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Addressing family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities – Key issues

Mr Tom Calma

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Acting Race Discrimination Commissioner, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission

Ending violence in Indigenous communities Forum

Monday 19 June 2006, Parliament House, Canberra

I would like to begin by acknowledging all of the Ngunnawal peoples, the traditional owners and custodians of the land where we are gathered today, and pay my respects to their elders and to the ancestors.

I would also like to acknowledge:


I thank you for your attendance today. The presence of such a large and distinguished group of people, able to attend at short notice, indicates the seriousness with which we all see the issue of family violence in Indigenous communities.

Can I also thank Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation, who have taken the lead role in organising this event. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has had no hesitation in joining ANTAR as a co-host of this important event. I’d also like to thank the many organisations that are also hosting or supporting this event, such as Reconciliation Australia, Oxfam Australia, the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Principals’ Associations Professional Development Council.

I know that I speak for all these organisations when I say that we have created this event because we are committed to seeing an end to family violence in Indigenous communities. We want to work with governments to ensure that there are deliberate and determined steps taken to address this issue, which is a cause of such devastation to the cultures and fabric of Indigenous societies.

We also see the need for a space for dialogue with Indigenous peoples to discuss some of the complexities and the day to day realities that exist in communities in addressing the many facets to family violence. And we have a breadth of experience among our panellists today on the daily challenges that addressing family violence raises for Indigenous communities.

My role today is to provide some suggestions, from my national perspective as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner, on the issues that I consider we must face if we are to make progress in addressing family violence in Indigenous communities.

But first, let me state upfront and unequivocally that family violence in Indigenous communities is abhorrent and has no place in Aboriginal society.

Family violence is a scourge that is causing untold damage and trauma among Indigenous communities. It is damaging Indigenous cultures and it is causing untold damage to our women and children.

Indigenous men, women and children are entitled to live their lives in safety and full human dignity. This means without fear of family violence or abuse. This is their cultural and their human right.

Violence and abuse is also in breach of criminal laws across the country. I am on record several times stating that if an Indigenous person commits these types of offences they should be dealt with by the criminal justice system just as any other person would be. There should also be swift intervention from care and protection systems to ensure that the best interests of the child are the primary consideration.

Government officials and community members should be fearless and bold in reporting suspected incidents of violence and abuse. This means addressing the code of silence that exists in many Indigenous communities about these issues. And it means government officers meeting their statutory obligations, meeting their duty of care and taking moral responsibility in the performance of their duties as public officials. Many do already. Regrettably, some do not.

Let me also state upfront that Aboriginal customary law does not condone family violence.

Family violence and abuse of women and children has no place in Aboriginal culture. Customary law cannot be relied upon to excuse such behaviour.

That is not the customary law that I know. Perpetrators of violence and abuse do not respect customary law and are not behaving in accordance with it.

HREOC has stated clearly in submissions to sentencing courts and to inquiries that customary law must be applied consistently with human rights standards. In other words, at no stage does customary law override the rights of women and children to be safe and to live free from violence.
What I intend to do today is to challenge you to broaden your thinking about the dimensions of the issue of family violence and abuse in Indigenous communities and to provide you with some possible ways forward.

For while we all readily agree that violence should not be tolerated, anyone who has worked even fleetingly on these issues knows that the solutions are complex, multi-faceted and require long term focus and commitment to address.

It is hard going. And governments and communities have by and large failed to solve the problem to date.

Later this week, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission will release a paper which provides an overview of the research, educational and advocacy work that we have done over recent years on issues relating to family violence in Indigenous communities.

We have looked at this issue in many contexts. We have considered:


I think you will find this a useful document when it is released. I mention it here as this snapshot of issues captures how violence relates to almost every aspect of policy making and service delivery to Indigenous communities.

Because of this, we need to adopt a holistic approach to address the causes and the consequences of family violence in Indigenous communities. If we treat it as simply a law and order matter, a matter of legal compliance, or a health matter, we will not achieve lasting improvements to the lives of Indigenous peoples.

In saying this, I note that the forthcoming Ministerial Summit on family violence is narrowly focused on issues of law and order, customary law and school attendance. These are important issues and they can make a difference. But they are not the only issues.

We urge all governments to ensure that they do not forget the total picture and that the narrow focus of the Summit is used as a platform to create momentum to deal with all the relevant factors relating to family violence. I personally am viewing the Summit as Stage One of the broad-based approach that will be needed if we are to end violence in Indigenous communities.

In the time remaining to me, I want to identify ten challenges for addressing family violence in Indigenous communities. To me, these are some of the key factors that we need to address to achieve lasting change.

First, we should acknowledge that governments have been making commitments to address this issue for some time already. What we need is concerted, long term action which meets these commitments.

Let me remind you of one of the most significant commitments which has been made in recent years. The Council of Australian Government adopted the National Framework for preventing family violence and child abuse in Indigenous communities in June 2004. COAG set out six principles upon which action by governments would be based, namely:


It is a wide ranging acknowledgement of the relevant factors and necessary components of any response.

At the time, which is now two years ago, COAG stated that “The extent of family violence and child abuse among indigenous families continues to be a matter of grave concern for both governments and indigenous communities. All jurisdictions agree that preventing family violence and child abuse in indigenous families is a priority for action that requires a national effort.”[2]

Now rather than be discouraged at the lack of priority that has clearly been given to this issue since the making of this solemn commitment in 2004, I want to commend Minister Brough for putting this issue back on the agenda.

I don’t think that Minister Brough needs to seek the commitment of anyone to work on this issue – because you already have that ten times over. The time for action is long overdue.

Second, this action must be based on genuine partnership with Indigenous peoples and with our full participation.

It is important for governments to walk with Indigenous peoples and not run ahead and expect that we will catch up.

In my latest Social Justice Report I also put the challenge to all Australian governments to ensure that appropriate support is provided to the establishment of regional Indigenous structures as a matter of urgency.

I don’t intend to say more about this issue here, other than that it is difficult to see how governments can adopt a partnership approach when there is limited capacity to engage with Indigenous peoples in a systematic way.

Put simply, my concern is that governments risk failure if they develop and implement policies about Indigenous issues without engaging with the intended recipients of those services. Bureaucrats and governments can have the best intentions in the world, but if their ideas have not been subject to the ‘reality test’ of the life experience of the local Indigenous peoples who are intended to benefit from this, then government efforts are more likely to fail in the medium to long term.

Third, and related to this, there are significant processes and networks already in place to progress these issues. We need to support them and build their capacity.

As examples, I am talking about:


We should be working with these significant resources within Indigenous communities and supporting them to lead efforts to stamp out violence, including by developing the educational tools to assist them to identify and respond to family violence.

As a further example of existing resources, last week the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW released a directory of Aboriginal men’s groups, the focus of which includes anger management, dealing with violence and grief and trauma counselling. It is a simple initiative, but a vital one in making existing services for help known among the Indigenous community.

My basis point is that we do have some structures and resources in communities that could be better supported and utilised. Let’s not reinvent the wheel and fracture existing services.

Fourth, there is a need for broad based education and awareness-raising among Indigenous communities.

There have been media reports recently about a report which is currently being considered by the NSW government. The report has been produced by the Aboriginal Child Sexual Assault Taskforce and is called ‘Breaking the silence – Creating our future”.

Media reports have stated that the review found that child sexual assault is not well understood in Aboriginal communities, resulting in it going undetected and in creating a culture of silence and inappropriate responses such as protecting perpetrators rather than children.

I await the report’s release and its recommendations with interest. What is clear to me, however, is that it supports my concern that there is not a clear understanding or acceptance of the problem of family violence in many Indigenous communities. This means that community dynamics do not confront and challenge violent and abusive behaviour as much as they should.

In my view, raising awareness among communities, working with communities to send strong messages that violence won’t be tolerated, that there are legal obligations and protections and individuals have rights, are critical if we are to stamp out this behaviour for good.

Fifth, is a plea: don’t forget our men and don’t stereotype them as abusers.

There are many Aboriginal men who find family violence and abuse abhorrent. I am one of them.

In the past two months I have addressed men’s leadership groups and health professionals, and the concern has been put to me regularly that this debate is demonising Indigenous men and typecasting us all as violent and abusive and as perpetrators of abuse. Some remote communities have spoken out against this and rejected that they condone violence.

We need the support of Indigenous men if we are to make progress in stamping out violence. Indigenous men have a critical role to play in ending violence in communities. As Indigenous men, we need to model appropriate behaviour, challenge violence and stand up against it, and support our women and nurture our children.

Many Indigenous men already do – it would be a backward step if we did not acknowledge these strong men, and if we didn’t direct some of our attention, through services and programs, to support their needs.

A recent study of men’s health services on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands, titled Building on our strengths, by Dr Alex Brown states:

When searching the available literature, ‘gender and health’ tends to highlight responses virtually exclusively to the health and well-being of Indigenous women. When relating to men, it tends to highlight the negative consequences of male behaviour... Indigenous males are described and labelled as the worst of health and social statistics, rather than as the dynamic, essential elements of families, communities and societies. Perpetuating negative stereotypes of Indigenous males as ‘problem males’, has led to the development of health and social policy that continues to blame males for an array of issues, without providing the necessary support, infrastructure and political will to reverse male health and social disadvantage.[3]

We need to bear this in mind in any response so it addresses the issues as they relate to all members of Indigenous communities.

Sixth, and related to this, is a further plea: we need to look for the positives and celebrate the victories.

There are good things happening in Indigenous communities, even if the national media is not interested in reporting them. In my view there are two impacts of the continual negative stereotypes about Indigenous peoples.

The first is that it contributes to a political environment in which these issues are not important to the Australian public, except when sensational allegations are made from time to time. What, for example, is different about the debate of the past two months to the debate around the time the Prime Minister convened a national summit in 2003? Why was there no sustained interest or pressure from the media or the non Indigenous community to address these issues in the three years since that Summit, and the time before that and so on... This is reconciliation in action – we need to work together and be in it for the long haul together.

The second impact of this constant stereotyping is that it can further disempower and contribute to negative self-image among Indigenous peoples. Let us confront the problem, but also do so by reinforcing the inherent worth and dignity of Indigenous peoples, not by vilifying and demonising all Indigenous peoples.

Seventh, and this one is directed solely to Indigenous peoples and communities, we face a challenge among Indigenous society to re-assert our cultural norms and regain respect in our communities.

Indigenous peoples proudly identify as being a distinct group within society. We do so based on our cultures, our identity and our systems of law.

These systems are built on respect. This respect begins with respect for our elders and continues on to respect for our mothers and women, our men and for our children – our future generations.

One of the most insidious and damaging effects of our colonisation as peoples, has been the breaking down of our systems of respect. Poverty, disadvantage and discrimination have bred dysfunction and have led to a lack of respect among sectors of our communities.

We face a major challenge, as Indigenous societies, to focus on rebuilding or re-asserting our cultural values which have been eroded through lack of respect.

Family violence and abuse is about lack of respect for Indigenous culture. We need to fight it as Indigenous peoples, and rebuild our proud traditions and community structures so that there is no place for fear and intimidation.

Eighth, and this is the main challenge for governments working in partnership with Indigenous peoples, we need a long term, bi-partisan commitment to do whatever it takes, for as long as it takes, to end family violence in Indigenous communities.

This is not the same as calling for a commitment to address this issue. It is calling for government accountability on this issue.

By this I mean accountability where governments’ actions match the commitments they make. Where governments’ actions show that they have decided:

a) that they are committed to a particular course of action – such as overcoming Indigenous disadvantage;

b) that they have considered what needs to be done to actually achieve this outcome;

c) that they have a plan for when the outcome will be achieved – ie, it is benchmarked with targets and goals for when it will happen;

d) that they have put all resources possible and made every effort possible to achieve this, and;

e) have done so for as long as is necessary to reach the end goal – even if this is longer than the electoral cycle. This requires bi-partisan support, and if the policy intervention is sound and it has been developed with the active participation of Indigenous peoples, such support should be forthcoming.

When you have been downtrodden for all of your life and governments have been promising to do something to address this for all of your life, and they haven’t – why would you hold out any hope for change? We can’t forget how disempowering, dispiriting and destructive empty promises have been on Indigenous society over such a long period of time.

What this means is that this Summit on violence must focus on the accountability measurements that will be put in place to hold governments to their commitments. I strongly encourage the development of robust monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. These will also allow us to identify and celebrate successes.

Ninth, and related to this, it requires a change in mindset of government from an approach which manages dysfunction to one that supports functional communities.

At present, the record expenditure on Indigenous affairs is paying for the consequences of disadvantage and discrimination. It is paying for ill-health, for unemployment, violence and substance abuse. It is a passive reactive system of feeding dysfunction, rather than taking positive steps to overcome it.

I want to see, we want to see a pro-active system of service delivery to Indigenous communities – in other words, a focus on building functional, healthy communities.

It should be obvious that supporting good health and supporting functional communities is good policy. It doesn’t take much to see that it makes sound financial sense in the longer term. And of course, it is socially and morally preferable.

This objective should be the dominant thought in the mind of all policymakers and governments.

And tenth, and finally, let us be bold in ensuring that program interventions are targeted to address need and overcome disadvantage.

As it stands, government programs and services are not targeted to a level that will overcome Indigenous disadvantage. Hence, they are not targeted in a way that will meet the solemn commitments that have been made. They are targeted to maintain the status quo.

In my latest Social Justice Report to federal Parliament, I have proposed a campaign for achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality within a generation. That is how long it will take, if we treat this as a crisis issue now.

What I have stated in the Report is that the factor that is most striking in its absence from the current health framework is the lack of a timeframe for achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health equality. There remains a need for governments to take adequate measures (including through the allocation of adequate resources) within set timeframes to overcome the disparity in rights experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

My office is working with a number of organisations to progress thinking about what is needed to achieve health equality within a generation – this includes thinking on violence. We will be jointly convening a national summit on Indigenous health equality in the latter part of this year. We see this summit on violence as an important process which will inform that Summit.

So to conclude, in the latest Social Justice Report I identify two things that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and the general community can no longer accept from governments. These apply equally to responses to family violence issues as they do to health issues.

First, we can no longer accept the making of commitments to address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander inequality without putting into place processes and programs to match the stated commitments. Programs and service delivery must be adequately resourced and supported so that they are capable of achieving the stated goals of governments.

Second, and conversely, we can not accept the failure of governments to commit to an urgent plan of action. It is not acceptable to continually state that the situation is tragic and ought to be treated with urgency, and then fail to put into place bold targets to focus policy making over the short, medium and longer term or to fund programs so they are capable of meeting these targets.

A plan that is not adequately funded to meet its outcomes cannot be considered an effective plan.

We don’t want to see any more unfunded commitments from governments.

Commitments, such as those at the COAG level, must be benchmarked and matched against need. They must be funded to achieve their goals and there must be equality between the investment in government bureaucratic processes and program funding that reaches Indigenous peoples.

Let me be provocative and ask you: Is a commitment to equality which is not accompanied by any effort to realise it any better than a system that actively discriminates against Indigenous peoples?

Indigenous peoples get no joy from commitments of governments which have not resulted in noticeable improvements.

The status quo is not acceptable.

We want to see a positive future, where the rhetoric of government turns to true reconciliation, as measured in tangible outcomes.

This is achievable and it is realistic. And it is overdue.

Let me conclude by reiterating one of my comments at the beginning. We are at one on this issue. Government, non-government and communities want to work together to end family violence in Indigenous communities. On behalf of the workshop organisers, we offer you our support in this effort.

Thank you

[1] http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/250604/attachments_c.rtf
[2] http://www.coag.gov.au/meetings/250604/communique250604.rtf .
[3] Brown, ADH, Building on the strengths – A review of male health in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara lands, Menzies School of Health Research 2004, p1.

 


Last updated June 20, 2006