The Australian Council of Social Services (ACOSS) annual national conference featured the Kimberley’s stalwart June Oscar as the keynote speaker. Ms Oscar is the CEO of the Marniniwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre Aboriginal Corporation. Ms Oscar has been long recognised for work in bettering the lives of children with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
It is disturbing when some people argue that alcohol and substance abuse are not a problem in some remote communities – they are. I have seen prevalence of the abuses and the impacts with my own eyes and done the research to know it is pronounced. Overall, it is true as many argue that proportionally less Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people consume alcohol than does the rest of the Australian population. But as with poor nutrition – through the inability to afford good food – alcoholism is more pronounced within the impoverished. Alcoholism is not a racial issue, it is a class struggle issue, and through inequality and neglect becomes a racial problem.
With so many remote communities third-world-akin due to generations of Government neglect and compounded by an ongoing dispossession of people from their lands, with the imposition of welfare dependency hence the culmination of acute poverty. Western Australia’s parliamentarian for the Kimberley electorate, Kija Elder, Josie Farrer said that the remote is “forever neglected”.
“Our people are always forgotten. Poverty has been brought upon our people and the White man continues to do as he has always done.”
“Cost of living in the remote is more than it is in the big towns when it comes to nutrition, and families cannot afford vegetables and fruit on their table. How do you think a young father feels when he cannot afford to meet the essentials? Many respond by breaking down.”
“There are so few services and opportunities in the remote communities and towns because our Governments do not do for them as they do for the mining super towns and for the big cities.”
Ms Oscar said in her speech that it is time for the not-for-profit sector to take the lead, and for this to happen this sector needs to collaborate as a whole.
“I stand here today at this ACOSS gathering, the peak body of this nation’s community sector and propose a reconfiguration of the way we work together.”
“We are dealing with the same issues of social justice. When it comes to negotiating public policy in this climate it’s fundamentally important that indigenous voices are not just included but given an elevated status in the nation’s mainstream discussion when thinking in this way.”
“Whether we are a community-based organisation or a governance body, we are all stakeholders in the future of our society.”
“When we acknowledge our common purpose, we can integrate our expertise within a technological framework of western analysis and evaluation and future protection; we can develop robust indicators and measures, which are not only responsive to our needs in the immediate, short and long term but will deliver the social incomes we all desire for unity of Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and Governments alike.”
Ms Oscar referred to her own experiences in bringing people together to forge the Maininwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing, which advocates for the rights of women and their families, and which works with the children born with FASD. It would be an understatement to suggest that alcoholism and substance abuse had not prevailed for a time in Fitzroy Crossing and that it is still not a problem.
“Our community is facing a young generation growing up with unique and complex needs, which are not being adequately addressed by education, health, vital human services.”
“In response to this complex and entrenched social issue we had to take a coordinated and collaborative approach. We entered into a cross-organisational and multi-disciplinary partnership with community and research institutes – primarily to assess the prevalence of FASD.”
“Over the past year the process has grown to a tangible unit comprising research, prevention strategies, support services and diagnosis and treatment. The body of empirical data we have accumulated is now a foundation of strength. We are now using data to inform community strategies, which allows us to speak on our futures.”
Ms Oscar sent the clear message that no single organisation owns the turf for running the show on bettering the lives of others, and that all organisations and groups should work together towards the common objectives. I agree. Once the not for profit sector sorts itself out and comes together then it can send the same message Ms Oscar sent it, to Governments to collaborate with them and not just with the big end of town corporate sector and sadly with the multinational robber barons.
June and I were both at the recent NIDAC Conference. As always June never fails to inspire. She said that one in every three children of a specific age cohort in the Fitzroy Valley were found to have a fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Following June’s speech she joined another three of us to speak for five minutes about their concerns on FASD. This was mine:
Thank you NIDAC Committee for bringing me here for this most important Conference and for allowing me a voice today.
I feel sorry for our good friend and colleague, the Hon Dr Sharman Stone, Member for Murray, who has to sit here and hear the message I am about to give. Sharman has been a champion of people with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) over many years and was the first politician to raise FASD concerns in the Federal Parliament. Her commitment to FASD is not questioned. That is why it is hard to raise this topic on which I have thought long and hard about what I need to say and I continue to return to this one topic.
My number one concern is how the alcohol industry buys protection from responsibility with donations to political parties. This has to cease.
It thwarts meaningful interventions and encourages a blind eye continues to Australia’s most socially destructive industry.
ALL OF THIS COMES AT THE EXPENSE OF BABIES’ BRAINS.
The brain damage to a baby from alcohol exposure before birth sentences them to a lifetime disability.
That disability will need millions of dollars in human resource support, from the public purse, over the lifecourse of each affected individual.
A recent study from Canada showed productivity loss attributed to FASD morbidity was between half to more than billion dollars per annum. That was based on an extremely conservative prevalence rate of 0.3%.
Forty year veteran of FASD research, Professor Sterling Clarren, speaking in Toldeo in April, said potentially one in thirty people in the USA have brain damage associated with alcohol exposure before birth. He said it was a huge epidemic – way ahead of heart disease and cancer. This is a big deal he said.
Imagine this.
I give $100k to a political party and my product becomes a protected industry.
In an effort to keep the dollars rolling in for their election coffers, the alcohol industry’s political cronies then concentrate only on the most vulnerable population group – Indigenous Australians.
That becomes the sole reason for making FASD “just an Indigenous issue”. Never mind that it is blatant racism.
It also fobs off getting a FASD prevalence rate across a mainstream population.
I ask you what is the morality of an alcohol industry being permitted to donate to election funding and how can they wield this degree of power in our parliament?
The mantra should be FIRST DO NO HARM.
Those are the messages that need to be taken away from the NIDAC Conference. Otherwise FASD innovations across Australia will continue to stagnate and become mere tokenism.
My apologies Sharman but the message you need to take back to the party room is:
BABIES’ BRAINS ARE NOT NEGOTIABLE….AND CERTAINLY NOT FOR DOLLARS FROM THE ALCOHOL INDUSTRY.