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Now you’ve heard it in black and white

By Stephen Hagan - posted Monday, 24 July 2006


“There are many sorts of noises, but there is only one silence”, so said German writer Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935).

But are we really a silent race of people, attempting to ride out the rough times while our world caves in around us, or are we a misunderstood race whose voices are simply being ignored by people in authority?

It’s a bit like the white man at the train station who asks a black man the time. Just to double check the accuracy of the answer he then asks a passing white man the same question, who in turn gives an identical response. The black man, who is grossly offended, remarks, “Now you’ve heard it in black and white”.

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It sounds familiar to a story I heard on an ABC TV current affairs show recently where a white female prosecutor in the Northern Territory echoed the words, on the delicate topic of child abuse, of many Indigenous females around the nation.

As the debate on this controversial topic continues to occupy prominent media space, weeks after the ABC story, I decided to have a look at it from a different perspective.

I wasn’t particularly interested in reading about recent theories, but wanted to look at old studies; empirical data, clinical observations, theoretical conceptualisation and general understanding of normal human behaviour, or normatology.

To make matters more difficult for myself I sought to research a study that didn’t necessarily apply to Indigenous Australia, but as an alternative, looked at a typical dysfunctional community that could exist anywhere in the world - for comparative analysis.

A book that I chose to read goes by the innocuous title of The Sterling County Study of Psychiatric disorder and Socio-cultural environment by Leighton, D., Macklin, D., MacMillan, A., and Leighton, A. 1963. These authors’ collectively proposed that social disintegration generates disintegration of personality. In arriving at their appraisal they devised the following ten indices of disintegration as a guide:

  1. instability and low level of income;
  2. cultural confusion - in this case weak, confused, conflicting values;
  3. secularisation - that is, the absence of religious values;
  4. frequency of broken homes;
  5. few and weak associations in groups, both formal and informal;
  6. few and weak leaders;
  7. few patterns of recreation and leisure-time activity;
  8. high frequency of hostile acts and expressions;
  9. high frequency of crime and delinquency; and
  10. weak and fragmented network of communications.
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In evaluating these indices I provide a subjective Indigenous perspective with the following observations.

Instability and low level of income

The gross weekly income for Indigenous people in 1994 was $374 and $394 in 2002. The $20 rise in eight years just about says it all about the priorities governments of all persuasions place on narrowing the gap between the wages of non-Indigenous and Indigenous Australians: an elusive figure of $200.

The 36,000 Indigenous people who worked for CDEP (Community Development Employment Project) wages up to June 2004 were listed in government statistics as being employed. If you take into account the unemployment rate by factoring in those currently engaged on the work-for-the-dole scheme you’ll develop a more realistic picture of a typical community: it will also explain the high level of instability created by poverty.

Cultural confusion - in this case weak, confused, conflicting values (for example, traditional v western)

Indigenous students are engaged at school in a western approach which is a more formal and structured way of learning. The western system can be confusing as it looks at how individuals fit into society and places a value on them by their societal position or material possessions. With the loss of most of our traditional languages - and with it our culture - and the rapid rise in our youths’ fascination and imitation of the African American hip-hop way of life in preference to Indigenous traditional values, is it any wonder there exists a cultural vacuum?

Secularisation - that is, the absence of religious values

While I don’t go to church or espouse any religious preferences, I do however possess strong spiritual connection to my country. Having said that, and if I was to make a call, I’d much rather see the days of the old missionaries running communities than the motley crew who have control and allow their people to sink further into the social quagmire they helped create. And if religious conversion has the affect of sobering up a derelict community, then I’m all for going down that path.

As far as I’m concerned a sober religious person in control of local Indigenous governance is a far better proposition for their community than a drunken and or corrupt atheist in the driver’s seat.

Frequency of broken homes

Indigenous people are 11 times more likely than non-Indigenous people to be imprisoned. Indigenous juveniles are more than 20 times more likely to be detained than other juveniles as of June 2003.

It would be rare to find an Indigenous person that hasn’t been impacted by: a family member being imprisoned; a parent who is separated; being involved in substance abuse; living as a street kid; being a teenage parent; or by being a single mother.

Those who do not fit into this category of affected persons are probably in full time employment living in the white suburbs.

Few and weak associations in groups, both formal and informal

I’m yet to find a community, other than a small family run outstation or community, that hasn’t witnessed one of their organisations come under the control of a court appointed administrator. ATSIC folded principally because far too many Indigenous organisations under their control were going into liquidation or administration. Jealousy, nepotism and cronyism are the root of all evil for Indigenous communities and will remain so until such time as Indigenous people are able to work together in a cohesive formal and informal manner, without the infighting.

Few and weak leaders

The demise of ATSIC, and subsequently most - but not implicitly all - of their weak leaders, has set back Indigenous affairs by at least 10 years. That’s how long I believe it will take before we see a new wave of Indigenous leadership rise to the fore. Indigenous leaders who are still starving their community of oxygen will hopefully be too old and ineffectual in ten years time to be of any real nuisance value to future prosperity.

Some ATSIC leaders, during their term, displayed incredible leadership qualities against insurmountable odds, but sadly they were not the ones who had control over the purse strings at the regional, state or national level. At an organisational level, the same can be said of the shortage of leaders, hence the recycling of the usual "old suspects" who got their communities into trouble in the first instance.

Few patterns of recreation and leisure-time activity

Besides Rugby League or Australian Rules in the winter very few communities have organised leisure-time activities for their male population. I also saw far too many talented female netball and soft ball players give up their teenage pastime because of jealous husbands or because of time spent raising their young expanding families. Those communities with recreation officers do well with organised leisure activities but they soon revert back to their bad old idle ways as soon as the officer moves on to another community or gives up and moves on because of a lack of local interest.

High frequency of hostile acts and expressions

Between 1999-2003 the death rates for Indigenous people (6 to 23 per 100,000) were at least 6 times higher than non-Indigenous people. Nationally in 2002-03, Indigenous people were more than 12 times as likely to be hospitalised for assault as non-Indigenous people.

I just cannot explain why some Indigenous people, I stress some, are so violent towards one another, especially men abusing women - and I’m not just talking about a one-off clip over the ear: I’m talking of bashings with fists and boots and any object they can get their hands on.

These acts of violence perpetrated by desperate people are nothing more than shameful despicable acts that necessitate quick and immediate action by law enforcement agencies.

High frequency of crime and delinquency

The proportion of Indigenous people who reported being a victim of violence increased from 13 per cent to 23 per cent between 1994 and 2002: double that of non-Indigenous people. Where once Indigenous people who had a propensity for criminal behaviour, young and old, stole from non-Indigenous people, they are now less discriminating in who their victims are. Most Indigenous people would know of another Indigenous person who stole from or assaulted them or someone within their extended family.

Weak and fragmented network of communications

In 2002, 42 per cent of Indigenous people aged 18-24 were neither studying nor employed in the labour force, compared with 13 per cent of other Australians.

How are our people meant to network with the rest of the community and keep open a strong and positive line of communication with others if they are often illiterate or have only attained a low level of education?

Many Indigenous communities are losing their organisations through maladministration or because of placing too much trust in unscrupulous recruited Indigenous or non-Indigenous people. And in the process they are losing their access to phone, email and fax facilities.

Very few of our marginalised community members would own a personal computer, and even less would have access to the Internet at home, primarily because they don’t have a job or if they do it only pays a subsistence wage. I would love Indigenous people to have a strong network of contacts similar to those who make successful use of their “old school tie” connections.

So after my appraisal of the ten indices of disintegration do I think we are a silent dysfunctional race who condones child abuse and domestic violence? Overall I emphatically say we are not, although some Indigenous communities may require extra assistance to avoiding identification with that unsavoury category.

But one think I say is that it takes an entire community to raise a child and that we as a community must speak out against abuse of any description in order to maintain a healthy safe environment for all our children to grow and lead fulfilling lives.

In saying that however, I am mindful of those weighty words of Tucholsky, “There are many sorts of noises, but there is only one silence".

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About the Author

Stephen Hagan is Editor of the National Indigenous Times, award winning author, film maker and 2006 NAIDOC Person of the Year.

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