Previous Post Gets Worse
I’m addicted to the news. I know this. But I really wish I wasn’t. I had this nice little post I was going to write just before bed. Short and sweet. It was entitled, “Off the Market” and all it said was, “Go see Lars and the Real Girl.”
Unfortunately, I chose to read the Age. Now it’s 1:53 in the morning and I have to write a post that’s going to get me all agitated right before bed.
The child described in my previous post was also group raped at seven. Really, the whole situation is just appalling and you can read about it here because I just can’t detail it all.
No one denies there’s a problem with child abuse in some Aboriginal communities. The Little Children Are Sacred report clearly identified this, but there’s a myriad of politics caught up in it, as well.
And part of what is upsetting is the tone taken in the unsigned AAP piece to which I’ve linked above:
The child - who cannot be named - was gang-raped at the age of seven in Aurukun on Cape York in 2002, and was later put into foster care with a non-indigenous family in Cairns.
However, child safety officers in April 2006 returned her to Aurukun, where she was raped again at the age of 10.
…
The girl is now in the care of the Child Safety Department away from Aurukun.
The juxtaposition of the girl’s safety with the non-indigenous (presumably white) family before being thrown back to the dogs, so to speak, is just not the proper way to address a story with this much emotional and political content. The subtext of this article just screams ‘Intervention in Queensland.’
Most disturbingly, it seems to suggest that separating Aboriginal children from their families and communities is the only way to ’save’ them. I don’t think ‘been there, done that‘ is a strong enough sentiment.
This is a highly emotional issue - and rightly so. Such a situation requires incredibly careful, nuanced reporting. This is a hard news piece; it’s not really the place for detailed analysis. And this is a breaking story. But missing here is any voice from the community, any sense that these are acts committed by and inflicted on real people. They just seem to be things spoken about.
I don’t think I can say that’s equally disturbing, but it’s definitely part of the problem. And, more importantly, part of the reason why the problem exists in the first place.
These early pieces are going to set the tone for what looks to be a national debate about expansion of the Intervention. I just hope a traumatized young girl isn’t going to become the latest cudgel with which to beat indigenous Australians.
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