Aboriginal communities have given me life for over 30 years. Yet in commenting on the recent media spotlight on Aboriginal violence, I enter on delicate ground. I am a non-Aboriginal male. Regardless of my history, relationships and experience with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, some may see my comments as ignorant, unhelpful or simply irrelevant. But the issues are important. They affect my friends and they affect the sort of Australian society we want to create and live in.
Despite the suggestons of our government leaders, there are no simple answers. The violence Aboriginal people have been experiencing over generations wears many faces. But it is more demanding and challenging to explore how I, or we as non-Aboriginal people, may be part of this violence. History suggests that the recent media frenzy and government response may actually create further harm.
A few days ago, a group of senior Aboriginal men who over many years have committed themselves to these issues sent out a press release. They condemned the violence absolutely. They acknowledged that many males were trying to make a difference. They recognised that it was time for men to stand up as fathers, brothers, uncles, grandfathers, nephews and cousins to ‘intervene whenever and wherever’. Finally, they called on governments to support men to do this. This would entail supporting the men’s groups and programs which have long been trying, with little help, to address these issues.
The voices of these men, my professional colleagues and friends, have largely not been heard in the recent media coverage. It is easier to depict violence and to stop at the sensational moment. It is much harder to converse seriously with those who are trying to deal with violence and to stop it. It is far more dramatic to present images that shock, rather than engage with Aboriginal women and men about issues that derive from the long history of violence that has been suffered. It is easy to stereotype and pathologise all Aboriginal men. I take great exception to that.
Wadeye in the Northern Territory, is one of the communities that has sustained me and given me great life over more than 30 years. It was a mission, called Port Keats, when I first visited in the 1970s. It has, once again, been in the news. It has been evident for many years that this very large community, formed from a mission that gathered together many different language groups, was heading for crisis. Most Aboriginal communities have a much larger group of younger people than we have in non-Aboriginal communities. Wadeye has an even greater proportion. If Aboriginal people are dying much younger than non-Aboriginal Australians, one question has become glaring and obvious. Where are the healthy pathways for the many young men of this community? When housing is overcrowded, unemployment is high, resources are scarce and there are few healthy older people to guide them, what kind of adults can they become?
Let me respond to Minister Mal Brough’s recent emphases. Should we put the full weight of intervention on law and order, or does putting men into prison make them more, or less, violent? Where, in the 2006 Budget for Indigenous Affairs do we find support for Aboriginal men’s groups and programs? What encouragement is given to young fathers and babies, to complement that given to young mothers and babies? Where do we find the conversation, partnership and support for those men who are making a difference?
Whether the issue be petrol sniffing, violence, alcohol or sexual abuse, the media now tend to sensationalise and marginalise all Aboriginal men, and to present all Aboriginal society as violent and dysfunctional. In doing this, we perpetuate an older, colonial attitude. We find it easier to talk about Aboriginal people than to talk with them; we prefer negative stereotypes to the challenge of forming partnerships. We also adopt an older, colonial response when we prefer to be fearful and to inflict violence, especially on the men, instead of risking a relationship with them. In such times, those ancient words of the drover Matt Savage come back to haunt me: 'We did not know what the Aborigines thought about it all. We would never have dreamed of asking them'.