Five years ago, Kevin Rudd made an apology to the Stolen Generations of this country for the wholesale practice of removing Aboriginal children from their families and the identity-shattering impacts this policy had on those children, their families and their communities.
Can we now as a nation say that we have provided Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children the promised future, “a future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again”? Unfortunately, the past is reflected in our current care and protection systems for children and young people.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over-represented in these systems at a rate eight to ten times that of non-Aboriginal children.
In some jurisdictions it has been projected that 80% of Aboriginal 16 year olds or under will have been the subject of a notification to a child protection service. Nationwide, only 50% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from the care of their parents are placed with extended family members.
Western academics are only now realising what has been known in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities for millennia – the connection of mind, body, spirit and heart. Science is now establishing strong links between physical and emotional harms to children and poor outcomes in the areas of adult health, mental health, criminal justice and education.
The mantra seems simple – prevent children from getting hurt and you will prevent adult pain; prevent adult pain and you will prevent children from getting hurt. Breaking this cycle is, however, where our greatest challenge lies.
In many jurisdictions, there has been a crisis-driven response to the over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in child protection. Often presaged by sophisticated and highly regarded public inquiries into the issue, the responses on the other hand have featured short-term thinking, but large amounts of funding, a lack of sustainability or evidence in strategy planning, a sense that we need to “do to” communities rather than “do with”, and a need to contain the problem, rather than adequately conceptualise it and build capacity for response.
Rarely has there been a focus on enabling families and communities to enact their responsibilities towards children, even less a focus on adult healing and recovery as a means of providing children with a better future. As former Northern Territory Coordinator-General for Remote Service Delivery Olga Havnen has noted; in crisis mode, we have focused on removing children from risk rather than removing risk from children.
Part of the difficulty in posing an alternative to crisis-driven, individualistic responses is the lack of evidence for an alternative. My research involves working with other national leaders to build this alternative evidence base.
Working together with community controlled organisations, and organisations with a dedication to righting the wrongs of the past, we must harness our collective cultural, social and academic expertise to develop evidence-based approaches.
In the words of Kevin Rudd’s National Apology to the Stolen Generations, collectively we must work towards:
A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.
A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.
A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.
Otherwise we risk the shame of having to apologise to another generation of Aboriginal children taken from their families.
David Clerke
Teacher
I understand there is an unclaimed monetary prize for anyone who can name ten aboriginal children who were removed from their families simply because they were aboriginal. I also note that the original title of the book which gave us this phrase was The Forgotten Generation. Interesting also that nothing of any consequence Windshuttle has written has ever been rebutted and there has not been a successful legal claim lodged by those who claim to have been stolen despite millions of public money being spent, The only successful case was someone who sued because he was returned to a disfunctional mother. Please explain!
Frank Baarda
Geologist
I guess the prize could be claimed by the authors of the 'Bringing them Home' report. This from Wikipedia:
The report concluded that "indigenous families and communities have endured gross violations of their human rights. These violations continue to affect indigenous people's daily lives. They were an act of genocide, aimed at wiping out indigenous families, communities, and cultures, vital to the precious and inalienable heritage of Australia".
Myself I can't claim the prize as I do not know 10 such children.
I do however know two friends of mine here in Yuendumu that were NOT taken away. The reason they did not become stolen children was that their families hid them from the authorities that would have taken them away simply because they were 'half-castes'. On occassions their faces were blackened by the use of a fungus- the stalked puffball (Podaxon aegyptiacus).
Raine S Ferdinands
Retired
Pauline Hanson has similar views about our native Australians, David. What a great intellectual she is! Sad to see that some of us still harbor antagonistic feeling towards the most deprived, most abused and vulnerable within our society. Yet we are ever so ready to donate towards deprived people in distant lands such as Africa, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Indochina, Bosnia, Romania, etc. We rant and rave about our politicians and "fat-cats' who apparently are creaming off the wealth of this nation, yet we resent any assistance given to the needy within our society. That our Aboriginal people (post British settlement) have lost their land, language, culture and way of life that they enjoyed for over sixty thousand years does not appear to be a consideration. What is in our psyche that discriminates thus? Alas, I am unable to fathom this. I wish I could help. Education is one sure way of redressing this gulf of imbalance between Aboriginal youth and the rest of us.
David Clerke
Teacher
Problem is no one else can name them either! Windshuttle's analysis of actual records show extreme reluctance to remove children except when in extreme deprivation and or danger. When a white couple refused to return two brothers who had been billeted with them for, from memory, a sports carnival, they were compelled to return them.
David Clerke
Teacher
And your point is precisely? Apart from an emotional rant.
Frank Baarda
Geologist
Raine's point as is mine is that we will not accept the denialist argument about the Stolen generation.
Circumstances varied tremendously, but the fact that many children were deliberately taken out of Aboriginal society, driven by an ethnocentric assimilationist paradigm happened and was widespread.
This is now recognised by most people to have been a grave injustice never to be repeated.
The sad truth is that out here at the "front" the assimilationist injustices continues disguised as "Closing the Gap", "Stronger Futures" or whatever the authorities dream up.
A whole generation of children is growing up being denied an education in their mother tongue, and with their fathers incarcerated and their elders disempowered and stigmatized. No longer are the children 'stolen' and taken to institutions. The institutions are brought here.
We are well on the way to creating a situation that will require "Apology Mark II)
David Clerke
Teacher
The once again name ten of them! You can't and no one else can either. I would refer you to various statements from Beth Price, recently elected to the NT Assembly and her husband that fluency in English is an essential prerequisite for aboriginal development. How are you going to teach physics or economics or accountancy in a language which may have only a few hundred speakers and who would you get to teach it? Totally ridiculous.
Frank Baarda
Geologist
http://humanrights.gov.au/social_justice/bth_report/about/personal_stories.html
Read moreI don't know why I bother. On the human rights website it has names of the 535 indigenous Australians that told their stories to the enquiry that lead to the Bringing them Home report.
To protect their privacy only their first names appear.
Incidentally it is Bess, not Beth. She used to live here (three decades ago) and her husband was my backdoor neighbour before they moved to Alice Springs.
Bess is absolutely right…
David Clerke
Teacher
What total nonsense! Once again why despite million of dollars of public money have there been on successful claims? You lead off a class action with your best case and none none have been successful. You are living in dark fantasy world, so regarding education do we move primary and secondary and even tertiary education out to tin villages? How do we get teachers prepared to stay there? Are you volunteering? I remember a couple of years ago there was action to build dormitories in Darwin for indigenous to stay when doing tertiary education. Immediately sqauwks from the chattering classes about destroying heritage by removal, What is your solution? Build colleges in every remote community? Come on give us the solution rather than wallowing in the problem.
Frank Baarda
Geologist
"Total nonsense", "dark fantasy world" "the chattering classes"...
Has it occurred to you that there may be opinions out there that differ from your own and that are not necessarily totally invalid?
As for the point I was making about bilingual education, you've missed it. Just because I believe that initial teaching in a language the child understands is far more effective than using what effectively is a foreign language to that child, doesn't mean that I want a University plonked in every…
Read moreDavid Clerke
Teacher
Lead by example!
Frank Baarda
Geologist
And what makes you so sure I don't?
This isn't about you or me.
Ngulajuku
David Clerke
Teacher
And your qualifications are? And the subjects you teach? I am pretty sure we would have heard about it if you do.
robin linke
stamp dealer
Raine, I would argue the case, that many people who have views similar to your own are to blame for the conditions of the descendants of the Aborigines. These conditions have got worse over the last 40 years when left wing activists began campaigning for 'rights'.
Read moreI invite you to rebut my reply (uploaded 12 hours ago) in support of David Clerke as to why conditions have got worse.
Pauline Hanson's contribution to Australian Politics is important because of the intellectuals response to her…
Kim Darcy
Analyst
"Unfortunately, the past is reflected in our current care and protection systems for children and young people.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are over-represented in these systems at a rate eight to ten times that of non-Aboriginal children."
Doesn't this suggest that the way things were done in the past was not the wrong way at all?
David Clerke
Teacher
I must continue looking for the quote of I think Mick Dobson where he complains that there are not enough foster families for aboriginal children. How long before any such families are accused of perpetuating aboriginal conditions by "stealing children"?
Debbie Scott
Research Fellow
The evidence shows strong associations between neglect, poverty, overcrowding and lack of access to services. An apology is just the start, it must be followed up with the right attitudes and behaviours. Removing children from home and country isn’t the answer. Providing them and their families with the resources to improve their lives – education, housing, health care, employment – is. Thank you for a well-written article Prof Arney.
David Clerke
Teacher
Yes living off welfare because there are very limited or no job opportunities in the remote communities which are typified by child abuse domestic violence and alcohol abuse.
Kim Darcy
Analyst
Actually the evidence shows stronger associations between not working, and choosing to live too far from civilisation to poverty, overcrowding, and fewer services. To me, there are very simple actions those disadvantaged could take to improve their lot.
"An apology is just the start, it must be followed up with the right attitudes and behaviours."
There is no evidence of the apology having any positive affect whatsoever. In fact, it could have made things worst, by entrenching the bureaucrats.
robin linke
stamp dealer
I agree with the sentiments of David Clerke. I disagree entirely with the Fiona Arney essay and Debbie Scott. This modern tragedy has been was initiated by the Whitlam & Fraser Govts and any attempt at a long term solution has been paralysed by the political left in milking it for their attack on Australian Society .Fiona Arney makes not a single practical suggestion, and must with many similar academics take moral resposibility for the continuation of this tragedy..
Read moreI make the following points…
Jon Hunt
Medical Practitioner
I completely agree Fiona. I've worked in Aboriginal health for some time and I realise that most of their problems are due to, essentially, having everything taken from them - both in a physical sense as well as a cultural sense, leaving them floundering around in no-man's land. Little wonder there are social problems which can lead to problems such as the proper care of children and so on. So I agree completely that you should endeavour to remove the risk from children rather than the other way around because that's the problem, not the children. We can only do this with their help because as is evident here white people don't understand their problems. Including myself.
Raine S Ferdinands
Retired
Agree with you, Jon.
We have placed people on the Moon yet are unable to resolve this human injustice on Earth. Frankly there is little political will do so. I know of a country (I worked there once) that has completely changed the deplorable plight of a large section of its people within 30 years ( a generation). It was due to single-minded commitment on a national scale. Sometimes I wonder about our democracy .... it appears to most benefit the rest of us who have it all. However, the Aboriginal problem is not defined by colour ("white people don't understand their problem.."). It is a human problem that arises from displacement, dispossession and human rights violation. We CAN (as a nation) resolve this disparity. The question is do we really want this? Are we enlightened enough to look beyond "us" and "them".
David Clerke
Teacher
I am still waiting for two things, one the names of ten people removed purely because they were aboriginal and two. how do we have sufficient productive employment in remote communities?
robin linke
stamp dealer
Raine, why did you not name the country which changed the 'deplorable plight' of its people in 30 years. I am suspicious about this omission.
In the 1930's communists and their fellow travellers euligised Stalin for his social & industrial reforms without informing us that he murdered 25 million people in doing so
Frank Baarda
Geologist
I was at a function where Rosalie Kunoth-Monks started a speech with "There is no Aboriginal Problem in Australia only a white-fellow problem" the largely Indigenous audience applauded loudly.
So Fiona Arney writes a well thought out article and the conversation sooner or later descends into arguments in favour or against "the rights agenda" or the "assimilationist" agenda. Myself am no exception to this.
My family and I have lived on Yuendumu almost the full 40 years that is quoted as "when…
Read moreTony Grant
Student
If we want results with indigenous children (others) we need an international team working on the ground.
Results including health and education outcomes "WILL NEVER COME FROM THE EXISTING FRAMEWORK".
How many decades of funding...how many "billion dollars" it hasn't worked.
Indigenous children have been left to "abcrats" who are so far removed from the "lack or health and education" it is their bread-winner, the same issue they political scream about. Always using the ABS figures to justify more funding and getting it...IT IS HUSH MONEY?
While a booming middle-class has become very "fat" on the western diet (food/clothing/shelter/gambling) the vast majority fall by the side...these abcrats are "race traitors" the Liberals have one in the federal parliament and "Uncle Tom" if there ever was one!
I get my information from a Noongar friend in WA.
robin linke
stamp dealer
Tony, congratulations. Yes indeed! "How many decades of funding....how many billions of dollars"
The politically correct chattering classes have no intention of improving the plight of Aboriginal men women and children.they rely on their misery and suffering to gain an endless flow or public money.
The bleeding heart essay of Fiona Arney has been replicated a 1000 times over the last 40 years. They do not say 'sorry', they heap personal denigration on their critics eg Pauline Hansen and the will not engage in level playing field debates.
Frank Baarda
Geologist
I belong to the so called "politically correct chattering classes". Like Tony Grant, I get my information from countless Warlpiri friends. I live on the "playing field" and I can assure you that it is far from level. Our attempts at engaging in serious intelligent debates are frustrated by the dogmatic attitudes of those that oppose us. I'd like to point out that the agenda for the last two decades has been driven by the neo-con assimilationists (from both major parties) in cahoots with the fourth…
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