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What indigenous society has to teach about raising kids

Dick Estens

by Dick Estens

04 Aug 05:44am

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Filed under: Indigenous Affairs, Paid Parental Leave, Parenting, Politics, Society

41 comments

The health and welfare of our young people has been at the centre of many policy announcements made so far this election.

Tradtional indigenous society built values and respect in the children. Pic: File

Childcare centres and chubby babies provide popular photo opportunities for campaigning politicians, and both parties are arguing over who’s paid parental leave scheme is best.

Focusing on our young people is important: they are the future of our nation, the next pillars of our community; but is it the role of government to tell us how to raise our children?

Last month, the Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth recommend a national youth violence and rehabilitation strategy in its Avoid the Harm – Stay Calm report. 

It identified a number of factors – personal, social, environmental – which have led to alarming levels of youth violence. Committee Chair Annette Ellis MP said “young people aged 15 – 24 are nearly twice as likely to be victims of assault when compared to the general population.”

The report highlighted the role that interpersonal relationships with family and friends play in shaping a young person’s attitude to violence.

But whose responsibility is it to guide our social cohesion? Is a top down government approach the best way? Or should families be taking back responsibility for building strong communities with strong values?  And how can we do this?

Australia has the incredible fortune to have direct access to one of the richest indigenous cultures in the world. For sheer complexity of social organisation, no other indigenous culture on earth can hold a candle to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

The resilience of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people against wicked odds gives us not just a window into their community structure, but a door too if we choose to step through it.

Pre-European settlement, traditional Aboriginal family structures extended far beyond the modern nuclear model. Each member had a defined place and role, and individual interests were subordinate to the group. Individualism, greed and selfishness were serious social crimes. Aboriginal society was about reciprocal obligations of giving and receiving; status was determined by what you knew, not what you had.

Aboriginal Elders kept communities functioning and held power through their knowledge of ceremony and lore. 

They were the keepers of spiritual and practical wisdom; kept a tight rein on marriages, disputes, initiations and ceremonies, and maintained the societal structure.

Continuity bred trust, and trust bred stability. Parents and extended family members helped build values, respect and a strong sense of community in the children.

When Australia was settled by a community of convicts, prison guards and their accompanying bureaucracy, they blew this apart.

European society saw Aboriginal communities as lawless and godless. Nomadic, self-sufficient cultures were viewed as primitive. And so English settlers, and the generations which came after them, did their best to destroy them.

Over the years my travels and work with Indigenous communities have exposed me to the devastation wreaked upon communities by the trashing of their social fabric. The impact has been akin to nuclear fallout.

Addressing the ‘Indigenous problem’ has taken up millions of policy hours and reams of paper. But if we reflect on non-Indigenous Australian society, we see similar issues.

Modern Australia has high divorce rates and growing drug, alcohol and violence issues with our youth. While alcohol is often the cause of violence, people don’t seem to understand that alcohol is only a symptom of the problem.

American counselor John Bradshaw explores the impact of alcohol on the family structure in his book “The Family”.

Bradshaw talks about the cause of emotionally impaired families and how the unhealthy rules of behavior are passed down from parents to children, and the destructive effect this has on our society. He claims that 97 per cent of families are dysfunctional. Today’s modern society is a constant struggle.

Yet we can’t go back by bringing grandparents back into the family home. Part of the solution may be found by studying older cultures.

Aboriginal people in Aurukun, on the Gulf of Carpentaria, recognize this. In Aurukun, Family Responsibility Commissioners and the Community Justice Group are using their wisdom and influence of Elders to bring about positive change.

Elders act as guides and mentors by sharing their experiences, knowledge and help people to understand their responsibilities. They create a safe place for people to learn and discuss these responsibilities.

But in modern Australia, government support in the form of aged care pensions has meant the elderly have been removed from the family home and from the lives of our young people. Paid parental leave schemes make it more economically viable for women to balance childcare and careers.

So in the rush to provide for some of society’s most marginalized, has government taken on a role they shouldn’t? 

Governments are not here to fix problems such as youth violence by giving out money – it should be a family and community responsibility.

Strong, unyielding communities lead to better outcomes for everyone, including the country as a whole. Parents and extended family members should help to build values, respect, and a sense of community.

And I believe we could all benefit from looking to traditional Aboriginal culture to help us do that.

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41 comments

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    • John A Neve says:

      08:57am | 04/08/10

      Oh, for a pair of those Rose tinted glasses.
      “Traditional indigenous societie build value and respect in the children”!!!!
      Sadly not true, based on crime rates, unemployment and alcoholism, early Australians have little regard for any of societies better ideals.

      Reply

    • snow says:

      09:41am | 04/08/10

      Believe it or not, our culture is not the same as Indigenous Peoples culture. The “societies better ideas” as you call them, are ours, not theirs, and we have imposed them upon them. This was their country and land first, and we kicked them out.

      It is attitudes like this that are stopping progress ever being made.

    • Rick says:

      11:54am | 04/08/10

      Snow, what do you mean by ‘progress’?

    • snow says:

      02:30pm | 04/08/10

      I mean progress on all the “close the gap” initiatives and campaigns. There are people who get it and others who have the wrong attitude, such as John from above. Let’s call it ignorance.

    • BK says:

      03:28pm | 04/08/10

      Believe it or not Snow, aboriginal people are capable of making decisions. Traditional aborinal culture was and is still being abandoned as much as destroyed.

    • Christian Real says:

      05:45pm | 04/08/10

      John A Neve
      Perhaps by your opinion John, you hold a some what narrow minded,tunnel vision view about our people.
      I can assure you John, my sisters and I were raised with values and respect ,and yes ‘Traditional indigenous society does build value and respect in their children” but like other nationalities, including white fellas included, there is good and bad. Perhaps instead of stereo-typing our people, you could take a look around you at those non Aboriginal people that also commits crimes, that are also unemployed and that also suffers from alcoholism.

    • John A Neve says:

      11:56am | 05/08/10

      Christain,
      I’d hate to think I had a “narrow mind” or “tunnel vision” and no, I don’t think all people are good or bad whatever their race.
      But the numbers Christain speak for themselves, added to which 100 years of whinging does no one any good.

    • The Badger says:

      09:31am | 04/08/10

      A little naive John, aren’t you?

      I think you forgot that in a “traditional indigenous society”, There was no unemployment or alcoholism. The aboriginals didn’t have alcohol, it was one of the white-mans “gifts” to the aboriginals.
      And what crime there might have been in a “traditional indigenous society” was dealt with quickly and often quite harshly by the elders.

      Reply

    • Melanie says:

      09:41am | 04/08/10

      John A Neve, was that English?
      I believe Mr Estens referred to “traditional” Indigenous societies. In other words, the societies that existed before European invasion destroyed their social systems.

      Reply

    • John A Neve says:

      01:13pm | 04/08/10

      Melanie,
      You’ll note it was a quote. As to “their social systems”, what exactly were they?

    • Melanie says:

      01:21pm | 04/08/10

      John,
      To quote from this article:
      “Pre-European settlement, traditional Aboriginal family structures extended far beyond the modern nuclear model. Each member had a defined place and role, and individual interests were subordinate to the group. Individualism, greed and selfishness were serious social crimes. Aboriginal society was about reciprocal obligations of giving and receiving; status was determined by what you knew, not what you had.”

    • John A Neve says:

      01:30pm | 04/08/10

      Melanie,
      Just where did that info come from. Some text perhaps?
      Sorry, but this is all conjecture on your part.

    • iansand says:

      03:08pm | 04/08/10

      If you want a fascinating description of the complexity of some Aboriginal kinship relationships I commend a read of theis case Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd (1971) 17 FLR 141 - the Gove land rights case.

    • Kate says:

      03:35pm | 24/03/11

      John A Neve, that quote of Melanie’s came word for word from the above article that some of us just read. I’ll say ‘some’ as since you didn’t recognise it, I’ll guess you didn’t. Though I should point out that that is conjecture.

    • Bertrand says:

      09:50am | 04/08/10

      Traditional Australian society (aboriginal society before white settlement) is simply the same as every stone age society. Survival of the fittest, with only enough social refinements and cooperation as assists the strongest in their day to day survival.

      I dont see where respect for any children other than your own offspring fits in there.

      Reply

    • Fred says:

      10:00am | 04/08/10

      what a load of trollop, the first australians live in nomadic groups often in constant fueds among tribes. If you stepped out side and broke the rules pending on the percieved crime. Death or a beating would often be the punishment. As far as other tribes total genocide was often practised with the murder of men , women and children. Often they would eat part of thier victims as well to ward off spirits. Aboriginal society was a scarey very violent culture. We learnt alot about the early culture though the journals of William Buckley they are worth a read. If you go to an aboriginal camp today you will find high rates of illness in children, rape,  crimes committed against children, substance abuse,  and disjointed families with poor roles models or no enough role models. This isnt just the fault of the early colonial powers. There are some great aspects of the culture but sadly this picture that you paint of a culture of respect simply isnt there. I would encourage any one if they get a chance to at least visit a camp or town and look what really happens, it a national emergency that is really been used as a political football but it requires massive investment ( more than money)

      Reply

    • Steven says:

      03:19pm | 04/08/10

      I am sorry Fred, your descriptions do not fit with the story of the YanYuwa societies of the Northern territory. These were a collection of groups evolving into a variety of moieties who interacted with each other through common nuetral areas and integrated ceremonial rituals which helped to both uphold the tradition of each mob and evolve a progressive learning tool for further cultural development.
      As for your charge of nomadic behaviour, both Yanyuwa societies, and the King Ya-nup societies of the South West of Australia, for example, did seem to be nomadic when first observed but were soon understood to be moving around a defined area. The Yanyuwa people moved around an area of islands and part of the mainland stretching to about 20-30 km inland and around 60 km in line with the coast.
      Considering the population potential of pre-European society this spread would be similar to a contemporary Australian regional area.
      It is so important to remove the Colonial narrative and perspectives of how humans should live before entering discussions about indigenous societies before white settlement.

    • Fred says:

      04:09pm | 04/08/10

      I stand corrected this was the case of the Wathaurung, Dainggati, Gandangara, Jitajita tribes of NSW. This type of tribal activity was also recorded in Qld and Victoria. They were a violent and aggressive; they had to be they are protecting thier own interest. Look at every other people group they all fought for land, hunting ground, women etc etc. You make out they are a bunch of peace loving hippies they are a proud people who have and should fight for thier rights. It is not uncommon for a whole group to destoy another family group. It call survival of the fittest. It happen in alot in Aboriginal socities

    • Christian Real says:

      06:05pm | 04/08/10

      Fred
      For a start,Aboriginal people didn’t resort to cannibalism, so you have perceived that wrong for a start.
      And illness in children, rape,crimes committed against children,substance abuse,and disjointed families don’t only happen within our Aboriginal society, it happens in the white fellas society, and in all different nationality families as well.
      I suppose it is easy for you white fellas to blame all our people all the time, but take a damn look at your own people as well instead of continuely blaming our people.

    • fairsfair says:

      10:08am | 04/08/10

      The italian culture of large family unit and caring for the elderly is also a positive. I am not Italian nor am I Indiginous, but family is a really big thing for me. We stick together we help each other out (emotionally, financially, physically etc) and my parents will never be put in a home. My Grandma lived with us for 10 years before her death and my parents assistance in her lifestyle and care assisted them with childcare after school and we got to know her before she passed - time I would never wish away. It is sad that more families are not like ours in this respect (don’t get me wrong we do have our faults!). I think there is merit to this article, but ultimately it is up to the individuals to make this decision in their own lifestyle and the degree of which is completely personal. I agree with some aspects - govt intervention in some arenas is unwarranted and unhelpful. I do agree with paid maternity leave however - as a decision to keep small business competitive in the labour market and also help out the average Aussie to get started. Handing out welfare hand over fist in attempts to stop alcohol related issue and crime is not the answer though. Perhaps it was all the time I got to spend with Grandma as a kid that has kept my “nose clean”.

      Reply

    • AliceC says:

      10:24am | 04/08/10

      You must be kidding John?

      Before white settlers, guess what the level of alcoholoism was? 0% (they didn’t have alcohol). Unemployment levels before white settlers? 0% (there was no ‘employment’, if you didn’t do your part, you died). Crime? they had their own laws and punishment, which is completely different to Western laws and punishment.

      If another culture came and took over Australia (let’s say China invaded and turned us into a communist country), would you simply roll over and say ‘Oh well, better change everything we do to suit them, it’s their country now’.....

      Reply

    • Eye4anEye says:

      01:19pm | 04/08/10

      They can still live their traditional lifestyle if they choose - get off welfare, stop buying alchohol roam around the bush hunting and gathering (the bush is still there). I suspect they don’t want to as it’s easier to have housing provided (better than the old huts), money provided (beats having to be a skilled and dedicated hunter/gatherer) and a lifespan that whilst significantly lower than the average is still significantly greater than the average “traditional” lifestyle lifespan. Yep they got shafted when Australia was colonised by europeans but they still got alot out of it and a traditional lifestyle is still there if they want it - what’s stopping them aside from themselves from living in this traditional nirvana?

    • John A Neve says:

      01:26pm | 04/08/10

      Alice,
      I love your post.
      No one makes you drink.
      “Unemploymet levels before white settlers? 0%”. So what has changed?
      Crime? So you believe early Australians should be allowed to break the law?
      Tell me Alice a country that has never been invaded?

    • neil says:

      03:51pm | 04/08/10

      That’s what the Brittan’s, the Scotty and the Ire’s did. They abandoned their languages, traditions and customs and eventually became completely Anglo-Saxon (German-French). They will reject this assertion and insist that they are Welsh, Sottish and Irish but to an outsider, except for a few subtleties they all look, sound and act like English.

      Traditional Aboriginal culture was totally Stone Age and it’s completely incompatible with civilisation which is why it has faded away across the entire globe, it’s gone and will never return. Indigenous populations have to accept this and move on, it may sound cruel and unfair but it is inevitable.

      And before everyone jumps on their moral high horse, civilisation refers to a culture settling, building, farming and domesticating. Things Stone Age nomads did not do.

    • AliceC says:

      04:18pm | 04/08/10

      @John

      Once again missing the point. These issues of unemployment and alcoholism would not even exist here if white settlers had not invaded. That is a fact. And I did not state that state that they should be allowed to break the law. I was stating that they had their own ways of punishing those who did break the traditional laws they upheld for thousands of years, You seriously cannot tell me the indigenous people of Australia would have developed in exactly the same way, if this country had not been invaded by foreigners.

      If I do find a country that has not been invaded, I’ll let you know, because they’re probably the happiest people on the planet (no Justin Beiber, for one thing). Are you telling me invading other countries is the right thing to do? I’ll pass that on to the Chinese and Indonesians, they could probably do with some more cheap labour…

    • John A Neve says:

      11:50am | 05/08/10

      AliceC,
      Unlike some I live in the real world. No I am not suggesting invasion is right, but what I am suggesting, is that the way the world is, is a direct result of years of invasions.
      Early Australians, might, yes, might have been better of without white ideas. Who knows, certainly not me. But it is done, would the Picts, Scots and Celts have been better off without the Romans?
      AliceC, the dream time is over, get with reality.

    • Liam says:

      10:54am | 04/08/10

      Bertrand - you are 100% wrong. Original Australia was a land governed by a complex polity system of more than 300 individual nations. “The same as every stone age society” it was not. The intricacies of Aboriginal society are now mostly lost on us - the white colonial invaders. We should be so evil as to trivialise 100,000 years of Aboriginal society. Aboriginal culture and history is now mostly forgotten by even Aboriginals, courtesy of the colonists’ genocide and their descendants’ (read: people like you) racism. Please, keep your damaging ignorance to yourself.

      Reply

    • BobM says:

      01:59pm | 04/08/10

      Well if it’s been ‘mostly forgotten’ where did you get this utopian scenario from? Bertrand is right - if you read any books written by the early (mostly English) explorers, even they were shocked by the way these people treated their women and children. For the most part, they were half starved savages, living a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. “Aboriginal society’ is just a figment of your deluded imagination.

      Reading material : ‘Mr Stuart’s Track’ by John Bailey has some interesting insights.

    • ? says:

      11:01am | 04/08/10

      what a beautiful sentiment… do you have any suggestions for putting it into practice?

      Reply

    • Adam says:

      11:05am | 04/08/10

      Great article but “But in modern Australia, government support in the form of aged care pensions has meant the elderly have been removed from the family home and from the lives of our young people. Paid parental leave schemes make it more economically viable for women to balance childcare and careers.” Surely you can’t be serious? You think it is a bad thing that people are able to support themselves and this should bhe left to families, especially when 97% are alledgedly dysfunctional. In an ideal world we should care but you can’t force people to be good, to be nice and care for others. Nor can a government force people to get along. They are there to make laws not be some personal counseller. On one hand you state it is not governments but the communities role to support the vulnerable, it should be mandated that families do it no matter how stuffed. The rest of the article was great but that quote blew me away.

      Reply

    • Youngone says:

      11:05am | 04/08/10

      How can you say alcohol is only the symptom of the problem. What if there was no alcohol.  There would be no symptoms. The taste, the addictive aspects, the availability, and affordability make it a problem in itself. Tell me why heroin is not the symptom in Aboriginal communities?

      Reply

    • James says:

      11:14am | 04/08/10

      So people were forced by tradition and superstition to remain in their station and never fulfill their human potential? Sounds like a dream. Thanks, but I’ll take a bit of dysfunction with my freedom.

      Reply

    • The Badger says:

      01:52pm | 04/08/10

      Then I guess if you were an Aborigine before the white-man, you would have wandered out into the desert in search of your human potential and died with your dysfunctional freedom. Sounds good to me -  like you would have been an early candidate for the Darwin awards.

      Tradition and superstition sounds a lot like a woman’s place is in the home and my imaginary friend in the sky who looks over me are staples of your life.

    • TheRealDave says:

      11:42am | 04/08/10

      Ahh teh myth of the ‘Noble Savage’ rears its ugly head again. Fair dinkum. I stopped reading after the author of this tripe waxed lyrical about the utopian pre-settlement society and then added this gem: “When Australia was settled by a community of convicts, prison guards and their accompanying bureaucracy” On the bright side he didn’t say invaded, although I bet he scratched it out once or twice.

      Just another bullshit article attempting to re-write history. I keep forgetting its the white mans fault again. Every time we see a plethora of reports about aboriginal kids being abused, raped, murdered and other traditional tribal shenanigans I need to remember its the white mans fault - again.

      Hang on, I must be being racist again, I didn’t agree with myths or buy into the collective White Middle Class Guilt industry again.

      Reply

    • Graham S says:

      02:01pm | 04/08/10

      What has been overlooked is the development of human movement & migration that has taken place in a few hundred years only and mostly from the mid 19th century and onwards as mass travel methods developed. The Aboriginal communities had no contact with outsiders for thousands or years, bar coastal communities and then limited to the NW & Top End. The same theory albeit on a much smaller scale could be applied to every community in the world where contact with outsiders was minimal therefore these communities developed their own culture, beliefs, language and all manner of society rules. It wasn’t until European explorers ventured out to the New World and made their discoveries, claimed the land as their own, followed by their army’s and settlers did the real effect of the disruption to these isolated communities, world wide, develop. There’s been marauding armies since time immemorial but rthey were rarely followed by settlers.
      There are rural communities to this day in Europe where if it wasn’t for modern communication methods their lifestyles wouldn’t have altered one bit i.e parts of Ireland, Romania, Albania let alone parts of the sub continent, Africa & Asia.

      Reply

    • TJ says:

      02:49pm | 04/08/10

      Sorry but that is what happens when nations conquer, it was the way of the world we had better weapons deal with it, we also built houses and sewer systems etc I am not going to forgo my house and comforts like indoor plumbing for a ‘utopian’ ideal

      Reply

    • Sodapoppy says:

      03:44pm | 04/08/10

      Yeah, I’ll eat goanna guts when you do, Sunshine.

      Reply

    • Freeman says:

      08:31pm | 04/08/10

      “When Australia was settled by a community of convicts, prison guards and their accompanying bureaucracy, they blew this apart”

      “European society saw Aboriginal communities as lawless and godless. Nomadic, self-sufficient cultures were viewed as primitive. And so English settlers, and the generations which came after them, did their best to destroy them”

      I’m sure you do some good work with aboriginals, Mr Estens, but no doubt you preach your above statements to your aboriginal subjects also. this sort of talk offers only two things to your audience.1) excuses, excuses that will only create (and support) a victim mentality. a feeling that your people are forever wronged and forever disadvantaged, that’s not good for progress or your cause.
      2) hate toward europeans, which will only enlargen the gap between our societies.
      you might also be surprised by the offence your comments have caused which is evident in the comments above. reconsilliation is a two way street.

      Reply

    • Alex says:

      09:19pm | 04/08/10

      Look at that picture at the top. I can just imagine what that woman at the top is saying: “If you kids don’t stop running around the pool and bombing the smaller kids, I’ll ban you and your whole bloody family!”

      To which the kids reply: “Bugger off lady! My mum told me I could do bombs on those little white kids and you can’t ban us ‘cause uncle told us we can sue youse then!”

      Reply

    • Gregg says:

      12:40am | 05/08/10

      Wow!, and a double wow! I remember a Sydney school girl from what may have been a muslim school when there was an outing to another private [ possibly boys ] college on what they saw as part of a cultural exchange.

      Well, it’s a triple double whammy with backflips for the ignorance shown here with the exception of a few posts, most ridiculing the indigenous society and preaching causes for what is now rather than acknowledge the issue is at the core of the article.
      Y’all may want to read of the first few paragraphs again but I paraphrase for you even if you still want to be defensive.
      . Our society family units are next to non existent .
      . What can be learnt from how indigenous people lived prior to 1788
      Great example fairsfair of what can be in Italian families, Greek and asian ones too.

      We can pick holes for all we’re worth on how things may have been different with indigenous tribes, how in the ice ages people walked from asia to Australia etc., and how there had been little development because of nomadic lifestyles etc. but you have just sidestepped the thrust of the article.
      Sure indegenous tribes may not have had perfect family structures, there was intertribal conflict and it may be our dreamtime to think there could be similar structures to solve our ills but was that not the thrust?

      Are people so blind to the problems we have and the trends to envisage that there may be a better way of life, a life that many families do in fact lead but quite possibly nowhere near the majority.
      And I for one do not doubt that our lifestyle choices will lead to improvement but I also am not going to deny that there could be better ways and how families of both indigenous and non indigenous peoples supported one another in past generations is something we could aspire to.
      Wake up you pathetic lot.

      Reply

    • Swoodoo Billigfluege 2billige Fluege Buchen2 says:

      08:06am | 28/03/12

      Anybody Room,demand minute wonder neither hair effective operation that support test alone pay trend cup percent presence earn emphasis insurance official water mistake old curriculum artist place bind across not occasion news through job beautiful afford return move military reduce ordinary strange teach material when big extra slow loss half concentrate employment half cover woman property quality stone largely institute lady young date academic attractive factory since comment information brother energy adopt fall mind defendant difficulty medical less anybody later that gain high team too economic shot commercial

      Reply
 
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