Aboriginal Law Bulletin --- "Update: Prison Closure; Indigenous Cultural Property; Koori Legal Support Group; Aboriginal Women in Unity" [1990] AboriginalLawB 37; (1990) 1(46) Aboriginal Law Bulletin 2

• Update
• Prison Closure
• Indigenous Cultural Property
• Koori Legal Support Group
• Forums
• Heritage And Culture
• Assimilation And Forced Removals
• All Welcome
• Aboriginal Women In Unity

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Update

Prison Closure

The Western Aboriginal Legal Service (WALS) has condemned the NSW Government's proposal to close Broken Hill Gaol at the end of January 1991. The Government maintains that the jail is uneconomical and proposes to use it for weekend detentions.

WALS opposes the closure of the gaol for a number of reasons including:

• Broken Hill is a minimum security gaol which places emphasis on Aboriginal Programs and community and family access. Their have been no Aboriginal deaths in Broken hill prison in the past 10 years.

• The gaol serves many Aboriginal people from towns including Wilcannia, Mendindee, Ivanhoe, Wentworth, Dareton, Tibooburra and Broken Hill. The arrest rate for Aboriginal people within this region is 15-16 times the state average and although Aborigines make up only 4% of the population in the area they comprise 60% of prisoners. Terms of imprisonment average 4-6 months from the Local Court and slightly in excess of 12 months from higher courts. As the penalties indicate, these are minor offenders.

• Should the gaol be closed, Broken Hill's full time prisoners would have to be transferred over a distance of nearly 1000km to Bathurst gaol. Family visits for Aboriginal prisoners would be impossible.

• The extra stress on Aboriginal prisoners would create greater risk of Aboriginal deaths in custody due to personal and cultural isolation, and alienation from their community. Larger gaols are overcrowded, depersonalised places where unsophisticated young men from the far-west of NSW will be forced to live in close contact with more hardened offenders.

• Remand prisoners will have to be transported, in the heat and cold in the back of police vans on trips which will take a minimum of 10-12 hours. The distance will limit the legal services access to clients. Such transportation may constitute harsh and unusual treatment of prisoners in breach of united Nations covenants on Human Rights.

The closure of Broken Hill gaol clearly undermines the Department of Corrective Services recently released Aboriginal policy which states that:

"The Department is committed to providing culturally appropriate services to Aboriginal clients.

Accordingly, the Department will ensure that these services are designed on the basis of consultation with Aboriginal people within the prison system and relevant Aboriginal organisations".

Indigenous Cultural Property

The United Nations Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities has requested all individuals, museums, universities and other institutions to prepare a comprehensive list of all indigenous peoples' skeletal remains, burial artifacts and other items of religious and cultural significance to indigenous people which were in their possession and to disseminate those lists widely among indigenous peoples. They also requested that such institutions and individuals take immediate steps to start negotiations with indigenous owners with the view to returning their items. [Resolution on ownership and control of the cultural property of indigenous people (E.CN. 4/Sub.2/1990/L.44)]

The Sub-Commission entrusted Mrs. Erica-Irene Daes with the preparation of a working paper, on the question of the ownership and control of the cultural property of the indigenous peoples for submission to to the ninth session of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. They requested that all UN bodies and organs with relevant expertise assist her in completion of this task.

Koori Legal Support Group

The Melbourne based Koori Legal Support Group (KLSG) has been operating for the past two years. The aim of the group is to get people together to talk about Koori legal issues. The groups activities include forums, working groups and occasionally it offers legal aid advice on specific issues.

The group has tapped the resources of the existing network of barristers and solicitors in Melbourne who have expertise in relevant areas. Unlike most talk-fests about Aboriginal law it is Koori's who set the agenda at KLSG meetings rather than gubba lawyers.

The Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service provides the group with administrative support, a meeting place and often speakers for the forums. However, it is recognised that the Koori Legal Support group plays a different role from the services offered by VALS.

Forums

The group has discussed a range of issues in its forums including: The Mabo and Walker cases; initiatives arising from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody including the operation of Community Justice Panels in Victoria; issues arising from the ILO conference in June 1989 on ILO Convention 107 (now 169); reports from VALS on the Russell Moore case in Florida (USA), ATSIC and a discussion of the potential use of civil claims by Koori's for a range of wrongs against individuals and the state

Heritage and Culture

A few lawyers from the group spent a weekend in Morwell, in eastern Victoria in November last year to meet Kooris in Gippsland and discuss issues of interest. One of the issues raised was administration of the State Aboriginal Heritage legislation and in particular the negotiation of joint management of National Parks in the Gippsland region, including Wilsons Promontory. Work on heritage issues has continued with for example, lawyers in the group advising informally on a copyright agreement proposed in relation to the Government sponsored Koori Oral History project. The group is hoping to venture into rural areas again later this year at the invitation of Koori elders from a number of communities to talk about another kind of lore.

Assimilation and Forced Removals

Action on forced removals of Aboriginal children has been a major issue in Victoria recently, largely as a result of the Russell Moore case and the civil claim for wrongful adoption procedures by Russell's mother, Beverly Wyman.

The groups August meeting discussed the issue of forced removals. Nigel D'Souza presented the position of the SNAICC Executive, which has called for a national inquiry on forced removals to both set the historical record straight and address the problems it has caused for the present. Ron Merkel QC outlined the legal and evidentiary issues involved in civil claims against the Victorian Government for adoption practices under assimilation programs in the 1960's.

All Welcome

Koori Legal Support Group has no formal membership or constitution, relying on genuine interest for its continued existence rather than affiliation. The group's mailing list now numbers over 100 people including representatives of Koori communities and service organisations throughout Victoria , solicitors, barristers, judges, academics, journalists, students, film makers and trade unionists.

Anyone interested in contacting KLSG should contact the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service, 6 Alexander Pde, North Fitzroy 3056

Amanda Cornwell

Aboriginal Women in Unity

The first NSW state-wide Aboriginal Women's Conference was held in Dubbo from June 25-27 1990. Three hundred and fifty Aboriginal women attended the conference which was jointly sponsored by the Women's Co-ordination Unit and the Office of Indigenous Women, ATSIC. The conference opened with a march down Macquarie Street to the Dubbo Civic Centre.

Women from diverse communities were able to network, exchange information and develop ideas for social and legal reform. In addition the conference served as a forum for a reciprocal exchange of information between community women, service providers and government representatives. Workshops were conducted in small groups on issues of housing, education, land rights, employment, adult and child sexual assault and domestic violence. Recommendations ensuing from the workshops were drafted to be presented by chosen delegates to the State and Federal Governments. The recommendations emphasised that policy and decision making pertaining to Aboriginal affairs should be in the hands of Aboriginal people. Separate conferences on adult and child sexual assault and domestic violence were called for.

The following summary of a recommendation on domestic violence, from the floor, is indicative of some of the concerns in this area:

That special attention be given to consultation with young women and children.

• That recognition and support be given to women who are working in the field and speaking out for Aboriginal women.
• That relevant State and Federal government departments assist in the development of a strategy for setting up safe houses for Aboriginal women and children in all relevant towns within the next 12 months; and that the strategy be developed through a team of skilled Aboriginal workers in consultation with community women.
• That State and Federal Government departments work together to provide a holistic strategy for the provision of services to the victims and perpetrators of violence.
• That a program be developed to employ and train Aboriginal women as interviewers/ investigators in situations of family violence and that trained female Aboriginal police be employed to deal with Aboriginal women and children in cases of abuse.
• That kits be developed on; women's basic human rights, ways service workers can recognise and respond to women and children who have been abused and train the trainer community empowering resources.

The video and handbook ‘Beyond the Dream’, (ed. Judy Atkinson) which looks at the problem of domestic violence in Aboriginal communities and what action can be taken was launched at the conference. (See review of this resource on p15 of this issue of the AboriginalLB).

The success of the conference is evident in the participants resolve to organise another conference to address issues which could not be considered due to time constraints, and to continue and strengthen the networking processes which were facilitated by the conference.