The Disability Royal Commission will bring forward the hidden stories of abuse in indigenous communities.
“People are bringing up vulnerable experiences and what support is after that? They haven’t talked about, or funded appropriately, healing programs and support for before or after.”
June Riemer from First Peoples Disability Network Australia (FPDN) said First Nations people are 1.7 times more likely than their non-First Nations counterparts to live with a disability.
“In traditional groups and languages, there isn’t a word for disability. People, not always but in most groups, looked after one another. If someone was born with an impairment you just went along with the mob and you were looked after.”
“In colonial areas, our groups were marginalised, put on the edges of towns – not being allowed to work or have an education. We were at a disadvantage, if you were a person with a disability you were fighting alongside everyone else,” Ms Riemer said.
Ms Riemer said service systems and Indigenous Australians didn’t connect well as they were government-based initiatives. “If it was to do with government, it meant they had business with your family and sometimes people were scared to bring forward, for example a mother with a child who had a disability, because she would be then seen as a bad mother.”
“Generally, our mob has never connected well with the service systems because it has never been culturally appropriate. The general block funding around service system support was that people worked nine to five but what if you needed help after five? Or if there are geographical boundaries, if you lived outside of a serviced area there was no flexibility to include you.”
“It’s only been in recent times that there has been that larger disability focus in general so most of the programs across different states came under the umbrella more so of ageing services – so there weren’t appropriate supports available.”
Read more at National Indigenous Times
