Aborigines fight violence outside Australia's Parliament

[webfact]

Aborigines fight violence outside Australia's Parliament 

 

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Aboriginal traditional dancers carrying clap sticks and spears and with faces painted white with clay have traveled from remote northern Australia to Parliament House to draw attention to rampant domestic violence in Outback indigenous communities.

 

Scores of Rirratjingu people flew from Yirrkala in the Northern Territory to dance a ceremony at the front door of Parliament on Monday to urge national action against family violence in communities such as theirs.

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull linked arms with lawmakers as a sign of solidarity against domestic violence as they watched the ceremony.

 

Turnbull later moved a motion in Parliament acknowledging that violence against women was a national issue.

 

He says indigenous women are 34 times more likely to experience violence than other Australian women.

 

-- © Associated Press 2016-11-28

[thaibeachlovers]

While I sympathise with the plight of the aboriginal people, unless they are claiming men, OTHER than aboriginal men, are the cause of the abuse, I fail to understand what they expect central government to actually do to stop it. It's not like such problems are new.

Some places have banned alcohol as that seems to cause a lot of problems, but has it worked?

[coma]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

He says indigenous women are 34 times more likely to experience violence than other Australian women.

 

Who's fault is that ? The mostly white elected Australian parliament ? What do they want the parliament to do ? Make a harsher set of laws for aboriginal people only in the hope of curbing indigenous only assault rates ? That would be racist. Having a sing and a dance with the locals is about as much as one can do. Legally. Best left to the tribal elders to sort out this one. That is of course if they can be bothered or aren't too busy giving their own old cheese a beating.

[Briggsy]

1 minute ago, coma said:

 

Who's fault is that ? The mostly white elected Australian parliament ? What do they want the parliament to do ? Make a harsher set of laws for aboriginal people only in the hope of curbing indigenous only assault rates ? That would be racist. Having a sing and a dance with the locals is about as much as one can do. Legally. Best left to the tribal elders to sort out this one. That is of course if they can be bothered or aren't too busy giving their own old cheese a beating.

I suspect they would like more funding of one sort or another.

[phantomfiddler]

Never heard of someone complaining about themselves before, highly introspective !

[simple1]

My take is the Aboriginal group was capitalising on last week's White Ribbon Day highlighting the appalling level of domestic violence across Australia and calls for more funding / resourcing to address the issue. The Turnbull government recently allocated AUD 25 million for Aboriginal communities, perhaps this specific group were seeking more focused assistance.

 

Indigenous family violence services receiving $25 million in federal funding

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-10-28/malcolm-turnbull-indigenous-family-violence-funding-25-million/7975172

[jesimps]

I worked in Darwin for several years and saw at first hand how violent the aborigines became after downing a gallon of cheap wine. Call me racist but they drink to get blotto. Men and women. You either have to cut off their access to drink or somehow educate them to the dangers. Good luck with that! Whatever the govt does will be labelled racist by the lefties and so the problem will continue.

[thai3]

Aboriginal culture never got much further than the stone age, they did get as far as fire though

[SaintLouisBlues]

As a headline it's certainly evocative. "Aborigines fight violence ..."

[RED DOG]

Blame the do gooders who lifted the ban on them. And allowing them to access alcohol all those years ago

[Cats4ever]

There are excellent Aboriginal people and communities where people drink (often mid strength beer) in a club after work. I have worked with Aboriginal people who were hard working and great people. It varies a bit around the country. There are also awful communities and regrettably they are the majority. Aboriginal drunkenness is obvious because they prefer to gather in parks and the like, rather than in the backyard or the lounge. A lot of the the drunkenness is assisted by whitefellas who make a motza transporting slabs to dry community boundaries and selling it for a vast profit. The situation is not completely black and white.

[thaibeachlovers]

1 hour ago, Cats4ever said:

There are excellent Aboriginal people and communities where people drink (often mid strength beer) in a club after work. I have worked with Aboriginal people who were hard working and great people. It varies a bit around the country. There are also awful communities and regrettably they are the majority. Aboriginal drunkenness is obvious because they prefer to gather in parks and the like, rather than in the backyard or the lounge. A lot of the the drunkenness is assisted by whitefellas who make a motza transporting slabs to dry community boundaries and selling it for a vast profit. The situation is not completely black and white.

If that is the case, why are the protesters not demanding law enforcement and banning alcohol in their communities?

If the problem is drunken people, stop the cause and the problem is solved.

Ultimately, such problems can only be solved by the people themselves, no matter how much money is thrown at them.

However, bureaucracy is probably the worst solution to any problem.