Sunday, November 15, 2009

Oops ...Forgot


Dear Prime Minister Rudd,

It is really important that you are taking responsibility to acknowledge the wrongdoings of previous governments on Monday.
But, before you apologize to the 'Forgotten Australians' there are some important details you should consider, like how one should apologize for the types of things which occurred in government 'care' and how to direct an apology so that it will be meaningful to such a wide variety of people - those who were 'in care,' as well as those ultimately and indirectly affected by their mistreatment.

First and foremost, the term 'Forgotten Australians' is an offensive and bureaucratic side-step over the real issue because they weren't forgotten, they were hidden.
The neglect and abuse they suffered will remain 'Forgotten'(read:'hidden') under bureaucratic management such as that which generated the assertion that they were 'Forgotten' which clearly has never been the case.

The survivors of that era of government and institutional 'care' were hidden away from society and their real suffering and experiences at the hands of the government is still hidden today, buried under political Freedom of Information decisions and conveniently lost paperwork that prevents criminal charges for perpetrators of corruption, abuses and neglect.
Many are still concealed in institutions of various forms today, unable to speak with you of their experiences and expectations, suffering and vilification, which is recurrent to this day as a direct result of their sheer trauma and victimization as children in government 'care.'

At the same time the state governments give with one hand via Redress Schemes, they have taken it away, with some states going as far as legislating in order to seize payments that were genuinely intended to help heal the scars from institutional ‘care’ and get these survivors back on their feet.
 
Daily, the 'Forgotten' generations’ hardships are visible in their tears, dysfunction, isolation, injuries, pain, sorrow, fearfulness, anxiety, addictions, insomnia, battles with sub-abuse and low self esteem, recidivism, their grief and loss(& that of their families), and the ongoing cycle of disadvantage that was forged by those perpetrators, engaged at all levels of government and appointed by government departments.

Victim survivors' actual experiences are talked about in hushed tones - too awful, too brutal and simply too shocking. But perhaps healing isn't possible for our society and for these victims, by saying 'sorry,' keeping the dialogue nice, and simply smoothing things over?
When these child victims yell out in pain at public protests there’s usually a mad scramble to quell the disruption of their anger and indignation while under the pollies' media spotlight.

We reason that this silencing is necessary, to maintain good, nice, public order, but it isn't.
Australia has a unique history, some of it very troubling, and these 'Forgotten Australians' typify what it means to be 'a battler,' and one of the most essential expectations of Australians is the right to assemble and to protest - to have your voice heard.
A sense of good order was ‘forgotten’ a long time ago for these child victims and an observer might speculate that good order existing only under the searing heat of the media spotlight, is an affront to this public acknowledgement of their trauma.

As a public we are uncomfortable with the painful truth that the ‘Forgotten' children share.

We silence them again and again, politically and socially - the mainstream news media, which largely dictates public opinion, unashamedly dumbs down social justice and markets social exclusion because it is commonly thought that 'fear of crime' sells advertising, amid a media climate plagued with redundancies and dwindling circulations.

As a society we are silencing them, repeatedly, and that’s ultimately for the benefit of those who were responsible by either their actions and decisions or by inaction and indecision.
Malicious and discriminatory government policies and the administration of them is ignored so that nice society can continue on pretending to be blissfully ignorant of those terrible human rights violations.
 
The 'Forgotten Australians' are a diverse lot - from elite professionals to home-makers, from teachers to detainees and psych patients, etc, etc. They are the disadvantaged, and many form part of the nation's prison musters and their over-representation of Indigenous Australians.

'Forgotten Australians' are, and have been, community and political leaders, carers, mums/dads/grandpas/grandmas/brothers/sisters; they’re social workers, nuns, priests, rehabilitation and health workers.

'Forgotten Australians' were treated as the refuse of Australian society by the government during and well after the era that spawned the social and racial intolerance embodied in the White Australia Policy.

They were often the children of low income earners, migrants, Indigenous communities; sometimes they had health problems; on the odd occasion they were kids who were not afforded a chance to make one mistake before being put into the detention system; and sometimes, if they looked the wrong way or someone influential had taken a like/dislike to them they didn't even need to commit an offence to be whisked away from family and friends and the support networks, who could have taught them life-skills better than the huge, malfunctioning machine that was the 'Department of Child Welfare.'

For them, it seems to have become an onerous task trying to get people to remember what happened, because most people, victims and society alike, just wish they could forget. However, the danger in forgetting, is that these past abuses by the government against its own citizens, may prevent us from being alert to how the government system is today dealing with young people in institutions.


 
In some states of Australia young offenders are sentenced as adults and this flies in the face of the UN Convention on the rights of the child, which our country has agreed to conform to.
In some states institutions have been allowed to deteriorate so badly, devoid of funding, that they cannot hope to rehabilitate or to even house children safely.
In some states right now, the majority of children in institutions consist of minorities.

In almost all states, we, as a society, and the automaton machinations of the government, send young teenage adult offenders(or in some states - nearly adults) to maximum security adult facilities where we condone human rights abuses to be survived as a rite of passage - often seen as an added punishment, and, if discussed, similarly, it is done in hushed tones.

We discriminate in bail laws against those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and we over-load our underfunded public legal advocacy groups so at times the accused have no choice but to 'plead it out' to avoid lengthy jail terms, instead of providing the funding to have their cases properly examined and defended.

We still transport and detain people thousands of miles away from their homes, families and communities on the theory that it will make them more law abiding.
We make them appear before courts where their language isn't spoken and where even their legal representatives and advocates cannot speak their language or understand their clients.
So how can these non-English speaking clients understand what is happening in the court proceedings that affect them? Surely this is at odds with Australia's commitment to the ICCPR and Articles 9, 10 and 14. When will the apology occur for this too?

The 'Stolen Generations' and the 'Forgotten Australians' teach the public about honour and respect, by their forthright manner and their abrupt honesty, but their confronting message seems to be regularly misconstrued. 

My message might also be too confronting for your beautifully attired advisors and your uber slick public relations entourage, but, as they informed the public, you once lived in the back of a Kombi with your family. As such, it would seem plausible you may be more socially aware than most of your comfortable executives and realize first hand the inherent systemic flaws which will still be affecting many Australian children on Monday, as you address the nation to attempt to put things right.
The significance of the government's apology is vital for healing to commence.
I commend your efforts to outlaw torture - because torture makes outlaws.
Don't listen to the critics of your proposed Human Rights Act - one does not need to even scratch the surface to discover the bureaucracy beneath their words and their lack of personal experience, when they talk about rights abuses from the outside looking in.

If you seriously wish to redress past injustices against the State’s children, and prevent such things in the future, you will need to talk to those who actually suffer, not to experts for whom hardship is some distant theory they learnt about in their under-graduate years at uni, or over their soy-latte-moccachino reading The Inquirer.

Go to places like the red hot Kimberleys and speak to the families living in un-airconditioned sea containers.
Look into the dark crevices of our society that aren't discussed over tea and biscuits among nice, polite company,
And, in those many places in our communities where crime is a means of daily sustenance & not some momentary moral aberration, or even a choice.

So in summary, if you want to alter the political and social situation that engineered the 'Forgotten Australians,' you must first speak to real people, not manufactured ones. You will need to speak with the people who voted you in to create a more equitable and moral society - to create change - and only then will these child victims not be 'forgotten,' nor their suffering be in vain, and there won't be any more generations who will be 'forgotten,' either.

Thanks a million and warmest regards,
DM.