From Inside The Community

of one case that's been highlighted in the media. And I also wanted to do it in honor of Amy, given the sheer amount of work she does for the Aboriginal community and the broader community, and the core of that is selfless work of Amy, like thousands of Aboriginal women for the community, and they do the work in

areas just as we discuss in the podcast here. This is about trying to get justice for Linda, to free Kevin Henry, who was wrongly convicted and still in prison twenty seven years later, whose family has been destroyed by what has happened to him. It's about exposing the police and what they did to Kevin, and also in not getting justice for Linda, but also their treatment of all

the Aboriginal people involved in this case. As we've spoken about before, the police in this matter treated all the Aboriginal people appallingly, whether it was making serious threats against their life, interviewing people without lawyers, extreme misconduct, chasing Aboriginal people who had already given multiple statements around Queensland to give further statements that would fit the police version of events is constant harassment, constant bullying, and as happened back

then and as continues to happen right around Australia, Aboriginal women are sadly in the firing line of this injustice. And perhaps one thing I haven't spoken enough about on this podcast, and something I'm seeking to address this week is the impact that all these issues have on Aboriginal women.

One thing that was raised at the time of the Royal Commission into Black Deats in Custody by Aboriginal women around the country was the issue that while black deats in custody was a huge issue and remains an enormous issue, as we've stated before, some four hundred debts in the last twenty five years, and those debts include Aboriginal women, but what was raised at the time by people like doctor Judy Atkinson was that the Royal Commission needed to

expand further that while a black man was dying in a cell and being beaten to death by police, Aboriginal women were dying in the community, were dying violent and vicious crimes. Aboriginal children were dying in the same way.

Doctor g d Atkinson also raised the issue of suicide and the prevalence of suicide amongst Aboriginal men, women and children at the time and that this needed examining and all the issues that she, along with many other Indigenous women from right around the country were raising at the time and was saying urgent action was required if we were going to prevent a further catastrophe. Has only got

worse in the last twenty five plus years. So why aren't we listening to Aboriginal women who, like Amy, are on the front line. And so for this podcast, I want to bring you the voice of Aboriginal women who have been fighting these issues for a long time. And as we all know, domestic violence is an enormous problem in the Australian community. Just how bad is it for Aboriginal women. We know it's an enormous issue if we

focus on Indigenous women. I want to read something that Professor Marshall Langton said that was that violence against Indigenous women which ranges between thirty four times the national figure two in the worst areas eighty times. She said it's

a high priority issue. Now, there was contention when Professor Langton raised this issue was the figure truly that high, And not only the ABC but also The Conversation did a fact check and they wrote extensive articles looking over peer reviewed research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Curtain University study papers, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, a large number of reports from independent women's councils, and

just the raw data from health services and correctional services that related to these figures. And what Professor Langton said was absolutely right that the range was between thirty times higher to up to ninety times, so even more than the eighty times higher. The fact that you can have nearly one hundred times higher something that is already an issue that is devastating the community, impacting on a sector of the community community in this case Aboriginal women, means

that this is taking place at catastrophic levels. This is not something purely for discussion or debate. This is happening right now and it is costing lives as we speak. This week, a number of women marched to Canberra and stage to sit in do women come from central Australia and traveled from Alice Springs to Canberra to deliver a defiant message, and that is they're sick of not being

listened to and they're sick of not being heard. But rather than take it from me, this is why Shirlene Campbell, who has been fighting tirelessly and bravely for this cause, had to say this week in Canberra basically, we're just sick of it. We're coming here to tell the decision makers we actually want our voices to be heard. We are the grassroots people. We know what's best for our mob.

So coming to Canberra is a star. Joined by Miss Campbell was a range of women who either work as workers on the ground in their community or have been personally affected by domestic violence. As one Miss Hayes, said, it put a tear in my eyes that we're talking to the government and teaching them that we've got feelings to us women. Miss Campbell has already lost two of her aunts to partner violence, one in twenty fourteen and

one in twenty fifteen. Both of these women had suffered enormous abuse and yet outside of the community, no one did anything to support them. In fact, one of her aunts was a youth worker. Every day she was giving back to the community. Meanwhile, the broader community failed her until she was taken and she was killed, and she was murdered. So as sherline, Campbell said, I'm doing it for my daughter, I'm doing it for my grandmothers, my mothers, my aunties, and I'll also be reflecting on my two

aunties who are not here today. And I'm doing it in honor of these two ladies. Another member of the group explained how so many of them have been victims of violence. She said, all of us women, we've been victims. The violence always goes into the homes and it starts off with racism and arguing and then a fight starts and it's just got to stop. Now you're hearing directly what original women from Central Australia are trying to say. We shouldn't have people who are victims of violence having

to travel to the nation's capital to demand action. Our politicians are there to serve us, to serve the broader community and to serve those in need. Why has the support not come for these women? Cannot be said that the issue was unknown. As I previously referenced, doctor gud Atkinson was writing about this at the time of the Royal Commission. That's more than twenty five years ago. Others were raising the issue long before then, and yet again

we still have this silence and this inaction. But I want to tell you about something that is one of the most disturbing things about the message the women from Central Australia and Our Springs brought to Canberra, And that's something that has been reported before, and that is that in Our Springs at the Women's Shelter, there is what's known as an anti homicide section. The women's shelter basically

resembles a prison. If you were to look at photos of it, you would be convinced that it was a prison. It has large gates, large metal fences that are completely impenetrable, double barriers, alarm systems, CCTV and much more. And it's for women who are fleeing domestic violence to be safe.

Is there something not drastically wrong with the fact that women who are victims are having to run for their lives with their children in the middle of the night and need a prison like environment to ensure their safety. Why do they need this if they're not being failed by the community. So it's completely understandable that miss Campbell, along with many others, are seeking long term government funding so that they can put their work into practice. Not

the governments, they know what's best for their communities. This is what Miss Campbell had to say further to her earlier points. We want to tell the government to listen to us, stand with us, and to support us. We're working hard and we want to build that collaboration with the government sharing our voices. We want our program to be run for our next future generations. I feel so strong and confident hoping that our programs run for those generations.

It's also a privilege coming to Canberra because I want to share that message about visibility the issue, about the visibility of this issue, and that Indigenous women from around the country have been raising this for years and are coming again this week and have done to Canberra to plead for the support so that they can implement their programs.

That work should be known to all. This week we had another example of why those issues should be known, because often what I hear is that why don't the women go to the police. Well, here's the story from Western Australia just this week that will highlight very clearly whey Aboriginal women do not feel safe going to the pl and I'll read from the first paragraph of just

one of the many articles that covered it. A mentally ill and physically unwell Aboriginal woman was taken from Western Australia's Bundyat Women's Prison to Grayland's Hospital, where she was discovered naked and covered in her own blood in the back of a prison van. When staff opened the doors at the Graylan's Franklin unit, they discovered the distressed woman, who had been menstruating at the time. Last year, another Indigenous woman died after experiencing a heart attack at the

same prison. How is this possible that a woman who is both mentally and physically unwell, who clearly needs to be in a hospital is shackled, placed in a van, completely naked and left covered in her own blood. These are the things we hear from war zones. This is some of the most degrading, humiliating and torturous behavior you can subject any human being too. This is being done not to a person who is a criminal, but someone

who is both mentally and physically unwell. How can there be anything but a reaction to this To meet the demands of Aboriginal women from around the country that the programs implemented by government simply don't work. In fact, many are designed to fail and have been failing Aboriginal women and children for more than two hundred years. Now is the time to support the voices of Aboriginal women who are calling on funding so they can implement the programs

they know will help them because they work. If we moved to Marie. Another example. Just this week, more than twenty Aboriginal women held a workshop to learn, to teach, and to discuss domestic violence and how best they can serve their community. They've, of course, already been doing this. They've been dealing with domestic violence all their lives. Their mothers dealt with it, their grandmothers dealt with it, and not all have survived. This is unconscionable in what is

supposed to be a first world country. But one of the women explained why it was so beneficial and why these programs need to be rolled out, And this is what she had to say. From what I've got out of today, I know how to help someone. Most of my friends around me, I'll know how to talk to them and how to deal with it. I've had people come to me before, But if someone comes to me now, I'll tell them to speak up, don't be afraid to ask for help, and don't be silent. She went on

to say that it affects everyone. They all forget it affects the kids. You only think of yourself, but forget the kids are going through it as well. This is why these issues become generational because children see this violence, they experience this violence. They live in the home where this takes place. They live in a community where no one steps forward from outside like he's done for everyone

else to help them. In fact, many of these children end up in juvenile dettention purely for being on the street late at night or admitting very minor minor crimes. As we spoke about a number of weeks ago, in a peer reviewed medical journal, it was found that in Western Australia, nine out of ten Aboriginal children in juvenile detention aged beeen between ten and seventeen at at least one form of severe brain impairment. Is it any wonder these children are struggling to deal with what's going on

in their homes. No child can deal with this issue. Most of us, as adults, struggle to deal with this. None of us can do it alone. And yet we are asking young children as young as ten who have a severe brain impairment. Fifty percent had more than three severe brain impairments, and a third of the children suffered fetal alcohol syndrome. These kids were not being helped. These kids were not being supported. These kids were not being helped to go to school, receive the counseling they need,

to receive the basic nutrition and support they need. These were all kids who are imprisoned. How do they have any chance as adults? Again, I want to go back to something doctor Judy Atkinson said, and she said that when we look at all these issues, the over policing, the racism, the discrimination, the way incarceration impacts on entire Aboriginal communities, she made this simple statement, few people want to consider its impact on Indigenous women. This is something

we have to bring front and center. We know about Western Australia, we know what happened to Miss Jew. How is it that a number of years after Miss Jew died at the hands of police and Corrective Services, and the Health Department for that matter, simply for having unpaid fines, still sees a woman shackled in her own blood in a police fan. How is that possible? How have changes not been made to bring that? Back to domestic violence? We only have to look at something that happened at

the very end of last year. But not only are the police and services not actively supporting Aboriginal women, they're actively punishing original women who even dared to speak out about domestic violence. Just last year, an Aboriginal mother supporting her daughter contacted the police to speak about a domestic violence issue that her daughter was experiencing, and so that she could be with her daughter so that they could

explain to the police what was going on. This is precisely what we asked people to do, to support one another, to support their loved ones, and to contact the police. This woman would end up in prison. Why because when she contacted the police and they came to her home as she requested of them, they discovered that there was a warrant of commitment and she was imprisoned for weeks. It could have been longer, but luckily someone paid maid

the fine. So what was it that was so much more important than the domestic violence her daughter was experiencing that the police decided that rather than deal with that issue that results in the murder of women every single week in this country. What was so important that they wouldn't deal with that that they had to take this mother immediately to prison. It was the fact that there was a civil dispute that was still unresolved, dating back more than six years ago. What was it about an

unregistered dog? Police placed the importance of a civil dispute over an unregistered dog ahead of the lives of two Aboriginal women. Did not address the issue of domestic violence and instead imprisoned an innocent Aboriginal woman at Melaluca Women's Prison because she dared try to seek help for her daughter. What message does that send? Is it any wonder that women do not come forward for help when the result

is being imprisoned for asking for that help. We also know that there's a range of reasons why many women don't come forward. It also includes the growing epidemic of having their own children taken from them, As a number of Aboriginal women said this week, the risk of losing their children means they're willing to accept the bruises. What a position as a community we put Aboriginal women in when they are choosed to make a decision whether they

get hit again or whether they lose their children. And they have every right to believe this to be true, because not only do all the facts support them, everything they've ever seen in their lives has shown this to be true, that if their children are taken away, those children are often abused. We saw in Dondale what happens to young Aboriginal boys when they are in juvenile dettension. We've seen the murder of Indigenous children at the hands

of their foster carerors. We've seen a hopelessly underfunded system continue to make the wrong call on children who are dangerously at risk of being killed. The issue of child removal is a complex one and it's not what I seek to take on this week, but it is from the words of Aboriginal women, something that weighs heavily on their minds when they decide whether to pick up the

phone and report violence being committed against them. This is part of the horrific legacy of the stolen generations, and that damage continues. I want to bring things full circle again to doctor Judy Atkinson, who stated a startling statistic when she wrote about the need for royal commissions, particularly the one that looked at Aboriginal deaths in custody to assist Aboriginal women and Aboriginal children. And this was one

stat she quoted. In one state, seventy seven percent of the inmates in maximum security institutions for juvenile females are Aboriginal girls. In that state, Tho children make up just two and a half percent of the population, and yet there's seventy seven percent of the inmates in a maximum

security institution. Young girls starting out their life having been victimized, born often into poverty, into communities that are given no resourcing, no respect, no funding, who don't have any of the basic services the entire non Indigenous community would riot about if they didn't have, from simple street lighting and garbage collection to the provision of drinkable water, health services, and food that is at an affordable rate, not at an

extortion based prices that we often see in Aboriginal communities. Why businesses run from the cities, and yet despite all this, an Aboriginal woman with all become familiar with Linda managed to overcome. She was a tertiary educated mother. She worked to establish one of the first Indigenous childcare centers anywhere in Australia, the first in South Australia. And it wasn't just about caring for children, it was a place of education.

She was an expert in this area. She'd done the work to get that education, to get that experience, to work with the people in the know, to come up with this formula and this solution for her community and for the broader community. And yet in nineteen ninety one she died in Queensland, and in twenty eighteen she still doesn't have justice because of the same racism, an unthinkable and unimaginable action by the police. Her murder goes both

unsolved and without justice. And he is yet another reminder to Aboriginal women. But no matter how much you forge your head, no matter your bravery, no matter how much you sacrifice for your children to gain an education, to work in your community, to establish the programs and institutions to facilitate the healing, education and ability to close the gap that is always talked about when it comes to the crunch, you'll still be failed. So the answer is

really simple. It's not to listen to me. It's certainly not to listen to the politicians. It's not to listen to the morons from people like the Institute of Public Affairs, who had the goal to come out this week and criticize the Aboriginal women who'd come to Canberra and the need for a look at the justice system and the

way it deals with Aboriginal people. It's not to listen to any of the shock jocks, the people who don't know a thing, like Andrew Bolt, who didn't even finish school, let alone know a single thing about some of the most complicated facts and issues in our society. It's not to listen to the minister who's had more than five years to deal with these issues and it's done nothing,

to the point that this is getting worse. These are people we pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to a year to study this issue, to come up with the answers. Aboriginal women already hold the knowledge. Aboriginal women already know the programs because they implement them and fund them, and they do it at a cost that most of these other people wouldn't even get out of bed for, let alone be able to run a center or a program

to help the most vulnerable. If you really care about this, support the women I've spoken about today Aboriginal women right around the country. I'll put up links for these services on the curtainthepodcast dot com website. But quite frankly, you shouldn't find these things hard. This is very basic stuff

and all the information is available. And how is it so readily available because my co host Amy Maguire, who is away this week doing this sort of work, makes it available and has done for the last ten years in print, online, on radio, on television, and in person. As she is joined by a host of other Aboriginal women from the community sector, in journalism, in the legal sector, in health, who have been raising their voices for generations. Now is the time for you to invest some time

in what they have to say. Again, this is not about what I've said personally today. This is simply a call from me to you to listen, to learn, and most importantly, to open your wallet and support. I don't care too much about the price of smashed avocado toast in the city. What I care about is the lives of Aboriginal women and children right around this country will being failed because people, including the government, won't even front up for programs that cost to run per person per day.

As little as that bloody avocado on toast. Next time Sam Armitage does a Sunrise segment on Aboriginal children. Rather than offer up her own uneducated opinion or invite on a shock jock who doesn't know a thing, or a racist like Pru McSween, how about she invite on Sheoline Campbell from Central Australia who's at Nicole face, or doctor Judy Atkinson who's been doing the research and the working

communities for decades. How about she keeps quiet and listens to Aboriginal women who know this issue back to front but better again. How about the entire country start to pay attention to the voices, the lives and the humanity of all Aboriginal women. That was episode fifty one of Curtain, the podcast