Ideas@TheCentre
Putting children’s needs before issues of racism
Last weekend was National Aboriginal and Islander Children Day (NAICD) – a day for Aboriginal people to celebrate their children and reflect on giving them the best start in life.
But for many Aboriginal children across Australia, it went unnoticed and unmarked.
Hannah McGlade, in her book Our Greatest Challenge, argues that although child sexual assault has become part of mainstream political debate and public consciousness, the ‘progressive’ Left and human rights groups continue to put issues of racism before women’s and children’s needs.
McGlade dedicates her book to ‘all the Aboriginal children who cried out in the night but were not heard.’
The voices of women and children suffering in remote Indigenous communities are often silenced by the more powerful men in their communities. As McGlade writes:
The male dominated Land Councils have opposed the NTER [Northern Territory Emergency Response] in Australia and taken their complaints to the United Nations ... Opposition to the NTER has at times entailed denial of the problem of violence against women and children and child sexual assault. (p. 18)
Opponents of the NTER downplay the issue of intra-violence and sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities because it does not fit with their romanticised view of Aboriginal culture. It is far easier to blame the government.
According to anti-interventionists and human rights groups, government is the biggest violator of Aboriginal human rights. These groups define human rights issues as Aboriginal/state conflicts such as Aboriginal deaths in custody. But as McGlade points out, the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody failed to acknowledge the high rate of homicide of Aboriginal women, which far outnumbered the deaths (predominantly of men) in custody.
Issues relating to gender-based oppression and violence, especially the powerless position of children, are rarely acknowledged by human rights groups. In fact, measures taken to protect woman and children (such as the NTER or the closure of the Swan Valley Nyungah Community in Western Australia) are viewed as politically motivated and racist.
Despite significant evidence of abuse to children and young people at the Swan Valley Nyungah Community, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Racism sided with the WA Greens, agreeing that the closure of the community was an example of racial discrimination and not a necessary measure to protect the health and safety of children.
Nicholas Rothwell in The Australian argues that for a brief period half a decade ago, child abuse in Aboriginal communities was the most vital issue in the nation. Today there is only indifference.
The Aboriginal children’s day is a good time to remember that issues like sovereignty come second, third, or even fourth to the safety of children.
Sara Hudson is a Research Fellow at The Centre for Independent Studies.
