Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

we are supposed to be more civilised now.....does anyone know anything about the gang of 49?

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

[/B]Hey there.
Thankyou for posting that.

The Department of Communities (the department the report quotes) deals with harm to children which must be considered as "significant harm/at risk" in order to proceed further with any investigation. They investigate a range of abusive behaviours and neglect, one of them including sexual abuse.

Your initial statement was "appalling sexual abuse" in aboriginal communities and did not speak of that which you are now quoting as neglect, domestic violence, emotional abuse, pyschological abuse etc or other forms of abuse which is actually making a very different statement to your original post. Obviously there are these issues in some aboriginal communities which I spoke of in my first post - domestic violence, sexual assault and alcoholism for example. Mind you, throughout the 1990's, it was officially recognised that there was more alcohol consumption per capita amongst white people than aboriginal people across the nation as a whole. I took issue with the fact that you chose to portray them generally in this light, when in fact"appalling" childhood sexual abuse occurs in most societies.
Perhaps I got the wrong impression?

Again, this happens in some communities, not all. 3 out of 4 aboriginal people do not live in remote communities. The point is do not stereotype them all please.
I also take the report in the good faith in which it was given, but I must add that this does not substitute for having hands on knowledge or being a frontline worker in a communities. Part of the problem is the criminal Justice Department itself (report). I wish to say no more about that.


Most child abuse goes unreported.

Respectfully, I still ask you the question - why would English immigrants be so niave that they assume that childhood sexual abuse only happens in their own society? Why would it be a blinding eye opener?

Thankyou for that quote about spearings. Who said that, by the way? It was actually his lawyer at the time who said that..who got Rictor off by the way.....


"When Rictor ran away, his brother presented himself to the victim's family and was speared in the legs.

Rictor eventually returned and received the same treatment. No charges were ever laid over the spearings.

Peter Collins is the Director of Legal Services at the WA Aboriginal Legal Service. Mr Collins was the lawyer who defended Damien Rictor".

I think in terms of aboriginal people as a whole, his statement is misleading - the majority of aboriginal people do not go round spearing each other to dish out punishment! The punishment that sometimes is enlisted is often through fists and whatever else is available at the time. Most wouldnt even know how to use a spear and have no use for them eg plains turkeys are usually shot these days in communities. Actually most just go down and buy fried chicken from the local shop!
This is how ideas start and people who read them get carried away with ideas that stereotype all aboriginal people. Seriously mate, Im not having a go at you, but if people have used spears in WA, what right have you got to therefore talk generally about aboriginal people as if they all do it? Apply this same logic to English people for example, or anyone for that matter. Using this logic, every English person would also be considered a murderer (based on how many murders of children go on in London these days and how many english royal wives have been beheaded?). However most people know these crimes are perpetrated by the minority and dont think to stereotype every English person with it!

Its worthwhile pointing out the stats from the Australian census:

POPULATION CONTEXT

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples comprise 2.4% of the total Australian population. The estimated resident Indigenous population as at June 2001 was 458,500. Torres Strait Islanders comprised 11% of the Indigenous population of Australia.

A significant share of the Indigenous population (69%) lives outside the major urban centres. In 2001, around one in four Indigenous Australians lived in remote areas compared with only one in fifty non-Indigenous Australians. Two states, New South Wales (29%) and Queensland (27%), totalled over half of the Indigenous population. While 12% of all Indigenous people lived in the Northern Territory, it had the highest representation of Indigenous people in its total population (29%).


As you can see most aborigines buy chicken from a shop and don't spear it themselves...I'm sure they dont appreciate the general notion that they do. And the busiest shops are in NT, Q and NSW, not WA...


If you are still interested in the info I can provide then please let me know and Ill post it or pm it to you.

Regards,
V.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

Firstly, I will openly admit that I have nothing to add to this thread, purely through lack of knowledge. It is however, refreshing to see a thread containing the 'R' word, continue in an adult manner, I have actually learnt a thing or two, things I wouldnt neccesarily have learnt otherwise. I honestly though upon reading the first couple of pages that it would degenerate into a free for all slanging match - I was very wrong!
Well done BE'ers.......:)

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

I read on the BBC site that alcohol and porn are to be banned in the NT in an effort to curb the child abuse going on there. I'm not going to comment on whether or not there is abuse happening, but if there is/was how is reducing alcohol and porn going to stop it? If someone (anyone of any race, nationality etc) is going to commit some form of abuse won't they just do it, even if there's no alcohol or porn?

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

A personal opinion, but surely, if you take away distractions such as the things you mentioned surely this will lead to further incidents of abuse?

People develop differently, some of them nurture immoral ideas, if they are going to abuse, they will do it anyway. Porn and alcohol don't make it any more prevalent surely?

I agree with what you are saying.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

The two problems in question are domestic violence and sexual abuse.

The two commodities in question (alcohol and pornography) have been identified as the fuel which is feeding the abusive cycle. They are not "distractions" (as Fluffy has suggested); they are at the very root of the problem. (If a guy gets drunk and beats his wife as a result, how the hell will you improve matters by attempting to "distract" him with more alcohol? And if he's sexually abusing a child, how will pornography "distract" him from the crime?) :huh:

It is a sad but undeniable fact that alcohol abuse in regional communities has repeatedly led to high levels of domestic violence (including child abuse).

The alcohol ban itself is not new. "Dry" communities already exist throughout regional Australia, and were created at the request of Aboriginal leaders.

For example, this report from three years ago:
The only significant difference in this case is that the federal government is now assuming responsibility for what was previously a state issue.

As for the pornography ban; click here, for the rationale behind that decision:
Kids are being exposed to this stuff at a very young age, then conditioned/coaxed/coerced into acting it out. Those who aren't physically abused, suffer psychological abuse from the exposure to pornography.

Aboriginal communities have welcomed this decision. I hope it can be pushed through as soon as possible.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

Thanks Vash. I hadn't heard of the bans before. I had heard that alcohol abuse is rife in some areas but I didn't know it had caused such awful situations for some people, I had naively thought it mainly led to drunkness, fighting and domestic abuse, like it can anywhere.

I had no idea what the pornography was doing in some communities. Very disturbing. Does anything happen to the non-Aborigine miners who are abusing the young girls? I hope so.

Kids should not be exposed to this kind of things, I agree with you hoping the legislation can be pushed through as soon as possible.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

To some extent, the problem is less one of "neglect", and more one of "dependence". Decades of welfare payments without reciprocity in the form of personal responsibility have created a generation of dependants who know no better and lack the motivation to change.

This is how Noel Pearson (an Aboriginal lawyer, land rights activist and community administrator) explained the problem in a newspaper article earlier this year:
If you keep giving money to people without requiring anything in return, how do you think they'll respond when you ask them to work for less money than they're already getting?

Two points...

(a) The administration of Aboriginal communities has previously been conducted at a state level, not a federal level. It's their responsibility (not his) to ensure that these communities are being looked after; Howard's Treasury simply provides the cash. That's why his recent decision is so drastic; he is taking the job away from the state government and giving it to the federal government.

(b) The crisis has only come to light as a result of a recent report. Prior to that time, I assume that the true extent of the problem was not known; or perhaps it wasn't even as bad as it is now.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

I suspect that the scale of the problem is out of proportion to the size of the Aboriginal population. It's an old, old story: alcohol + indigenous community = disaster. Just look at the current state of the Berbers, Yuracares, Maoris, Innuit, and American Indians - to name only a few.

I presume they are identified and prosecuted, where possible. Unfortunately, sexual abuse is a taboo subject in Aboriginal society, which makes it difficult to address.

Amen to that.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

A term dreamt up by the south Australian government, to describe a loose group of Aboriginal teenagers stealing cars, and generally running amok in Adelaides western suburbs.
Most are known to the police, and when put before the courts, are slapped on the back of the hand and given a good behavior bond, the other night[18 june] a 17 year old crashed a stolen car into another innocent motorist , causing severe injuries, also killing his 18 year old cousin, and injuring another family member.
The boy was on a GOOD BEHAVIOR BOND.............;)mm

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

I have the DVD's of Love thy Neighbour, and I think everyone should re watch them now that they have had a chance to live a PC world for the last 30 years since it was made. Although I do think it is very funny still, you do tend to gasp at the screen every now and then at what's being said.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

Yes but banning alcohol, how is that going to work. The states tried it years ago and look how that turned out. Also they are human and have human rights, they live in the same country as the rest of up and we are allowed to have alcohol so how can we stop them having it.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

The decision today hasnt been welcomed by Aboriginal communities at all (or where you referring to the previous time).

The whole issue is obvioulsy a contentious & difficult one, but the alcohol/porn ban is treating the Aboriginal community like 2nd class citizens. Its feels far too Naziesque & not a solution to the problem anyway.
Withdrawing the alcohol/porn isnt going to solve the problem of child abuse anyway - with or without it, it'd happen. Dont know the answer.
Call me cynical too but an elections coming up.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

They would be better off researching how to add the gene back in to the aboriginal people that they lack, the one that breaks down alcohol in the liver.
The might not be able to help the current generation this way, but who knows they might be able to help the next one.

Re: An Aboriginal day today
 

Agree with you there, a longer term view.