An Indigenous home for
Indigenous children

Speech by Michael Dodson,
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the
SNAICC National Conference, Townsville, June 1997

To all of you who
work with and for Indigenous children and families - my deepest congratulations.
Many of you have spent years decrying the treatment of Indigenous children.You
have written and spoken, cajoled and attempted to convince and then lobbied
some more - just trying to get the people of this country to open their
eyes. Your energy has been boundless. Your patience infinite.

Now, perhaps, your
work is beginning to bear fruit.

In the last weeks
we have seen a most extraordinary turn of events. Day after day and now
week after week the newspapers and airwaves have been jammed with talk
about our families and children. Day after day the letters pages a filled
with the reactions of ordinary Australians, horrified at the truths they
never knew. Never before have so many Australians turned their attention
to our families. Never before has Australia really known or cared about
our children. Children taken from the arms of their mothers. Taken from
their cultures.

No one could say
that the battle has been won! But we have got the nation's attention.
And despite the efforts of some of the nations political leaders to minimise
the atrocities - we have captured much of the nation's heart.

Last week, a father
wrote to the Sydney Morning Herald asking where he might lay his hands
on a copy of Bringing Them Home because his seven year old son
keeps asking him questions he can't answer.

Questions like:

Who took the children?

Why did they take them?

Did they give them back?

Why didn't the kids write to their mum and dad and tell them where they
were?

Were they, the kids, sad?

Our office has been
flooded with messages from ordinary Australians - words full of grief
and compassion and shame.

A young woman described
reading the report on a tram - tears pouring down her face - and turning
to all those around her to tell them what she was learning. She said that
when she had finished the report for the second time, she would be lending
it to everyone she knew - and later she would keep it to give her children
and eventually her grandchildren.

Another woman sent
me a photo of her newborn twins, with a note on the back thanking us for
creating a future they can look forward to.

When John Laws discussed
the report on his show 2 weeks ago, we received 1200 phone calls asking
for copies of the community guide.

The pain of children
torn from their families is our daily reality. Now it has become part
of the reality of all Australians. And that in itself is no small achievement.
Which makes now the most important time of all. If ignorance was an excuse
for inaction - this new found awareness must be the basis for action.
Now is the time that we must translate good will into substantive change.

As you know, the
National Inquiry into the Removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
children from their families found that past policies of removal have
had, and continue to have a horrendous impact on our families and communities.
The report of the inquiry recounts, in graphic detail the personal agony
of the families, of those who were themselves removed, and of their children.
Their stories fill the seven hundred pages of this report.

They also filled
eighteen months of my life sitting on the inquiry. Throughout my professional
life I have been steeped in the abuses that my people suffer. But never,
never have I seen what I saw when witnesses to the inquiry came before
me. never have I heard what I heard as they spoke of their lives. Nothing
could have prepared me for the weight of suffering that so many of our
brothers and sisters bear. If ever non-Indigenous Australians wondered
about the basis of our grievances - they need wonder no more. Here it
is - in this volume - for all to see.

I truly believe that
anyone- no matter what their stand on race issues is, knows that it is
harmful and wrong to take children from their families. Everyone understands
that children need their mothers and fathers and aunties and uncles and
grandmas. Everyone knows that institutions don't grow up healthy, happy
children. With the release of this report, all Australians will know that
these harms and these wrongs have been the systematic fate of our families.
And all Australians can be moved to action - just as we have been.

The Human Rights
and Equal Opportunity Commission was asked to inquire into past laws,
polices and practices of removal. To date, media attention and public
debate have focussed on that aspect of the report.  As I have repeatedly
stated - it is crucial that all Australians acknowledge past injustices
. without that we cannot even begin to contemplate reconciliation or national
cohesion. But, the National Inquiry was also charged with looking into
current laws, policies and practices concerning the care and placement
of Indigenous children. In fact, we devoted much of our time, and about
one third of the report to what is happening to our children today.

We must not let the
contemporary dimension of the report be lost in the fiery debate over
our findings about the past.

The fourth term of
reference - contemporary removal is an integral part of the story the
report has to tell. It is not simply another issue tacked onto the end
to bring the report up to date. Contemporary removal is not conceptually
distinct from past policies and practices. It grows out of what happened
yesterday, and a decade ago. And throughout the last two hundred years.
There is an unbroken line that moves through the story of removal. And
that line is cultural destruction.

The laws, policies
and practices of past removal were not simply unjust. They were not merely
cruel or unethical. They were genocidal. There it is the 'g'; word - that
word that has caused such an uproar.

We do not use the
word genocide because it evokes more horror than any other word. We do
not use it because it is controversial. We use it because of its precise
meaning. Genocide is an act taken with the intent to destroy, in whole
or in part, a racial group. The intent to destroy a people. Our people.

The explicitly racist
and genocidal laws of the past have been wiped from the statute books.
And the state no longer overtly sets out to destroy Indigenous peoples,
as peoples. But neither the racism, nor the cultural destruction are things
of the past. Our children are still systematically taken from their families
and communities. And taken at an astronomical rate. Our children are 6
times more likely than other children to be removed for welfare reasons
and 21 times more likely to be removed for juvenile justice reasons. Now
more than ever, Australians can not turn away from what is happening in
our own country at this moment.

Now that it is known
what happens to children who are taken from their families this country
cannot allow the ground to be laid for another and then another generation
of stolen children.

Now, more than ever
as Australia contemplates its identity - Australians must not turn away
from the real meaning of removing Indigenous children. Taking Indigenous
children is not just an act of violence against those children and their
families. It is an act of cultural destruction. Our people have barely
survived the genocidal policies of the past. We cannot afford, as peoples,
or as a nation to allow current laws and policies to decimate Australia's
first peoples.

Since the release
of the report, one of things people keep asking is: "how is this
any different from the removal of non-Indigenous kids?" they point
out that it was common practice for children to be taken from white single
mothers or white families who did not meet departmental standards.

There is a simple
answer to that question. Indigenous children and only Indigenous children
were taken because of their race. Only Indigenous children became wards
of the state at birth. They could legally remove an Indigenous child without
alleging neglect or abuse. You just had to say they were Aboriginal. There
were separate statutes specifically authorising the removal of our children
because their Aboriginality was a "problem".

But there is a more
complex answer - an answer about the contours of cultural difference and
systemic racism.

Some of you may have
heard that I spoke about this report at the Second World Congress on Family
Law and the Rights of Children and Youth in San Fransisco a couple of
weeks ago. I was asked to address the Congress on family functions and
family forms, and in that context discussed the experiences of Indigenous
families under the laws and policies of this country. In particular, I
focused on the conflict between the values that underpin the state's law
and policy and the values and cultures of Indigenous families.

The issues I raised
were of great interest to the participants at the conference. Because
what happened to Australia's first peoples has happened to first peoples
in colonised countries throughout the world. The conference recognised
that child removal has been one of the greatest crimes of colonisation.
At the end of the conference, we passed a resolution condemning the removal
of Indigenous as a gross violation of human rights. The convention called
on all states who engaged in such practices to formally and unconditionally
apologise, and to make reparations.

Australian governments
have long taken office on "family values" platforms. They promote
policies to strengthen and support Australian families. And we would be
the first to stand behind that. Family is tremendously important to us.
But if your family culture does not match the state culture, its laws
and policies bear little resemblance to support. In our case, quite the
opposite. They have undermined, and they continue to undermine our families.
Colonial states embody the coloniser's culture. Their language is the
language of the colonising culture. Their laws and systems reflect the
values and aspirations of that culture. And they do that so invisibly
that you'd never even see it. Unless you do not fit. When they try to
make our families white, they destroy the source of our identity. They
sap our strength and they threaten our survival.

Racism is not just
about one individual discriminating against another individual. Structural
racism is about the hierarchy of cultures. About one group of people imposing
their values on another. Racism comes in many forms. It can be well disguised,
even dressed as "the best of intentions". Racism - in this broad
sense - was and is the basis of the removal of our children. And that
is why it is not the same as the removal of other children.

Some people have
argued against our findings by saying that children were removed with
the best intentions . Far from trying to hurt them, the argument runs,
the intention was to save them. That may well have been what people thought
they were doing. But, quite frankly, that is irrelevant to the finding
of genocide - or the fact of cultural destruction. The authorities who
took and who continue to take our children often framed their actions
in terms of the best interests of the child. They thought - and think
that removal was "for their own good" - to free them from our
dysfunctional families. To protect them from our moral failings. To immunise
them against our pathological behaviour.

They see our families
as faulty so they have to fix them. They see our cultures as impoverished,
so they have to enlighten them. They see our difference as inferiority,
so they have to improve it. They judge our difference - and they try to
take it away. But it is our difference that makes us unique - and our
uniqueness that we want to protect. They look at the way we share responsibility
for children with our extended kin and they see instability. They look
at the way we allow our children autonomy and they see irresponsibility.
They think our preference for comfort and affection over discipline is
a mark of our moral weakness. Before their scrutinising eyes, all this
is just evidence of the fact that we are not qualified to produce decent
members of society.

The United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child specifically states that a child
who is Indigenous has a right to enjoy his or her own culture - in community
with other members of the group. In case that is not clear enough - let
me spell it out. Our children have a right to their Indigenous culture.
It is not in the best interests of our children to take them away
from their Indigenous culture.

But is this the principle
that informs Australia's policies on children? I think not. They take
our children from their own culture - and they deposit them in an alien
culture.

No other international
human rights treaty has received the degree of support that has been given
to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Close to two hundred countries
(there are only three member states of the United Nations that have not
signed/ratified) across the globe - including Australia agree that a child's
own culture is absolutely central to their well being.

But our domestic
law and policy flies in the face of that recognition. Contemporary juvenile
justice and welfare systems still construe Aboriginality as a problem.
Far from respecting and protecting cultural connection, they still see
it as a risk factor. They still see Indigenous communities and families
as "dysfunctional" and "culturally deprived". It is
only our children that are potentially savable. But to save them, you
have to protect them from contamination from Indigenous environments.
We are still somehow seen as incompetent to bring up or care for our own
children, and make them into acceptable members of society. We are still
seen as morally deficient and in need of guidance.

From our point of
view, the rates of removal are a source of the greatest grief. But non-Indigenous
society holds them up as proof of our failure. You - the people who work
at the front line with Indigenous families would be the first to acknowledge
that many of our children are living in troubled environments. No one
knows better than their parents that many of our children are troubled.
Nor does anyone have to tell our communities that many of our children
cope with their problems by causing more trouble.

But recognising that
there is a problem, and blaming us for it, are two very different things.
And they lead to two very different types of response.

Seeing us as the
problem has led to the development of elaborate legal and bureaucratic
systems of control. We are surrounded by police, courts, welfare officers,
foster parents and juvenile justice centres, all of whom apparently know
better than us, how to look after our kids. If you understand the problem,
you may well see that taking control away from us is the very worst thing
you can do.

When you think an
Indigenous child is not adequately cared for, you can remove her on the
grounds of neglect. Or you can look at the historic and systematic homelessness,
the unemployment, the racism, the dispossession and the poverty that characterise
her family and community. If you do that, you might well decide that the
best way to help her is to alleviate the disadvantage around her.

When you think that
a child is not being properly brought up, look at who his parents are.
Many are themselves the survivors of past removal policies. They are still
suffering the psychological and emotional damage of those policies. Left
alone to cope with their own losses, it is hardly surprising that they
are unable to provide their child with a loving, strong and safe home.

If you see that,
you may well recognise that the best way to help that child is to support
his parents, and allow them to give him the parenting he needs. When you
think that our children are acting out you would do well to look at their
context and their inheritance. Time and again, we see the children of
the stolen generation inherit their parents' unresolved feelings and express
those feelings in the form of violence, criminality, self-abuse and substance
abuse.

If you just take
them away, you are doing little more than sealing the fate of another
generation. Quite frankly - we are sick of being made the problem. We
think it is about time to turn the tables. If there is a "mismatch"
between the broader non-Indigenous culture and our Indigenous culture,
then they fail to meet our standards just as much as we fail to meet theirs.
From our point of view, when non-Indigenous society removes our children
from their Indigenous families and communities it is not saving them.
It is condemning them to a life which they will never fit.

We now have undeniable
proof that putting Indigenous children in non-Indigenous families or institutions
rarely, if ever, gives them happy and full lives. The great assimilationist
dream of making them into another shade of white just does not work. By
now a long succession of royal commissions, inquiries and reports have
been highly critical of mainstream welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Their conclusions are unanimous. These systems contravene the basic rights
of Indigenous children and families. They fail to uphold the principle
of self-determination. They contravene Australia's international human
rights commitments. They don't even do what they are set up to do - protect
children and the community.

Children who go into
welfare come out without a sense of self and without a sense of belonging.
Children who go into detention come out and reoffend. They graduate from
the welfare system to the juvenile justice system. And from the juvenile
justice system to the criminal justice system.

How many times will
we have to repeat these facts? How many times are we going to read or
write the recommendations, receive the government's endorsement and the
listen to their commitment to implementation? We have heard it all too
many times already. Mouthing support is but a hollow gesture if it is
not matched by a genuine willingness to change the culture which underpins
the removal of Indigenous children. And the fact is that the culture of
control remains firmly in place.

For 20 years self
determination has been the official national policy. It is also a human
right of all peoples. But we are still the objects, not the subjects of
family law. We are still having decisions made for us. We are still being
told what is in our best interests.  Our key recommendation on contemporary
removal is little different to what you, the workers in the field and
people in the community have been saying for years.

Self determination
and cultural connection are the keys to the well-being of Indigenous children
and young people.

We are calling on
the commonwealth to work with key players, including SNAICC, to establish
legislation to give a national framework for the principle of self-determination
to be put into practice. This legislation would allow communities or regions
to negotiate with the Commonwealth and the relevant State or Territory
to establish arrangements for their own children.

Some communities
may want to take over all or some of the welfare, juvenile justice, care
and protection and adoption matters currently controlled by governments.
Others may want to share those functions. Others may want current authorities
to continue to work with their children - but to have greater say about
their operations.

The key is that communities
not governments will decide how best to address welfare and juvenile
justice issues.

The framework legislation
would set out minimum standards to ensure that children's rights are protected,
no matter who is in control of the laws and policies affecting Indigenous
children. That means that communities which are not ready, or do not want
to take over welfare and juvenile justice functions, need not feel they
are handing their children to the lions. Certain basic principles and
standards will be guaranteed.

The standards we
have outlined are derived largely from the views put to us by Indigenous
organisations and families. They are also firmly grounded in international
legal and human rights standards set out in the key international instruments.
These include the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The key principle underpinning
the standards is that the best interest of the child must at all times
be paramount. And in the case of Indigenous children, the basic presumption
must be that the best interest is to remain within his or her Indigenous
family, community and culture.

Any authority making
arrangements for Indigenous children must consider the need for the child
to maintain contact with their family and culture.  Decision makers
must consider the significance of the child's culture and heritage for
his or her future well-being. Every non-Indigenous decision maker must
consult with accredited Indigenous organisations from the point of notification
or arrest, and at each stage from then on. Token involvement or ad hoc
consultation after decisions are made and the child is already on the
systemic treadmill will not do.

Our recommendations
are designed to attack the problem at its heart. For too long we have
long suffered a system which undermines our communities. We want one which
strengthens us. For too long we have lived under authorities ignorant
of our values. We want to authorise those values. For too long, we have
seen what is precious to us taken away.

When they take our
land, they take the ground of our culture. When they take our children,
they take the future of our culture. If they keep on taking, there will
be nothing left.

Ladies and gentlemen,
we can no longer equivocate. This is not history. The children taken in
1937 became the parents unable to teach the children of 1967. The children
taken in 1967 became the parents unable to teach the children of 1997.
If they take the children in 1997 - worse still if they take them in 2007
and 2027 - there may be nothing left to teach.

We cannot allow that
to happen. We will not allow that to happen. The taking must stop.

Thank you.

Reference notes

1. Letter
from Michael Carey, Jakarta, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 June 1997.

2. Article 30.

Last
updated 1 December 2001