{"id":111986,"date":"2023-02-03T11:48:01","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T10:48:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/?p=111986"},"modified":"2023-06-12T18:05:43","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T16:05:43","slug":"australia-yoorrook-commission-faces-continued-violence-colonisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.justiceinfo.net\/en\/111986-australia-yoorrook-commission-faces-continued-violence-colonisation.html","title":{"rendered":"Continued violence of colonisation exposed before Australia\u2019s Yoorrook Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the national level, Australia has struggled to hold a truth, reconciliation and reparations process on the violence committed against Indigenous peoples. The state of Victoria, in South-East Australia, wants to reverse this course. Last December a truth commission held a second round of public hearings with victims and expert witnesses. They highlighted how Aboriginal communities continue to suffer from the reality of colonisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In Australia, as the country readies for a referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, First Nations people in the state of Victoria are grappling with the legacy, and continuing reality, of colonisation in a unique truth-telling commission<\/a>, known as the Yoorrook commission. Established as part of the ongoing process of negotiating a Treaty between the state government and local Aboriginal communities, in December the Commission heard Elders, community leaders and experts speak out about systemic injustice in the state\u2019s child protection and criminal justice systems. The Commission\u2019s December hearings were the second round in what is expected to be a years-long process of truth-telling and information gathering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stories of past and present injustice told before Yoorrook will go towards creating an official public record of the impact of colonisation on First Peoples. At the Commission\u2019s launch, Deputy Chair Sue-Anne Hunter said that \u201cthe history of Victoria has been told by the side of the oppressor. And when you only have one side of the story, it\u2019s always an imbalance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While countless reviews, inquiries and commissions have come and gone without significant action, there is a quiet confidence that Yoorrook, designed and led by Indigenous Victorians, and as a part of a definable Treaty process, will lead to self-determined solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were taken without my parents being informed\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Indigenous experts and practitioners in the child protection field told the Commission that \u201cWestern conceptions of what a good family looks like\u201d continue to perpetuate a racist system of state-sponsored child removal, which many Australians believe to be condemned to a shameful past. Representatives from the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency submitted that \u201cevery problem we have today in Victoria\u2019s child protection and criminal justice systems is a direct result of centuries of racist policies, legislation and reinforced discriminatory practices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnesses drew a link between historical child removal practices and modern policies and legislation which see Aboriginal children 20 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care than their non-Indigenous peers, and which have presided over a dramatic increase<\/a> in the number of Aboriginal children brought into contact with the child protection system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Charmaine Clarke, a Gundijtmara elder and family violence researcher, told the Commission of being taken into state care aged two because her parents, as itinerant fruit-pickers, had \u201cno fixed address.\u201d \u201cWe were taken without my parents\u2019 consent. We were taken without them being informed either,\u201d said Clarke. Aunty Geraldine Atkinson likewise spoke to a childhood of moving regularly to avoid welfare officers, after the state tried to remove her following her father\u2019s death. \u201cWherever we lived we were under scrutiny. We were always under scrutiny about how we were living, where we were and the conditions we lived in. It was traumatising [to see other children removed]. You would think that you would be next.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trauma developed from past generations, and the consequent fear of the child protection system, \u201cintergenerationally continues,\u201d Jacynta Krakouer, a social worker and academic, told the Commission. Hostile government policy, which views parents being \u2018unwilling to cooperate\u2019 with welfare officers as a risk factor for children, further compounds the problem. \u201cThat trauma response animates real fear and you don\u2019t want to talk to them because you are scared it\u2019s going to happen to you what happened to our ancestors, what happened to our Elders,\u201d said Krakouer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child protection or child carelessness?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Commission heard that policy and legislation that ignores Aboriginal history and culture continues to deliver bad outcomes for First Nations people. \u201cVictorian-era\u201d understandings of what \u201cgood parenting\u201d looks like continue to underpin child protection legislation and practice, and don\u2019t account for \u201ckinship-grounded\u201d models of child-rearing. Krakouer cited examples of children being placed with the non-Indigenous side of their families by child protection because they were seen \u201cto have the model standard of good parenting.\u201d The absence of self-determination in developing child protection policy creates a situation in which past wrongs are re-committed, and Aboriginal children are disconnected from their families and their culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission heard of the high rate of removal of Aboriginal infants in Victoria, which sits at 18 times that of non-Indigenous children. It was noted that many of the risk factors influencing contact with the child protection system are \u201chistorical and static \u2013 they are beyond the control of families to alter, no matter how motivated they may be.\u201d The peculiarities of \u2018unborn notifications\u2019 \u2013 where an individual can make child protection aware of concerns about the wellbeing of an unborn child \u2013 further entrench Aboriginal disadvantage and perpetuate a system of child removals. Mothers are not informed that a notification has been made, and child protection does not have the power to make a referral to a community-based service before the birth. Karinda Taylor, from First Peoples\u2019 Health and Wellbeing, told the Commission of an instance where this legislative framework played out when an unborn notification was made by police when the mother was five weeks pregnant following a domestic dispute. In the intervening period, the mother left the relationship and found new living conditions, and the notification went \u201cundisclosed and unrecognised\u201d until the birth: \u201cThe first person that she sees, before any of her family arrive to meet her baby, is a child protection worker to take her baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the state continues to pathologise and punish Aboriginal family structures and ways of parenting, the state\u2019s level of care is, in many cases, not up to standard: \u201cIf the State were held to the same standards that our families are held to, the state would have the children removed from their care,\u201d said Krakouer. The Commission was told of the Department dropping children on the doorsteps of carers at night with $20 and some clothes, while significant administrative failings were spoken of \u2013 in 2021, child protection did not have a primary address for 462 children in its care, while another 171 were at \u201caddress unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Indigenous
In Australia, indigenous children are 20 times more likely to be placed in out-of-home care by child welfare services than non-indigenous children. \u00a9 Anoek De Groot \/ AFP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Criminal responsibility at 10 years old<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The interrelationship between Victoria\u2019s child protection and criminal justice systems was emphasised by witnesses before the Commission, with systemic racism and the historic and ongoing trauma of child removal perpetuating overrepresentation in the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witnesses were united in pressing the need for Victoria\u2019s age of criminal responsibility to rise from the current 10 years of age \u2013 out of step with international standards and contributing heavily to the criminalisation of Aboriginal children, while perpetuating cycles of trauma.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aunty Geraldine Atkinson told the Commission about her brother, who, after being caught stealing $20 from his teacher as a 10-year old, was removed from his family, sent to various juvenile detention facilities across the state, before winding up in adult prison and ultimately dying at a young age.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow that\u2019s the story of a child being removed at about 10 years of age then what their life trajectory is\u2026 Do we still want that to occur? Do we still want to see our people locked up at 10, still being babies, not having a chance to change their lives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stories like Atkinson\u2019s continue to be replicated under a system described by Meena Singh, Victoria\u2019s Commissioner for Aboriginal Children and Young People, as \u201chaving devastating consequences for Aboriginal young people and their families.\u201d Karin Williams, a youth justice worker, spoke of supporting a 10 year old child in court who had been locked up overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have anyone. I sat with him. I was crying like a baby beside him because it was disheartening. He was crying. He was distressed because he had no one with him. He ended up getting locked up again, I think, because he had no one around to take him home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police racism and excesses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Compounding legislative settings that criminalise children and perpetuate trauma, the Commission heard that institutional racism pervaded Victoria Police. Representatives of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service (VALS) said that police, in responding to calls from carers over behavioural issues, regularly ignored a legislative directive to de-escalate and proceed without arrest in such circumstances. The Commission was told that police used derogatory and degrading language towards children in these situations, and excessive force, including the use of chokeholds, when making arrests. One child, \u2018M\u2019, who has been in 12 different care homes since the age of 11 and has serious mental health and disability issues, \u201chas spent months in prison despite never being sentenced to a term of imprisonment.\u201d He was subject to violent arrests \u2013 some resulting in hospitalisation \u2013 and became \u201ctargeted\u201d by police. In some cases, VALS submitted, \u201cpolice officers appear to pursue a vendetta against Aboriginal children once they become known to police.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children in detention \u2013 many of whom are on remand \u2013 are exposed to institutionalised racism and brutality, the Commission further heard. Representatives of Kurnai Legal Practice spoke of uncovering racially-motivated strip-searching of children by police. \u201c[After speaking to clients] we realised very quickly it was only Aboriginal children who were being routinely subjected to strip searches.\u201d Only after they were issued subpoenas and presented with evidence did the police drop their denials and institute a change of policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with child protection, the Commission was told that the institutions which have committed past injustices against Aboriginal Victorians continue to do so today. \u201cThere is a direct line between structural conditions of colonisation, including police practices, and the contemporary criminal justice system which continues to reproduce marginalised peoples as criminal sub-groups,\u201d submitted the First Peoples\u2019 Assembly of Victoria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was agreement among witnesses that only Treaty and self-determination can effect transformational change to repair the harms of colonisation, which continue to manifest themselves today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d effect of bail laws<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Victoria\u2019s harsh 2018 bail laws<\/a> \u2013 which have seen a precipitous increase in Indigenous incarceration \u2013 provide a case study into the need for self-determined solutions, said witnesses. The provisions create a reverse onus in applying for bail, requiring those with past convictions, even for minor offences such as shoplifting or failure to appear, to prove \u2018exceptional circumstances\u2019 to be bailed. Aboriginal people face an additional hurdle, according to Tessa Theocharous from Kurnai Legal Practice: \u201cWe have not had one case for a First Nations person where the police prosecutor will consent to bail. We have some non-Indigenous clients and there is a noticeable difference in the police approach to these clients.\u201d The laws have had tragic consequences \u2013 in 2020, 37-year old Veronica Nelson died in prison<\/a> after being denied bail on a shoplifting charge. A coronial inquest<\/a> this week found Nelson received \u201ccruel and degrading treatment\u201d at the hands of prison staff, and that the laws have a \u201cdiscriminatory\u201d effect on First Nations people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a Treaty without truth\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A constant thread throughout the two weeks of hearings was the pressing need for self-determined solutions. The institutions \u2013 police, government departments, and religious charities \u2013 which perpetrated the injustices of the 19th<\/sup> and 20th<\/sup> centuries are the same which operate in today\u2019s criminal justice and child protection systems. Many witnesses insisted that only a true break from these symbols of colonialism can produce meaningful and lasting change. The First Peoples\u2019 Assembly of Victoria, the body charged with Treaty negotiation, submitted that \u201cfrom the earliest stages of colonisation, colonialists used violence and policing, and forcibly separated First Peoples\u2019 children from their families. The reality for our people is that the conflict has never stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While past inquiries may have come to nought, Yoorrook offers a new mode of confronting the past, entirely self-determined, and informing a Treaty negotiated on First Peoples\u2019 own terms. Peter Hood, a member of the Assembly, told Justice Infoof \u201cfairly heated debate\u201d about the direction of the Commission when it was being designed. \u201cBut the beauty of it was we were all paddling up the same stream. Come five o\u2019clock when it\u2019s time to lay down your shields, everybody was like family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to the evidence heard by the Commission, Hood says that \u201cnot every story will be told \u2013 there's thousands out there \u2013 but it\u2019s peeling off a layer or two, like an onion. What happens when you peel an onion? You get teary. A lot of these stories were very difficult to tell, especially for Elders. It can be very emotional to speak about. For all these years they\u2019ve never ever spoken about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t have a Treaty without truth,\u201d says Hood. Despite the innumerable challenges ahead, there\u2019s reason for optimism, he says: \u201cIt\u2019s been a hard slog, but there\u2019s definitely light at the end of the tunnel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
Recommended reading<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
\"\"<\/div><\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\tAustralia\u2019s first truth commission: transitional justice to face colonial legacies\r\n\t\t<\/a>\r\n\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the national level, Australia has struggled to hold a truth, reconciliation and reparations process on the violence committed against Indigenous peoples. The state of Victoria, in South-East Australia, wants to reverse this course. Last December a truth commission held a second round of public hearings with victims and expert witnesses. They highlighted how Aboriginal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":111970,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[542],"tags":[3904,2957,3905],"ji_location":[2109],"class_list":["post-111986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-truth-commissions","tag-aboriginal","tag-indigenous-peoples","tag-yoorrook-en","ji_location-australia"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAustralia: Yoorrook Commission faces continued violence of colonisation - JusticeInfo.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Australia, in the state of Victoria, a truth commission called Yoorrook held public hearings with victims and witnesses. 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