Fathers and Aboriginal child sexual abuse
John Howard has taken on a big issue in a big, bold way. The plight of Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory has been crying out for action and the PM has acted. Gradually, every state and territory has fallen into line and Kevin Rudd has joined with his support.
The sweeping plan was inspired by a shocking report on child sexual abuse in the Northern Territory in indigenous communities.
The PM’s measures are drastic but necessary: bans on takeaway alcohol and x-rated pornography in indigenous communities, a federal takeover of townships on Aboriginal land, quarantining family welfare payments so at least half is spent on food and other essentials rather than booze, making welfare payments conditional on children attending school, compulsory medical checks for Aboriginal children and a significant boost in police numbers.
The ‘Little Children Are Sacred’ report was made public in Darwin last week. The nine month inquiry went to 45 indigenous communities in the Northern Territory. It said that “rivers of grog” fueled widespread child sexual abuse.
The tragic thing is that little girls need their fathers, as Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley said recently in USA. “Many of their adult attitudes are formed by good father-daughter relationship.” Abuse messes everything up for years.
Dr. Meg Meeker puts it in her new book, “STRONG FATHERS, STRONG DAUGHTERS” – “Most are good men . . . but you are good men who have been derided by a culture that does not care for you, that has ridiculed your authority, denied your importance, and tried to fill you with confusion about your role. But I can tell you that fathers change lives.”
Meeker has seen a lot of girls stranded in the sexual wasteland, with sexually transmitted diseases, depression, eating disorders, and underage pregnancy. Dr Meeker found that the girls involved in damaging behaviors are the girls who don’t feel loved and valued by their fathers.
Fathers can ensure that their daughters grow up with healthy ideas about sexuality. You don’t have to be an expert on STDs, or anything else, to guide your daughter away from this wasteland. You just have to do your job as a dad. Talk to her, even when she doesn’t seem to be listening. Teach her about the God who loves her and made her. Set boundaries for her. Spend time with her. Listen to her. Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal to you, but you wouldn’t believe the difference it makes to her. Your children may not tell you that now, but their lives will always be a reflection of your love and commitment. You can take that to the bank.
http://www.gordonmoyes.com/2007/06/27/fathers-and-aboriginal-child-sexual-abuse/
The awful situation amongst our aboriginal communities is a snapshot of the spiritual condition of the nation.
We are a fatherless society-- orphans in a world of many inotxicants that we abuse to heal our hurting spirits. Just as many children have been experiencing sexual abuse for the neglect of their fathers (over many generations), so too the children of God have been experiencing spritual abuse because of the lack of spiritual fathers.
The hurt, destruction, degradation in the physical realm that we can see amongst many outback communities is a symptom of the hurt, destruction and degradation in the spiritual realm.
Fathers- pastors, teachers, apostles- rise up and take your place. Nurture and protect the people of God!
There has been a lot of buck passing in the aboriginal community for too long. People have blamed the white "invasion", the "stolen generation", the refusal of white people to say "Sorry." That is in the past. The leaders of these communites must now take responsibility for the present. It's not good enough to blame the past for the woes of the present. I'm not denying the injustices and the terrible events of the past- but living there won't fix today's problems.
Likewise, the church must look to the present. For too long the church has lived in the "glory days" of the past and blamed the non-christians for the present mess. That's not good enough either. Fathers of the faith will take responsibility for the problems of the present and raise up the sons and duahgters gioven to them by the King at this time.
I agree that it is a terrible problem and something has to be done but having one law for whites and one law for blacks is wrong. Imagine if the governement came and siad to us your daughters had to have medical examinations would I let them - I think not. How this must bring up the whole stolen generation issue again for these parents, how scared must they be that the government will take their children. How can you ban alcohol and pornography for these communities but the rest of us can still have it? The problem is not the alcohol or the pornography but the hearts and you can't legislate against that. Mind you maybe the government has suggested such radical steps so that we as a country would look at the situation because it has been there for years and we have ignored it. Christians need to love the people in these communities but we mostly wouldn't know where they are or who they are. We actually had a really good discussion in maths yesterday afternoon, one of the girls is aboriginal - not that we came up with any answers but at least people were talking in a way that was trying to understand each other. One thing that did come out was that we need to celebrate the successes rather than the failures and build up those who can be role models. There needs to be more opportunities for success and I think sucess should be expected - it is very hard to change peoples expectations, though.
ReplyDeleteThe medical examination issue is a bit of a scare campaign by people with a vested interest in keeping the current dreadful status quo. Warren Mundine and Noel Pearson are both suggesting that the leaders in these communities have been compicit in the sexual abuse that's going on. How else could it have been happening on a wide scale?What mother would not want their children's health checked? We are talking aobut community's with NO health care. I think I'd be first in line with my kids.Also the government has said that the health checks would not be compulsory, and they are certinaly not just about finding out who is being abused. They will be looking at a whole range of iissues including nutrition, infections and eye care."Stolen generation" is a convenient term of propaganda. we have at least one, possibly two generations who have been stolen by their own people. Until now the aboriginal leadership in this country with the exception of Noel Pearson has covered this up.The proponents of aboriginal rights, which I'm in general principle one of them, need to get out of the mentality of lack of accountability of aborigines and ever increasing handouts. Governments also need to put more resources and services back into these communities- which they are at last doing. More doctors, nurses, police and DOCS workers. Then we can start looking at putting more jobs and investment into these places, so that people can work for a living instead of relying on Centrelink.
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