard to see how medical examinations will help, easy to see how improving housing will. Certainly pornography doesn¹t help yet we have been slow to do anything about it anywhere. Parent education and support is a big one too the collapse of communities has eroded parent¹s knowledge and authority. Dysfunction is passed from one generation to the next. Alcohol and other drugs are in the mix and need addressing see below.
So what are the proposals for this emergency of the last decades? Will they work? And if not these proposals, what?
1. Compulsory health checks for all aboriginal children under 16. Doctors and health clinics currently struggle to cope with the burden of chronic disease and primary health care needs. There are severe shortages of all medical staff in remote areas, just as there are in most rural towns across Australia. To draft in the legion of extra staff to conduct these tests requires simple things like accommodation there are no hotels, motels, no available rooms so it will require a building program or a tent city a building program is hardly within the emergency response time proposed. If it's hard enough to attract medical staff with current incentives, the prospect of tent city is an unusual strategy to incline minds towards volunteering. So send in the army for maximum publicity, minimum impact.
Medical examination is one tool in identifying sexual abuse, patient and sensitive inquiry a more likely successful one. In many NT communities English is the second, sometimes third or fourth language spoken and not well understood by most people. Effective inquiry requires that the investigator not only speaks the primary language of those being investigated, but speaks it so well and understands the cultural environment so well as to be able to interpret the nuances of oral communication. And what do we do on discovering evidence of possible sexual abuse/activity?
Remove them from these situations? Our foster care system for indigenous children is already at the point of collapse due to lack of places. There is no foster care in remote communities another branch of the family steps in but there are 17 or more in their household too! Do we reopen Colebrook and similar institutions of the past? Probably not a good idea.
Intervene in the family situation? Ah counselling". Well yes Mal and John, do we have legions of culturally attuned social workers able to speak an Aboriginal language (at least one of the 13 dialects in this community) and ready to fly in to remote communities with sufficient on-the-ground knowledge to be able to understand the dynamics of the family and to know the best option for the child, motivated to stay in a tent city, and self-assured enough to feel protected from the anger of parents and relatives?
2. Linking welfare payments to school attendance in the long run not such a bad idea but to simply impose it in a short time frame ignores the inability of the education system to cope and the reality of many children who are not attending for very understandable reasons if you don¹t get much sleep the night before because of all the people partying in your room, if you are too shamed to go to school because you don¹t have adequate clothes compared to those who are at school (because you share all your clothes with everyone else your size in the house), if you¹re hungry in the morning and there¹s nothing in the house 'cause all those people eat anything as soon as its bought and anyway you can¹t store it if the fridge isn¹t working and no-one knows how to fix it. And your parents don¹t understand the importance of school they never went either.
Who will act as the truancy officers? The teachers great for building trust and rapport and great for personal safety too. The police they are going to be both very busy and very unpopular and at the moment community police spend a lot of their time cultivating trust and cooperation as they know that force will never control a community. Well then, let¹s employ truancy officers that would be a popular job likely to attract very suitable characters into a traumatized community wouldn¹t it? Don¹t fantasize that you could get community people to do this they would be even more at risk of reprisal than would an outsider.
If all school-aged kids did all turn up on the same day here, there are nowhere near enough classrooms, chairs, teachers and education resources.
The school needs to double in size. Right John, lets fly in a whole bunch of teachers but where do they stay? Tent city? And where do they teach?
And where are they now because the education system has been trying to recruit them for the last 10 years. Let's getting cracking with the building program, the training of teachers who want to work out here, the support for them doing what must be the most challenging teaching job in Australia. We might get somewhere in about 5 years minimum.
Education is central to improving Aboriginal communities. At present many community organizations struggle to find Aboriginal people with the skills and commitment to work in them. Sadly, after 50 years of schooling, training and apprenticeshipping there are very few young local Aboriginal people working in full wage paying jobs most are in work-for-the-dole CDEP positions and earning a 'top up¹ for extra hours worked beyond the required 20 per week. CDEP promotes underemployment but it successfully disguises the high levels of unemployment in communities so Mal and John can quote a figure of only 13% unemployment for Indigenous Australians those of you who have visited remote communities - do you believe that? There are some older Aboriginal people who trained in the seventies and eighties who do have the skills and are the Health Workers, Rangers, Works Supervisors of the community. However, they are retiring, getting sick, dying from the burdens of responsibility for their communities. There are so few younger ones coming through to replace them. In this community there are training positions leading to full paid work in most organizations health, council, services, retail, industry and all struggle to get anyone local to apply, let alone complete. Balanders (whitefellas) do most of the work. Again, the reasons are complex and require long-term solutions. Attending, prospering in and completing schooling is the key. Blaming is no solution and only serves to undermine any remaining self-confidence a community may have.
Force simply will not work.
3. Banning pornography not too many arguments there, but hey, that opens up a good black market doesn¹t it and with the roads open due to abolition of the permits system, there looks to be a few bucks to be made there. And let¹s not believe trafficking in pornography will be done only by Aboriginal people - there are plenty of very dodgy whitefellas in the Outback and Top End frontierland seems to attract them.
4. Banning alcohol on the surface it looks promising but our experience over the last half century of dry communities is that:-
**People leave to drink in towns and cities, sometimes leaving children to be looked after by already overburdened extended family. Those who leave are often young to middle-age and who should be the backbone of the community.
**Black markets for alcohol, gunga, kava, petrol and other drugs quickly develop.
**Alcohol remains that elusive substance to be consumed in as great a quantity and at as great a speed as possible because it is expensive, precious, illicit and it does quell the physical, emotional and spiritual hunger, if only briefly.
Rather, we need programs that encourage responsible consumption of alcohol, where there are rewards for sensible drinking and sanctions for irresponsible drinking. We should also encourage (not impose) non-drinking as a best option (wouldn¹t that be a challenge to the alcohol industry in mainstream society). This community has one of the best models I have seen it would of course be a lot better if it had resources to back it up. Here, you can apply for a permit to drink up to two cartons of beer a fortnight, or 8 bottles of wine (for us balanders). You start off on light beer and if you go OK on that you can apply for full-strength after three months. If you bugger up any violence, breech of other rules (such as sharing with people on a ban), neglect, missing work too much, etc., you lose your permit for three months and have to reapply a committee of balanders and locals make the decisions. It¹s not perfect but is a realistic attempt to encourage responsible patterns of drinking. It¹s a long-term process at the moment the role modelling around alcohol consumption is very negative. How can kids grow up with a different relationship to alcohol when all they see is binge drinking or their parents leaving them to go and drink in town?
Alcohol is not going away anytime soon so somehow and sometime Aboriginal people are going to have to learn other ways to deal with it.
5. Taking control of Aboriginal land and abolishing the permit system ahah, are we finally getting to the real agenda? Many Aboriginal people believe so and the evidence for them rests with the decision to abolish the permit system. It makes no sense to them to open communities up to a whole lot more people wandering in and out. Trafficking in alcohol, drugs, pornography and sex suddenly becomes a whole lot easier. It certainly makes no sense if indeed it is a 'crisis' normally a time when restrictions are imposed, not lifted. Look at our response to terrorism.
In their announcements Johnny and Mal talked vaguely of removing some of the rights of Traditional Owners, instituting different rent arrangements in remote communities (as distinct from outstations or homelands), moving towards individual land ownership. We all know that relationship to land is the defining difference between Indigenous and mainstream culture. There may be a case for changing some land arrangements in some places. However, there is little evidence available to encourage Aboriginal people to trust Johnny on this one. And there is ample evidence of the conservative agenda to deny the special rights and place of Aboriginal people in Australia.
One would hope that they will treat each community individually as there is such a diversity of experience and relationship in the different parts of Australia some communities may lend themselves to conversion to individual landholdings, in others it could spell the destruction of all traditional relationships and cultural values. Communities in Arnhem Land are very different to Noel Pearson¹s home community on Cape York. Here language is alive, culture is practiced every day. The Queensland Government of the past had a conscious and largely successful policy of eradicating language and much culture heritage.
The latest calls to arms for volunteers send shivers through communities - the last thing needed are ill-informed, ill-prepared and ill-supported hordes of volunteers descending on these communities to peddle their own brands of concern, judgement and condescension. You can't say this situation has not been known about for years - genuine volunteers are or have been here already.
There are solutions you have no doubt picked some of them up in the course of reading this. There are many more suggested by others more knowledgeable than me. Solutions require patience and cooperation, are long-term, difficult, expensive and achievable. We need a national commitment beyond the electoral cycle.
Please note these thoughts of mine follow barely a month in residence here I don¹t profess to have all the answers, some of what I say may well be misinformed but I, at least, am prepared to stand corrected. If you are in a position to speak out about this situation or to inform others, please grasp it.
Regards,
Andrew......
Fwd: Letter to Prime Minister2
> How can this information- and contact details for those involved in
> the current frontline work be most effectively brought to the
> attention of the "implementation taskforce"? Seeing the PM and
> Minister seem to prefer consulting the AMA, might that be the best information/advocacy route?
>
> I am really disappointed not to have been aware that this topic was
> under discussion by the NT branch. ********, my boss, has
> repeatedly told me that the NT branch has not had any meetings for a
> long time.
>
> It is disappointing, not just as the trainee rep, but as a member of
> the College and the community paeds registrar who has been visiting
> these communities and participating in the Sexual Assault Referral
> Centre on call roster with examinations of chldren with concerns
> regarding sexual abuse.
> This is the one of the most significant developments ever in
> Aboriginal health, let alone the Territory, and I would have hoped
> that we could all be involved in something that had such huge
> implications.
>
> There are a number of very successful programs that are being done in
> these clinics, such as the Growth Assessment and Action (GAA) program,
> school screening, healthy skin checks, the ear program, to name a few.
> It is essential to work with these existing programs and the clinic
> nursing staff to avoid re-inventing the wheel. There is also no
> mention of the need to increase the nursing staff in these clinics,
> who often act as defacto medical staff and are under great stress.
> They are the frontline of community health as most communities now
> have no resident doctors. A part of working in these communities is
> supporting the nursing staff and the cases that they struggle with -
> usually the neglected and abused children.
>
> There is great concern generally about what these health checks will
> achieve as part of this emergency response. I understand the pressure
> for the RACP to respond quickly but feel that if it is not well known
> that these discussions are taking place, that our own response will
> lack adequate consultation.
>
> Regards,
***********
>
Fwd: Letter to Prime Minister
>
>
> Dear All
>
> Attached, for your information, is a letter from the Northern
> Territory Division of the College to the Prime Minister. It has also
> been faxed to Tony Abbott, Mal Brough, Kevin Rudd, Nicola Roxon and Jenny Macklin.
>
> Regards
>
> Colin
>
>
(I have taken names off this stuff)
That seems to re-inforce what my mum had to say, with regard to supporting infrastructure being the place to start. It makes more sense now that I've read that.
Villages, towns and cities grow, wither or die according to typically darwinian principles. If there is no work, not enough food, people have to go elsewhere. Except when the town in question is artificially supported by other, more prosperous towns...but the supported town will never prosper on it's own.
So why do we do it? Are we compounding and elongating the problem by artificially funding untenable communities?
I've often wondered about the wisdom of the existence of remote communities. But it's not a subject I know enough about to form a true opinion on.
I suspect the answer to my question may be that to allow nature to take it's course would be the least humane path, that the end would not justify the means by a very great margin. I don't know. (I'm not sure anyone does).
vikorr wrote:I've often wondered about the wisdom of the existence of remote communities. But it's not a subject I know enough about to form a true opinion on.
Yes, I have heard aboriginal activists and educators criticise them.
I would like to see people feeling absolute confidence and ability to leave them, and join the wider world if they wish, but also for them to work well for those who wish to remain in, or return, to them.
Anyone with any news of how things are goping on the ground?
Unrelated:
I was overjoyed to see "Winkie" from Yalata, an elder, plead guilty to sexual abuse...and to see the Yalata community speak out and congratulate the girls brave enough to tell, whho had been in fear of their lives.
Also...wonderful to see WA indigenous people speak out against sexual abuse by elders in their communities.
Is there hope, at last?
