Indigenous women and girls report: Historic survey calls for change

A survey of Indigenous women has called for action over trauma, extreme violence and removal of children endured by them.

Ngurrara ranger Sumayah Surprise took part in the landmark survey of Indigenous women and girls. Picture: Wayne Quilliam

Australia must treat the prospect of an Indigenous child’s removal from their family just like the ­arrest of an Indigenous person by establishing a hotline for parents to get legal guidance and advice, according to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar.

Dr Oscar’s historic report, Wiyi Yani U Thangani — which means “Women’s Voices” in the Bunuba language of Western Australia’s far north Fitzroy Valley where Dr Oscar was raised — is the result of meetings with about 2300 Indigenous women and girls across Australia.

It is the first time in 34 years that such a survey has been ­attempted. From capital cities, ­remote communities and sometimes from inside prisons and ­juvenile detention centres, the women and girls told Dr Oscar about their lives, their hopes and their troubles.

Through personal stories, they shed light on how government policies affected them, including the cashless debit card that many women said made it hard to take advantage of value-for-money opportunities that required cash, such as buying fresh food at local markets, paying for leisure activities for their children and second-hand goods at garage sales.

Women in the South Australian community of Yalata near the Nullarbor also said that men abused the card by buying expensive items which they then sold for cash.

Girls who attended a consultation for the report in the West Australian goldfields city of Kalgoorlie wrote: “Can’t trust with this new card around because they don’t have cash so they will steal things for drugs — it is helping issues, but it is causing an even worse one.”

On Wednesday, the Senate approved a two-year extension at trial sites for the debit card, which quarantines 80 per cent of welfare recipients’ incomes from being withdrawn as cash.

 

Ngurrara ranger Sumayah Surprise from the Kimberley was among the women from remote locations who contributed to the report. At a meeting in Ms Sumayah’s home town of Fitzroy Crossing, women spoke about the importance of culture and the challenges for those living in houses with up to 16 other people.

Dr Oscar’s report condemns the treatment of domestic violence victims, who often then lost their children to state care because of the known harm caused to children when they witness a parent being violently assaulted.

Just as the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody recommended a notification service ensuring Indigenous people speak to a lawyer when arrested, Dr Oscar recommends a child protection notification referral system that ensures a parent talks to a lawyer whenever child protection workers step in.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar. Picture: Colin Murty

“All state and territory governments should implement a Child Protection Notification Referral System (like the Custody Notification system) to refer women and families engaged with the child protection system to culturally safe and preventative legal advice and assistance to reduce matters reaching court and children being apprehended,” Dr Oscar writes in the report.

“Too many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families and communities have been devastated by the interventions of child protection authorities. If we do not act now, we risk even more generations being stolen from us, the erosion of our culture, and the cycles of trauma to continue.

“ No longer can we ignore this crisis. The system requires urgent and total reform.”