I was talking to a friend yesterday that is from the Bachella Tribe, and has alot to do with the prison systems in Australia. She said that there was littlier support out there for the aboriginal community with loved ones in prison. I have given her PTO flyers to pass around in the prison system.
I would like to say that we are extremely happy to have them here, and we would love to learn more about there culture, as well as give each other support.

Also for our aboriginal community, if you need it, we have available local aboriginal advocacy group information, for you and your families, for information on your cultural and legal rights in the prison systems.

Nice to know those down under are on board at PTO. Would very much like to hear more about your joys and sorrows with the prison system in Australia as well as your take on issues we face here in the US. Welcoming you and sending you wishes for all good things from across the pond. ~ WJ ~

Thanks WJ, for the nice welcome. I am sure the Australian/NZ forum will be a success. Although I don't have anyone here in the prison system now, my brother was in prison for 14 months years ago, and one of my cousins was in Denpasar Prison in Indonesia for 6 years (now there's some stories). The love of my life is in a Washington Prison. I have been learning real fast about your judicial/prison system. And can't help comparing the U.S with Aus. While both systems need reform, I don't think Aus is as bad as the U.S.......yet! There are only a few prisons in Aus that are privatized, owned by American companies. And they are the worst!!!! sorry.
Well, drop in often and thanks again for the welcome.

A friend of mine in Brisbane used to do a lot of legal aid work (he was a QC - retired now) with the aborigine community in the area. I had hoped things had improved for them over the years since I left but, as in the States, and to a degree here in England, nothing has changed. That was a good idea, Kyla, to put fliers around. Let's hope some come here for much needed support.

Rose

Kyla thank you for bringing up the issue of our Aborginal community. A very much misunderstood culture, perhaps, in a way like our mentally ill friends.

I am looking forward to reading anyone thoughts on this subject.

To be brief, and I'm sure Kyla could it explain it much better than me. Please never confuse the Australian Aborigine with the African American, two totally different people and culture. If comparisons could be made then perhaps compare them with the American Indian and even then we are looking at two different cultures with the only similarity being both were at one with the earth and what she provides.

The Australian Aborginal lived within tribes and were nomadic.......nomadic being the word. To place an Aborginal person in prison with only maybe a window to look out is like a death sentence. So many have been found dead in their cells even after a very short time, like overnight. Aboriginals in detention here is a huge socialogical problem. These people live in some kind of void. They have their culture but no way to live it and they can't seem to adjust to society as it is today. I might also add that these problems have been with us for over 100 years, maybe longer.

my husband is cherokee Indian. In prison, the aboriginal community took him in with open arms, and anyone else for that matter. They are wonderful and compassionate people, and i am so glad that they did get there own spiritual centre, where they could do there artwork and ceromonies.

You know, my husband is schizophrenic and disabled, and the aboriginal elders have taken time out to help him, not because they have to, but because they want to. They are very spiritual people, that have my upmost respect.

In the prison system, they do get treated unfairly, but not so much in the prisons, mostly by being held in watch houses, where "some" officers find it funny to beat them around.

Every aboriginal person I have met has always treated me with respect, and they deserve respect as well, just like any other culture. There culture is beautiful, and their beliefs are very similar native american beliefs.

Another note, a person on the street, would just pass your kids up, and ignore them, the people from the Badtula Tribe take time out to tell my kids dream time stories, and teach them aboriginal art and culture. I want my kids to be open minded, and I thank them for doing that. The pain that the aboriginal community have endeared over the past has to end, enough is enough. There blood flows red to, and they are wonderful people.

I am doing Indigenous Studies at Tafe, and until I began the course, I had NO IDEA of exactly what Aboriginal People have had to deal with. I was one of those people who never really gave them a second thought because I just knew nothing about them. I am ashamed to say that now.

Kyla I am not sure if you have heard about Malcolm Smith. At the age of 11, after the death of his mother, he stole a bicycle. A white kid would have received a slap on the wrist, but being an Aboriginal they took him away from his family and put him in a Juvenile Detention place. His family had no idea where he was, and the Authorities told Malcolm that his family were ashamed of him and didn't want him anymore. For an Aboriginal, being ousted from his family is something that brings great shame.

Fast forward a few years, and he is released...he goes back to his family for a little while, but because he can't work, he steals food, clothing (suitcases from the train station) etc. The things he stole were for the survival of him and his family. He was caught and put back inside...eventually he is released again and goes back home.

Anyway, one day his sister tells him that her husband has been beating her up...Malcolm goes to the pub to 'front' his brother in law, and they come to blows...the brother in law goes down and hits his head on the gutter...and dies. Malcolm is now branded a killer and goes back to prison...In a period of 17 years, he only spent 9 months on the outside.

Ok, back in prison, Malcolm begins to have psychotic episodes...he can hear God talking to him, and God tells him he is evil...then Malcolm starts reading the scriptures...and there is one part in one of the Gospels where it says something along the lines of "If your right eye troubles you, cut it out. It is better to gouge out your own eye than to fail to enter the Kingdom of God" (please forgive me...this isn't word perfect it's just meant to give you an idea)

Malcolm starts hurting himself...the voices are unrelenting, he is really in a bad way. He needed serious mental health- but No...he was left alone to suffer and slowly go mad. He was written off as being unintelligent and a troublemaker. In the documentary I watched they read part of his files...so sad that they had given up on this man who was very artistic and loved his family. What chance did he have?

One day he went into the toilet with a pencil under the sleeve of his shirt...and gouged out his eye, and in the process he pierced the frontal lobe of his brain and died. So very very sad. This documentary showed me that we are so fortunate to have people who are indigenous to our land. They have such a rich culture, and we should work harder at understanding them, and what they have been through over the past 200 years. Then, and only then, healing can begin.

Sorry this was so long, I just feel it's an important story, and it will give people an understanding of what goes wrong and why.

If you have read this far, thank you for caring. :)

Kerrie
That is a magnificant post, and yes I read it until the end. I have great respect for the aboriginal community, and what they go through.
I can tell you a story. This one young man was picked up for drunk and disorderly, should of just spent a night in the wathchouse, got a minor fine, and went home. He didnt do anything wrong to anyone, was just staggering the streets.
The police picked him up, and belted him up so bad, that he died. He didnt do anything wrong. :(
Do you think you could get some statistics on the indeginous people in custody? I found something the other day, I just had to sift through it all, and got busy. I know that the spiritual centres let them do there artwork, they get nothing for it, exept a little relaxation time, and the prisons sell them to the tourist shops, and sell them at OUTRAGEOUS prices, and make themselves a heap of money.
I think that they have alot to offer us as people, and I live among the aboriginal community here where I am, and all I can say is that they are free loving spirits, that deserve alot more respect than what they get.

HI again Kyla (no, I am not following you around the boards! lol )

One of the girls in my class is doing an assignment on Aboriginals in custody, so I will ask her for the stats, and if she can't give them to me, I'll find out where to get them.

The course I am doing is called "Human Rights in Indigenous People", and when we started it, the teacher showed us the Declaration of Human Rights, and said no matter which one we choose from the charter, Aboriginals have had it violated. Un-bloody-believable.