21 June, 2007

While we are waiting...

I'm currently working on a new post regarding the Aborigines of Australia. There is a lot in the news lately, a lot of misleading statements, false remarks, and racist representations. I hope to deal with these issues and hopefully convince whoever reads my post that we should take a step back from brink, and look at the Indigenous People of Australia as the genuine owners of the Land and treat them with the respect that they deserve.

In the mean time, I will leave you with a single part of the Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse "Little Children are Sacred" (this is the report on which the government is basing it current reactive approach to dealing with child abuse in Aboriginal communities) - take into consideration how this issue has been portrayed by government and the media. Note: Emphasis mine.

Myth: Aboriginal men are the only offenders

While the incidence of sexual abuse of Aboriginal children
is a significant problem, it does not follow that all
Aboriginal males are offenders, or that Aboriginal males are
responsible for all offending against Aboriginal children. It is
the Inquiry’s experience that the sexual abuse of Aboriginal
children is being committed by a range of non-Aboriginal
and Aboriginal offenders – and these are a minority of the
overall Australian male population.

As would be expected in any community, most of the
Aboriginal men the Inquiry spoke with found the idea
of child sexual abuse abhorrent and advocated severe,
sometimes fatal, physical punishments for offenders.
The Inquiry recognises that Aboriginal communities, and
Aboriginal men, must be supported to better address the
abuse and violence in their communities, but remains
concerned that, at times, Aboriginal men have been
targeted as if they were the only perpetrators of child
sexual abuse in communities. This is inaccurate and
has resulted in unfair shaming, and consequent further
disempowerment, of Aboriginal men as a whole

The entire report can be found here (note: pdf document).

Update: Just to make things more clear, I put the emphasis in that quote, it is not found in the original document (contrary to what some blogs said when they misquoted my emphasis of the quote). Its not important, but I'm a stickler for details.

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