What’s Happening In Your Own Backyard?

Most people that call this colony home don’t actually understand what is happening in their own backyard.

We talk often of the dark history of this continent’s colonial occupation - of the massacres, the stolen generations, the reservations and missions. Much of what happened here historically is still to come to light. There are still ongoing history wars and denialism, and often when something is finally re-accepted as historical fact it is relegated to some far off distant point in time, “200 years ago.”

Building on these foundations of cognitive dissonance and denialism, most australians do not understand the ongoing legacy of this colonial occupation. Most australians are unaware of the crimes still happening today in their very own backyards.

This post is a super basic and brief snapshot into some of the issues impacting us today.

YOUTH INCARCERATION

• 27x more likely than non-indig. to be detained nationally, and some states such as NT are up to 70x more likely

• 10-13 year old age range 50x more likely than non-indig. counterparts nationally

• Nationally 83% are detained without trial or due process and most won’t receive a prison sentence, violating International HR Laws

• Victoria scrapped plans to raise age of criminal responsibility to 14

• Northern Territory lowered age back to 10 years, reintroduced spit hoods, and moved children 1500km away from families

• Queensland re-suspended its Human Rights Act to allow for indefinite detention of children in Police Watchhouses

• Despite being 3% of the population nationally, First Nations youth account for over 50% of the youth prison population (in some states such as NT, this rate hits 100% somedays).

CHILD REMOVAL

• 1 in 5 Indigenous children will come into contact with the relevant state Dept. of Families during their childhood

• On any given day 1 in 15 Indigenous children are in out-of-home “care”

• Over 10x more likely to be removed than non-Indig counterparts, up to 23x in Vic

• Indigenous child removal rates go up every single year, no statistical increases for non-indig. (decreases for non-indig. in some states)

• At least 2 in every 3 children in out-of-home “care” is First Nations

• More than 2 in every 3 adopted First Nations child is adopted by non-Indig. families

• Each state/territory has provisions for non-consensual forced adoptions, predominantly used on First Nations children

• Intergenerational poverty is the primary reason for Indigenous child removal

ADULT INCARCERATION

• First Nations people are more likely to be incarcerated than they are to have finished high school

• Highest incarceration rates in the entire world for all categories (Children, Women, Men)

• Australia has one of the highest private prisons per capita in the world (Aus highest in Vic where 40% of prisoners are in private prisons)

• Incarceration rates for First Nations adults increases every year, has increased from 2500 to 2701 per capita in the previous 12 months alone. The non-indig. rate is 149 per capita

• First Nations men are incarcerated at a rate of 3772.4 per capita. In NSW 1 in 27 Aboriginal men are incarcerated on any given day

• First Nations women are incarcerated at more than 25x the rate of non-indig. women

• 1 in 2 incarcerated First Nations people have a mental health condition

• One of the highest rates of per-capita police and prison deaths globally (not enough global data to confirm worlds highest)

MILITARY IMPACTS

• PFAS contamination from military sites like the HMAS Cresswell Navy Base and the RAAF Tindal Airforce Base have caused unprecedented cancer spikes in First Nations communities as well as increased rates of sterility, birth defects, and various diseases. It has also restricted abilities to hunt, gather, harvest and practice culture

• In 2007, the Racial Discrimination Act was suspended and the ADF was rolled into NT First Nations communities. This was ‘officially’ ended in 2022 but many aspects of it continue today. During this military intervention, the government seized First Nations controlled lands; abolishing or suspending some Native Title Grants and other Land Grants, reforming existing systems to gain greater control over First Nations lands and leases, and displacing community governance structures. The colony also introduced apartheid style laws aimed at controlling First Nations individuals’ personal income and expenditure

HEALTH COMPARISON

• Life expectancy sits just under a decade less nationally, up to 17 years less in some regions

• One of the world’s highest suicide rates, nationally 3 times the mainstream average and third biggest killer of First Nations people

• Half of all youth suicides nationally are First Nations

• Suicide rates increase every year (30% in last decade, with a 63% increase for being hospitalised for self-harm)

• More than 1 in 4 First Nations people currently suffer from long-term chronic mental health issues, this is at least 5x the rate of non-indig population. 1 in 2 of all First Nations people will be diagnosed with chronic long-term mental health at some point in their life

• 1 in 3 First Nations people who need healthcare cannot access it and 1 in 10 refuse to engage due to previous experiences of medical racism. Despite this, First Nations with access are over twice as likely to see a doctor or to be hospitalised

• First Nations communities suffer conditions nearly eradicated from the rest of the world like leprosy and tuberculosis, as well as rates of disease and illnesses at 2-10 times the rate the non-Indig. population does

I can’t stress enough this is only a very, VERY basic summary that skips over and doesn’t include so many of the major issues we continue to face and the disproportion at which we face it, such as the way that dispossession, displacement and disenfranchisement have resulted in us being 10x more likely to experience homelessness or several times more likely to be living in a crowded house if you do have one, or the way in which non-Indigenous people are twice as likely to own their own home.

It doesn’t properly touch on or mention so many of the ongoing impacts and effects from the 1800s and 1900s - be it foreign nuclear weapons testing programs still contaminating First Nations lands and communities; the slavery that persisted here until the 1970s impacting our intergenerational poverty; the absolute devastation to lands, waters, sky and culture that mining and agriculture have perpetrated daily for the past 230 odd years; and so much more which shapes our reality and our daily lives here in this colony.

“Australia is a crime scene, and the crimes are ongoing”