Page 22 - Indiginous Australians

Mary Alp
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2019 the increase in out-of-home care was almost 8 times that of 1997. There is
contention as to whether this historical forced removal of children constituted
genocide or not. As the historian Inga Clendinnen claims –any interpretation
90 basically rests on the ‘question of intentionality’ by the perpetrator. For
Indigenous law professor Larissa Behrendt it is much more than that – she states that for the victims/survivors of this forced separation it is a very personal
91
1998 First National Sorry Day saw over I million support signatures collected in
experience & as such – is ‘hard to fit into academic & legal discourse’.
92
2007 - 2012. The Howard government announced its Intervention into 73 Indigenous communities in NT. This Intervention lasted until 2012 & was called a ‘national emergency’ with army troops being deployed to these communities. There was little time for consultation with Indigenous communities & with the governments suspension of the Racial Discrimination Act draconian methods & controls over Indigenous Australians lives occurred. These included - withholding 50% of welfare payments, increased police presence, compulsory health check for
Sorry Books.
93 included the prohibition by courts from consulting Aboriginal customs & laws
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all children & the power to take possession of their land & property.
It also
when making bail & sentencing decisions.
This Intervention was the
government’s response to the 2006 Little Children are Sacred report which stated
that neglect & sexual abuse of children was endemic & widespread in the
95
territory.
was for political reasons & that Canberra largely ignored the findings & recommendations which were about community breakdown & the need for the
A decade later a report by Rex Wild QC states that this intervention implementation of programs of healing with Indigenous peoples’ involvement.
96
89 www.creative spirits.info. ‘A guide to Australia stolen Generations; www.absec.org.au ‘Out of care and child removals’.
90 Wikepedia, Stolen generation. Pp12.
91 Larissa Behrendt, Aboriginal History 2001 vol 25. ‘Genocide: the distance between Law & Life’
92 SBS, Ibid.
93 Australians together, ‘The Intervention’.
94 www.monash-edu-indigenous, ‘What is the Northern Territory Intervention’.
95 Australian together Ibid.
96 SBS,2017 , ‘Writer of report that sparked NT Intervention condemns government’.
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