by Maggie Blackeye

This guest writer is a Nyungar woman, making bold statements about the hardships faced by Indigenous women in Western Australia.

The role of aboriginal women in Australian society has been changed substantially since numerous government policies tore apart the fabric of Nyungar society. ...

For some time now, self-appointed "elders" of the community (disproportionately men) have driven social policy for the rest of the Nyungar community in Perth, and to a larger extent indigneous communities right across WA (Perth being the capitial of Western Australia). The lack of cultural knowledge of the roles of women and men has resulted in a distorted view of indigenous society in general, and a lack of focus amongst indigenous male youth...

It has been suggested that men's initiation now involves car stealing and drinking grog, such an insult to the ways of the genuine elders and lawmen, who still exist today (yes!! They are not all extinct as the media would have us believe). The women are left to rape which has previously been sanctified by a court of western law as "traditional"; they are not afforded the same education in sexual education resulting in extremely young mothers and a disgustingly high level of sexual disease, and domestic violence that have all been labelled as "traditional" practices of indigenous people.

Now indigenous male "leaders" who have been brought up in western institutions with western ways of thinking are willing to advocate any particular view or policy on indigenous culture for the right amount of dollars... Grabbing power through the fracturing of our own people is an injustice and I pray that they recognize this when the law of the land and the ancestors comes down, when their spirits are reclaimed. They do not realise the damage they do to their own sons as they become known as a nation of rapists and theives.

Of course I write as a Nyungar yorga, who has lived in this city amongst disrespectful Nyungars for many years. For me the real issue is how Aboriginal "tradition" has been distorted to mask the abuses of both Nyungar men and the white-dominated legal system.

Traditionally, small family groups and clans adhered to a strict kinship system that afforded protection, autonomy and respect to girls and women. Even the act of arranged marriages was overseen by other wives and family, who would come to bring down law if domestic violence was suspected.

This traditional culture has been torn apart and re-written, to the point that it no longer resembles that rich and respectful old way.

My greatest wish for my people is that they may listen to their spirits, listen to the land, realise that they are not that "aboriginal" that they see on TV, but the men and women of the land. The old ways are not dead yet.