The oppression of Indigenous and the oppression of disabilities in Australia
The deaths in Custody for Indigenous including children and teens…so bad… and similarly the harm and deaths in care for Disabilities children still happening through neglect and lack of real care by the providers….
The recent focus on the news is the announcement that there have been 470 deaths for indigenous people, a lot of them in custody of prisons since the last royal commission was held in Australia 30 years ago so shocking the deep ingrained racism in Australian society that needs to change and the great injustice done against its own indigenous whom they tried to make disappear or ignore…akin to this is the same discrimination against those with disabilities in particular intellectual disabilities who are harmed at great randomness and ignored when it is reported to I the police and given no justice when the parents in alarm try to reach for it for their child. Nobody cares. WE must make them care. ‘
When I was doing studies in aborigine history I couldn’t sleep for a week seeing what was done to them seeing how they were treated, snuffed out in prisons by thug guards who crushed them, took the breathe out of them, kicked them held them down let them die did not get medical care…its all there as well as of course the slaughtering of the aborigines in the first place. The oppression continues but the indigenous are fighting back and stand up for their young and old killed or neglected in the justice system of white Australia.
Noting now The Kid Laroi it was refreshing to see a 17 year old boy with aborigine background who named himself after the aborigine tribe he was related to…a young man probably written off by middle class white Australia….from Redfern he has risen to heights with his latest music rapping and songs, so glad for him he is the youngest Australian artist to ever reach the top…
The Kid Laroi’s real name is Charlton Howard , his great great grandfather was a part of the stolen generation, taken from his own family and put in a white family and called Spanish! How sad not finding out he was aborigine until aged 8 years old.
he has suffered much in his own family yet has come through moving to California and taking his mum and brother with him. His latest song “without you” caught my attention I just hope he stays ok and does not get caught up in the downward spiral of fame and fortune when so young as he rises….he reminds me of River Phoenix…he is clever and talented but he needs his support and he needs love…I found out he went to Australian Performing Arts Grammar School in Glebe Sydney – he is no uneducated boy despite his performance ‘street kid’ persona. As a young child he was living with his mother and moved around NSW including Broken Hill in the outback, living with his Uncle and mother also, his Uncle was murdered – the trauma would have been bad in his family and Charlton was moved back to Waterloo Sydney with his mother where he started taking his rapping and singing seriously at 13 years old. It’s a lot for a kid to go through…yet so many young people are going through a lot and especially the indigenous they struggle and they have to fight through. They have to grow up fast. They live with the oppression of the justice system in Australia designed to keep the aborigine down and controlled. I love it when some are able break free of the chains of oppression… like the Kid Laroi probably better off in America as success keeps him out of that same kind of oppression over there.
As a teen and young person in New Zealand I saw my brother, a delinquent treated so badly by the same kind of justice system…so many Maori kids in prison so many families traumatized, so many families with domestic violence. The colour of skin also figures in New Zealand but less so obviously as in Australia.
Those with disabilities live with the same lack of regard by the justice system. In fact they are rarely given justice for anything that happens to them. It is discrimination of another kind, but it’s the same in that they are oppression by the system. The providers of care make their money out of those with disabilities but can do anything they like to them with little punishment given to providers by the justice system certainly not the nidis so called quality and safety commission which has lack of quality of safety for our vulnerable children. Money rues the day.
The parents of those children with intellectual disabilities often see their children and teens, adult children, face abuse and even deaths particularly when they become young adults and adults as they start to access care for help and respite from the relentless care they must carry out…we the parents never expect our children will end up getting abused or hurt we trust the provider to look after them as they claim to yet we are shocked by the reality of abuse and even deaths…
For instance Merna Aprem who died in care drowned in the bath at Afford Disabilities - where is the justice for this beautiful young girl…in 2019? she was lost she left this world with no justice given for her death why? Why does disabilities not get Justice for their ones who cannot defend themselves? How can our society turn away and not care?
The same year my son got a hit to the forehead now the bump us still there a constant reminder my son was hurt and he touches it when stressed - hit badly with an object unknown by someone unknown -I believe the care worker did it…cant prove it cant get justice without cameras said the police...gee lucky providers they can do anything they like and pocket our funding at the same time…hence many of the providers wont install cameras not because of laws but because they don’t have to…and they don’t want to get caught hurting anyone do they?
Noting also Ann Marie Smith she was a woman who had been left a house and money for carers paid out to Anglicare who hired Integrity Care…one carer for this cerebral palsy woman who was then left to starve and die and not be bathed for a year by her one ‘carer’ now on manslaughter charges.
Broke my heart when Ann Marie Smith of Adelaide- terrified the parents for their children's futures...as she died in the pandemic last year…found organs shutting down…in her own mess by the ambulance and police she died in hospital…she had a normal mind she had written in facebook a year or so before that how she missed her parents how she grieved for them…it upset me to know how much she missed her mum and dad, she knew what was going on...
they were probably the only ones who truly cared about her….they left her all the material wealth they could but there was no one in the cog machine of NDIS who took the time to check on this poor woman who died alone and suffering…it should not be….parents are frightened for what their disability child will go through when they are no longer here to care about them and check on the services looking after them.
We need to change laws to protect our disability vulnerable children just as the aborigines want laws changed in certain States of Australia where 10 year olds can be arrested - what are we living in the dark ages…?
Disability workers or those connected often say to me you’ll never get cameras, the privacy laws will stop you. I never say never or listen to the negative stuff anymore because in fact it is a false narrative.
Disabilities are allowed to have cctv cameras in their services as long as the public area where it is is labelled so people know. The disability providers however have chosen not to have the cctv cameras as they know that they will get caught if their workers or clients hurt someone, so they prefer it left in the dark so to speak. A lot less trouble but we never know the truth for sure of what happens in an incident and the providers like it that way they can get away literally with murder due to neglect or manslaughter while there are no cctv cameras to give evidence. Police wear them all the time. I think I will have to get my son a body cam and label him because providers are so deviant and cover up what really happens to the detriment of our innocent children who need protecting from those who could destroy them.
WE need the cameras to be mandatory there is no other way. Another administration worker said to me there are other ways to protect them…well its not working I said. Other ways, hmmm train the workers properly have more workers and not casuals all the time to save money…providers are not even using the other ways of protecting our children…only cameras will deter and protect. They have protocols and do not keep them. They say it is a no abuse policy let they allow abuse as long as nothing is caught on cctv camera they can continue to allow harm and abuse to any of our children even when we the caring parents are long gone. We must change the system we must demand changes and not let them get away with anything. Or our children’s future remain frightening and full of uncertainty we cannot live like this as their parents or we ourselves will fall into depression and despair we have to fight we must for our dear ones.
All the best
Anndrea x
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