"Boys molested in bogus initiations"

by **biaothanatoi** » Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:56 pm

<a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20367657-2702,00.html" target="top">Boys molested in bogus initiations</a> Caroline Overington September 07, 2006 The Australian ABORIGINAL elders are sexually abusing young boys during bogus "initiation" ceremonies and mothers are too frightened to intervene because the abusers hold positions of great power in their communities. In some circumstances, the elders control large, extended families or are employed by government agencies in control of housing, education or other benefits. The allegations come from a group of women in NSW who are campaigning for action to prevent "rampant" and systematic sexual abuse of Aboriginal children. Lyla Coorey said she was near "boiling point" with rage over the abuse of indigenous children and the "taskforces, reports, inquiries and recommendations that just get ignored". Ms Coorey, who spent five years researching a now-buried report on indigenous sexual abuse, said she was told that "in some of the more traditional communities, the initiation of Aboriginal male children is being hijacked around child sexual abuse. "For children, it would be difficult and confusing to understand what is cultural and what is abuse," her report said. "Children may not be aware that they were being abused." The claim comes as 10 people, including five adult men and five teenagers from a Northern Territory Aboriginal community, face court for the false imprisonment and rape of an 11-year-old boy who contracted gonorrhoea during multiple sexual assaults. Magistrate David Loadman has said the men are accused of offences which, if proven, "must involve substantial, if not life, imprisonment". Ms Coorey, who was assisted in her research by three indigenous "mentors", said "everybody raced to cover up my report. There was a real bunfight just to get it tabled. "There are people in the federal parliament who want action but there is this mad political correctness, this covering up, that just goes on and on. "There are people who don't want this issue discussed." Ms Coorey's report was commissioned by Liberal parliamentarian Bill Heffernan and tabled in federal parliament in March 2005 but Ms Coorey said "nobody within any department ever acknowledged it or did anything with it. They just put it on the shelf." Pam Greer, an indigenous community worker who has worked with police and other agencies in the Northern Territory, Queensland and NSW, said she tried to raise the issue but "we're always told, oh, we can't allow there to be another stolen generation, we can't have kids being taken away from their parents. "We are told, if you talk about this, it's blackening the name of the Aboriginal community but it's not. We're not talking about the community, we're talking about individual men having sex with children, young girls, young boys, and everybody too terrified to speak up about it. "It's a tragic, tragic situation because the children lie awake at night, waiting for it to happen to them, just lie there, waiting," she said. "They know it's coming for them, because it's happened to everybody. "And who are they getting abused by? People who are in positions of power, who control the services. And what happens? The children get stoned, get drunk, hang themselves, and we all know why." She said federal minister Mal Brough "is really listening and trying to do something but he gets resistance from everybody else". Ms Greer said she was likewise "sick of reports, sick of inquiries, where we all get up and cry and say how bad it is, and the thing gets put on the shelf". Queensland University of Technology researcher Mick Adams last month completed a survey of indigenous men in Queensland and the Northern Territory, uncovering shocking levels of abuse. One in 10 indigenous boys had been raped by the age of 16, or 10 times the number in the non-indigenous community. Mr Adams, himself indigenous, said the abuse occurred "largely in secrecy, and there's no way anybody could say this is a normal part of initiation ceremonies or protected by cultural laws". "There's no way this is supposed to be happening. Uncles have an obligation to the nephews, to the young men, to help them find the right path." Earlier this year, a NSW report, Breaking the Silence, found that sexual assault of indigenous children was so widespread in NSW that not a single family in 29 communities surveyed was unaffected by it. The report said "both boys and girls were victims, and perpetrators reported as being important people within the community".

by **biaothanatoi** » Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:52 pm

<a href="http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20373512-601,00.html" target="top">Sex abuse part of culture, boys told</a> Caroline Overington September 08, 2006 The Australian ABORIGINAL boys as young as eight are being used for sex and told, "It's a cultural thing", an indigenous researcher in the Northern Territory has warned. Gary Lee, an indigenous man studying for a PhD at Charles Darwin University, said he had counselled boys who had been abused by community elders "for these very strange pseudo-cultural reasons". "It seems to have almost a cultural sanction," Mr Lee said. "Everybody knows it's happening, There's a real reluctance to talk about it, yet everybody seems to know who the perpetrators are, and they are elders, older relatives, people with power." Mr Lee said he encountered an eight-year-old boy in a remote island community "whose behaviour was totally sexualised". "He was behaving more like a teenager or a young adult. He didn't know how else to relate to an adult. "In remote communities, you see giant screens set up, with everybody - two-, three- and four-year-old boys - invited to sit around watching pornography. "In my research, I had to conclude it occurs in this cultural context, this fake cultural context, which is something I really didn't want to find." Mr Lee said men in positions of power could easily find boys to abuse because they "abuse the resources. They control the money, or the booze, or some other service, and like all sexual abuse, there's an abuse of power". The Australian reported yesterday that indigenous boys were being abused under the cover of fake initiation ceremonies. In the Northern Territory, at least one group of mothers in a remote community have reportedly banned their boys from attending an initiation camp with an elder suspected of abuse. Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Mal Brough said children had to be protected. "It's patently clear coming out of report after report, and story after story, that there is a major problem with child sexual abuse in indigenous communities," he said, adding that laws to prevent such abuse existed. "I have said all along that I urge the states and territories to enforce their laws to protect children." The federal Government had committed $130 million last month to assist the states and territories to enforce the law, "keeping in mind that law and order is their responsibility". The states and territories "must act on this insidious problem", Mr Brough said. Liberal senator Bill Heffernan said: "It's well-known to everybody that the sexual abuse is chronic, and I was abused for saying it. Now I just hope I live long enough to see people have to eat a shit sandwich over it, because everything we said is true." The Australian also reported yesterday that the NSW Labor Government had failed to respond to a disturbing report on sexual abuse of indigenous children. The report, titled Breaking the Silence, said every Aboriginal family in 29 communities studied had been affected by abuse. The report was completed months ago, but there has been no official response, prompting dismay in the authors, who travelled widely to complete it. But a spokesman for state Attorney-General Bob Debus said: "No one is dragging the chain. There are, I don't know exactly, how many recommendations, but a lot of recommendations, more than 100 recommendations, and they're all being very seriously considered. The aim is not to provide a two-page response, but to provide a thorough solution." He could not say when the Government's response would be released. "I'm not entirely sure but it's not far away," he said. "It's a live issue, people are working on it. Shortly, I'm told."

"Boys molested in bogus initiations"

"Boys molested in bogus initiations"

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