I know I’ve been quiet for a long time, but this latest outrage by the Howard Government really blew my socks off – so much so that I am taking time out from my hectic schedule currently (apologies to all my readers, things will get back on track very very soon!).
This plan to basically place the Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory under Martial Law is not just draconian – it is downright Fascistic! There are no ifs or buts here! There is no “complex situation that needs complex solutions”. If you believe this spin, then you are just like the bastards in Nazi Germany who went along with Hitler’s policies. Echoes of “I’m just doing my job” is filtering through already; and so-called ‘bleeding heart’ right-wingers who are outraged at the levels of child abuse in Aboriginal communities should maybe step out of their comfortable suburban homes on the Australian coastlines and take themselves to these places and see for themselves and talk to these people and ask them what they need!
Now, I ask you: what possible use could MANDATORY vaginal and anal examinations of ALL Aboriginal children going to do other than traumatise them?! Hello!?!? Doctor? THAT’S CALLED RAPE YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!!
I won’t rant about the complete closed-shop intimidation tactics of the AMA – we all know how they rally around their own when they have committed barbarous acts of atrocity… maybe for another Blog.
And clearly, if we are concerned about the wellbeing of children in this country – why don’t we do these invasive examinations on ALL children in this country (Black or white or yellow or red). Why don’t we have doctors going around to Day-Care centres in Toorak and probing their private parts for evidence of penetration – 1 in 3 children in Australia are victims of abuse! I’m surprised Andrew Bolt and his ilk aren’t condemning the bleeding-heart Government for giving Aborigines “special treatment”!
Now that I have vented my Spleen I would like to offer a possible solution to the ‘abuse crisis’ in Aboriginal communities. And its a darn side more positive than the current idea.
I strongly recommend everyone get a hold of a documentary called Birth Rites. It shows how an Inuit community in far north Canada took control of their own maternity services. The result was that women began having respectful, natural births with trained professional Midwives (from the same community), and these births also allowed for traditional birthing customs and wisdom to be part of the pregnancy/labor/birth process. An unexpected result was that the other problems that the community faced – alcoholism, drug abuse, spousal and child abuse, depression, suicide, violence, etc – began to drop significantly! This was no coincidence. This indigenous community (facing the same trouble indigenous communities face the world over) empowered themselves, and began to take control of their lives and their destinies once again.
The doco then moves to the Australian outback, where Aboriginal women are forced to travel alone halfway across the country just to give birth. They don’t know anyone in these places, no midwives, doctors, family etc. They are in ‘foreign country’ (according to Aboriginal customs) and have no real compassionate support from the medical system. As soon as they give birth, they are packed back onto the bus to take them back to their communities (so having just given birth with no family, friends, familiar faces around, just obstetricians in green masks, they then take their newborns and ride on a bus for up to 12 hours to get back home). The women (and the men) are not happy about this situation, but they shrug their shoulders and resign themselves to their fate, because that is what ‘the system’ tells them has to happen.
Clearly from the example of this particular Inuit community, it does not have to happen this way. Maybe the federal government would like to do something positive and empowering, instead of taking rights away from these people?! Maybe these people should be given the opportunity to begin the lives of their future generations a good start by allowing natural, traditional births to occur according to local customs with none of the intervention by middle-class white medical do-gooders! Maybe by empowering this process, the people will then feel empowered and responsible enough to take care of the other matters.
And hey – perhaps this is a lesson for all communities! If we start taking responsibility for our own health and wellbeing, then perhaps we will take responisibility for other matters in our ‘democratic’ society?!
I strongly urge folk to see Birth Rites! It is nothing but inspiring. I’m getting some more info on this, and I’ll post it as soon as I get it.
