Darwin2007IsPrisonObsolete-SistersInside.docVIP

? Dot Goulding The stolen generation revisited in WA: First we took the children from their parents, now we take the parents from their children Socio-economic position of Indigenous people in Western Australia Colonisation and its consequences; dispossession from land and culture and forcible removal of generations of Indigenous children from their families and communities have had a disastrous impact on Indigenous people’s general wellbeing and life chances. It is well documented that Indigenous people suffer entrenched disadvantage in all aspects of life. They are among the most socially and economically disadvantaged members of West Australian society. Indigenous West Australians endure deep rooted poverty, ongoing systemic racism, high rates of unemployment, as well as bearing the burden of high levels of mental health problems, alcoholism and increasing substance abuse. Some other social indicators of Indigenous disadvantage include: a life expectancy twenty years less than that of non Indigenous people; infant mortality rates which are twice those of other Australian infants, and Indigenous women are twice as likely to be sole parents. Apart from their collective experience of general social disadvantage, Indigenous people in Western Australia are also disadvantaged by their disproportionately high rate of imprisonment. Western Australia’s particular shame: the gross over-representation of Indigenous people in West Australian prisons There are approximately 67,000 Indigenous West Australians. This constitutes around 3.2 per cent of the total West Australian population. Almost half of these are children under the age of 18 years and, Indigenous children aged 0-17 years comprise 6.1 per cent of all Western Australian children in this age group. Let me highlight relative youthfulness of the West Australian Indigenous population: ‘the median age for the Indigenous population in 2001 was around 20 years compared with 36 years for non-Indigenous population’. Ther