Newsletter date: 26 July 2012
Contents:
* Tracker: A mental health crisis behind bars
* News Release: Family demands independent investigation into death in custody in Alice Springs Hospital
* ANTaR: Reducing Imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
* UnitingJustice: Pastoral Letter on Action Against 'Stronger Futures'
* Michael Brull: Are Little Children still Sacred?
* Jon Altman: NT intervention: what happened to outcomes?
* Background to 'Stronger Futures' new NT Intervention laws
* Background to the Northern Territory (NT) Intervention
* Other articles
* TRACKER: A MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS BEHIND BARS
- News
newsTracker: A mental health crisis behind bars
http://tracker.org.au/2012/07/a-mental-health-crisis-behind-bars/
25 Jul 12: "QUEENSLAND: ... a new study that has found the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders currently in jail suffer from mental illness. The study was conducted by Queensland Forensic Mental Health Services and is one of the first to survey the prevalence of mental health disorders amongst Indigenous prisoners in the state. It found 72.8 percent of men and 86.1 percent of women surveyed suffered from at least one mental health disorder. ... The most common anxiety disorder amongst both men and women was post-traumatic stress disorder."
newsTracker: One third of prison entrants suffer from mental illness: AIHW
http://tracker.org.au/2012/07/one-third-of-prison-entrants-suffer-from-m...
25 Jul 12: "NATIONAL: About one-third of people who enter prison in Australia have a history of mental illness, a new report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) says. The report found 31 percent of prison entrants had been told by a medical professional that they had a mental health disorder, the report said, a figure that is 2.5 times higher than the general population. It comes following a report in Queensland which found the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women in incarceration suffered from a mental health disorder." Amy McQuire, a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman, editor of Tracker
* NEWS RELEASE: FAMILY DEMANDS INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION INTO DEATH IN CUSTODY IN ALICE SPRINGS HOSPITAL
- News Release
Family demands independent investigation into death in custody in Alice Springs Hospital
Sovereign Union: http://nationalunitygovernment.org/content/family-demands-independent-in...
Treaty Republic: http://treatyrepublic.net/content/family-demands-independent-investigati...
"The family of Arabana man, Peter Clarke, issued a call today for the Northern Territory Government to launch an independent enquiry into his death in Alice Springs Hospital. He was 56 year old. Mr Clarke died on Tuesday 3 April 2012. He'd been due for parole on 26 March 2012 but was hospitalised on 19 March. When Peter Clarke's younger brother Wayne and sister Gladys visited the hospital, they were shocked to find their brother cuffed by the ankle to the hospital bed. A Corrections Officer was also standing guard at the door. ... "
- Audio Interviews
Indigenous radio station 98.9FM Brisbane:
Kylie Hampton & Bruce Campbell
http://www.989fm.com.au/category/podcasts/
24 Jul 12: "* Kylie Hampton, Daughter of Peter Clarke
* Bruce Campbell, WA Deaths in Custody Watch Committee"
Listen to this interview on-line:
http://www.989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/kylie-hampton-bruce-campbell/
Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association:
Ray Jackson speaks about Peter Clarke death...
http://caama.com.au/ray-jackson-speaks-about-peter-clarke-death
24 Jul 12: "The Indigenous Social Justice Association has been fighting for a long time now against Aboriginal deaths in custody. It is an ongoing issue and one that continues to raise the concern of many Indigenous Australians’ and non Indigenous Australians. The death earlier this year of Peter Clarke in the Alice Springs hospital has concerned the Indigenous Social Justice Aassociation. Ray Jackson joins Paul Wiles on Strong Voices."
* ANTaR: REDUCING IMPRISONMENT OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PEOPLE
- Issues and Campaigns
ANTaR - Justice, Rights, and Respect for Australia's First Peoples:
Reducing Imprisonment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
Attorneys General Urge Action on Aboriginal Incarceration
http://www.antar.org.au/issues_and_campaigns/reducing_indigenous_incarce...
"A meeting of the Standing Committee of Attorneys General on July 21st - 22nd 2011 agreed to make recommendations to the Commonwealth for action on reducing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander imprisonment rates. A post-meeting Communique stated: "Ministers discussed the unacceptable rates of incarceration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Doing Time - Time for Doing Report and agreed: ... "
- Related Audio
Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association:
http://caama.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/am-25-07-update-final.mp3
http://caama.com.au/radio#tabs-6
25 Jul 12: "Australia’s peak Indigenous Social Justice group says Aboriginal and Islander people have been dying in custody at the rate of one a month for the past thirty years."
- Related News
newsTracker: Family mourns as they await answers over Briscoe death
http://tracker.org.au/2012/07/family-mourns-as-they-await-answers-over-b...
25 Jul 12: "NORTHERN TERRITORY: Kwementyaye Briscoe’s aunty Patricia Morton-Thomas doesn’t know what the word 'justice' is supposed to mean. She’s been asked countless times whether her family will ever see it following the death of the 27-year-old Anmatyere man, who passed away on the floor of an Alice Springs watch house earlier this year. "I honestly don’t understand what (justice) means. The average person on the ground has a completely different idea of what justice is to our legal system." Ms Morton-Thomas told Tracker." Amy McQuire, a Darumbal and South Sea Islander woman, editor of Tracker
* UNITINGJUSTICE: PASTORAL LETTER ON ACTION AGAINST 'STRONGER FUTURES'
- Letters
UnitingJustice: Pastoral Letter on Action Against 'Stronger Futures'
http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/justice-for-indigenous-australians/news...
22 Jul 12: "Dear sisters and brothers in Christ, ...
Yesterday, all the members of the Assembly, many of the guests and visitors and local Uniting Church members walked from the Assembly venue to the Parliament House of South Australia to hold a vigil in response to the passing of the Federal Stronger Futures legislation. I write to explain what led the Assembly to take this action. ... We heard stories of the impact of the Northern Territory Intervention on the lives, wellbeing and dignity of many people in Indigenous communities and their cries of despair at the passing of the Stronger Futures legislation which continues many of the harmful and discriminatory policies of the previous Intervention. ...
Reverend Professor Andrew Dutney
President, Uniting Church in Ausralia Assembly"
UnitingJustice: Pastoral Letter on Action Against 'Stronger Futures'
[scroll down page] http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/justice-for-indigenous-australians/news...
22 Jul 12: "To the Members of the Uniting Church in Australia
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Our covenantal relationship with the Uniting Church of Australia was made stronger and deeper in its meaning as all the members of the Assembly walked together with Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress members to conduct a vigil of prayer and lament on the steps of the South Australian Parliament. This public act of solidarity was in support of our Congress members who have felt the pain and frustration of the Northern Territory Intervention in their communities. Together the Uniting Church and Congress lamented the passing of the Stronger Futures legislation ...
Reverend Rronang Garrawurra
Chair, Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress"
- Related News
Insights Magazine - Uniting Church in Australia’s Synod of NSW & ACT:
Prayer vigil called to mourn passing of Stronger Futures legislation
http://www.insights.uca.org.au/news/prayer-vigil-called-to-mourn-passing...
18 Jul 12: "Members of the Uniting Church’s 13th Assembly will gather publicly in Adelaide on Thursday July 19 for a lunchtime prayer vigil to express extreme concern about the "Stronger Futures" legislation. In a dramatic response to calls for action to support the Indigenous people of Australia, Assembly changed its order of business so it could make the strongest possible statement about the law. The Chairperson of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress, the Rev. Rronang Garrawurra, and the new President of the Uniting Church, the Rev. Professor Andrew Dutney, will stand shoulder-to-shoulder at the prayer vigil."
Indymedia Australia: Prayer Vigil Today to Mourn Stronger Futures Laws
[scroll down page] http://www.indymedia.org.au/2012/07/20/govt%E2%80%99s-nt-move-makes-a-mo...
19 Jul 12: "Rev. Rronang Garrawurra ...
The entire 265 Members of the Uniting Church’s Assembly meeting will hold a prayer vigil at 1 pm on Thursday 19 July on the steps of the South Australian Parliament to express their extreme concern at the passage of the Federal Government’s Stronger Futures legislation. ... "They have taken our land and now our humanity is taken away by this new law," said Rev. Garrawurra, speaking through an interpreter in his native Yolngu language. "The Uniting Church mourns another lost opportunity for true reconciliation with the First Peoples of Australia," said Rev. Prof. Dutney ... "
- Related Audio
The Wire: Stronger Futures Protest
Produced by Christopher Testa
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=9382
19 Jul 12: "There were prayers being said and songs being sung today on the steps of South Australia's Parliament house, as the Uniting Church gathered for its triennial assembly. The prayers carried a message for the federal government. Christopher Testa was there.
Featured in story:
* Rev Rronang Garrawurra, Chairperson of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress
* Rev Professor Andrew Dutney, President of the Uniting Church
* Robert Hoosan, Chair of the Northern Region of the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress"
* MICHAEL BRULL: ARE LITTLE CHILDREN STILL SACRED?
- News
newsTracker: Are Little Children still Sacred?
http://tracker.org.au/2012/07/are-little-children-still-sacred/
25 Jul 12: "NATIONAL: The intervention was sparked by the NT government-commissioned Little Children Are Sacred report. But how far removed is it from Stronger Futures, asks MICHAEL BRULL*. Yolngu leader Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM said that, "For those of us living in the Northern Territory the anguish of the past five years of intervention has been almost unbearable". The Stronger Futures legislation expands these five years of racially discriminatory legislation for another 10 years. ... It is worth revisiting the Little Children are Sacred report, which envisioned a very different type of future. ... " Michael Brull, studying a Juris Doctor at UNSW, an occasional Tracker contributor, published in the Indigenous Law Bulletin, National Times, ABC Drum, Overland
* JON ALTMAN: NT INTERVENTION: WHAT HAPPENED TO OUTCOMES?
- Analysis / Opinion
NT intervention: what happened to outcomes?
Crikey: http://www.crikey.com.au/2012/07/12/nt-intervention-what-happened-to-out...
ISX: http://www.isx.org.au/forums/read.php?18,10071,10071,quote=1
12 Jul 12: "The fifth anniversary of the Northern Territory Emergency Response Intervention ticked over Tuesday. It was supposed to be "liberation" day for prescribed communities in the Northern Territory, by now supposedly "stabilised, normalised and exited". Instead it was another day of shame for the many Aboriginal people who are demeaned and humiliated by intervention measures and resent such "special" treatment. On the eve of this anniversary, the Australian government strategically released its latest Closing the Gap in the Northern Territory Monitoring Report for the period July to December 2011." Jon Altman, social sciences research professor, Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research, Australian National University
* BACKGROUND TO 'STRONGER FUTURES' NEW NT INTERVENTION LAWS:
Last updated: 24 July 2012
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-stronger-futures-new-nt...
* BACKGROUND TO THE NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT) INTERVENTION:
Last updated: 4 July 2012
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-northern-territory-...
* OTHER ARTICLES:
- Audio
The Wire: Calls for a national representative body for Indigenous elders
Produced by Tawar Razaghi
http://www.thewire.org.au/storyDetail.aspx?ID=9394
24 Jul 12: "Indigenous elders across the country are working on a national representative body for elders after attending a Think Tank at Griffith University. Seventy five academic elders came together at the event discussing the importance of their role in higher education of preserving cultural knowledge and influencing indigenous policy. As a result there was an overwhelming consensus for the need of a national voice representing academic elders in key policies and debates. ...
Featured in story:
* Professor Boni Robertson Director - Indigenous Community Engagement Policy and Partnerships, Griffith University
* Associate Professor Berice Anning - Dean of Indigenous Education, University of Western Sydney"
- News
newsTracker: Warlpiri celebrate signing of largest IPA in Australian history
http://tracker.org.au/2012/07/warlpiri-celebrate-signing-of-largest-ipa-...
25 Jul 12: "NORTHERN TERRITORY: An area the size of Portugal has been signed off in the southern Tanami desert in the Northern Territory, making it the largest Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) in the country. The region features some of the most pristine and diverse desert in the nation. Ten million hectares of it will be a conservation zone, the federal government announced this month. It makes it the largest protected area in Australia and takes in a small part of the Great Sandy Desert. It is the homeland of the Warlpiri people and links the desert to the subtropical savannas."
Koori Mail: NPY women ask for income management
[scroll down page] http://www.koorimail.com/index.php?page=Current+Edition
25 Jul 12: "ABORIGINAL women in remote South Australia and Western Australia are actively campaigning to be included in the Federal Government’s income management scheme, first introduced under the Northern Territory Intervention. The influential Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council says it has surveyed its members and found they strongly believe income management ... would help reduce alcohol abuse, violence, gambling, child abuse and neglect in their communities."
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