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An Aboriginal community member speaks about services

What are the services you feel most comfortable going to?

Aboriginal services, Aboriginal family support services, Aboriginal legal aid.

What makes those services comfortable or friendly?

Their our own people and they understand our situation. They have had their own family in similar circumstances, they are not judgmental.

What services do you feel least comfortable accessing?

The police

Why don’t you feel comfortable going to the police?

Because they are more corrupt than us. They don’t look past our eyes. They just assume that because we are Aboriginal, we are in a lesser grade, scum. If we have been in activities before, it’s a cycle Aboriginals have been brought up in, and its harder for us to break it and as we tend to, and as we move towards it they make it harder for us. It’s hard to approach them, and just recently when my house was broken into, they took an hour to get to me, they jump up and down and turn the tables on us. They don’t realize its harder and were about to break that cycle, with Domestic Violence and the way we use to live with drugs and alcohol. They just think that’s all we do.

Are there any other services?

DoCS, similar with the police. They assume we can’t look after our kids, or that we are thieves. They are not approachable and you feel that you can not ask for help or tell them the truth how things are in fear that they will take your kids away. And also with DoCS and police I remember one incident where the police came to my house to serve an AVO on my daughter and it took half an hour for me to put some trust in them, just for my daughter to come out from behind the door and when she did they grabbed her and the way they treated her, they dragged her out of the yard into the bull wagon as if she was a dog and I knew she was only going to the police station……stolen generation their kids were taken away and they never knew where they were going or if they were going to see them again and it just rips you apart, how they treated us and how they still treat us. We have to come up against society, white society let alone other societies that are there to have authority to use against us because they choose too.

What do you think that they can do to change there attitudes?

I think they need to get out into the community more. Meet the community people. There is good and bad in all the races. They need more programs to understand our culture. Where we come from, why we are resentful and why we retaliate. Its like they don’t want to listen to us. When John Howard would not give us an apology, it was not so much the apology it was we wanted them to recognize what they have done to us in the past. They want to take our money away that we have been fignting for all these years. There always trying to find a way to take it away from us, like Abstudy for our children. We do struggle. More and more Aboriginal people are getting employment now, but I am a single mother and It’s hard for me to put shoes on 5 children.

What experience have you had with a non Aboriginal organization where the service was appropriate?

Just recently I came into contact with a Drug and Alcohol service which I approached off my own bat to get some help and I have been lucky not to be involved in drugs and alcohol like a lot of people. It’s just another cycle. As a single parent and an Aboriginal one, it comes down to us as an Aboriginal to break the cycle for our children. Like two generations ago, parents and our grandparent fought harder for it to be easier for us now that’s why we need to continue it for our kids.

What service did they provide to make it comfortable for you?

Basically listening. Its been different since I moved to this community, people from the Aboriginal community has blown me away with their help and support which is good because usually when you go into another town being black they are usually harder on you. I have found this town so welcoming, and they just want to help, they want to help our people. Sometime we can be our own worst critics. They listen and they understand. Personally I am always talking about my colour and our culture, how blacks deal with things, how we think, how we feel and they try to be understanding about that.

So why do you think the workers are different in this community that other communities?

Maybe it’s a smaller community.

A smaller Aboriginal Community?

Yes. They have paved the way good here from what I have seen. I believe there has been a lot of trouble for years, for it to have become this way now. From what I’ve been hearing from the community and shown we can get back up onto our feet and that we do help each other. There is going to be racism everywhere, its still going to be at school and we are going to get it for the rest of our lives but I find it just a little bit easier and it makes it a little bit easier.

How can you stop racism in schools?

I don’t think you can. You can be Chinese, you can be red haired, you can wear glasses, kids are very cruel. We had a parent teacher meeting for Aboriginal families last week and they were asking the same thing and we were asked to write it down. We need programs in the school to show them our way, and what they have tried to take away from us, like being out in the bush, women’s talk and men's business and all that stuff. They need to be aware where were coming from, not just being black and we sit around drinking. We’ve come far from that now.

What services don’t you like to access.

The Police. the police, the police, Doc’s, Probation and Parole, In a lot of these organizations, white man needs to assess who they put into these jobs, and what attitude they have towards blacks. It’s a bit bazaar, with whats been happening with the Lebanese at the moment. Their getting a taste from the white community what were been going through. They look at one and they brand the rest with the same brush. It has sort of taken the focus away from us blacks. I find it bazarre, a bit amusing. It like now the white Australians, like a few years ago, with our Art, the Japenese and the Americans loved it and they wanted us to be recognized, because they were bringing in money. We were bringing in money off our Art. They wanted to be proud of us then. They we’nt proud of us they were proud of the money we were bringing in. They’re still doing it. And then they turn around and get the white fella’s to do all the copies for the olympics. Half of that was white peoples work.

What success stories have you got about non-Aboriginal staff or organizations improving the way they provide services for Aboriginal people or communities.

I can honestly say none. None successful. To me personally its been the drug and alcohol service. They have been good to me and that has been over the last couple of months.

Do you access non-Aboriginal health services?

No, I would rather stick to the Aboriginal services if they are available. They know what were all about and we then to stick together. Referring, if there is other services I do need, or if they think that it is good for my children or my self they are there to help more.

With the Aboriginal Family Worker what do they do that other workers don’t do?

They find a way with helping us to deal with things or find services that keep us on track. Just putting their hand out to help, its like your not alone. There has been a few things that have happened to me lately and the black community have gathered and kept me strong.

Where I’ve been, what I have done, and where I’m going and what I intend to be, my children are going to recognise. I’m proud to be black and I say, stay strong and stay black. We have to keep that, being black. I am going to pave the way for my children and their children as well and we don’t have to live this way. White man say’s we have to, don’t mean to say we got to.