Sean K
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Hmmm, Did I read somewhere that they were the oldest surviving culture on the planet?
I think there's more at work than just Aboriginals....
Hmmm, Did I read somewhere that they were the oldest surviving culture on the planet?I don't think they have the genetic makeup to survive, possibly some form of natural selection is occuring?
Thats my theory anyway.
yeah but Kauri.. a 10 year old ?but does anyone here know what happened... before... and after??
wouldn't it be good to have all of the book before critiquing it?? or not.
Puts a bit of a chill down my spine really.Child safety failed rape girl
Tony Koch | December 11, 2007
QUEENSLAND'S Child Safety Department knew that a 10-year-old girl had been gang-raped but did not report it to police, despite the girl also contracting a sexually transmitted disease from the encounter.
The child - who had been living in a Cairns foster home before the department decided to return her to Aurukun, in Cape York - has been diagnosed as "mildly intellectually impaired" and suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome, having been born to an alcohol-dependent mother.
The Australian yesterday revealed nine males who pleaded guilty to gang-raping the girl had escaped a prison term, with sentencing judge Sarah Bradley saying the child victim "probably agreed" to have sex with them.
An eight-month investigation was conducted into the April 2006 multiple rape and submitted to the Department of Child Safety, resulting in one senior officer being sacked and two others suspended for 12 months on full pay - a situation that still exists.
A senior departmental official yesterday told The Australian that the child involved was sexually abused at age seven and, as a safety measure, was put with various foster families, eventually ending up in 2005 with a non-indigenous family in Cairns. But she was returned nine months later to Aurukun, where she was gang-raped by the nine males.
I think it disgusts them (the Ab communities) as well , m8.I know that we are appalled by this but is the aboriginal community involved worried about ?
Did they report the assault to the Police ?
Did they ostracise the people involved ?
Is this permissible within their society ?
Are we applying our standards to them ?
Do we have that right ?
This is what needs to be revealed, much like the fundamentalist terrorists, we read and hear of what we consider to be shocking events, yet the actual people involved, who are part of that community don't seem to join us in that outrage.
Are we pious pontificating know it all White Westerners ?
Maybe we expect them to measure up to our standards and criticise them when they have no desire to live as we do.
Personally it disgusts me
Blame game starts in Aurukun rape case
Posted 7 hours 57 minutes ago
Updated 7 hours 47 minutes ago
There is more pressure on the Queensland Government today over the case of the 10-year-old Aurukun girl whose rapists escaped jail sentences.
Premier Anna Bligh has admitted the Child Safety Department let the girl down by removing her from her foster family in Cairns and sending her back to the Aboriginal community where she had previously been sexually assaulted.
Foster care groups are outraged, saying cultural considerations were given priority over the girl's safety.
The girl at the centre of the case has again been removed from the community. She is now with another foster care family who have told Ms Bligh she is doing well.
"The foster family that she is living with are doing the best in what is a difficult case, but she's getting a lot of assistance and so are they, and I thank them for the job they're doing," Ms Bligh said.
But the Premier admits the Department of Child Safety was wrong to send the girl back to Aurukun on Cape York, after she had already been sexually assaulted there.
Once back in her community she was gang-raped. Her nine rapists pleaded guilty but were not sent to jail.
Ms Bligh has acknowledged the system failed the girl.
"When all of this happened two years ago, the Government at the time identified that child safety officers had failed to protect [her] and that their decision-making was seriously flawed," she said.
"We had an external review of those decisions and the people involved were subject to dismissal and disciplinary action.
"That's actually quite unusual in Australia for people in these positions to be accountable in their actions.
"And it was the subject some industrial unrest in the department, but the Government did not turn a blind eye to this, and we certainly took it very, very seriously."
Muriel Brambell from the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Care group says there is no way the child should have been returned to her community.
"[It's] unbelievable that something like this could happen in Australia, in a country known for it's civil liberty [and] it's capacity to do the right thing," she said.
"I think in a country where they're asking the Aboriginal people to trust the system, trust that the right thing will be done to do away with customary law and to focus on protecting children - they didn't protect this child in this particular, and they took away the face of the Aboriginal community to trust the system."
The case has had a ripple effect through other Aboriginal communities in the north of the state.
But Peter Solly from Napranum Aboriginal Community Council does not think it is an indication that the problem is worsening.
"The more you work at it, the better it's got to be," he said.
"The incidence of reporting, I think, is going up, which is good. Even though that sounds bad, it's good that at least reporting is happening and we suddenly get a full grip of the problem, a full understanding of the problem."
But now Queensland will review all sexual assault cases from the last couple of years to see if there has been a trend of lenient sentences.
That worries Billy Daniel from New Mapoon Aboriginal Community Council. He thinks it will end up tainting communities that have worked hard to overcome problems.
And Desmond Tayley from the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Community, while horrified by this case, does not think a review of other cases will offer any insight.
"I think they'll find a whole heap of a can of worms when they open the case," he said.
"There's issues there that probably haven't been dealt with, but I don't think that will be resolved. You're only going to create more problems within these communities."
Rape case comments 'don't reflect community opinion'
Posted 47 minutes ago
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh says court transcripts of a gang-rape case give evidence that the standards the community expects from the judicial process have not been met......
Earlier today Ms Bligh admitted the Child Safety Department let the girl down by removing her from her foster family in Cairns and sending her back to the Aboriginal community where she had previously been sexually assaulted.
Ms Bligh says Child Safety officers made the wrong decision in removing the child, but she says action was taken.
...
The girl at the centre of the case has again been removed from the community. She is now with another foster care family who have told Ms Bligh she is doing well.
Queensland's Attorney-General Kerry Shine is appealing the sentences given to the nine offenders, and the Director of Public Prosecutions, Leanne Clare, is reviewing about 75 similar cases.
Foster care groups are outraged, saying cultural considerations were given priority over the girl's safety.
And then lets ask for compensation.'Remove children' plea at Aurukun
John Van Tiggelen
March 14, 2008
ELDERS from a far north Queensland community are calling for the removal of children in the face of a comprehensive breakdown of social standards.
Several members of Aurukun's community justice group, led by Martha Koowarta, widow of a local land rights hero, are urging outsiders to take children from age nine for their safety and education.
That was the point in the first place wasn't it. We can look back and say it was, but that was the wisdom of the time, just like today. Maybe I don't understand, but I think we'll be judged in 50 years differently than we are today.Circumstances could not be anymore different. Nobody has ever denied removal of children for their safety and well being is wrong.
Hey Kennas you are correct, there is much more at work than just the aboriginals themselves......................and their lays their biggest challenge!
But,
At the end of the day they need to adapt to these conditions or face extinction.
The way i see it is that, regardless of all the things being inflicted on them and those being inflicted on them by their own they have to find ways of adapting to this.
My arguement is that i don't think they have the genetic make up to make these adaptions and therefore will be wiped out as a race.
And, this is the reason why is doesn't matter what you do because you can provide them with everything you think they need but that does not alter their genes.
I also think they suffer a terrible case of the 'YOU CAN"T MOVE FORWARD WHILE LOOKING BACKWARDS' syndrome, its a nasty one to contract and often uncureable.
And yes, they may well be regarded as one of the longest surviving races but there is a reason for that. They were on an isolated island for a long time and did not suffer the pressures faced by other races, this could ultimately be there downfall. But, life has caught up with them and its really sorted them out.
Just because you are thought to be one of the longest surviving races is not a guarantee that you will always be the longest surviving races.
I'm not against them in any way but for me this is how i see it.
Survival is all about adapting and at the end of the day you either adapt or dissapear. They will not survive, the writing is on the wall.
I also think they suffer a terrible case of the 'YOU CAN"T MOVE FORWARD WHILE LOOKING BACKWARDS' syndrome, its a nasty one to contract and often uncureable.
That was the point in the first place wasn't it. We can look back and say it was, but that was the wisdom of the time, just like today. Maybe I don't understand, but I think we'll be judged in 50 years differently than we are today.
Isn't that rather too much of a generalisation? Certainly many children in institutions were abused, white as well as black, but not all by any means.However it is even worse if we accept it was done for the benefit of the child as the level of risk these children were exposed to actually increased in the religous missions they were sent to.
I'd be interested in references to those studies. That is in contrast to Noel Pearson's remarks that many of the stolen generation became very functional members of the broader society, with good work ethics and sense of community. He asserts that it is far more the following generation which has the greater level of dysfunction and he attributes this largely to what he describes as the "morally vain" element of our present white society promoting in his people a perpetual sense of victimhood. He says this prevents them understanding the need to take responsibility for their own outcomes, i.e. determine within their own communities that the grog has a profoundly negative effect on their relationships and the development of their children.Studies have found higher levels of dysfunction in stolen children compared to those that remained with their mothers so they did not even achieve that end.
From ABC, 14 Mar. 08
ANTHEM MILK PLAN UPSETS ABORIGINAL LEADER
A plan to print the national anthem on Tasmanian milk cartons has upset members of the state's Aboriginal community.
A Burnie milk company has agreed to put "Advance Australia Fair" on its cartons in the lead-up to Australia Day next year.
A 16-year-old Burnie student, Jacqui Fishwick, campaigned for the move, saying it is a shame the words of the anthem are not widely known.
But Michael Mansell from the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre says the song is only relevant to white Australians, and food labelling should not be politicised.
"Look at the words - "for we are young and free". It's an obvious reference to white people," he said.
"You know, Aboriginal people have been here since time began, and white people have only been here in the last 200 years.
"So, the words of the national anthem are really written for white people, and for that reason, no food producer should be advertising political slogans that polarise opinion."
"And if you have a food producer taking one side of the argument, you're going to end up polarising opinion, because some people will say "well look, I'm not going to buy that product because it's taking such and such a political position.
"And I don't think that is the function of food manufacturers," he said.
"You know, Aboriginal people have been here since time began, and white people have only been here in the last 200 years.
And then lets ask for compensation.
Maybe the circumstances are a tad different but it's a tad ironic too.
I'd be interested in references to those studies. That is in contrast to Noel Pearson's remarks that many of the stolen generation became very functional members of the broader society, with good work ethics and sense of community. He asserts that it is far more the following generation which has the greater level of dysfunction and he attributes this largely to what he describes as the "morally vain" element of our present white society promoting in his people a perpetual sense of victimhood. He says this prevents them understanding the need to take responsibility for their own outcomes, i.e. determine within their own communities that the grog has a profoundly negative effect on their relationships and the development of their children.
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