AAG Elder Abuse and Neglect Conference

Mick Gooda
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner
Australian Human Rights Commission

Alice Springs

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Introduction

It is with respect and gratitude that I acknowledge that we sit today on the lands of the Larrakia peoples (Darwin) / Arrente peoples (Alice Springs). Thank you to (Ms) Bilawara Lee – Elder on campus at CDU (Darwin); Dr Patricia Miller AO (Alice Springs) for your generous welcome to country on behalf of the Larrakia peoples (Darwin) / Arrente peoples (Alice Springs).

My people are the Gangulu from the Dawson Valley in Central Queensland. On behalf of my Elders I also pay tribute to your Elders, both past and present, for their continued struggle for their country and their culture.

I would also like to acknowledge my Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters who are here today; and thank for the Australian Association of Gerontology for the invitation to come to speak with you today about an issue that is close to my heart – lateral violence and its impacts on our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders.

The fact that we are having this conversation in the Northern Territory this week is significant and timely given that the Northern Territory Intervention and the Stronger Futures policies were in part justified by this very issue - the abuse and bullying our elders or older people suffer at the hands of their families and communities.

The conversation concerning the NT Intervention however, was based in a welfare context. One of the main points of the Intervention was to minimise the ‘humbug’ or economic abuse that occurs around people being bullied for their money – in particular welfare payments. In pursuing policies such as the Intervention and Stronger Futures, governments identified the impacts of economic abuse on our older people as a cause for concern.^[1]

However elder abuse is not confined only to economic or financial abuse, it also includes psychological, physical, sexual, spiritual and social abuse, and neglect.^[2]

The Australian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (ANPEA) defines elder abuse as:

Any act occurring within a relationship where there is an implication of trust, which results in harm to an older person.

While the literature on elder abuse indicates that even though it happens in all societies, it is largely hidden in the general community. There is little awareness about its existence and what constitutes elder abuse, although there is enough anecdotal evidence to support the need for a focus on this issue.

Some also argue that elder abuse in an Aboriginal context may be different to what is considered elder abuse in the mainstream because of cultural differences, relationships and responsibilities.^[3]

For example, an inquiry into Indigenous violence in Cape York observed that, while the abuse of older people in that region was a ‘relatively recent phenomenon’, it nevertheless existed and was ‘related to the loss of traditional cultures and values, including respect for elders’.^[4]

This leads me to what I want to talk with you about today. I want to talk with you about not only the economic aspects associated with elder abuse in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, but the social and emotional aspects that I believe are directly linked to the breakdown of our cultural norms as a result of colonisation, dispossession and oppression. These cultural norms include our responsibility as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to respect and to care for our elders.

The ongoing effects of colonisation has meant that how we define our elders has changed; the roles they play has changed; and so has the way elders or older people are treated within communities.

For example:

• Some of our communities use age to define who is an elder^[5], while others associate the status of ‘eldership’ with the contributions they have made to their communities, or the authority and knowledge they hold within their language groups and families. The use of age as a definer of eldership is complicated further by the gap in life expectancy whereby the average age of death for an Aboriginal man is 56 years and 63 years for females – between 11-20 years less than their non-Aboriginal counterparts; and many Aboriginal and men and women become parents and grandparents at much younger ages than non-Aboriginal people.

• The dispersal of our peoples to missions and reserves and off their traditional lands and territories means that often our older people are not from the country they live on – as such they are not knowledge holders or have any cultural authority for the places in which they live. Where they would have traditionally been ‘the boss’ for country and for their families, they are no longer, particularly in instances of removal, even an authority.

• Further, in many instances where our elders traditionally would be looked after and cherished by the younger ones as they support us in our parenting roles – particularly as teachers of knowledge and culture - their role has become one of being the parent of the grandchildren and great grandchildren, while also continuing to look after their families and putting their best efforts in to ensure that their communities are functioning.

So peaceful retirement as we know it – tends not to be a luxury that our old people get to enjoy.

But let me come back to that a little bit later.

Let me tell you about what lateral violence is; what it looks like in our families and our communities; and how this impacts on our old people.

But before I tell you what I think it is, I want you all to know that I had to think long and hard about talking about an issue that is for the most part ‘our business’ and ‘our responsibility’ and highlights a particular vulnerability that exists within our communities. So I was nervous about ‘airing our dirty laundry’. But when I thought about it further, we cannot address lateral violence in our communities without the support of governments and without the support of those working with us on a daily basis – because in some instances they contribute to it.

So what is lateral violence?

As I outlined last year in my 2011 Social Justice and Native Title Reports, lateral violence comes from behaviours that might include bullying, gossiping, jealousy, shaming, social exclusion, family feuding and organisational conflict, which can and often does escalate into physical violence.

Lateral violence occurs in all levels of society but for oppressed peoples it is particularly acute and has a particularly sharp edge.

For us lateral violence can be described as 'internalised colonialism' and according to Richard Frankland includes:

[T]he organised, harmful behaviours that we do to each other collectively as part of an oppressed group: When we are consistently oppressed we live with great fear and great anger and we often turn on those who are closest to us.^[6]

The theory behind why lateral violence impacts Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples differently is because it is often the result of disadvantage, discrimination and oppression, and it arises from living and working within a society that is not designed for our way of doing things. It stems from that sense of powerlessness that comes from oppression.

Let me explain this further – in order to establish power and control, the colonising powers positioned groups being colonised as inferior to themselves, ignoring their basic humanity as well as their cultural identity, existing power structures and ways of life. Despite often fierce resistance on the part of the colonised groups, often they internalised the values and behaviours of their oppressors, leading to a negative view of themselves and their culture. This results in low self-esteem and in some cases the adoption of violent behaviours.^[7] The anger and frustration about the injustice of feeling powerless manifests itself in violence – not 'vertically' towards the colonisers responsible for the oppression but 'laterally' towards their own community.

This is why we have come to call it ‘lateral violence’.

Anyone familiar with this nation’s history will know that colonial authorities used Aboriginality – and the extent to which anybody claimed it – as a powerful mechanism of control. Our history of colonisation casts a dark shadow across our present. While lateral violence has its roots in our history, it thrives today because power imbalances, control by others, identity conflict, negative stereotypes and trauma continue to feed it.

So how is lateral violence linked to elder abuse?

Policies such as those that resulted in the Stolen Generations have directly contributed to the negative stereotypes, trauma, identity conflict and power imbalances that have resulted in lateral violence in our communities. For instance, in creating conflict about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity, government authorities decided who was Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and who was not, setting up divisions and jealousies in communities.

Those who are now elders or older people in our communities bore the brunt of these policies and the adoption of imposed beliefs, behaviours and values have had devastating effects where people struggle to live in two worlds. The intergenerational impact has meant that we now have at least four generations have also been affected.

Where lateral violence occurred across the generation who are now elders, it also permeates among the younger generations who in their struggle to affirm their identities and secure their position within community, commit lateral violence against each other, and against those who have the knowledge and authority to challenge them, our elders.

In some instances, our young people have become the oppressors and they target their abuse at the older people in our communities. For those younger people who live with a sense of helplessness and hopelessness as a result of disadvantage, they often hold their old people to ransom, bullying them to pay bills, look after children, stick up for them with authorities, and finance their substance abuse and gambling. This is lateral violence and it is elder abuse.

Because lateral violence also involves behaviours such as gossiping, shaming and jealousy, elder on elder abuse is also an issue in our communities. The basis for this is often a challenge again to one’s identity. ‘You’re not from here you do not have a say’. ‘You’re not Aboriginal, you don’t speak language’. This type of lateral violence establishes a power division within the community, and long standing family feuds have resulted in young people being told by older family members to attack other community members.^[8]

For those who were taken from their families and put on missions and reserves, or adopted to non-Aboriginal families, lateral violence in the form of identity conflicts can be extremely hurtful and diminishes our collective self-determination and social cohesion. Gorringe, Ross and Fforde argue that:

Words that undermine Aboriginal identity are commonly used as insults and tools of social exclusion (such as ‘coconut’, ‘textbook black’, or ‘airconditioned black’), as are accusations of supposed privilege and favouritism applied to those perceived as ‘real blackfellas’. In doing so, a sense of division is created between individuals, groups, communities and even geography.^[9]

While this type of lateral violence is no different across generations, it also has the potential to affect whole families as it calls into question groups of people’s identity. Lateral violence then takes hold of communities who spend countless amounts of energy arguing about these culturally sensitive issues instead of focusing on positive developments and responses to the dysfunction in their communities.

Lateral violence can also be a factor in family violence. In Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, family violence is more than violence between a man and woman in a relationship. It includes violence within families - violence by children against their parents or grandparents, aunties and uncles and vis versus.

What does this look like for our old people?

Marcia Langton has argued that:

[T]he most at risk of lateral violence in its raw physical form are family members, and in the main, the most vulnerable members of the family: old people, women and children.^[10]

The Aged Rights Advocacy Service in South Australia working with the South Australian Council of Aboriginal Elders, have defined elder abuse as bashing an elder, taking their food, their money, their medication, their possessions, threatening elders with violence or that they will not see their grandchildren, or cutting them off from their community support and their everyday needs.^[11]

Janine Haynes, the Executive Officer of the Council of Aboriginal Elders of South Australia observes that:

As Aboriginal people, there’s a very fine line between giving out money to family members. If we’ve got money we share it, if we’ve got anything we share it, that’s part of our culture. But it’s when people take advantage of that situation and it goes further, perhaps they’re being pressure to provide money or kids are rocking up or grandkids are rocking up on pension day, all that sort of thing.^[12]

Research conducted by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Task Force on Violence suggests that while ‘Indigenous elder abuse primarily involved financial abuse and ‘demand sharing’, whereby younger individuals take advantage of kinship-based obligations to force their older relatives to share welfare payments; perpetrators were often members of the victims immediate family, particularly grandchildren or their grandchildren’s friends.^[13]

However, as discussed earlier, there are also social and emotional effects of elder abuse arising from lateral violence that intensify the experience for our elders.

Social and emotional wellbeing is the way Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people describe the ‘importance of connection to land, culture, spirituality, ancestry, family and community, and how these affect the individual’.^[14] As lateral violence assaults individual and community well-being, it seems common sense that there are also profound social and emotional impacts.

For example:

• Research has shown that the experience of stressful life events, such as family violence, the death of a family member, illness, suicide, or the fear of losing children to the State can have detrimental effects on the social and emotional well-being of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

• Alcohol and substance abuse in communities has meant that elders are often called upon and in some instances bullied to take the kids, sometimes for long periods of time. They are required to house them, feed them, and look after them.

• The fact that mainstream education is often valued more than cultural education and knowledge has diminished the importance of our elders in the governance of our communities, both in the context of sustaining our culture, our traditional laws, our customs; and in our families and organisations.

VACCA describes some of the ways lateral violence is expressed in Koori communities in Victoria. For example:

A young grandmother told how she would not take her grandchildren shopping as she did not want them see her beaten or abused in the street.^[15]

Other people [talked] of Elders being beaten fortnightly for their pensions [and] Elders ordering bashings of relatives.

As I discussed earlier, government and others also play a role in the circumstances creating lateral violence and how that applies to elders. Legal and policy structures create environments where conflict and lateral violence can flourish.

As many people know, a lot of our old people’s time these days is spent in meetings with government bureaucrats and companies or organisations working in our communities, talking about issues including the development of policies, or the day to day running of community life. Often these discussions also contribute to lateral violence committed against our elders, particularly where as I discussed earlier, the views of those in positions of power within our communities do not accord with the views of elders.

For example, in native title meetings elders are bought in to participate because of their knowledge about their lands and provide the genealogical evidence to support a native title claim. Community organisational leaders will usually also be in these meetings – particularly where native title agreements are being negotiated. I know of instances where elders have not been able to freely and fully participate for fear of retribution or exclusion in the community if they talk up against those in positions of power. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders are also targeted by lawyers and others in native title negotiations, often those without strong connection due to removal or where there is more than one group or family involved, to disrupt and delay negotiations. This has also resulted in social exclusion and in some instances physical violence.

Another example where elders play a critical role is as members of the Community Justice Groups or in Elders Committee’s associated with the courts or income management. While this gives elders a legitimate role for in the community that aligns with traditional roles, in some instances these roles have resulted in lateral violence and elder abuse in communities where perceived positions of power are created. For example, where a recommendation has been made by a Community Justice Group for a particular approach to an individual’s rehabilitation, or that it is in the best interests for a child to be removed from a community because of abuse or neglect, the families of that individual might become laterally violent to Justice Group Members – threatening, bullying, gossiping, shaming and socially excluding.

So lateral violence often results in victimisation and social exclusion – not only for the elders involved – but also for their family members who are also drawn into the conflict, or who are fighting amongst each other about the conflict.

So how do we address lateral violence and the harm it does to our communities and in particular our elders?

When I started today, I talked about this being an issue that is close to my heart and that is particularly sensitive for our communities.

From the discussions I have had with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities across the country, there seems to be a considerable appetite within our communities to confront and deal with this barrier to our well-being.

I am also enthusiastic about the amount of work already being done by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves to address lateral violence, and elder abuse. For instance, elder abuse was a focus of a study conducted by the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander Women’s Taskforce on Violence. An Elder Abuse Prevention Unit has been established in Queensland by the Department of Communities aimed at developing culturally appropriate responses to the abuse of older people with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Addressing elder abuse is also the focus of a partnership between the Council of Aboriginal Elders of South Australia and the Aged Rights Advocacy Service in South Australia; and the Office of the Public Advocate has conducted an investigation into elder abuse in Aboriginal communities in Western Australia.

While I have not focused on lateral violence inmy Reports as it applies to elders specifically, I have outlined a number of options for addressing lateral violence in our communities.

They include:

• Firstly, that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples exert control over lateral violence by naming it, and raising awareness of its existence and its impacts – it is our responsibility to ensure that our elders are treated respectfully, with dignity, and are cared for as they were in accordance with our traditional law and custom.

• Secondly, that Governments review and reform legislative and policy frameworks to ensure that these structures promote healthy relationships within our communities and with our external stakeholders. The National Human Rights Framework; Constitutional Reform; and maintaining efforts to create a just and equitable native title system are three current areas of reform that provide us with an opportunity to immediately focus in this area.

• Thirdly, that Governments, industry and communities create environments that are culturally safe and secure; and ensure the cultural competence of those who work with us.

These options are based on the establishment of strong structural foundations and human rights principles. The human rights approach incorporates general obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of all older people in the country.
With regard to the unique challenges faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that particular attention shall be paid to the rights and special needs of indigenous elders.

While I have placed much emphasis here on the role of governments in creating structures that support our aspirations to address lateral violence and elder abuse in our communities, the reality of lateral violence is that governments cannot and should not intervene to fix our internal relationships. This is not appropriate and takes the power away from our communities to be self-determining. However, governments do have a role to play. They must ensure that their involvement in our lives through the development of policy and law does not create the breeding grounds for lateral violence.

I encourage governments, non-government organisations and industry to work with us to ensure that your structures, policies and legislative frameworks do not contribute to lateral violence or elder abuse but actively seek to minimise it.

I would also like to take this opportunity to promote the role of my colleague Susan Ryan, the Age Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Her role is to administer the Federal Age Discrimination Act and to raise awareness of age discrimination, educating the community about the impact of age discrimination and monitoring and advocating for the elimination of age discrimination across all areas of public life.

Finally, we as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples must hold each other accountable to this type of behaviour. It is us who need to call this behaviour when it occurs. It is us who must strive to rebuild our cultural values that respect and protect our elders against lateral violence and elder abuse. It is us who must become more than just bystanders in order to overcome these challenges in our communities.
Confronting lateral violence and elder abuse will take courage, foresight and leadership. It is time now, to shed the negative labels. It is time to take back control of our rich, resilient, and varied Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander identity. For when we celebrate our strengths through our own eyes and in our own words, we enable others to do the same.

Thank you.
 

^[1] J Macklin, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Interview - Breakfast with Julia Christensen, ABC Darwin, Major welfare reforms, 25 November 2009. Available at: http://www.jennymacklin.fahcsia.gov.au/node/1493 (viewed 30 August 2012).
^[2] Office of the Public Advocate, Mistreatment of Older People in Aboriginal Communities Project – An Investigations into Elder Abuse in Aboriginal Communities, 2005, p11.
^[3] Office of the Public Advocate, Mistreatment of Older People in Aboriginal Communities Project – An Investigations into Elder Abuse in Aboriginal Communities, 2005, pp 22-24.
^[4] Australian Institute of Criminology, Indigenous perpetrators of violence: Prevalence and risk factors for offending (Appendix B), Research and public policy series no. 105, Canberra, April 2010. Available at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/100-120/rpp105/10.aspx (viewed 31 August 2012).
^[5] Office of the Public Advocate, Mistreatment of Older People in Aboriginal Communities Project – An Investigations into Elder Abuse in Aboriginal Communities, 2005, p23-24.
^[6] R Frankland and P Lewis, Presentation to Social Justice Unit staff, Australian Human Rights Commission, 14 March 2011.
^[7] See P Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1971) and F Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (1963).
^[8] R Frankland, M Bamblett, P Lewis and R Trotter, This is ‘Forever Business: A Framework for Maintaining and Restoring Cultural Safety in Aboriginal Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (2010), p 50.
^[9] S Gorringe, J Ross, C Fforde, ‘Will the Real Aborigine Please Stand Up’: Strategies for breaking the stereotypes and changing the conversation’, AIATSIS Research Discussion Paper 28 (2011), p 5.
^[10] M Langton,‘The end of “big men” politics’ (2008) 22 Griffith Review 11, p 15. At http://griffithreview.com/edition-22-moneysexpower/the-end-of-big-men-politics (viewed 21 September 2011).
^[11] Aged Rights Advocacy Service Inc, Poster.
^[12] Newslines Radio – Elder Abuse – time to speak up, Interview by Nathan Ramsay with Janine Haynes, Council of Aboriginal Elders of South Australia, July 2012.
^[13] Australian Institute of Criminology, Indigenous perpetrators of violence: Prevalence and risk factors for offending (Appendix B), Research and public policy series no. 105, Canberra, April 2010. Available at: http://www.aic.gov.au/publications/current%20series/rpp/100-120/rpp105/10.aspx (viewed 31 August 2012).
^[14] Social Health Reference Group, National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Mental Health and Social and Emotional Well Being 2004-2009, Australian Department of Health and Ageing (2004), p9.
^[15] R Frankland, M Bamblett, P Lewis and R Trotter, This is ‘Forever Business: A Framework for Maintaining and Restoring Cultural Safety in Aboriginal Victoria, Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency (2010), p 50.