Aboriginal Culture

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GUEST OBSERVATION
In Western Australia <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2019/09/Two-major-announcements-for-National-Child-Protection-Week.aspx" target="_blank">more than half the children placed in state care are Aboriginal</a>. The state government <a href="https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2019/09/Two-major-announcements-for-National-Child-Protection-Week.aspx" target="_blank">committed</a> this month to reducing this over-representation, in a move that parallels the Closing the Gap Refresh <a href="https://www.coag.gov.au/sites/default/files/communique/coag-statement-closing-the-gap-refresh.pdf" target="_blank">draft target</a> nationally. Despite concerns about another <a href="https://bth.humanrights.gov.au/" target="_blank">stolen generation</a>, Australia has yet to act on a root cause – the difficulty Indigenous women escaping family violence face in finding safe housing.
<a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/320" target="_blank">Our research</a> shows domestic violence and housing are linked as a cause of child removal.
Every year governments <a href="https://indigenousx.com.au/debunking-33-billion/" target="_blank">spend millions</a> addressing <a href="https://healingfoundation.org.au/stolen-generations/stolengenerationsreport/" target="_blank">Indigenous intergenerational trauma</a>. Child removal is an important cause of this trauma.
Care for children is a cornerstone of Aboriginal cultures. Child removal often has severe mental and physical health <a href="https://www.telethonkids.org.au/globalassets/media/documents/aboriginal-health/measuring_social_and_emotional_wellbeing.pdf" target="_blank">effects</a>, with risks of substance use, homelessness and incarceration.
Consequences are similar for children, who also suffer from <a href="http://iaha.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/000214_cultureclosinggap.pdf" target="_blank">cultural dislocation</a>. Yet Indigenous children are admitted to out-of-home care at <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2017-18/contents/children-receiving-child-protection-services/indigenous-children" target="_blank">11 times the rate</a> for non-Indigenous children. Far from declining, <a href="https://nit.com.au/rising-rate-of-aboriginal-children-in-out-of-home-care/" target="_blank">rates are increasing</a> – by 21% between 2012 and 2017.
This issue is not primarily one of isolated remote communities. The rate of Indigenous children in out-of-home care is <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2017-18/contents/table-of-contents" target="_blank">highest in our major cities</a>.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293101/original/file-20190919-187957-c97t1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293101/original/file-20190919-187957-c97t1m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
<a class="source" href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2017-18/contents/table-of-contents" target="_blank">Child protection Australia 2017-18, AIHW (2019)</a>, Author provided.
Contrary to public discourse, sexual abuse accounts for only a tiny percentage of substantiated notifications. Proportions are <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2017-18/contents/table-of-contents" target="_blank">below those for non-Indigenous children</a> (see chart below).
Emotional abuse, which includes the child’s exposure to family violence, accounts for most notifications. The second-most-common type is neglect. This occurs at more than double the non-Indigenous rate and includes inadequate, insecure or unsafe housing.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292769/original/file-20190917-19040-10xctnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
<a class="source" href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/child-protection/child-protection-australia-2017-18/contents/table-of-contents">AIHW 2019</a>, Author provided
Mothers have nowhere to go
In situations of family violence many Aboriginal woman face an impossible situation when trying to protect their children. If they stay with the perpetrator they risk notification for emotional abuse. If they leave but cannot find suitable housing, they risk allegations of neglect.
This dilemma applies to <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/311" target="_blank">all low-income women</a>, but it is most acute for Aboriginal women. The combination of discrimination and low income means few find private rental housing. <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/320?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=homepage&amp;utm_campaign=slider" target="_blank">Crisis services are often full</a>. The bottlenecks in the homelessness system result in long waits for transitional accommodation.
Waiting times for scarce public housing are long. Many also face delays in being added to priority wait lists due to housing debt – even though this is often a result of their partner’s financial abuse.
These <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/320?utm_source=website&amp;utm_medium=homepage&amp;utm_campaign=slider" target="_blank">women are often trapped</a> in a revolving door between crisis centres, homelessness and returning to an unsafe home. This is a factor in their <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/domestic-violence/family-domestic-sexual-violence-in-australia-2018/contents/summary" target="_blank">high rates of injury and early death</a>.
Delays in being appropriately housed can <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2018/09/apo-nid193271-1232351.pdf" target="_blank">prevent children</a> from ever being returned to their parents. Child protection timelines generally allow only 12 months before removal can become permanent.
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293097/original/file-20190919-187967-1wkbgzi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=1000&amp;fit=clip"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293097/original/file-20190919-187967-1wkbgzi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt=""></a>
Data sourced from Child protection Australia 2017–18, AIHW (2019) <a class="source" href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.ahuri.edu.au/research/final-reports/320">Cripps and Habibis (2019)</a>, Author provided
A policy blind spot
Housing’s critical role at the intersection of child protection and domestic violence has yet to be recognised in public policy. The national <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/08_2019/fourth_action-plan.pdf" target="_blank">Fourth Action Plan</a> to reduce violence against women and their children refers to “inadequate housing and overcrowding” as a factor in Aboriginal family violence. Despite this, it offers no specific guidelines or strategies to overcome these problems.
The Closing the Gap policy focus on housing is limited to reducing <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.pc.gov.au/research/ongoing/overcoming-indigenous-disadvantage/2016" target="_blank">overcrowding</a>. While critical, this misses the relationship between housing shortages and family violence and its impact on mums being separated from their children. And the Refresh <a href="https://closingthegap.niaa.gov.au/draft-targets-for-discussion" target="_blank">targets</a> are uncertain and underdeveloped.
Without specific housing targets, it is hard to see how the other targets to reduce violence and overrepresentation in out-of-home care will be met.
As Indigenous policy is realigned under the <a href="https://closingthegap.niaa.gov.au/draft-targets-for-discussion" target="_blank">Closing The Gap Refresh</a> the Australian government must act on this missing link. It should increase the number of crisis beds and consider targets to reduce the numbers of Aboriginal women and children turned away from crisis accommodation.
Programs should support timely access to secure housing. This is especially important for women seeking to reunify with children in state care.
Within the <a href="https://www.anrows.org.au/news/safe-home-lessons-for-practitioners-and-policy-makers/" target="_blank">Safe at Home</a> program, special funds should be made available for housing safety upgrades so Aboriginal women can remain in their own homes.
Beyond this, what’s needed are holistic solutions that work with the whole family, including the perpetrator. These solutions need to be developed and delivered in partnership with Aboriginal people, communities and services, building on the strengths of individuals and communities to overcome the impacts of violence and intergenerational trauma.
The short-term nature of funding is also a problem. Investment needs to go beyond political cycles. Current short-term funding arrangements undermine trust in services and greatly reduce their capacity and potential effectiveness.
Given the long-term <a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/e84b6721-7ea0-4688-8eac-59353cfb4452/aihw-australias-welfare-2017-chapter2-5.pdf.aspx" target="_blank">intergenerational costs</a> of child removal and domestic violence, such measures should prove cost-effective. More importantly, they would reduce violence against women and the over-representation of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123526/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;">
Kyllie Cripps, Scientia Felllow and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law UNSW Sydney, UNSW.
Daphne Habibis, Associate Professor, University of Tasmania.
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/another-stolen-generation-looms-unless-indigenous-women-fleeing-violence-can-find-safe-housing-123526" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Another stolen generation looms unless Indigenous women fleeing violence can find safe housing

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GUEST OBSERVATION 
The government intends to destroy Djab Wurrung sacred trees and sites to upgrade the Western Highway at the same time as it seeks heritage status for the Eastern Freeway.
The Victorian government has announced it is <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/government-seeks-heritage-protection-for-notoriously-jammed-freeway-20190820-p52j43" target="_blank">seeking heritage listing for parts of the Eastern Freeway</a> in Melbourne. We heard this news on Wednesday as we sat under a <a href="https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/struggle-save-birthing-trees" target="_blank">grandfather tree</a> in solidarity with Djab Wurrung people whose cultural heritage is being threatened by the same government.
A Major Road Projects Victoria proposal to extend the Western Highway will destroy sacred Djab Wurrung trees and places. They <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/how-a-community-created-an-embassy-to-save-sacred-land-from-bulldozing" target="_blank">have been protecting these trees</a> for more than a year, but <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/protester-numbers-surge-at-sacred-tree-site-as-eviction-clash-looms-20190821-p52jh7" target="_blank">faced eviction</a> – from their own Country – by today’s deadline. All this is happening as the government is conducting <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2018/06/21/victorian-treaty-bill-passes-through-upper-house" target="_blank">treaty negotiations across the state</a>.
What kind of world do we live in when freeways are valued as of greater cultural significance than the practice of the oldest living culture in the world? Threatening to evict Djab Wurrung while proposing heritage status for the Eastern Freeway is a surreal perversion of law, heritage and community value.
These matters raise important questions about how cultural heritage value is determined and by whom. They also attest to the continued power of roads and transport infrastructure in a climate-changing world.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288982/original/file-20190821-170935-1kpt61x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Protest ‘road signs’ at the camp. artwork by Mick Douglas, Author provided
Scorning an ancient cultural heritage
The proposal to expand the Western Highway has been around for decades. The on-Country presence of Djab Wurrung people was sparked when it became clear the new duplicated section between Buangor and Ararat would destroy their sacred trees, which include an important <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/nitv-news/article/2019/04/17/demolition-800-year-old-sacred-trees-compared-notre-dame-fire" target="_blank">directions tree and birthing site</a>.
This is not merely about protecting individual trees – some of which are up to 800 years old. It’s about the way those trees relate to each other, the landscape, Djab Wurrung people and their law, which have been here for thousands of generations.
Victoria supposedly has a legislative system for protecting this Aboriginal heritage. The government asserts that it has followed the “due process” of this system in relation to the Djab Wurrung trees. The fact that Djab Wurrung Elders and leaders have been protesting on site for the past 15 months raises serious questions about what constitutes “due process”.
Many concerns <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-21/western-highway-tree-protesters-may-be-arrested-this-week/11420640?sf217857042=1&amp;fbclid=IwAR2E-MbmLkZhQ5u_ljoK4n13tRR58B5MZyrlPiHgmfVHyAJXVrB3o7-i00Y" target="_blank">have been raised</a> about a flawed system. At the very least, it has been exposed as a blunt instrument clearly not sensitive enough to cope with these complexities.
Not only is the government unwilling to negotiate on Country in good faith, Djab Wurrung people are being actively silenced and criminalised. One of the leaders, Zellanach Djab Mara, was recently held on remand for 26 days on a charge of driving without a licence, which his supporters saw as <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/05/27/system-oppression-djab-wurrung-protector-released" target="_blank">a move to “get him off Country”</a>. A magistrate later <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2019/05/27/system-oppression-djab-wurrung-protector-released" target="_blank">said</a> Zellanach’s time in custody was too long for a minor offence.
But Djab Wurrung people will not be silenced. <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/standoff-over-800-year-old-sacred-indigenous-trees-heats-up-as-work-crews-move-in" target="_blank">More than 500 people</a> arrived at <a href="https://dwembassy.com/" target="_blank">the camp</a> on Wednesday in solidarity. The campaign has gained <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/14/world/australia/djab-wurrung-trees" target="_blank">international media attention</a> and more than 130,000 people have <a href="https://www.change.org/p/daniel-andrews-protect-sacred-djapwurrung-birthing-trees-from-expansion-of-the-western-hwy-by-vicroads" target="_blank">signed a petition</a>.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288980/original/file-20190821-170910-1daw8xz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Hundreds of supporters gather at Djab Wurrung embassy camp on Wednesday, August 21. Photo by Megan Williams, used with permission, Author provided
Celebrating 50 years of freeway culture
Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway certainly has history, a notorious one. Traversing Wurundjeri Country, its construction caused massive destruction of Wurundjeri places and heritage. It also displaced working-class communities in inner Melbourne, triggering one of Australia’s <a href="http://www.ycat.org.au/1977-the-battle-of-alexandra-parade/3/" target="_blank">most significant anti-freeway campaigns</a>.
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/tony-birch-105618">Tony Birch</a> has <a href="https://griffithreview.com/articles/recovering-narrative-place-stories-climate-change-tony-birch/" target="_blank">written eloquently</a> about the scar the Eastern Freeway created psychologically and geographically. The damage included: "[…] obliteration of a vital section of the river at its confluence with the Merri Creek, a once majestic waterway winding its way into the north across Wurundjeri land."
But these are not the histories the government seeks to honour by heritage-listing the Eastern Freeway. These histories are silenced <a href="/news">in favour of bridge design</a>. Just like the concurrent attempt at erasing Djab Wurrung heritage. Listing the Eastern Freeway would assert that the destruction such roads create is something we collectively value as heritage.
Heritage in an upside-down world
Both these decisions expose just how upside-down and perverse our way of collectively cherishing place and heritage has become. And both advance a transport system that continues to encourage high-carbon mobility, despite Victoria’s <a href="https://www.climatechange.vic.gov.au/legislation/climate-change-act-2017" target="_blank">legislated commitment</a> to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
A viable and <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/cheaper-western-highway-route-overlooked-former-vicroads-advisor-says-20190820-p52j0n" target="_blank">cheaper route for the Western Highway duplication</a> is available, just as a viable alternative to the Eastern Freeway once existed.
Road safety is vital, certainly. But surely it would be better achieved by reducing freight traffic on roads, rather than enabling everyone to drive faster. Freight rail offers an alternative solution to some of the key issues that advocates of the Western Highway project use to justify it.
It is possible to have highway safety and efficient mobility at the same time as protecting sacred places and actual cultural heritage through genuine processes.
Proposing a freeway for heritage listing is a clear statement of a government willing to cherry-pick what counts as heritage. As Djab Wurrung Traditional Owner and former state MP for Northcote <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2019/08/17/protecting-the-djab-wurrung-trees/15659640008626" target="_blank">Lidia Thorpe asserts</a>: "The protection of high cultural and natural values must be part of any treaty process, rather than brazenly destroying those values while the treaty process is under way."
A way forward
We call on the Victorian government to immediately establish a respectful dialogue with Djab Wurrung people by accepting their invitation to come to Country and talk with Elders and leaders in good faith. To do so the threat of eviction must be immediately withdrawn. As Zellenach said to us while we were at camp, “no one can effectively negotiate while under duress”.
If the Victorian government is serious about Treaty, this is the opportunity to demonstrate understanding of what respectful recognition of Indigenous sovereignty looks like.
The world is watching.
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288914/original/file-20190821-170927-14nhvr7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip" alt="">
Sign at the Djab Wurrung embassy. Photo by Blanche Verlie, Author provided
Marianne (Ria) Jago at the Victorian Women’s Legal Service is a collaborator on this article.
We wrote this article on Djab Wurrung Country at the invitation of Djab Wurrung people to help protect their Country. We pay respects to Djab Wurrung Elders past, present and emerging and the sovereign Aboriginal peoples on whose lands we each live and work.<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122195/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1">
Libby Porter, Professor of Urban Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University; 
Amaara Raheem, PhD Candidate, School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University; 
Blanche Verlie, Associate Lecturer, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University; 
Bronwyn Lay, Coordinator, Climate Change Research and Practice Hub, RMIT University 
Mick Douglas, Associate Professor, School of Design, RMIT University<a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/rmit-university-1063"> </a>
This article is republished from <a href="http://theconversation.com" target="_blank">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-kind-of-state-values-a-freeways-heritage-above-the-heritage-of-our-oldest-living-culture-122195" target="_blank">original article</a>.
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