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The Forum > Article Comments > The savagery of abuse > Comments

The savagery of abuse : Comments

By Stephen Hagan, published 20/12/2007

What is the future for Aurukun and other remote Indigenous communities which seem to be incapable of policing their own citizens?

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I DONT LIKE ANYONES COMMENT.

I think all of us know that to break the cycle we need to integrate these people of the north into the broader Australian Community.

The curse is that we are attached to the land, so therefore these people just cant cut their losses and pack up and go like whites can, which in reality is the best option in terms of economic and social wellbeing.

Abuse happens, but it happens not just in Aboriginal communities but in many other remote communites.

By the invasion/intervention happening to 'save the kids' we have just put the community on a leash, not giving them any long term benefit.

We need to offer pathways out of these communities for the young people, and education is the key to getting these opportunities. Then they can come back to their home and help their community, and break the cycle of despair.

We can and will stand on our own two feet in the next 2 generations, and then we can reclaim our place and enforce our economic clout and entitlements as the custodians of the country.
Posted by Realist, Thursday, 20 December 2007 1:45:28 PM
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What a lot of cobblers! Dr Ken Henry with all his arrogant "should" words. White man out to fix things again. Wake up, this fix-it attitude has been around for a century and what has it really achieved? Implicitly more committees, more hand outs, more cudgelling.

What about recognising the indigenous people as simply different - not superior, not inferior, just different. They are not white people and there is nothing to fix. Let them be.

What about stopping trying to fix them from a position of arrogant white supremacy, and give them their way of being back. Yes "being". For millennia they have evolved a way of living with a richness of experience and presence. Unlike the white man, they are not accumulators, not deferrers. They live now!

Naturally they aspire our goods. Aspire what we have, but demonstrably without the 'wiring' to be like us.

What about giving their souls back? Call it connection with the land or whatever, but give them an opportunity to live as they always done. Not to bundle onto a reserve. Not to impose and fix them.
Posted by Remco, Thursday, 20 December 2007 1:46:06 PM
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There is no hope of resolving such unacceptable behaviour unless the real facts are exposed without embellishment.

The facts as I understand them are that this child has been the subject of criminal sexual penetration since the tender age of five or six years old when she contracted Syphilis.

From that point she must of necessity been under the care and protection from sexual predators by her family.
Considering that she was fostered away from Aurukun with a white family suggests that her parents and the relevent department of Child protection were aware that further criminal abuse was likely to occur....Why was this considered a likely hood ?

Despite the criminality of sex with a minor and the illegality of this child giving consent, What are the circumstances where nine males were able to engage in sexual acts with this child without her parents knowledge. Was she held against her will or had she become promiscuous and complied ? As horrified as we might be at the very thought that a child of such tender years could be promiscuous,it does occur.

If this is the case, it would suggest that the whole COmmunity has a serious problem of moral degradation which is not being addressed as we all wallow in indignant recriminations against the Judge, The Prosecutor and the Child Welfare agency without recognising the elephant in the room of a whole Community in desperate need of recovery from extreme social & moral degradation.

The Aurukun Community is the underlining cause of this abuse and there is a need to recognise the dysfunction and take appropriate steps to resolve the problem or other children will be at risk.
Posted by maracas, Thursday, 20 December 2007 5:37:41 PM
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besides echoes of common wisdom I'm wondering what the upshot of this piece is?

Bit like sitting of grampa's lap listening... heard it all before ..but you've got to be patient and respectful..
Posted by Rainier, Saturday, 22 December 2007 5:20:40 PM
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Rainier, I think the time for patience and respect has run out. We have been too patient waiting for the Aboriginal communities such as Aurukun to come to grips with their own problems and nothing positive is happening. They don't seem to have any respect for themselves, so how can the white community be expected to have any respect for them.

I am truly sorry, end of story.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Saturday, 22 December 2007 8:25:40 PM
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VK, Are you speaking for all the white community or just the one who think are listening to you via telethapy, osmosis - and agreeing?

To assume that Aurukun developed along the same lines of prosperity or access to goods and services as white Australian towns ignores this recent history.

Read some here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurukun,_Queensland#History

Aboriginal people have been asking for self governance and rights to land for years. Denial of these as fundamental building blocks over generations has its effects.

I am not excusing any criminal behaviour - just pointing out that your 'loss of patience' is not based on any genuine expectation or active participation with Aboriginal people or communities or indeed application of any real memory of the history or contemporary realities.

It’s astounding how many Australians know nothing about this nations history.
Posted by Rainier, Sunday, 23 December 2007 12:14:05 PM
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