Systemic racism
Sovereignty has never been ceded. We acknowledge the hundreds of First Nations Countries and cultures that have lived on this land and beside its waters for millennia.
Australia was established based on the false claim of terra nullius, which was used to justify colonisation and genocide.
The ongoing impacts of dispossession, the Stolen Generations, and systemic racism mean that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience much higher rates of poverty, gender-based violence, housing insecurity, physical and mental ill-health, and child removals than non-Indigenous people.
The Stolen Generations have never ended: the systematic removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from family, kin, Country and culture continue. This is a root cause of governments’ failure to deliver on Closing the Gap targets.
Politicians often think about youth justice in isolation from child safety in isolation from the family law system in isolation from domestic, family and sexual violence. Our clients are often impacted by all of these at the same time.
There needs to be more resourcing for services that understand these intersections, and the systems themselves need to improve their understanding of each other. Our lawyers are often asked to educate child safety workers on how the family law system works. The burden should be on those systems to properly understand the intersections themselves.
Penney Ferguson, CEO, First Nations Women’s Legal Service Qld
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people face systemic racism and discrimination accessing mainstream health and mental healthcare services. The high cost of specialist healthcare and long waitlists for public services create extra barriers to accessing services. This contributes to poorer health outcomes and higher mortality rates for First Nations people. Culturally appropriate support to access healthcare, including mental healthcare, is lacking for First Nations people of all ages. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services are underfunded to stem the tide of poor health outcomes for First Nations peoples.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience harsher policing and far higher rates of imprisonment and deaths in custody than non-Indigenous people. Governments spend huge sums of money policing and jailing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, while underfunding evidence-based community-led solutions to justice problems.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have provided governments with hundreds of recommendations over many decades to narrow the gap. Governments have too often ignored them.
Systemic racism drives legal need
The impacts of systemic racism against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can cause or worsen legal problems.
Racism in child removals systems means First Nations people are more likely to need legal support for child protection matters.
Racism in policing and prison systems means First Nations people are more likely to need criminal law assistance.
Racism that drives economic and health inequity means First Nations people are more likely to need legal and related support across a whole range of areas, like housing, employment, social security, and more.
Meanwhile, Aboriginal community-controlled legal assistance providers often tend to be the poorest funded and with workers paid the lowest wages.
Our centre does incredible work holding systems accountable, particularly when it comes to First Nations women, children, and families. When families have autonomy and support to create safety for themselves, we see better outcomes across family law, child safety, and domestic violence.
Our communities need to have a say and a share in the decision-making, when decisions directly affect us. The people living here care far more about the state of our community than any person whose job it is to make decisions from afar about our lives.
Penney Ferguson, CEO, First Nations Women’s Legal Service Qld
Systemic racism drives geographic discrimination in remote communities
The proportion of First Nations people within the population increases with distance away from metropolitan areas. Government decisions that harm people in remote communities disproportionately harm First Nations people. This means geographic discrimination can be a proxy for racism.
The lack of funding for services that are meant for all people in Australia impacts those who live in regional and remote areas. Aboriginal people in these areas experience racism and discrimination based on their postcodes. Torres Strait Islander communities also face discrimination around food prices, fuel and flights. For example, a packet a biscuits that costs $3 in a city can cost upwards of $7 in a remote community.
Challenges are not due to a lack of willingness by community members, but rather a lack of essential infrastructure and service flexibility of government and non-government agencies. Clients are sent letters from various government departments asking them to log-in to portals, witness documents, or provide written responses. For many clients, English is their second language, and many communities lack the support and infrastructure for clients to complete these tasks. Seeing these systemic barriers continue to affect remote communities in this era is frustrating.
Hannah Lethlean, Senior Solicitor, Kimberley Community Legal Service
The decision to live in remote, regional, rural or very remote communities is multi-layered. Proximity to traditional Country ensures that cultural and ceremonial customs and traditions can continue. Older generations can teach and pass on these practices to younger people.
In living on and caring for Country, First Nations peoples continue traditions and culture that address environmental, water management, animal and land care practices. The way in which First Nations peoples honour care for, and connection to, Country, builds intercultural understanding, respect and pride. It provides vast opportunity to educate all people — migrants, new citizens, settler folk and visitors — about the deep benefits of looking after and connecting to place.
Geographic location, including living on Country, can be a crucial part of identity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Government decisions often treat where a person lives as ‘just a choice’ and therefore a reasonable ground for unequal access to services, justice, wellbeing and safety. This undermines the right of all people, and particularly First Nations people, to live in their home communities.