congress staff newsletter - caac.org.au · 20150714_staff newsletter special edition_alice springs...

20150714_Staff Newsletter Special Edition_Alice Springs NAIDOC Celebrations

Congress Staff Newsletter 2015 July Special Edition: Alice Springs NAIDOC Celebrations

Alice Springs NAIDOC Celebrations

Above: Community members and local agencies participating in the NAIDOC march.

Last week, Australians celebrated National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week, which is held each year from the first to second Sunday in July; a tradition stemming back to 1938, celebrating the time that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were first observed. The theme for this year's NAIDOC week - We all Stand on Sacred Ground: Learn, Respect and Celebrate - was chosen to pay respects to country; honour those who work tirelessly on preserving land, sea and culture and to share the stories of many sites of significance or sacred places with the nation. In recognition of a theme celebrating culture and capacity, Chairman of the Congress Board of Directors, William Tilmouth, accompanied on stage by four of his grandchildren at the NAIDOC Community Day, called for greater acknowledgment of the important role of our older generations, and men in particular, in the development of the young and next generations, in the following speech: Good morning, my name is William Tilmouth and I hope you all recognise me because it looks like the Australian constitution certainly won’t! I would like to begin by acknowledging the Arrente traditional owners on whose land we are meeting and their native title body corporate Lhere Artpe Aboriginal Corporation.


I would also like to thank the organisers for inviting me to speak to you here today. NAIDOC began its life as an “observance committee” and we began to wonder what we were observing. From the time we saw the sand being poured into the hands of that old man. We observed our rights being constantly whittled away. Our rights to veto over our land, our rights to self-determination, our rights to choose where we want to live, our rights controlling our own income where and how we spend it. Now all we have left is the right to remain silent. Then it became a day of Celebration but what are we really celebrating? More of the same with more to come I suspect. For me it is a day of reflection where we have a chance to come together as a community and take stock of where we have come from, where we are going to and how we can all work together to build a better common future for our people. In this regard I want to focus on two key issues that are critical to culture and capacity and they are the healthy development of our children and the key role that men have to play in this. There is a relationship between this year’s important themes of culture and capacity in that unless we are able to ensure that more of our children are well cared for and protected from violence and alcohol in pregnancy and in their early years they will not have the capacity to either get an education, a job, and a stable family nor will they have the capacity to learn the rich, complexity of our own culture. Capacity and Culture come together in the early years. As we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Uluru hand back, which is a great symbol of the richness of our culture and the great stories that our people tell about who we are, where we have come from and how we should behave we need to take stock and reflect on the sad reality that many of our children have been too traumatised and disadvantaged to have the capacity to properly learn about all of this. The sad reality is that the problems our kids are facing are clearly there in the key data. There is a test that is done on all children in Australia over 3 days in their first year of school and this looks at their development in 5 key areas. This tests shows that more than half the Aboriginal children in our region by the Age of 5 have suffered such disadvantage that they do not have the normal capacity to learn and do well in school. It is also the case that our kids here in the NT suffer the highest rate of substantiated neglect and abuse in the country and they are having to be placed in out of home care in large numbers. This is a tragic situation that we all need to be aware of and help to do something about. Too many children are still being exposed to too much alcohol related violence in their homes. Every time our kids see their parents or other close family drunk and fighting in front of them it is doing them damage. We have to work out how to better care for our kids. If some of our kids need to be removed we have to make sure we as a community have the capacity through strong Aboriginal families to care for these kids through kinship care or through foster care within Aboriginal families. I think this is the biggest challenge to the strength and maintenance of our culture. We must invest more in the development of our children. There are many things that need to be done if this is to occur and we need to work in partnership with governments. We cannot do it on our own but equally governments cannot address these issues without us.


We need to be in control of the programs, services and policies that need to be put in place to address the crisis that is now occurring in the early development of many of our young children. I am currently the Chairperson of two organisations that are focused on this issue. Firstly, Congress has implemented a program called the Australian Nurse Family Partnership Program. This home visiting program works with mums and as soon as they are pregnant and keeps on working with the same family until the child is 2. As these are the really vital early years of development. Another key thing that Congress has been doing is implementing an intervention aimed at promoting better brain development in our childcare centre. Our childcare centre has a large number of children attending who have been removed from their parents and are in out of home care. These kids have been traumatised and as a result their development is not what it could have been. We have recently found that with a 15 minute intervention every day for only 8 weeks in children 2 to 4 we can improve their language capability by 7 months. This is really encouraging as it shows that even the most disadvantaged kids still have the capacity to develop and with the right stimulation they can improve a lot. Another key program is pre-school readiness program and this has been really successful in getting many more of our kids here in town enrolled and attending pre-school. Pre-school is not compulsory but it is vital, especially for the more disadvantaged children attend pre-school and don’t just turn up to school at the age of 6 and expect everything will be OK. Congress also has Family Support programs, a children’s outreach program, and services for parents with mental illnesses including addictions. The other organisation that I am the chairperson of is one called Children’s Ground which is based in the town of Jabiru in the West Arnhem region of the Top End. This organisation is working across all generations in a number of different ways to increase the capacity of the whole community to be able to care for and raise their children. I am really convinced that early childhood and caring for our kids well is the key to both ensuring we have enough developmental capacity to be able to develop the capability to learn and pass on our rich culture while at the same time also being able to lead the sort of lives that we all want for our children. This means getting an education and stable employment ensuring quality of life and social cohesion. We actively try to shape and influence public policy to address some of the more difficult community and social issues impacting on the development of our children. This includes alcohol and other drugs and the education, training and employment of our young people who will be the next generation of parents. The final message I want to give is one that is very dear to my heart and that is the key role that Aboriginal men have to play if things are going to improve for our children and their mothers. First some data that our men need to come to terms with which was first presented by the former NT Children’s Commissioner, Howard Bath:

Aboriginal women in the Northern Territory make up only 0.3% of all Australian women, but they account for 14% of the hospitalisations for assault nationally.

Aboriginal women in the NT are 80 times more likely to be hospitalised as a result of assault than non-Aboriginal women (AIHW, National Hospital Morbidity Database, 2011/12).

The substantiation rate for child abuse and neglect for Aboriginal children in the NT is 7 times higher than the rate for all Australian children.

We are all familiar with the history of the disempowerment of Aboriginal people especially Aboriginal men.


We as a people have suffered and are still subject to the scrutiny and surveillance and public debate about our lives. An angry Aboriginal man was far more threatening and as a result men were dealt with often very harshly. We all realise that our jails are full and overcrowded made up mainly of Aboriginal men Sadly for many of our Aboriginal men the much sought out “Territory life style” is behind bars. There is nothing tough about being powerless in a prison cell. When in reality you are just feed for a system that is quickly becoming an industry. Men must own up to their agency in this problem. It is the men who can stop the abuse of our women, our children and our families more than anyone else. It is the men that can stop the domestic violence the rapes and sexual abuse of our children, our women and families. It is the men and their attitudes towards women, children and families that must change. It is the men not everyone else that has to change. Our women need support from our men and not fear the violence if they are going to be able to care properly for our children. I say to men, stop and think before you act. Do not mistake your love for your family, children and wives as an excuse or a reason for having power over them just because you are the man of the house. Because every second, every minute , every hour, every day, every year our men spend in jail it is time from their lives they will never get back. Don’t donate your life or your time to the prison system and go to jail for 30 years for some terrible act of violence. Think about what you are doing and how you conduct yourself. The healthy development of our children and the health and well-being of our families, our sisters, our mothers, and grandmothers depends on what men choose to do. Responsible men and women combined can make a safer environment and safer future for our communities. Let’s say goodbye to the days when men were men and women and families were frightened. Thank you.


Above: Chairman of Congress Board of Directors, William Tilmouth with his grandchildren during his speech at the Alice Springs

NAIDOC Community Day held on the lawns of Snow Kenner Park on Friday 10 July.

An estimated 300 people participated in the march through the town's Todd Mall to Snow Kenna Park, where the Community Day was held on the banks of the river to continue the celebration. The Community Day included a display of service information provided by local agencies including Congress’ Regional Eye Health Program, Healthy Lifestyle Tobacco Cessation Program and headspace programs, as well as Australian Electoral Commission (AES), Aboriginal Interpreter Service (AIS), Health Network Northern Territory, Lutheran Community Care, Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (CAALAS/CAAFLU), ABC, Mission Australia, Tangentyere Artist, Institute for Aboriginal Development (IAD) and Indigenous Business Australia (IBA). The event was facilitated by volunteer MCs, Robyn Liddle (IAD) and Congress’ own Jonah Woods, and included a live broadcast from CAAMA radio, bringing the Alice Springs NAIDOC event to people across the country. Entertainment was provided by local Aboriginal musicians, acoustic performer Rita Tomlins and RnB/rap duo, Karnage and Darknis, with Australian Electoral Commission and Youth Parliament representative, Anthony LewFat, also speaking to reinforce important key messages for the day. As part of the day, Alice Springs NAIDOC Committee co-chairs, Sheralee Fitz and Chansey Paech, announced the recipients of the Alice Springs NAIDOC Awards. These were:

Jonathan Hermawan (Male over 25) Kate Axten (Female over 25) Youth Male: Ronald Tilmouth (Male under 25) Youth Female: Crystal Butcher (Female under 25)

The awards recognise the outstanding contributions of local Indigenous Australians in improving the lives of Indigenous people in their communities, and beyond, and who promote Indigenous issues in the wider community. An afternoon tea was also held at the Congress Clinic at the beginning of the week, to kick-start the festivities, and provided an opportunity for clients to engage with various Congress programs and services, promoting health


equality as being fundamental to the advancement of Aboriginal people. Congratulations to all staff involved in this event especially Marah Prior who was the Congress representative on the local NAIDOC Organising Committee and Emily MacKenzie for her logistical support behind the scenes to make Congress’ contribution a success!


Above from left to right, top to bottom:

General Manager Health Services Division, Tracey Brand and Training Coordinator, Tina Foster with ‘Cuz’ Congress.

Healthy Lifestyle and Tobacco Cessation Program's Lekisha Lord taking part in an interview with CAAMA's Gerry Lyons.

Congress Regional Eye Health Program Coordinator, Heather Wilson speaks on CAAMA radio.

Executive Assistant Marah Prior and headspace's Farley Fraser with NAIDOC Committee co-chairs Chansey Paech and Sheralee Fitz.

AHPs and headspace staff with General Manager Health Services Division, Tracey Brand and original ‘CAAC’ flag.

Lekisha Lord and Tina Foster in the march with ‘Cuz’ Congress.

Community members participating in the Congress march in the mall.

Congress Chairman of Board of Directors with General Manager Health Services Division Tracey Brand.

Ingkintja's Patrick Ah Kit and Safe and Sober Support Service's Ryan Mallard with original ‘CAAC’ flag.

Central Australian Aboriginal Congress

Imparja Building, 14 Leichhardt Tce

Alice Springs, NT 0870

congress staff newsletter - caac.org.au · 20150714_staff newsletter special edition_alice springs...

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