Welcome to Good Mob Mad System
Let’s end Aboriginal over-incarceration together.
A reminder of our shared history
Permission provided by Aboriginal Elders to use this image.
Solutions are in Community
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Solutions are in Community 〰️
‘Tough, Tougher, Toughest’
It seems that in Australia today, we have a running competition within states and territories to see who can be toughest on crime. Politically, it works. In every other way, it creates many more problems than it solves. The current policies and rhetoric have little to do with keeping us all safer.
In this space we will explore the issues surrounding Aboriginal over-incarceration from every angle.
Please join the conversation.
To challenge over-incarceration we need all the facts.
In this space we will build a collective hub of what we need to know
In this space we gather together the knowledges from people all around Australia who are writing, fighting and taking action.
‘Listen to us. Hear our stories.’
In the late 1970s, in the years shaped by the successful ‘67 referendum and post-Whitlam, there was a vitality and sense of possibility in the air for Aboriginal people. The idea of ‘self-determination’ had become official policy. Civil Rights activism was part of the Australian landscape. Activists like Gary Foley, Charles Perkins, Isabel Coe, Vincent Lingiari and Marcia Langdon were known around the country. The first Land Rights (NT) Act had been passed in federal parliament. The Tent Embassy was alive and strong. Aboriginal Controlled Health services were being established around the country.
I remember a presentation by Aboriginal activist, Gary Foley. He talked passionately about the challenges facing Aboriginal communities. His arguments were razor-sharp and compelling. I felt energised to be involved and post-talk approached one of the Aboriginal woman organisers to ask her what I could do. Her response: ‘Listen to us. Hear our stories.’
I was more than a bit deflated by her answer. How was that helping? I wanted to do something. Sign me up for something. Help me feel like I am helping. And, if I had been more self-aware, help me ease my whitefella guilt.
It has taken a long time and many awkward moments with very patient Aboriginal teachers over the years to appreciate what she was saying.
Listen and hear. It remains a challenge for us whitefellas- to be comfortable in silence, to take pause and not fill the space with our questions. Then we can listen and keep listening. Only then we can seriously think about acting together.
