Missions and Institutions

Some people know about the South Sea Islander slaves but most are ignorant that many thousands of First Nations people were also used as slaves right across Australia, in settlement, on pastures and in industries. Even First Nation children were used in most industries and often kidnapped by 'blackbirders' - the children received no wages and had no opportunity to attend school. The adults often died of slavery or abuse. Here is an article by Alecia Simmonds, Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

A new report says Mental health services for Aboriginal Australians are "both inadequate and inappropriate", and immediate changes are needed to address growing rates of suicide, depression and other mental health issues among Indigenous youth. The report also highlighted several shortcomings in efforts to improve mental health among Indigenous Australians and cited "dramatic" increases in recent years in Indigenous rates of youth suicide, anxiety and depression and other related illnesses.

Children were "chained like dogs" and sexually assaulted at a government-run home for Aboriginal children in Darwin, a child sex abuse inquiry has heard.
A former resident of the Retta Dixon home in Darwin told the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. First Nations girls were chained to their beds, starved and flogged with leather belts until they bled, as punishment at the Retta Dixon Home in Darwin.

In the seven years the Bogimbah Creek mission was open, more than 100 First Nations people perished from illness and malnutrition - the result of appalling living conditions ... Now scientists from the University of the Sunshine Coast will try to return that knowledge to the island's K'Gari community, with the help of ground-penetrating radar.
In 1897, members of Butchulla clans on the island and on the mainland were rounded up and forced to live in the notorious Bogimbah Creek mission, under governments genocidal policy.

There must be thousands of reasons why many First Nations people haven't been able to live as comfortably in a 'white mans world' or establish themselves financially as well as their non-Indigenous counterparts, here is just one of those reasons.

 Elders Report into Preventing Indigenous Self-harm and Youth Suicide pdf

We end up with ideas on suicide prevention that come from Canberra and bear no semblance to what is needed in the community and on the ground

Prior to the late 1990s, Aborigine children were widely regarded as "morally deficient," explains the "Bringing Them Home" report, and the government perpetuated the belief that they were helping disadvantaged children at risk in their own communities by adopting them into white families or government institutions.

Reduce the extreme poverty and in addition send in a crack team of experts to identify trusted Elders and community leaders to work psychosocially with youth, families and communities to restore their right to hope. Fund this support, now ... it’s not rocket science.

Critics argue that assessments of neglect often fail to take Aboriginal culture into consideration.
 
"The classic example is the way Aboriginal children are raised not just by a nuclear family but collectively by grandparents, uncles and neighbors," says Paddy Gibson. "Just because Aboriginal kids are on the streets at night doesn't mean they aren't being watched." He said a lot of FaCS decisions are opinions based on hearsay or the assumption of neglect.