![]() Employment and education outcomes and opportunities are critical to addressing suicide. This makes it hard for children to obtain an education and for people to find jobs to work their way out of poverty. This wealth inequality is causing food insecurity and lack of access to basic necessities. ![]() Racism and racial abuse impacts Aboriginal people in a traumatic way and can lead to children and youth ending their lives.Īboriginal people, as a result of the past, experience intergenerational poverty and may be struggling with housing and homelessness. That is, laws and systems that don’t take into account and impact more harshly Aboriginal people’s lives. It can also take the form of structural inequality and systemic discrimination. Racism and discrimination can be direct, overt, or it can happen when people don’t even realise that their negative attitudes and assumptions are based on racial stereotypes and prejudice. While overtly racist laws may no longer exist, racism remains a real problem in Australia today. Children of mixed race were the property of the Native Protector and deemed a threat to the nation. Aboriginal people were segregated and forced to live on missions and reserves. ![]() We haven’t made real commitment to healing from the past, and Aboriginal people, including our children, are still paying the price of a genocidal past.Īboriginal people were subjected to a myriad of laws such as the Native Welfare Act 1905 in Western Australia that legitimated racism and racial discrimination on a daily basis. Evidence about the ongoing impacts of the Stolen Generations history is now known, as the children of the survivors are more likely to have health problems, be incarcerated and have their own children removed. We must accept the reality of Intergenerational trauma, which is pain from trauma left unhealed that can unknowingly be passed down from generations. Indigenous people are not able to recover properly from a genocidal past where there are no proper processes in place to make amends. This history, along with colonial violence, has left deep psychological scars that still exist today for the survivors and their families. There was no Treaty or reparations process for what took place, which was cultural genocide according to the Human Rights Commission in the inquiry ‘Bringing Them Home ’, which examined the forcible removal of Aboriginal children and separation from their families. We need a Truth Telling process and Makaratta as called for at Uluru, so there is accountability and justice for what has happened in the past. Aboriginal people experienced massacres, forcible removal into missions and reserves which were run harshly – not unlike concentration camps, and were denied the right to equality and citizenship until as late as the 1960’s. History and the impact of colonial dispossession of Aboriginal people from their lands, and the violence inflicted on people for resisting, is still relevant today. With that in mind, here are eight issues behind Aboriginal youth suicide that must be addressed. The Coroner was right to advocate for self determination, because denial of Aboriginal people’s human rights lies at the heart of what is taking place. Earlier this year in the Kimberley of Western Australia, the Coroner inquired into the deaths of 13 Aboriginal children, calling for implementation of the fundamental human rights principle of self-determination into government policies and practices. It’s hard to understand what can be driving children and youth to end their lives.Īlready this year, more than 50 Indigenous people across the country have taken their lives- with youth and children comprising more than half of those deaths. This sensitive topic may overwhelm you with sadness and confusion. Our national health bodies have called for an urgent political response to the crisis, and I agree this must be addressed now by government before more lives are lost.Īcross Australia, our children and young people are taking their own lives and communities are reeling with the pain and suffering from the loss. ![]() Young Aboriginal children and youth are ending their lives before they’ve had a chance to build them. Learn more about how your gift can create changeĪs a Noongar woman, a mother, and human rights advocate I have been very shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of young lives in my community. ![]()
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