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That many Aboriginal communities are in need of urgent assistance in relation to transitional stresses leading to personal/family/community/cultural breakdown is beyond questioning. But it is questionable whether we need racist and discriminatory legislation to provide that support. To address dysfunction and breakdown in Aboriginal communities, recognition must be given to the continued dispossession of Aboriginal Peoples. After decades of Aboriginal people loudly advocating for assistance to address the continuing legacies of colonisation are we comfortable that racist authoritarian legislation such as the NT Emergency Response is shamefully, all that Australian governments have to finally offer? We must ask in the very real need for assistance whether we are happy to repeat history and further compound the crisis that confronts our people daily? If there is no other way to address the crippling and spiralling effects of colonisation than to enforce racist legislation - when racism lies at the root of the very things the laws purport to address – that speaks volumes about the capacity and sincerity of Australian governments to assist and work alongside Aboriginal people in naming and developing long-term fully-funded strategies which will begin the movement toward positive community empowerment and generational change sorely needed in many Aboriginal communities. The fact is there is no quick fix to over 200years of continued neglect and oppression. And racist law, be it well intentioned or otherwise, will do nothing to either enhance relationships in this country or to address the fundamental root cause of cultural dispossession leading to family/community dysfunction. A prerequisite to a return to wellness is acknowledging the crisis and the need to effectively address alcohol and other drug consumption appropriately, advocating personal/family and community sobriety. Change however, isolated from a monumental shift in dominant culture mindset we know is not and will not be easy in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. The four consistent and most effective tools in addressing a return to wellness in Indigenous communities across the globe, from my observation, are: empowerment, choice, positive role modelling, and spiritual re-generation rooted in a core foundation of cultural values beliefs and practices. Community support infrastructures and long-term funding allocation must underpin, mirror and enhance these four fundamental elements and cultural foundation, as they are the very things from which many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have been uprooted and alienated from. The recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (1991), Bringing Them Home report (1997) and Little Children Are Sacred report (2007) to name a few, are yet to be fully embraced and/or implemented. Racist law cannot and must not be allowed to stand in this country. We can abolish the NT Emergency Response legislation and at the same time begin the process of a positive consensual return to wellness within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a just and dignified way that empowers and brings effective and lasting community/cultural cohesion and harm to no one.
Karranjal John Hartley, South Australia 1/12/07
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