The truth and children just swept under the carpet

Federal indigenous leaders such as Linda Burney and Pat Dodson need to be more outspoken. Picture: Kym Smith

It is gut-wrenching to picture a grown man raping a two-year-old, but for many it seems easier to ­ignore it than to be enraged. Otherwise, why are many of our Aboriginal leaders now pushing on to other matters? Is it ­because this case was not brought to us via ABC Four Corners footage, as Don Dale was?

Many of us who have known of the sex abuse horrors for years have been trying to reveal the truth while others have continually attempted to shut us down. Claims of “racism” and “impacts of colonisation” have been the easy distraction from this disgraceful situation, which is all too prevalent in some Aboriginal communities.

I have heard the ongoing complaints made (mostly by privileged urban Aboriginal Australians) about the 2007 intervention. Those who complained loudest were far removed from the actual circumstances, which were laid bare in the Little Children are Sacred report that sparked the government’s strategy.

On Stan Grant’s ABC program Matter of Fact last week, indigenous leader Pat Turner baulked at the word “intervention” in relation to intervening to save the lives of children at risk of neglect, violence and sexual abuse.

Protesters against the 2007 ­intervention were primarily ­foc­used on the disempowerment of communities which, despite popular opinion, was not a result of the intervention itself but the later implementation of so-called super shires. Another common complaint was the ­alleged stigma supposedly attached to communities following the intervention, along with the demonisation of Aboriginal men. All of these complaints, yet no protester was concerned for the welfare of children. The only concern was for the reputation of adults in a bid to sweep the truth, along with the lives of children, under the rug.

And despite the Little Children are Sacred report, no arrests of ­pedophiles were made, while the rates of reporting of sexual abuse due to the implementation of mandatory reporting increased dramatically.

One has to ask why government is continually to take the blame for what is largely the failings of some Aboriginal leaders. These are our children and we have failed them. Why is there not the same outcry from the Aboriginal community and the Aboriginal leaders for this two-year-old’s circumstance as there was for the circumstances regarding the youth in Don Dale that led to a royal commission?

Why did Mick Gooda not publicly shed tears for this two-year-old and why, when he was paid a six-figure salary as member of the Royal Commission into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory, did he not further investigate child sexual abuse as a likely cause for high incarceration rates of Aboriginal youth? His comments in this newspaper yesterday in the report on the “tsunami” of child sex abuse cases in the Northern Territory appear as a handball for the too-hard basket. “We didn’t really have time to go deeply into a whole lot of that stuff. That’s why we said that it needs further investigation,” Gooda said. “We were concerned.” If he was so concerned, why did he not endeavour to follow this up and demand it be immediately dealt with?

Why have our federal Aboriginal leaders, Malarndirri McCarthy, Pat Dodson, Linda Burney, and Aboriginal Northern Territory MLAs Chansey Paech, Sandra Nelson, Ngaree Ah Kit, Lawrence Costa, Ken Vowles and Selena Uibo, not been more outspoken and demanded that we take responsibility and action for the sake of saving the lives of our children? Blame is seemingly placed everywhere else but on the shoulders of the perpetrators or the families whose responsibility it is to provide love, care and stability for their children.

Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar’s response to the horrifying ordeal of the two-year-old was to first acknowledge the pain of the Stolen Generation rather than the pain of the child.

There has been a culture of silence for far too long. The culture has permeated communities and the workplaces of communities where non-Aboriginal people have been witness to, or have known of, the sorts of crimes the Tennant Creek toddler suffered but that culture of silence engulfed people.

The fear of violent retaliation, losing one’s job or being run out of a community has often been the deterrent for people to keep quiet about these abhorrent crimes.

Government departments have been known to reinforce this culture of silence by not acting in the best interests of children but rather to maintain peace in communities. If this is the fear felt by non-Aboriginal professionals work­ing in remote communities, then imagine how the victims feel.

This has become the norm for Aboriginal victims of sexual abuse. Put up with it and shut up. The culture of secrecy has allowed vile criminal sexual behaviours to flourish while the human rights of children have been obliterated.

It is well past time for all who are concerned with the welfare of our children to have open, honest and confronting discourse about the truth. No more can we point the finger elsewhere.