I don't think forceably removing children is the correct action to take. Besides, we tried that once and it didn't really work. Although I dare say that many of those children that were removed from their families would appreciate that they survived to adulthood when many of their siblings and other children did not.

I think it is time that the Koori people decided what laws they want to be governed under and whether we are all Australians or not. The government is in a "dammed if they do, dammed if they don't" situation here.

What fuels the abuse - Is it alcohol related ? Is it a normal part of Koori culture ?

More importantly of course - Why is it being left to the white society to try and find a cure, don't the Koori people care enough about their kids to sort out a solution themselves!

"More importantly of course - Why is it being left to the white society to try and find a cure, don't the Koori people care enough about their kids to sort out a solution themselves!"

Freethinker, are we all Australians or not?

Excellent opinon article IMO.
Sexual and other forms of abuse have been historically evident and are still present in most societies. When Freud regressed women he was surprised at the accounts of sexual abuse given to him by young women of upper class parentage in Austria, surprised because the accounts occured so often. He wrote a paper which stunned Viennese upper class society and for which he was shunned. He rewrote his findings and all other findings as fantasies on the part of these women and the penis envy syndrome.
All societies must brazen change and we need to work towards open honest discourse by acknowledging these unhealthy patterns as a nasty manifestation of many societies, not just indigenous. The law needs to provide protection and punishment and there must be education for young women and men.Young women or men who come forward should be applauded rather than shamed.
It should be observed too,that more advantaged people still have their own means of protecting themselves from the law and most cases will never come to court.
Let's use the knowledge of people such as this author and work on policies and systems which change behaviour at all levels of our societies.
A community is more inclined to hide problems when it is constantly judged in a poor light by those in other communities. A zero tolerance level means recognising the people who will not back down and who will seek positive change and be instrumental in acquiring and igniting it.
The same must happen at all levels of non-aboriginal societies. Racism is a form of abuse which contributes to other abuse.
And when we regard aboriginal communities as being protective about abuse, we should be equally aware that lawyers, judges, policeman, and other white collar criminals are equipped to protect themselves, avoiding change and justice in this arena and others.

While the Prime Minister ,Tony Abbott and Mal Brough are reluctant to spend more money on the "Aboriginal Problem" to coin an old phrase,a lot more police, hopefully 50% of Aboriginal background and strict curtailment of the availability of alcohol combined with professionally run alcohol and drug treatment centres should bring immediate help to these communities.
This will cost a lot of money . The States and the Federal leaders must shoulder their responsibilities to our most dissadvantaged group in our rich society .

Kartiya,

Don't you see that your "Aboriginal Problem" is really symptomatic of a non-Aboriginal problem with Aboriginality? Identifiying it as you have, throwing money at it, regulating it, policing it, punishing it, empathising with it, etc., is only ever going to be scapegoating.

Unless non-Aboriginal Australia reconciles within itself, a genuine respect for the truth and the values that it claims to uphold, these symptoms will persist.

To that extent, notions such as one set of laws for all Australians must concede that the unoccupied status of the land that formed the basis upon which sovereignty was established in the name of the British Crown was invalidated by the High Court's acknowledgement that Aboriginal Australians held possessory interests in their traditional lands.

The notion that Australia upholds an expectation that immigrants will assimmilate into the culture of the host nation flies in the face of colonial settlement and the making of the world British.

Non-Aboriginal Australia must acknowledge that it has usurped indigenous Australians from their unparalleled sustainability, leaving matters (of an ethical nature) outstanding.

When Australia holds Aboriginality inviolate, as its most valuable human resource and a defining pinnacle of human achievement, then being Aboriginal would be met with adulation rather than contempt and Australia would see the restoration of dignity in both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, alike

I hope this terrible problem is not simply going to be swept out of sight,out of mind again.
All children have a right to their childhood, no matter who they are and the abusers of that childhood should be kept far, far away from their victims-real or intended.
No culture should claim the right to be permitted to lay one hand on a child with the intention of sexual gratification. That is not what children are for.
The men who are found guilty of child molestation should never be protected while in prison, they have made fair game of their victims, it is only right that they should stand in the same place.