Keeping Aboriginal boys out of jail
Stuart Rintoul; 25/8/08
Colleen Murray has seen the power of intervention in the lives of Aboriginal children. And she has seen the damage done by parents who have no expectations of their children. Ms Murray is the executive officer of the Tirkandi Inaburra Cultural and Development Centre, an early intervention unit for indigenous boys aged between 12 and 15 who are at risk of becoming caught up in the criminal justice system. Based on an intensive boarding school-type environment and operating in southern NSW for the past two years, the program is designed to strengthen the self-esteem and living skills of Aboriginal boys, as well as their literacy and numeracy skills, in an effort to keep them out of jail. The centre has been short-listed in this year’s Indigenous Governance Awards, which highlight what is working in Aboriginal Australia, rather than what is not.
The Australian, No Internet Text
“The big thing I find is that there has been no expectation placed on these children,” Ms Murray said. “There is o expectation they will behave, there is no expectation they will climb and achieve.
“Here, we have those expectations of them, and over a period of time, they rise to the challenge. These children like to succeed, and many of them never have. They are craving structure in their lives and rigour in their lives,” she said. Ms Murray said the key lessons boys learned at Tirkandi Inaburra were how to think for themselves, how to bounce back from disappointment and to realise “their future is their dream”.
Tirkandi Inaburra means “to learn to dream” in the Wiradjuri language.
Ms Murray said the sense of achievement among boys completing the course was “absolutely profound” and the challenge for governments was more intervention in the lives of Aboriginal people. “If governments are serious about trying to effect trans-generational change, they need to do something,” she said. “There needs to be more intervention. This is something Aboriginal people will embrace.”
Tirkandi Inaburra had its origins in 1990, when the Aboriginal people of the Riverina in southern NSW raised concerns about the level of incarceration of Aboriginal children, who made up more than 40 per cent of the juveniles in detention in NSW. Of that 40 per cent, 80 per cent were likely to end up
in an adult jail. Supported by the since disbanded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and the NSW Government, the centre, which is set on a 780ha property near Coleambally, opened in November 2005, and the first 16 boys arrived in January 2006.
Designed as a residential outstation, it houses 16 boys at a time, with each one staying for three to six months. Of the first 57 boys, only one has since been to prison.
The Indigenous Governance Awards were created by Reconciliation Australia in partnership with BHP Billiton.
A Generation Shaped in Jail - Why Mandatory Sentencing Should End
Bob Brown;19/4/00
Laws of mandatory sentencing force magistrates and judges to jail offenders rather than consider the alternative of community service or rehabilitation. It takes away the time-honoured role of the courts in ensuring the sentence fits the crime, taking into account the offender’s life circumstances. Mandatory sentencing was introduced in Western Australia in 1996, where it applies to burglary, and the Northern Territory in 1997, where it applies to a wide range of property crimes but mostly snares Aboriginal people for minor theft where no harm to a person has occurred. A good legal system protects citizens and rehabilitates law-breakers. Mandatory sentencing does neither. In 1998 I was approached by the indigenous community and the Northern Territory Greens to instigate Federal action. The result is the bill that is before the Senate, co-hosted by the Greens, the Democrats and the ALP, to overturn mandatory sentencing of juvenile offenders in Australia and ensure that our human rights obligations to children are met.
See; http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=1298
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia