Now you’ve heard it in black and white

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.