Good Afternoon Folks,

In order to understand and get the full picture - one
has to look at the entire scope and complete scope
of things. Statistics can vary depending on places,
locations, circumstances, et cetera.

It is generally well known that Aboriginal people are
massively over-represented in the criminal justice
system of Australia. They represent only 3% of the
total population, yet more than 29% of Australia's
prison population are Aboriginal.

Since 2004 the number of Aboriginal people in custody
has increased by 88% compared to a 28% increase for
non-Aboriginal Australians. In 1992 one in seven
prisoners was Aboriginal by 2020 that ratio had risen to
one in 4.

Australia's proportion of adult Aboriginal prisoners ranges
from 9% in Victoria to 84% in the Northern Territory.

Mark O'Reilly, Principal Legal Officer, Central Australian
Aboriginal Legal Aid Service in 2011 said - "The Alice
Springs Prison is so far beyond capacity that it's
refusing to take prisoners".

Charts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show
Aboriginal people represent an average 17% of the prison
population except in WA and the NT where they account for
43% and 84%. Aboriginal people make up less than 5%
of each state's population except for the NT where they
account for 31.6%.

Since 1989 the imprisonment rate of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people has increased 12 times faster than
the rate for non-Aboriginal people. In December 2019 the
rate was 2,536 prisoners per 100,000 adult Aboriginal
population compared to 218 prisoners per 100,000 non-
Aboriginal population.

Data from ABS shows from 2000 to 2012 imprisonment rates
for Aboriginal Australians increased from 1,727 to 2,346
Aboriginal prisoners per 100,000 adult Aboriginal population
in comparison the rate for non-Aboriginal increased from
122 to 154 per 100,000 adult non-Aboriginal population.

In order to understand - as stated earlier - it depends
where people live and their circumstances. Everything needs
to be looked at critically in its context - if looked
only through a narrow prism - one gets a very slanted view.

I'm not sure if the author of this article is reading
our posts. I hope she is and that she does not
get too disheartened by some of the comments.

Lets face it the nation persists in governing our
Indigenous people in ways that are harmful to them with
the conviction that if they find the right policies, the
right funding, the right set of incentives, their lives
will somehow improve. This is a colonial fantasy.

There have been moments of hope - for example - the
1967 Referendum, the Mabo Court case on land rights in
1992, the bridge walk in 2000. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's
2008 apology for Stolen Generation, all gave hope.
But something far more radical is required.

The success of an Indigenous middle-class does NOT obscure
the fact that for the MAJORITY of Indigenous people
government policies and programs have made little positive
difference to their quality of life.

Over many decades Australian government policies in
Indigenous affairs have been marked by 2 things -
1) constant re-invention and constant resistance
to the ONE thing that Indigenous people want -
2) The ability to control and manage their own lives.

They have consistently called for greater control over their
own destinies. So long as governments fail to address
this and as long as they suppress the desires of our
Indigenous people for a greater say - the policies and
programs directed at them will continue to flounder.

These people need to control their own systems regarding
what is important to them - such as - health, education,
law, and justice - things that matter to them.

The Uluru Statement From The Heart did not ask for much.
Yet it was rejected outright without so much as a debate.

And we still keep asking - how can we reconcile? What
can we do?

The problem lies not with our Indigenous people.
The problem is US! They keep telling us what they want.
Our governments refuse to listen and act on it.

Jayb,

That's a stupid thing to say - how do you 'know' that Indigenous students are doing 'socialist-inspired' study ?

If you want the latest break-down of which courses are Indigenous students enrolled in, it's on that website. To save you trouble, in 2018,

* 1,756 commenced studies in Health (Medicine, Podiatry, Paediatrics, Optomoetry, Physiotherapy, etc.)

* 951 commenced studies in Education - at least fifteen thousand Indigenous students have commenced studies in Education since 2000;

* around 1,800 commenced studies in IT, Business, Architecture, Engineering, Agriculture (about bloody time), Management and Commerce.

Any other whinge ?

Joe

One final addition that I forgot to add -
in relation to the past administrations of
Aboriginal affairs - it should be recognised that
Aboriginal people have continuously resisted the
imposition of much of government's legislation.

The official records reflect this opposition and
contain letters written by Aboriginal people seeking
to recover their land, their right to vote, their
children returned, to receive their citizenship rights,
and so on. It's all on record.

There's more at the following link:

http://www.theconversation.com/indigenous-reconciliation-in-australia-a-bridge-too-far-54336

Take care.
Stay safe.

Foxy,

In a number of Aboriginal communities where they had "The ability to control and manage their own lives", the Howard government was forced to intervene and send in the army to protect children and women from sexual and physical abuse. The intervention was welcomed by most women for obvious reasons.

And, while I support the principles behind the Uluru statement, it failed to say how Aboriginal representation to the federal Parliament would work, how its members would be elected, what powers it would have, etc, etc. In other words, it deserved to be considered little more than a thought bubble. Instead of rejecting it, however, Turnbull should have said something like 'Nice try, but we won't reject or accept it because we want you to go back and answer the obvious questions of how it would work etc."

Foxy, you keep repeating the same mantra. Can you please tell us exactly what is stopping aboriginal people managing their own lives?
What is stopping them using traditional medicine men and bush medicine? What is stopping them eating their traditional food? What is stopping them walking around wrapped in possum skins?
What is stopping them running their schools the way they want?
As for justice system, are you saying you would like to dispense with punishment for aboriginal people who break the law? For murder, for assault, for rape ,for armed home invasion? Because those are the crimes the majority of aboriginal people are locked up for. Only about 5% are in for so-called minor crimes.
And you do realise that under traditional aboriginal law, rape, kidnapping, assault, infanticide and capital punishment were all legal, don’t you?
Please don’t answer with your usual rhetoric of epic proportions. I would like you to simply give some actual examples of aboriginal choice being denied.