I'm not sure I follow here. Is Liz Conor suggesting that pre-colonisation Australia was a mecca for sexual equality, and that Australian tribes were not hostage to the 'Old Men' who ran the joint and did whatever they liked to every woman in the tribe?

gw

gw, no liz is not saying that at all. Are you looking back comparitiv ely beyond recent history to justify the present?
Using your logic, Indigenous people deserve their current situation and the colonial incursions that bought it to this time and place on the basis of a pre-invasion violence you can neither substantiate of provide clear evidence of. One thing is clear, pre-invasion Aboriginal society, (over 600 different langauges, a complex system of multicultural cohabitation) no longer exists. Why is this so?
But more importantly, are not Indigenous people deserving of the same human rights as white Australians? I sense your answer to this might be No. A large part of this being delivered is for White Australians to stop disremembering. Lest we forget or is it best we forget?

I found it heartening to see the history of our Aunty's being truthfully said, I like the Aunty concept, it mirrors reality.

As for broughs agenda, he's taken a bite out of a big elephant, and i wonder how much he's gonna be able to chew. it would certainly be easier if he enlisted others to help - maybe the aunty's could help out.

Advance Australia Fair - does that include aboriginal people?

The aunties are still around, they just are not recognised for what they do in protecting the people who need it.

One thing they do know is that if they don't fit the "description" of what some beuarocrate filled out in his paper work, then do your work quietly or lose the kids you are trying to make strong, pass on to them the pride we all have, and make them understand why it was taken away so many years ago.

But most important. Why we need to stand with the ancestors of past and reclaim ourselves.

Kaydla

The next representative structure for Aboriginal leadership (local, regional and national) needs to be desiged by Aboriginal women and candidates nominated and voted for by Aboriginal women only. They know whose who and what's what. Nuff said!

And when we get it right for our Indigenous women and children, we can try to apply what we've learned for our other coloured (including white) victims of violence and sexual abuse who are very poorly served by adversarial 'justice'. Watch all the women losing their children to 'dad' after the changes to Family Law. Except we're not allowed to speak about them in the media.

Too right cotter!

For Gods Sake! Aboriginal People Need Resources! - PART ONE

It was brave for the procecutor and Lateline to throw open this story, and by gee's this sort of culture of sexual abuse and violence must stop EVERYWHERE, however...

To empower women and children, there must be a future. Remote communities everywhere are suffering today more than ever and the Aboriginal communities worse than worse imagined.

We know about crime and the direct and direct causes of crime. With CDEP cut, with more men and women out of work the communities may totally collapse.

What is it with Australia?

If crime prevention is to ever work it must be done so with the community. The community must be empowered before anyone will feel safe enough to STAND UP and do the right thing when it comes to a) reporting crime b) taking responsiblity for community where their is crime.

The cycle of crime is well understood by almost every culture in the world yet... in Australia with our knowledge and resources... we turn to the authories when ever things go wrong. The very source which fails to impliement the social planning structures required for community empowerment at community level.

The communities need more assistance to train their OWN POLICE, and cultural service teams. The communities need more assistance in transforming their own governance...

"Fly-in" officials need to be more committed and be prepared to engage in the "domestics" as they occur at communities levels. Here in Cape York, there is little hope of immediate change. The present pressure on local councils to align with the rest of Austrialia, the remoteness, the cost of "engagement with the outside world"... and now completely cut down with CDEP before anything is traded to replace it....it's like social planning done backwards and up-side down.

The same with the drinking laws - it's "cold turkey" with no framework to self-help....

For Gods Sake! Aboriginal People Need Resources - PART TWO

We need to get serious about community crime prevention. We need to look closer at how other countries have assisted village communities, deal with violence against women and children.

We need to look at poverty as a real issue. Empower women and children as the UN did when it recognised (1974 UN Rights of Children) that safer communities (protecting children) starts with focusing attention towards mothers.... "empowerment" with core strategies utilising economic startegies in SELF-Determination. ie: research the the small enterprise village loan system in Africa and India, see the success of outcomes in micro- enterprise development... and we are talking "micro-systems" not the fancy bells and whistles we see here directed solely to TOURISM!

To break this cycle of violence, more needs to be done at ground level. We need to assist those Aboriginal women and children who are struggling to cope, who are often isolated and vulnerable to abuse, to break-out of poverty and dependance, and their forced co-dependance.

My heart goes out to the grandmothers. I pray for the grandmothers who cope with more than their share of responsiblity for "children at risk" in one lifetime.