“The rest of Australia sees the ACT as a mostly white, upper middle-class, wealthy, educated leftie elite that wouldn’t tolerate the existence in their community of disadvantage let alone the mistreatment of Aboriginal peoples,” says columnist JON STANHOPE.

I ATTENDED the recent screening by ANU Law and Social Justice of the documentary “Incarceration Nation” and the subsequent panel discussion.

The event was held in the Kambri Cultural Centre on the ANU campus. The welcome to country, which was led by Ngambri Elder Paul Girrawah House, was both poetic and moving and delivered in English and the language of his ancestors.

The name Canberra is derived from the word Kambri which is, of course, the name by which the land on which Canberra is built was known by Aboriginal peoples for eons before their forcible displacement by white settlers in the early nineteenth century.

The word Ngambri, by which Paul and his extended family choose to be recognised, is derived from the same word. 

Also there were two ACT government ministers, one Labor and one Green. Since neither Labor nor the Greens recognise the Ngambri as traditional custodians, their presence at an event organised by Australia’s leading university at which the welcome was delivered by a highly regarded Aboriginal leader whom they, unlike the ANU, neither recognise nor respect as a traditional custodian, provided some context for the horrors revealed in “Incarceration Nation” and the discussion that followed its screening.

The film contains the most distressing footage imaginable of “interactions” between Aboriginal peoples, including children, across Australia with different arms of the justice system – most particularly police and prison officers.

Almost as distressing are interviews with the family and loved ones of Aboriginal peoples in custody who had been beaten and brutalised. There is in addition heartbreaking footage of Aboriginal peoples filmed dying in custody and the reaction of their families to their deaths.

It is ironic that “Incarceration Nation” features footage and interviews from across the whole of Australia with the notable exception of the ACT. I say “ironic” because as Julie Tongs, CEO of Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health and Community Service, is wont to say: “When it comes to locking up black people, no government in Australia does it with the gusto or regularity of the ACT government.”

In the last 10 years the number of Aboriginal peoples incarcerated in the ACT has increased by 279 per cent compared to an average across Australia of 51 per cent. 

It is understandable then that for the Aboriginal community of Canberra the regular omission in documentaries such as “Incarceration Nation” and by the national media, including the ABC, of any mention of the circumstances under which Aboriginal residents of the ACT are living or that they experience among the worst life outcomes in the nation must be extremely disappointing and deeply frustrating.

It is an omission I often ponder and the most logical, albeit concerning, explanation seems to me to be the pervasive but mistaken view which I believe the rest of Australia has of the ACT of a mostly white, upper middle-class, wealthy, educated leftie elite that would simply not tolerate the existence in their community of disadvantage let alone the mistreatment of Aboriginal peoples. Assuming, of course, that they believe that there are any Aboriginal people living in Canberra. 

The facts are that somewhere in the order of 10,000 people who identify as Aboriginal live in Canberra and that against almost every measure, for many of them, their life outcomes are, on average, as bad or worse than the Aboriginal community in every other state or territory. Notably this is the case in relation to incarceration where, over recent years, the ACT has had both the highest rates of indigenous incarceration and the highest recidivism rates in Australia.

It was not surprising then that the panellists engaged to critique “Incarceration Nation”, namely Ms Leah House, magistrate Louise Taylor and University of Canberra chancellor Tom Calma, and to explore its relevance to the situation in the ACT were unrestrained in their concern and frustration at how far we have yet to travel. 

They each focused at some length on our failure to address the consequences of the colonisation of Australia, including most pertinently the settlement without agreement or compensation of the land now comprising the ACT and from which Aboriginal peoples were displaced and have in the time since then been routinely and grievously mistreated and their needs misunderstood and ignored.

Interestingly, but unsurprisingly the panellists were unanimous in the view that it was imperative if progress was to be made in the ACT in addressing Aboriginal disadvantage generally and Aboriginal incarceration rates that Aboriginal peoples must be front and centre in decision making, program design and in the delivery of services. 

The clear message from them was that the ACT government and its instrumentalities need to get out of the way and allow the Aboriginal community, which has the answers, to do what it knows needs to be done to address the dire outcomes currently being experienced by far too many of the Aboriginal residents of Canberra.

In support of the views expressed by the panel, the event concluded following a blunt and unsanitised summary from Ms Tongs of the reality and extent of the disadvantage and discrimination endured by members of the Aboriginal community of Canberra and which she and her staff at Winnunga Nimmityjah face daily. 

Ms Tongs concluded by challenging the ACT government and the ministers present to listen to what the Aboriginal community is saying and accept its wisdom.