Believe in the magic of dreams

The Indigenous community has a very different population spread than the non-Indigenous community, with about 58 per cent of Indigenous people being under 25 years of age, compared with about 34 per cent of the rest of the population.

The Australian Institute of Criminology 2004 report Facts and figures, reveals that 47 per cent of the total number of young people detained in juvenile corrective institutions on June 30 were Indigenous - incredible when they only comprise 2 per cent of the total population. However, many welfare workers who visit these institutions regularly have indicated to me that even these figures are very conservative.

The Australian Institute of Criminology research into the lifetime offending and substance use patterns of 371 juveniles, aged 10 to 17 years, incarcerated in Australian juvenile detention centres showed that many juvenile detainees had used: alcohol (97 per cent); cannabis (94 per cent); and amphetamines (50 per cent). One in three had used ecstasy at some stage in their lives.

Cannabis was the drug most commonly used regularly by young people in the six months prior to their detention (63 per cent), followed by alcohol (46 per cent) and amphetamines (20 per cent). Nearly one in three juvenile offenders were regular poly-substance users in the six months prior to detention.

The study also found that 36 per cent of respondents reported instances of violent abuse; 27 per cent reported instances of emotional abuse; 18 per cent reported instances of neglect; and 46 per cent of respondents reported at least one of the above types of abuse.

Instances of abuse were found most likely to be carried out by a parent/guardian or by a sibling, and were also linked with drug use and crime. “Juveniles reporting regular violent or property offending were more likely to report a history of neglect and abuse, as were juveniles reporting high frequency substance use in the six months prior to detention.”

Typical survey questions asked were: “… when you were growing up did anyone ever:

• leave you by yourself for a long time as a child?
• push you around, hit, kick or beat you?
• make you feel very bad, sad or frightened?”

A report in The Courier-Mail on August 30, 2003 revealed that a 13-month old boy was sent to join his mother in jail because there was no safe place for him in a community of 1,000 people, which had been crippled by alcohol fuelled violence.

The boy’s father is in jail too. The report said this community spends $5 million a year on beer at the council-owned canteen, and that a staggering 20,000 cans of beer are delivered each week. A lawyer and community justice group coordinator said they had “lamp post children”, as young as three, sleeping under lit areas so they were not sexually abused or beaten.

The 200-page Education Learning Lessons report on the delivery of education to Indigenous students in the Northern Territory handed to the Government in 1999 revealed:

… that Year 7 level English literacy and numeracy are a necessary minimum for any person to function effectively in the wider Australian society, and a minimum of Year 10 level literacy and numeracy are required for any management role in the community. The Committee found that 11 to 16-year-old students in remote Indigenous schools were averaging around Year 2-3 levels.