Readers, I’m sorry to say, there was no link or I accidently swiped it out. It was submitted by John in Au:
Regards, JoAn

Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal Men’s Violence Against Women and Children

Louis Nowra offers a voice to the victims of violence.
Queensland’s indigenous children are up to 45 times more likely than non-indigenous children to be admitted to hospital as assault victims.

Louis Nowra begins his compelling essay Bad Dreaming by describing a conversation he had with an Aboriginal man during a stay at the Alice Springs Hospital, a place notorious for assaults on staff.

The Aboriginal man proudly tells Nowra that he had to rape a 13-year-old girl because she wouldn’t say yes. Nowra goes on to recount how some years earlier he struck up a conversation with two Aboriginal men in their 70s who were off to town to buy a toy dinosaur for a 12-year-old girl who had sex with them simultaneously.

What amazes Nowra in both these cases is the men’s lack of embarrassment or shame. In the next 90 pages Nowra explores the history of male Aboriginal violence against women and children from the early days of white settlement through to the present. Drawing on official statistics, court records and media reports, he paints a grim, deeply disturbing picture.

Many of the crimes he details are unspeakably violent: babies raped and drowned; a woman bashed, bound and left to die on an ant nest; another doused with petrol and set alight. The list goes on. The problem he sees are the men and a legal system that has twisted itself in knots to understand the unthinkable and the unimaginable.

Nowra, however, is a sympathetic and knowledgeable observer of indigenous culture. As a playwright and author, he has worked with Aboriginal actors, lived in and visited indigenous communities over many years. He writes lucidly and candidly about his experiences with domestic violence in his family and the housing estate where he grew up.

For those who have followed the issue – it is more a national crisis – Nowra’s essay is a profound contribution to the debate. While there may not be much new factual material, having it all drawn together in such a sustained, well-crafted, well-argued way makes for powerful reading.

Nowra’s account is a print version of the landmark interview Alice Springs crown prosecutor Nanette Rogers gave to Lateline in 2006. As such it may be a more lasting document.

There are those who have argued, and continue to argue, that Aboriginal violence is no different to domestic violence found in mainstream society and that to draw attention to indigenous crimes against women and children is just another form of racism. Nowra rejects this, noting that in Queensland alone indigenous children are up to 45 times more likely than non-indigenous children to be admitted to hospital having been assaulted. “For many Aboriginal children, the only future is an endless repetition of the horrors they have already experienced,” he notes.

Part of the reason Nowra gives for penning his unrelenting commentary is a respect and concern for Aboriginal people and a determination to keep the epidemic of violence on the policy screens of decision makers, law makers, indigenous leaders and countless publicly funded pressure groups. Nowra worries that coverage of Aboriginal violence in the mainstream media is sporadic, that it comes in waves with shocking revelations one day and nothing the next. He has a point. Some publications, such as The National Indigenous Times, have largely ducked the issue or even shot the messenger.

The publicity given to indigenous violence sits at odds with the sustained media attention devoted to the stolen generation and Aboriginal deaths in custody. Nowra quotes National Indigenous Council chairwoman Sue Gordon, accusing government agencies of taking a softly-softly approach to child abuse because they are “frightened of creating another stolen generation”.

Audrey Bolger, notes Nowra, wrote in her neglected report Aboriginal Women and Violence that the number of murdered Aboriginal women exceeds those of indigenous men who died in custody.

I also suspect that part of the reluctance lies in what Noel Pearson describes as the great divide in the Aboriginal community between those who argue for rights and those who call for greater responsibilities. So much of the indigenous struggle has involved fighting for rights – legal rights, land rights, human rights, rights to royalties – that to acknowledge male violence may subvert the notion of entitlement for past wrongs.

The situation would be helped if, as former ATSIC chief Mick Gooda tells Nowra, more Aboriginal men stood up and said violence is not a part of “our culture”.

If this essay has a weakness it is Nowra’s need to convince his audience of the problem rather than exploring solutions. Take the perfectly reasonable option, floated by Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough and endorsed by Nowra, of physically removing men accused of violent crimes from communities.

The resources required to do this are probably way beyond the budget of the Federal and Northern Territory governments, which still treat indigenous affairs as part-time portfolios. Where would these men go? Under what laws would they be held when they have been convicted of no crime? How would the victims who remain in the communities be protected against payback from furious relatives?

There are few simple answers. Alice Springs’ jail is already overflowing. What is needed, as Nowra suggests, is a total-solution approach: tougher laws, education, zero tolerance, improved rehabilitation (the present situation is a revolving door) and the removal of children from lethal environments. The importance of this essay is that it will remind decision makers of the horror and keep them looking for answers.