Earlier this year, I spent three weeks working in the remote NT community of Oenepelli (Kunbarrlanjya in Kunkwinkju), a place I first visited in November 2007 as part of the Federal Government’s intervention. 2009 was my third stint — the last two of which I have worked as a locum in the health clinic there.
I can’t say how the Intervention is working elsewhere, but my observations at Oenepelli suggest that it is far from the success story being promoted by Minister Macklin.
This January, I saw many more patients suffering injuries and other ill effects from alcohol abuse than I’d seen while there as a locum the previous January. It seems the restrictions on grog sales have simply driven use under ground and encouraged more harmful patterns of drinking. Prohibition never works. Some patients now tell me they are drinking bottles of vodka — presumably smuggled in — rather than the full-strength beer they can no longer buy at the local club.
The drinking restrictions may be having other unintended consequences. This year was the first year I had to go to police cells to examine young people who had crossed paths with the law after petrol sniffing. There’s also been a big spate of robberies at white homes lately that weren’t happening before when black and white people had access to alcohol. The robberies are allegedly due to people looking for alcohol.
On my first visit in 2007, doing health checks on the kids, 90 per cent of those that I saw needed dental and ENT referrals. Last I saw, they were still waiting for dental and ear treatment. As yet I can’t see any benefits from all the resources invested in the health checks — kids still have the same diseases and low access to help.
The intervention has made no health difference in this observer’s opinion; there are changed patterns of alcohol and drug use that may be worse than before. A police officer I talked to said that “things are worse” since the intervention.
One thing I’ve learned from the expensive fiasco that the intervention has become, is, that it is pointless to have people from outside communities making well-meaning decisions.
If a community seems to be in trouble, we should and can offer help. We shouldn’t go in, jack-booting and saying what we will do what they need.
There are strong and respected people in this community who have got a lot of helpful things to say. We just need to do a better job of listening to them!
Western Arnhem Land is one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. So far the intervention hasn’t extended its tentacles to removing land permits. Thus, to date, it remains an unspoiled part of this troubled world, with its own culture, language and magnificent rock art.
Ah well, back to my comfort zone work of dealing with the worried well in Melbourne, (instead of the unworried, unwell in underfunded NT).
There was a strong view when the intervention was announced, and in the days and weeks after, that the motivation had more to do with the large numbers of applications for mining and other invasive rights in the NT than any care or concern for people at risk. Why was it necessary to remove the Anti-Discrimination Act, and also remove the indigenous peoples’ rights over their land for up to 5 years if necessary?
I understand, that barely a handful of perpetrators have been even charged over the abuse of kids; that there were not the ‘huge numbers’ as claimed, and children with severe medical problems such as painful ear problems are still awaiting specialist treatment. The over-riding recommendation of the Little Children Are Sacred Report, that indigenous people have imput into problem resolution has been ignored as stated in this article. It is a disgrace, that actions of such a blatant racist kind are enacted in the NT, that would bring screams of outrage in the rest of the country – and rightly so!
I’ve yet to see the home and family members of pedophiles in the rest of the country subjected to draconian measures, in circumstances not of their making. People who’ve committed awful crimes have been punished, and their families haven’t lost their homes, land or had their incomes rationed. It’s just another instance of horrific racism – just because they can!
When this is flourishing in an atmosphere, where people have to travel hundreds of kilometres, at huge expense just to buy their essentials at the designated large retail stores, must be the most obscene waste of time and money in recent history. It begs belief, that hundreds of dollars are being spent on taxi fares, when there could be food at a better price close to their communities, and the ability to buy some essentials in bulk. I also reject the tag of being an ‘abuse supporter’ by pointing out the sad and shameful repercussions of the intervention. I’m disgusted!
“There are strong and respected people in this community who have got a lot of helpful things to say. We just need to do a better job of listening to them!”
Hear ye!
As someone living on a “prescribed area”, and long opposed to the Intervention, I derive no solace from saying “I told you so”.
What a wasteful, counter-productive and bizarre initiative the propaganda driven Intervention is turning out to be.
I can only keep repeating the words of Kim Beazley Sr.:
“In Australia, our ways have mostly produced disaster for the Aboriginal people. I suspect that only when their right to be distinctive is accepted, will policy become creative”…
Amazing!
The Little Children are Sacred Report which kicked oll of this off clearly said that external intervention would be expensive and counterproductive and made more than 100 recommendations, all positive, for improving the situation.
What I cannot understand is why, after the change of government more than a year ago, there was no change of approach.
Why no public discussion about the recommendations from this report?