Our ‘third world’ shame
AS SOMEONE who spent their childhood in a “thirdworld country” – there isn’t much that easily shocks me when it comes to poverty and neglect.
But watching a generation of children be lost to violence and abuse in the middle of Australia felt far more harrowing than anything I have seen before.
I left India as a 10-year-old because my parents wanted a comfortable world for me, but after our two weeks in Alice Springs I fear many children growing up in Central Australia, in the middle of a wealthy Western nation, face worse conditions than young kids in parts of Calcutta, Delhi or Mumbai.
So they act out. Break things. Attack innocent people who pay the price for problems they didn’t create.
I am not convinced governments have the answers.
The answers sit with the organisations that have been there long before and long after the political spotlight and they need to be funded urgently and appropriately.
It’s a damning indictment that organisations like the Arrernte Community Boxing Academy say they are not appropriately funded or that others are crowdsourcing funding for their initiatives like building a school closer to remote communities.
It’s an even greater shame that organisations like Pertame School would rather fundraise $300,000 than trust government funding.
A successful night patrol by Aboriginal people has also fizzled out while a desperately needed boarding school in town is still in the planning stages.
Money has been poured into Australia’s bleeding heart but it doesn’t seem to go where it will make a difference.
The decision about an Aboriginal Voice to Parliament is for the nation to make collectively and if it is passed it can certainly make a positive difference in the lives of many Aboriginal people.
But as one Aboriginal elder told me in Alice Springs, by the time it reaches Central Australia, that voice will simply be an echo.
We can’t look to the Voice as a silver bullet for the issues that have existed for decades and constitutional change won’t extinguish fires that are already burning. Governments on all levels urgently need to invest in proven initiatives.