Special Sorry Day Edition
http://www.nsdc.org.au
"National Sorry Day offers the Community the opportunity to acknowledge the impact of the policies spanning more than 150 years of forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families."
Newsletter date: Sorry Day - 26 May 2013
Contents:
* Petition: Keeping Them Home - Stop the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families
* Let's Talk's Tiga Bayles interviews renowned journalist Jeff McMullen about child removals and the importance of families
* Jeff McMullen, Respect and Listen: The Future of the Family (giving context to the suicide and child removal issues)
* SNAICC News: Keeping Them Home - Elder Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, calls for this trend to be reversed
* Peter Robson, Green Left: NT government risks new stolen generation
* ABC Indigenous: Chief magistrate says NT's child protection department is failing
* Northern Territory (NT) Forced Aboriginal Adoption Media Coverage
* Background to the Stolen Generations and the Bringing Them Home report
* Background to Child Protection and Out-of-home care
* Beyond Nuclear Initiative: Six years and still standing strong: NT trade unions join Traditional Owners to protest Muckaty radioactive waste dump
* Background to the proposed Muckaty nuclear waste dump
* ABC Indigenous: NT Indigenous deaths in custody worst in nation
* Background to Justice Reinvestment, Aboriginal imprisonment and Deaths in Custody
* CAAMA: NAAJA CEO Priscilla Collins on The Alcohol Protection Order Scheme
* APO NT: Alcohol and Other Drugs
* ABC: New alcohol powers for police
* ABC: Grog culture defended as 'core social value'
* PETITION: KEEPING THEM HOME - STOP THE FORCED REMOVAL OF ABORIGINAL CHILDREN FROM THEIR FAMILIES
- Petition
Change.org Petition: Keeping Them Home - Stop the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families
Petitioning Adam Giles
Petition by Stand For Freedom
http://www.change.org/en-AU/petitions/keeping-them-home-stop-the-forced-...
"40 years ago the Stolen Generation happened on our watch.
5 years ago the Nation apologised for it.
Now, forced child removal is happening again on our watch."
"Please read the petition letter to the Chief Minister Adam Giles, initiated by the Keeping Them Home campaign by 'concerned Australians', and lend your voice to this important cause."
- Campaign
Keeping Them Home
'concerned Australians': http://www.concernedaustralians.com.au/
Respect and Listen: http://www.respectandlisten.org/
* LET'S TALK'S TIGA BAYLES INTERVIEWS RENOWNED JOURNALISTJEFF MCMULLEN ABOUT CHILD REMOVALS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FAMILIES
- Audio Interview
Indigenous radio station 98.9FM Brisbane:
Let's Talk - Jeff McMullen
http://www.989fm.com.au/category/podcasts/lets-talk/
17 May 13: "Jeff McMullen, Honorary CEO of the Ian Thorpe’s Foundation For Youth and renowned Journalist."
Listen to this interview on-line:
http://www.989fm.com.au/podcasts/lets-talk/jeff-mcmullen-11/
* JEFF MCMULLEN, RESPECT AND LISTEN: THE FUTURE OF THE FAMILY
- Analysis / Opinion
Respect and Listen: The Future of the Family - Jeff McMullen
http://www.respectandlisten.org/nt-intervention/speeches/jeff-mcmullen--...
13 Mar 13: "Many Elders have told me that the family counselling efforts trialled in Central Australia tap into traditional approaches for alleviating social crisis by involving members of the extended family and community services to discuss how to improve the safety and well-being of the child. This approach can reduce the removal of children from family and we should be supporting the local efforts vigorously." By Jeff McMullen
* SNAICC NEWS: KEEPING THEM HOME - ELDER REV DR DJINIYINI GONDARRA, CALLS FOR THIS TREND TO BE REVERSED
- News
SNAICC News: Keeping Them Home - Elder Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, calls for this trend to be reversed
http://www.snaicc.org.au/news-events/fx-view-article.cfm?loadref=32&id=1083
23 May 13: "The most recent data shows that the number of children being moved into out-of-home care in the Northern Territory has just about doubled since 2007. Two-thirds of these children are being placed with non-Indigenous families away from their communities. Elder Rev Dr Djiniyini Gondarra, as spokesperson for Yolngu Makarr Dhuni calls for this trend to be reversed by increasing family support services in communities. He has written to the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory, Adam Giles, asking him for his support."
* PETER ROBSON, GREEN LEFT: NT GOVERNMENT RISKS NEW STOLEN GENERATION
- News
Green Left: NT government risks new stolen generation
http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/54144
25 May 13: "Australia’s first Aboriginal parliamentary leader, Adam Giles, announced on May 13 that his government would increase the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families. Concerns that a new stolen generation could be created were putting children at risk, he said. ... Since 2007, the number of Aboriginal children removed from their families in the NT has almost doubled and two-thirds of those removed are placed with non-Aboriginal families. This reality has led Aboriginal elders to condemn Giles’ statements and call for more support for Aboriginal families." By Peter Robson
* ABC INDIGENOUS: CHIEF MAGISTRATE SAYS NT'S CHILD PROTECTION DEPARTMENT IS FAILING
- News
ABC Indigenous: Chief magistrate says NT's child protection department is failing
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-25/chief-magistrate-critical-of-nts-c...
25 May 13: "The Northern Territory's chief magistrate says the child protection department is failing to categorise Aboriginal children at risk because of a lack of services. Hilary Hannam says the NT's Office of Children and Families will "only very rarely conclude there are risks" to a child or that they need protection, especially when they are from an Aboriginal community. She said the "department's reluctance to become involved is unclear" and there may be "subtle pressure" on child protection workers "to conclude that a child is not in need of protection where services are not available"." By Phoebe Stewart
Australian: Northern Territory agency battles with child-neglect cases
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/departme...
22 May 13: "CASES of child neglect are falling through the cracks as the Northern Territory's under-resourced child protection agency bounces between crises. Sometimes the agency is doing more harm than good, its incoming head has warned." Amos Aikman, Northern correspondent
* NORTHERN TERRITORY (NT) FORCED ABORIGINAL ADOPTION MEDIA COVERAGE
- Compilations
Respect and Listen: Keeping Them Home: Media Coverage
[scroll down page] http://www.respectandlisten.org/
WGAR News: Keeping them Home - What have we learnt from Bringing them Home?: ACM Sydney (23 May 13)
http://indymedia.org.au/2013/05/22/wgar-news-keeping-them-home-what-have...
WGAR News: Indigenous adoption push prompts Stolen Generation fears: ABC Radio Australia Video (18 May 13)
http://indymedia.org.au/2013/05/17/wgar-news-indigenous-adoption-push-pr...
- Audio
The World Today: NT Govt to strengthen long term child protection orders
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2013/s3764812.htm
22 May 13: "The Northern Territory's Child Protection Minister says her Government is redrafting laws to increase stability for vulnerable children in long-term foster care. Last week the Northern Territory's Chief Minister Adam Giles suggested it was time to increase permanent adoptions for children in long-term foster care. He said successive governments had failed to protect Aboriginal children by not removing them from abusive and neglectful situation, for fear of creating another Stolen Generation. But the Child Protection Minister says forced adoptions is not on the table."
- News
ABC Indigenous: Care options call to protect Aboriginal children
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-23/care-options-for-aboriginal-childr...
23 May 13: "A child psychiatrist from the Menzies School of Health Research says alternative long-term care options are necessary to protect vulnerable Aboriginal children. The Northern Territory Government has flagged allowing the adoption of Indigenous children who are subject to long-term neglect or abuse. Dr Sarah Mares of the Menzies School of Health Research delivered a talk in Alice Sporings yesterday on the damage trauma does to children's development. She says all children need stable and loving homes to reach their full potential."
newsTracker: Elder slams NT forced adoption plan
http://tracker.org.au/2013/05/9207/
21 May 13: "NATIONAL: An Indigenous elder is pleading with Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles to scrap plans to address Aboriginal child neglect via forced adoptions. Mr Giles has warned that Aboriginal children are being left with neglectful parents for fear of creating another stolen generation. ... But in a letter obtained by AAP, elder Djiniyini Gondarra, who represents 8000 Yolngu people of east Arnhem Land, urges Mr Giles to have a rethink. "We vehemently oppose your proposed policy to take away our children and give them up for adoption," Dr Gondarra writes."
* BACKGROUND TO THE STOLEN GENERATIONS AND THE BRINGING THEM HOME REPORT
- Compilation
Respect and Listen: Keeping Them Home: Background Information
[scroll down page] http://www.respectandlisten.org/
- Analysis / Opinion
lara (author-blogger): Some things never change: more Stolen Generations
http://larahentz.wordpress.com/2013/05/23/some-things-never-change-more-...
23 May 13: "As a Native American who has experienced upheaval and survived my own closed adoption, the devastating loss of my culture and my language cannot be overstated as a loss to me, to my family and to other adoptees I know who endured it. This media release struck me that some things never change, either in the US or in Australia. If we do not teach this history, we are doomed to repeat it - over and over. Poverty is the worst form of violence and the Third World and Indian Country is still suffering the effects, generation after generation… Trace/Lara"
Stolen Generations: The invention of the Stolen Generations
http://www.stolengenerations.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=arti...
"IN 1997, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission made the most notorious accusation ever directed by a government body against Australia. It accused this country of committing genocide against the Aborigines by stealing their children. According to the commission’s report, Bringing Them Home, state officials ripped from the arms of loving parents several generations of Aboriginal children in order to raise them in institutions or with white families."
Brisbane Blacks Monthly: The New Stolen Generations
http://brisbaneblacksmonthly.weebly.com/the-new-stolen-generations.html
October 2012: "Tens of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children were forcibly removed from their families between 1869 and the 1970s, with the 1997 Bringing Them Home report estimating that "between one in three and one in ten" were stolen and made wards of the state. In 2008, then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a formal apology to the Stolen Generations "for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss" on the nation’s Indigenous people." By Callum Clayton-Dixon, Anaywan Nation
* BACKGROUND TO CHILD PROTECTION AND OUT-OF-HOME CARE
- Consultation
Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA):
National Standards for Out of Home Care - Consultation Paper
http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/pub...
- Research
Information concerning Australia and the Convention on the Rights of the Child
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/information-concerning-australia-and-conve...
NTCOSS Submission to the Inquiry into the Child Protection System in the Northern Territory 2010
http://www.ntcoss.org.au/sites/www.ntcoss.org.au/files/Child%20Protectio...
Adoption and Forgotten Australians
http://guides.slv.vic.gov.au/content.php?pid=55757&sid=498466
'Getting the big picture': A synopsis and critique of Australian out-of-home care research - Leah Bromfield and Alexandra Osborn
http://www.aifs.gov.au/nch/pubs/issues/issues26/issues26.html
The mental health care needs of children in out-of-home care: A report from the expert working committee of the Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
http://www.ranzcp.org/Files/ranzcp-attachments/Resources/FCAP_paper_on_O...
Experiencing Out-of-Home Care in Australia: The Views of Children and Young People - By Dr Joseph J. McDowall
http://www.nwhn.net.au/admin/file/content101/c6/CREATE_ReportCard2013%28...
Do Not Damage and Disturb: On Child Protection Failures and the Pressure on Out of Home Care in Australia - Jeremy Sammut
http://www.cis.org.au/images/stories/policy-monographs/pm-122.pdf
CIS Policy Monograph 122 - 2011: The Centre for Independent Studies
Australian Homelessness Clearinghouse:
Permanency planning and adoption of children in out-of-home care.
http://homelessnessclearinghouse.govspace.gov.au/about-homelessness/agre...
Aboriginal Child Abuse the Royal Commission Cannot Avoid - Tony Thomas
http://www.quadrant.org.au/magazine/issue/2013/5/aboriginal-child-abuse-...
- Background
SAF,T: Our Kids, Our Way program
http://www.saft.org.au/carers
Child protection and wellbeing
http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/related-issues/family-violence/publi...
Child protection and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children
http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/factsheets/a142117/
The Inquiry into the Child Protection System in the Northern Territory:
http://www.childprotectioninquiry.nt.gov.au/
Australian Bureau of Statistics:
Child protection
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.NSF/bb8db737e2af84b8ca2571780015701e/1E0502ECA1BA306DCA2574390014CF1C
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW):
Child protection
http://www.aihw.gov.au/child-protection/
http://www.aihw.gov.au/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=60129542752
Child protection and youth justice services
http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/122864/21-2013-compendi...
Protection and support services
http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/114969/53-government-se...
Reporting abuse and neglect: State and territory departments responsible for protecting children
http://www.aifs.gov.au/cfca/pubs/factsheets/a142843/index.html
Their needs: appropriate service models for vulnerable children, young people and families
http://www.cfecfw.asn.au/sites/www.cfecfw.asn.au/files/PVVC_Issues_Paper...
* BEYOND NUCLEAR INITIATIVE: SIX YEARS AND STILL STANDING STRONG: NT TRADE UNIONS JOIN TRADITIONAL OWNERS TO PROTEST MUCKATY RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP
- News
Beyond Nuclear Initiative: Six years and still standing strong: NT trade unions join Traditional Owners to protest Muckaty radioactive waste dump
http://beyondnuclearinitiative.com/2013/05/25/six-years-and-still-standi...
25 May 13: "NT Union members will join Traditional Owners and supporters from across the Territory in Tennant Creek this weekend for a rally against the proposed national radioactive waste dump at Muckaty in the Northern Territory. The rally and concert will mark exactly six years since the Northern Land Council voted to nominate the site. In May 2012 the Australian Council of Trades Unions National Congress unanimously voted to support the Muckaty campaign. Bryan Wilkins, NT Organiser for the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said, "NT Unions are standing in solidarity with Traditional Owners and communities ... ""
* BACKGROUND TO THE PROPOSED MUCKATY NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP:
Last updated: 11 May 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/04/22/background-to-the-proposed-muckaty-nu...
* ABC INDIGENOUS: NT INDIGENOUS DEATHS IN CUSTODY WORST IN NATION
- Video
ABC Indigenous: NT Indigenous deaths in custody worst in nation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-24/nt-indigenous-deaths-in-custody-wo...
24 May 13: "Source: 7pm TV News NT"
* BACKGROUND TO JUSTICE REINVESTMENT, ABORIGINAL IMPRISONMENT AND DEATHS IN CUSTODY:
Last updated: 15 May 2013
http://indymedia.org.au/2012/12/17/background-to-aboriginal-imprisonment...
* CAAMA: NAAJA CEO PRISCILLA COLLINS ON THE ALCOHOL PROTECTION ORDER SCHEME
- Audio Interview
Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association: NAAJA CEO Priscilla Collins on The Alcohol Protection Order Scheme
http://caama.com.au/ceo-of-naaja-priscilla-collins-talks-about-the-alcoh...
14 May 13: "The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) CEO Priscilla Collins talks to Lorena Walker about the APO and the supply of Alcohol."
* APO NT: ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS
- Analysis / Opinion
Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory (APO NT): Alcohol and Other Drugs
http://apont.org.au/index.php/alcohol-and-other-drugs.html
"The Northern Territory has the second highest alcohol consumption in the world. Misuse of alcohol has devastating health and social consequences for NT Aboriginal communities. APO NT believes that addressing alcohol and drug misuse, along with the many health and social consequences of this misuse, can only be achieved through a multi-tiered approach.
APO NT supports evidence based alcohol policy reform, including:
* Supply reduction measures
* Harm reduction measures, and
* Demand reduction measures
To address alcohol and drug misuse within Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, social and structural determinants of mental health must be addressed."
APO NT Membership
http://apont.org.au/index.php/membership.html
"Aboriginal Peak Organisations Northern Territory (APO NT) is an alliance comprising the Central Land Council (CLC), Northern Land Council (NLC), North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA), Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS) and the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance of the NT (AMSANT). The alliance was created to provide a more effective response to key issues of joint interest and concern affecting Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory, including through advocating practical policy solutions to government."
* ABC: NEW ALCOHOL POWERS FOR POLICE
- Video
ABC: New alcohol powers for police
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-10/new-alcohol-powers-for-police/4683052
10 May 13: "The Deputy Chief Minister David Tollner outlines new alcohol protection orders to ban some alleged criminals from drinking."
* ABC: GROG CULTURE DEFENDED AS 'CORE SOCIAL VALUE'
- News
ABC: Grog culture defended as 'core social value'
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-23/giles-defends-nt-drinking-culture-...
24 May 13: "Chief Minister Adam Giles has defended the Northern Territory's drinking culture as a "core social value". Speaking at an Australian Hotels Association (AHA) annual awards dinner in Darwin last night, Mr Giles said the tradition of "having a coldie" in a pub should be "enshrined" as part of Territory life. "This is our lifestyle, this is the way we live," he said. Mr Giles said the Government would do its best to support the liquor industry." By Kristy O'Brien
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