"Our future begins with solidarity"

"Working together to ensure our children and grand children have a future" - By Sue Gordon

The key question we need to think about is where do we want to be in 20-30 years time? As a National Indigenous Council (NIC) member I am pleased that the government has recognised that developing a vision is important for our future. This is evident in the Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs' long term vision for Indigenous Australians, which says:

'Indigenous Australians, wherever they live, have the same opportunities as other Australians to make informed choices about their lives, to realise their full potential in whatever they choose to do and to take responsibility for managing their own affairs'.

But we need to work out what are our aspirations: where do we want our communities, children, grandchildren and older people to be in 20-30 years time? What do we want our communities to look like?

To work this out we need to:

• Take stock - what are the key issues that affect our people, our kids our women - and impact on the quality of their lives now?

• Develop solutions - allow people and communities to work out what the solutions are and the key priorities

• Take responsibility - to achieve these solutions

• Lobby - to get programs and services that help us achieve these solutions, that is, flexible programs, accessing mainstream services, getting better results from what is delivered.

While some progress has been made, the level of comparative Indigenous disadvantage in Australia remains great. For example, while Indigenous infant mortality has decreased in recent years it is still more than double that for all Australians and primary level literacy and numeracy rates for Indigenous children are significantly lower than for non-Indigenous children.

There are a wide range of initiatives targeting Indigenous children. For example, there is an extensive network of Aboriginal health services, some of which include innovative child and maternal health programs such as the 'Mums and Babies' program in Townsville, where there has been an increase in access to antenatal care and a reduction in pre-term births, low birth-weights, and peri-natal deaths.

Indigenous childcare services are provided in many locations, including mobile services in remote Australia and the Indigenous Education Strategic Initiatives Program provides supplementary funding to Australian pre-schools and schools to support the participation of Indigenous children.

It is important for people to recognise that to break the cycle of disadvantage it is essential that action be taken now to promote safe, healthy and learning environments for Indigenous children.

A continuing blight on our communities is violence and the extent of family violence. I personally see the effects of this violence every day in court. The extent of family violence and child abuse among Indigenous families continues to be a matter of concern.

As a NIC member I have had direct conversation with government on the effects of this violence, and how it is a key priority that needs to be addressed if we are to have safer, functioning and sustainable communities. Addressing violence is part of the priorities of the Ministerial Taskforce.

Building safer Indigenous communities is a pressing priority because of the extent of harm sustained by Indigenous people as a result of violence in a variety of forms, for example:

• Aboriginal people are 4.6 times more likely to be victims of violent crime, three quarters of those victims are women

• Aboriginal women are much more likely to be victims of family violence than non-Indigenous women and to sustain more serious injuries

• Aboriginal women living in rural and remote areas are one and a half times more likely to be a victim of domestic violence than those living in metropolitan areas and 45 times more like to be a victim of domestic violence than non-Aboriginal women.

In my view any level of family violence in the community is unacceptable and, unfortunately, the problem is particularly prevalent in Indigenous families. The disturbing statistics need to be addressed. The best solutions often come from the communities themselves and are implemented at the grassroots level.

Governments and communities together must tackle not only the end results but also the underlying issues concerning violence in Indigenous communities. We all have responsibilities in tackling this.

There are also a number of Government programs designed to support communities in acting against violence. Examples of some of them are:

• the Family Violence Partnership Program ($37.3million over four years) enables the Australian Government to pursue agreements with state/territory governments to fund family violence and child protection initiatives in Indigenous communities (two such projects have already been announced by the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Government);

• the Family Violence Prevention Legal Services (expanded in the 2004-05 Budget) assist Indigenous adults and children who are victims of family violence and sexual assault or those who are at immediate risk of such violence. These services provide specialist services, particularly for women and children, responding to local needs, providing culturally appropriate responses to family violence and heightening awareness of family violence issues in communities; and

• the Family Violence Prevention Regional Activities ($3.8 million annually) provides the opportunity for direct community involvement in developing local solutions in addressing non-legal family violence prevention needs.

As an NIC member I have personally raised the question directly with Ministers - how effective are these programs and why are there few projects actually on the ground. These are vital questions - if the programs don't work or aren't being implemented effectively - we won't meet our future vision.

But there are good news stories that show governments and communities are treating the future of our children as a priority and we need to build on these strengths. We should encourage community level initiatives that focus on giving our children and grandchildren a good start in life. We should develop initiatives that strengthen our families and communities and create better ways of working with each other.

For our children and grand children to have a better future we need to work together now and focus on achieving results. We need to keep asking ourselves - what do we want the situation to be in 20-30 years time. It is vital that communities themselves take the initiative and responsibility and capitalise on the opportunities available.

*Sue Gordon is a Magistrate at the Perth Children's Court and is the Chair of the National Indigenous Council.