Balgi, Teena --- "Moving Beyond the Royal Commission: Interview with Winsome Matthews" [2001] IndigLawB 40; (2001) 5(8) Indigenous Law Bulletin 24
Moving Beyond the Royal Commission
Based on an Interview with Winsome Matthews
by Teena Balgi
At the 1997 National Summit into Deaths in Custody, the majority of states and territories made a commitment to develop comprehensive Aboriginal Justice Plans. In December 2000, the NSW Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council (‘AJAC’) released a discussion paper entitled ‘Where to from here?’, which looks at potential directions for Aboriginal justice planning. It argues that the recommendations of the Royal Commission, and the ad hoc approach to implementation adopted to date, are insufficient to deal with rising imprisonment rates.
The Aboriginal Justice Plan currently being developed by AJAC involves a holistic, issues based and ‘bottom-up’ approach to assist Indigenous communities in dealing with Aboriginal justice planning issues. Part of this new approach involves looking at the root causes of the problems and trying to determine the best way to achieve the desired outcome. The paper suggests that communities should have direct input into Aboriginal justice issues, by way of pin pointing the issues that they would like to see addressed. The solutions to these problems should then be developed and implemented by the communities with the assistance of government agencies. The paper advocates the development of an interagency, co-operative arrangement between government departments, so that each defined issue is the responsibility of all departments. Any such community-based initiatives would receive pooled funding, which would then be allocated amongst the relevant government service providers.
What was the impetus behind the report and the new approach?
We made very strong declarations at the beginning of this second structure of AJAC that we would go all out to relocate Aboriginal issues in the criminal justice system into a cultural framework. To do that it is important that we come from a framework that addresses the impact of colonisation and recognises how the destruction of cultural and spiritual identity is one of the major causes of problems within Aboriginal communities. We have to make sure that the work we do is empowering culturally but also alerts to a spiritual empowerment.
It is imperative that we form holistic frameworks so that underlying issues as to why people offend in the first place can be addressed concurrently with the issues that exist. If you’re an individual that is Stolen Generation and you haven’t hooked up with your people or don’t know what your identity is, then that is going to have a major emotional and psychological effect on who you are as an individual. Sometimes people can have very corrupted views of their Aboriginality and often take up the negative stereotype to validate their identity. I only know this because I have heard a lot of stories from Aboriginal adults who say, ‘when I grew up I thought it was part of my culture to be an alcoholic, to be violent and to be sexually promiscuous’. They were the messages that your environment was giving you. We now know that through government neglect a lot of our communities have evolved into dysfunctional communities so that it is now a syndrome, where we have excessive consumption of alcohol and excessive types and occurrences of violence. The extreme of that is infant and elder rape. Our most vulnerable are being violated and perpetrated against in a more concentrated way.
The Royal Commission thoroughly examined why Aboriginal people are over-represented in the justice system and stands as probably the most intense research on Aboriginal justice issues ever done. However there have been a number of problems with its recommendations. Many of them are process oriented, some are hard to define and there is a range of issues not addressed by the Royal Commission or that have arisen since it handed down its findings. There have been some significant changes since the Royal Commission but there remain many issues that have not changed or have in fact become worse. We have had a real struggle in getting government agencies to report against their responsibility to implement the recommendations pertinent to their portfolio. They were just regurgitating initiatives that fitted under headings. It was not an actuality of that agency addressing the recommendations and coming up with findings that were reflective of that recommendation. We want to move from simply reporting on Royal Commission recommendations to focus more directly on the issues that the Royal Commission identified. It’s about identifying a more qualitative way to actually ensure that the problems it identified are addressed.
Part of the holistic approach is about co-operation or inter-sectoral collaboration across the whole of government to address issues in communities. Often you have symptoms and causes operating at the same time and it is not effective to have just one agency trying to do deal with one issue affecting an Aboriginal family, individual or community. There is a whole plethora of other issues that are running concurrently that need addressing.
A further impetus for this approach was the problems created when you have centrally prescribed views about what Aboriginal people should be doing. These views often do not reflect the needs of the community and result in lingo like ‘ad hoc approach’. Often the communities get blamed because they are judged as not being cohesive enough to be able to make the initiative work. I would question whether the communities’ aspirations for change were even noted or asked of in the first place.
What is the new approach?
The main idea of the Justice Plan is to provide a means where local Aboriginal communities and government service providers can establish a regular dialogue, where those communities can identify their own problems and work cooperatively with government to develop and implement local solutions. The Plan itself will provide an overarching statewide framework, a mechanism that will actively encourage government agencies and peak Aboriginal bodies to work together, examine ways to share resources, to identify and work toward the same broad goals and objectives, to recognise and address the root causes of many Aboriginal justice problems. That framework will provide the overall direction, but will be broad and flexible enough to actively encourage local Aboriginal communities to negotiate with government agencies to identify their own problems and develop their own local solutions. It’s one thing to say that Aboriginal communities should take responsibility for their own problems but it’s another to give them the freedom and flexibility to do that.
How will it be implemented?
AJAC will be the central coordinating body, and will coordinate the development of the Plan. From August there will be dedicated staff from AJAC working specifically on developing the Justice Plan.
AJAC Regional Councils will also have a role in implementation. The Councils exist independently of the Justice Plan development and have a regular and ongoing role to play in addressing Aboriginal justice issues in their respective region. They also have a role in assisting AJAC by raising community issues from their regions and in examining possibilities of regional service cooperation, resource sharing and other joint inter-governmental initiatives.
This approach is not about a group of people (Aboriginal or otherwise) from Sydney travelling around the place consulting. It’s about establishing local arrangements where discussion and negotiation can occur on a regular basis and becomes a standard way of doing business with Aboriginal people, so that Aboriginal people can have a real say in what services are provided to them locally and how those services are delivered.
How will the government be informed about their role in the process?
At the moment, I am actually putting together a series of meetings and briefings with peak Aboriginal organisations and members of the Cabinet Committee of Aboriginal Affairs. The AJAC Executive Officer and Chairperson will have separate briefings with all of these organisations. Then we will bring them all together for a final briefing. We will do the same with Juvenile Justice, the police (Police Service and Police Ministry), the Attorney-General’s Department and the Departments of Aboriginal Affairs, Community Services, Education and Corrective Services. We will assist these departments to identify their roles and responsibilities and answer any queries they may have in the transition to this new way of doing business.
How will communities be informed of the new approach?
We have an entire communication strategy to surround this plan. Progress reports will begiven to the communities and regular fact sheets sent to Aboriginal community organisations and groups informing them of the progress of the Plan. Through the briefings, we will also be asking peak organisations to alert their members and the communities that they deal with of the initiatives and ask them to provide progress reports. We will be publishing media articles in the Koori Mail and perhaps Sydney based broadsheets and regional newspapers. We also hope to get exposure on the radio. Regional Councils, through their role as a monitoring mechanism of council, will also provide feedback to their communities.
How will you maintain a relationship between community and government?
There will be a high level working group chaired by AJAC and consisting of key people from government agencies, ministerial representatives and peak Aboriginal community organisations. There will be, I don’t like the word partnership, a strong relationship formed between community and government through that mechanism.
What kind of time frame are we looking at to have this new approach up and running?
18 months. We are currently at the beginning of the process.
Do you think that these ideas are transferable to other States and Territories?
Absolutely. Other things motivate AJACs in other states and territories, but it is still based on developing a cultural framework. In NSW, we are at the cutting edge of a lot of issues in relation to Aboriginal affairs. We are seen as the lead state maybe on the new approach. I am not saying that other states and territories aren’t doing good things. There are brilliant things happening because they are more acutely aligned to the cultural framework.
Do you think it will be difficult to implement this new approach and achieve widespread support?
If people want justice for Aboriginal people in this country then this new approach has to be accepted. So far it is going really well because it is providing solutions with longevity to issues like the over-representation of Aboriginal people in custody.
Part of the role of AJAC is to develop new ideas and ways of doing business between government agencies and Aboriginal communities. If we are accepted as the specialists then I would hope that people are waiting with baited breath. If not, then it is time to start sorting people out into those who are part of the problem or part of the solution.
It is about being accepting of new approaches and new philosophies. Those philosophies are built on the truth. Government needs to accept that Aboriginal people are best located to identify the solutions to their problems. That does not mean we all run out there and start consulting with Aboriginal people. It means we take a new approach and look at how we now negotiate the provision of solutions that communities have identified. It means government taking a step back and trusting Aboriginal communities to solve their own problems.
Winsome Matthews is the current chairperson of NSW AJAC. She is also a project consultant for the Department for Women and is involved in project development at the Indigenous Women’s Project. Teena Balgi is an editor of the Indigenous Law Bulletin.