Save the children, not the culture
Here is how identity politics makes activists almost blind to a human catastrophe in front of their own noses.
Many Aboriginal children are at high risk of abuse and neglect, yet a report into the lucky ones who were saved is angry that they've been removed from their Aboriginality.
The news report describes what should really be the focus of activists' concern - the many Aboriginal children who are bashed or neglected and must be saved in huge numbers:
A landmark report .... tabled to [Victoria's] parliament on Wednesday is the result of a two-year investigation into 980 Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, dubbed ‘Taskforce 1000’. It was led by the state’s commissioner for Aboriginal children and young people, Andrew Jackomos.
The report, titled Always Was, Always Will Be, Koori Children, ... found there had been a 59% increase in the number of Victorian Aboriginal children in out-of-home care between 2013 to 2015, and that the numbers have grown since...
Almost 20% of children in out-of-home care are Aboriginal, despite Aboriginal people representing less than 1% of the Victorian population...
Of the 980 Aboriginal children investigated, 88% had experienced family violence, 87% were exposed to parental substance abuse, 42% were placed away from their extended family and 86% were case managed by a non-Aboriginal agency.
It seems Aboriginal culture out bush is actually toxic to many children. But this report seems to reserve most of its indignation not for the mistreatment of these hundreds of children, but that those saved are no longer part of the culture that betrayed them.
Observe, from other parts of this same news report:
Victoria’s child protection system has comprehensively failed Aboriginal children in out-of-home care, with many of the children unaware of their cultural identity, a landmark report has found...
“Many children did not know they were Aboriginal, were split from siblings, and left for years in residential care – isolated from family, culture and country – when they might have been in the loving care of grandparents or other relatives,” Jackomos said.
“We had child protection officials tell us they had been unable to trace a child’s Aboriginal family for years when we were able to track them down on Facebook within minutes.” ...
Many of these children were placed away from communities in non-Aboriginal households, Jackomos wrote in his executive summary to the report...
Children were too often placed into a system that did not value or respect Aboriginal people and their culture and which failed to keep children safe over generations, the report found.
I am truly shocked.
It's the safety of the children which should concern us most, not the preservation of a culture that is clearly dysfunctional and has betrayed them.
Save the children, not the culture.
Oh, and please don't sue me under the Racial Discrimination Act, too often used to stifle a debate which is urgently needed.
(Thanks to reader John Jones.)