A certain injustice
Words, voices and images: Connecting to cultures around the world
“On one on many visits to Alice Springs, parents and grandparents were desperately trying to find out what had happened to their young people”. Peter Hylands
Duration
15.06
Director
Peter and Andrea Hylands
Cinematography
Andrea Hylands
In Alice Springs we ask Grandmother Against (child) Removal, Christine Palmer, to tell us about her latest thoughts on the matter of the removal of Indigenous Australian children from their families.
We go back to 2018, yet when I look at the situation today, nothing has changed. I met Christine a few years ago on one of my many visits to Alice Springs. I was heading for a meeting with politicians in Alice Springs with one of my Aboriginal friends when we were caught up in an Aboriginal deaths in custody protest as we walked to our meeting.
On that hot and sunny day the dark clouds of division in the community weighed heavily upon us. And there was Christine at the microphone setting out a way forward through the many complex issues facing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous society in this place.
For those of you who do not know the stories of the past, they are distressing, Australia has a long history of removing Indigenous children and in its earlier form, for the purpose of assimilation with white culture. The removal of children is yet again a significant issue and as Christine describes it has become like a ripple effect across Australia.
2018 has not been the best of years for Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships. The rejection of the Uluru Statement of the Heart by the Commonwealth Government and its former Prime Minister was a considerable blow but one that describes attitudes so perfectly. The earlier actions that led to the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, and particularly the events at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, which was still in uproar on my latest visit to the Territory, were beyond belief, particularly given the global attention at the earlier Abu Ghraib like images featuring young people. As I update this story we now also face the rejection of the Voice Referendum, another blow aimed at diminishing Indigenous voices yet further.
“The Intervention was accompanied by a massive injection of Commonwealth funding for "child protection” services in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Department of Children and Families budget was increased from approximately $10 million in 2006 to $36 million in 2015. Overwhelmingly, these resources are focused on surveillance and removal of Aboriginal children, rather than support for struggling families. The cost of keeping a child in “out of home care” in the Northern Territory is upwards of $100,000 per child per year”. SBS NITV
The ongoing impact on communities in the Northern Territory of the Australian Government's 2007 ‘Intervention’ (and suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act) when the Australian Commonwealth Government sent in its armed forces to ‘disrupt and control’ the lives of people living in remote communities (73 communities) in the Northern Territory.
The legacy of what was done stills weighs heavily on health and wealth outcomes, destroying community employment and economy and generally degrading Aboriginal people, many of whom are outstanding individuals with their leaders recognised internationally.
Since the intervention the number of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory in out of home care has more than tripled. I will not go into the details of what occurred but to say it generated fear in communities and was an act described by the UN for its failure to respect the rights of Indigenous people, its breaches of international human rights and its racially discriminatory policies. We were in Arnhem Land that year, immediately following the intervention.
There were many other issues, including one I particularly dislike and that was the Basics Card, which substituted cash for controlled spending on a plastic card, and had the impact of disempowering Indigenous people away from better prospects and opportunity and was an effective mechanism to ensure economic exclusion. What this card represented, was a contemporary version of the old ration system, when Aboriginal people were paid in sugar, flour and cigarettes for their labour. So with all of this and much more, it is not hard to see why the tensions in Alice Springs continue to be some of the most evident across the entire country.
That said, there is good and bad on both sides, there are significant efforts to improve things, there are the endless inconsistencies and contradictions that make it hard for everyone. In the end not much changes.
The numbers speak loudly
Here are the grim statistics that underpin what has occurred. In 2017 Indigenous prisoners (over 18 years) were 27 per cent of Australia’s prison population, the Indigenous population of 18 years and over in 2017 was just 2 per cent (2.8 when young people are included). In the Northern Territory 84 per cent of the adult prison population was Indigenous, the 2016 census shows that 25.5 per cent of the population of the Northern Territory was Indigenous. Indigenous women are finding themselves increasingly in trouble with the law as the number of Indigenous women in custody continues to grow.
Indigenous deaths in custody, many are people on remand, from a range of causes (Australia wide there were 135 deaths in the eleven years to 2018) remains a significant issue. Indigenous deaths in prison are roughly 22 per cent of all prison deaths, the death in police custody rate is slightly lower.
Since the Intervention the rate of attempted suicides and self-harm looks like this, reported incidents have increased sixfold with young Indigenous girls making up 40 per cent of all youth suicides in the Territory. In the five years following the Intervention the suicide rate for young Indigenous people in the Territory increased by 160 per cent.
Standards of communication with and involvement of Indigenous people (which is poor) in relation to many of these problems remains a significant issue. We hear similar stories from different places around Australia. Aboriginal voices regarding these matters are not being considered and this adds to the difficulties.
What is critically important here is that the median age of Indigenous people in Australia (2016) was just 23 years old, much younger than the general population at 38 years. So young Indigenous people are incredibly important.
In 2018 this was what is happening to the young in custody. Indigenous children and youth make up around 94 per cent of the Northern Territory’s youth prison population and since the Intervention, the number of young Indigenous people placed in detention has more than doubled. Australia wide young Indigenous people are 24 times more likely to be locked up than their non-Indigenous peers. The Indigenous young are being criminalised and for what purpose?
In 2023 nothing has changed. In all our work in Central Australia what I have learned is that Alice Springs and surrounds is one of the greatest examples of economic capture that we know of, that means, for most Aboriginal people exclusion from the economy. Servicing of Aboriginal communities by non-Aboriginal people is just one example and one that has become a significant contributor to the Central Australian economy. So who are we actually benefiting here? No wonder the place explodes. The other point we would make, and a parallel to this journey is that we have noticed private sector security guards in Alice Springs interacting with Aboriginal people, this is unacceptable.
Now is the time for a very big rethink.
We go back to 2018, yet when I look at the situation today, nothing has changed. I met Christine a few years ago on one of my many visits to Alice Springs. I was heading for a meeting with politicians in Alice Springs with one of my Aboriginal friends when we were caught up in an Aboriginal deaths in custody protest as we walked to our meeting.
On that hot and sunny day the dark clouds of division in the community weighed heavily upon us. And there was Christine at the microphone setting out a way forward through the many complex issues facing both Indigenous and non-Indigenous society in this place.
For those of you who do not know the stories of the past, they are distressing, Australia has a long history of removing Indigenous children and in its earlier form, for the purpose of assimilation with white culture. The removal of children is yet again a significant issue and as Christine describes it has become like a ripple effect across Australia.
2018 has not been the best of years for Indigenous and non-Indigenous relationships. The rejection of the Uluru Statement of the Heart by the Commonwealth Government and its former Prime Minister was a considerable blow but one that describes attitudes so perfectly. The earlier actions that led to the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, and particularly the events at Don Dale Youth Detention Centre, which was still in uproar on my latest visit to the Territory, were beyond belief, particularly given the global attention at the earlier Abu Ghraib like images featuring young people. As I update this story we now also face the rejection of the Voice Referendum, another blow aimed at diminishing Indigenous voices yet further.
“The Intervention was accompanied by a massive injection of Commonwealth funding for "child protection” services in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory Department of Children and Families budget was increased from approximately $10 million in 2006 to $36 million in 2015. Overwhelmingly, these resources are focused on surveillance and removal of Aboriginal children, rather than support for struggling families. The cost of keeping a child in “out of home care” in the Northern Territory is upwards of $100,000 per child per year”. SBS NITV
The ongoing impact on communities in the Northern Territory of the Australian Government's 2007 ‘Intervention’ (and suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act) when the Australian Commonwealth Government sent in its armed forces to ‘disrupt and control’ the lives of people living in remote communities (73 communities) in the Northern Territory.
The legacy of what was done stills weighs heavily on health and wealth outcomes, destroying community employment and economy and generally degrading Aboriginal people, many of whom are outstanding individuals with their leaders recognised internationally.
Since the intervention the number of Indigenous children in the Northern Territory in out of home care has more than tripled. I will not go into the details of what occurred but to say it generated fear in communities and was an act described by the UN for its failure to respect the rights of Indigenous people, its breaches of international human rights and its racially discriminatory policies. We were in Arnhem Land that year, immediately following the intervention.
There were many other issues, including one I particularly dislike and that was the Basics Card, which substituted cash for controlled spending on a plastic card, and had the impact of disempowering Indigenous people away from better prospects and opportunity and was an effective mechanism to ensure economic exclusion. What this card represented, was a contemporary version of the old ration system, when Aboriginal people were paid in sugar, flour and cigarettes for their labour. So with all of this and much more, it is not hard to see why the tensions in Alice Springs continue to be some of the most evident across the entire country.
That said, there is good and bad on both sides, there are significant efforts to improve things, there are the endless inconsistencies and contradictions that make it hard for everyone. In the end not much changes.
The numbers speak loudly
Here are the grim statistics that underpin what has occurred. In 2017 Indigenous prisoners (over 18 years) were 27 per cent of Australia’s prison population, the Indigenous population of 18 years and over in 2017 was just 2 per cent (2.8 when young people are included). In the Northern Territory 84 per cent of the adult prison population was Indigenous, the 2016 census shows that 25.5 per cent of the population of the Northern Territory was Indigenous. Indigenous women are finding themselves increasingly in trouble with the law as the number of Indigenous women in custody continues to grow.
Indigenous deaths in custody, many are people on remand, from a range of causes (Australia wide there were 135 deaths in the eleven years to 2018) remains a significant issue. Indigenous deaths in prison are roughly 22 per cent of all prison deaths, the death in police custody rate is slightly lower.
Since the Intervention the rate of attempted suicides and self-harm looks like this, reported incidents have increased sixfold with young Indigenous girls making up 40 per cent of all youth suicides in the Territory. In the five years following the Intervention the suicide rate for young Indigenous people in the Territory increased by 160 per cent.
Standards of communication with and involvement of Indigenous people (which is poor) in relation to many of these problems remains a significant issue. We hear similar stories from different places around Australia. Aboriginal voices regarding these matters are not being considered and this adds to the difficulties.
What is critically important here is that the median age of Indigenous people in Australia (2016) was just 23 years old, much younger than the general population at 38 years. So young Indigenous people are incredibly important.
In 2018 this was what is happening to the young in custody. Indigenous children and youth make up around 94 per cent of the Northern Territory’s youth prison population and since the Intervention, the number of young Indigenous people placed in detention has more than doubled. Australia wide young Indigenous people are 24 times more likely to be locked up than their non-Indigenous peers. The Indigenous young are being criminalised and for what purpose?
In 2023 nothing has changed. In all our work in Central Australia what I have learned is that Alice Springs and surrounds is one of the greatest examples of economic capture that we know of, that means, for most Aboriginal people exclusion from the economy. Servicing of Aboriginal communities by non-Aboriginal people is just one example and one that has become a significant contributor to the Central Australian economy. So who are we actually benefiting here? No wonder the place explodes. The other point we would make, and a parallel to this journey is that we have noticed private sector security guards in Alice Springs interacting with Aboriginal people, this is unacceptable.
Now is the time for a very big rethink.
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