As another January 26th rolls around we are again reminded that, for Australia’s First Nations people, this isn't a date for celebrating. For many, it’s a date that represents invasion, trauma and mourning and can be a painful reminder of the continuing impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people and culture in this country.
At the forefront of the conversation for increased justice is the call for Governments around Australia to ‘Raise the Age’ . That is, to raise the age at which Australian children can be arrested or locked up from (a very young) 10 to 14 years of age. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are disproportionately impacted by these laws and pushed into custody at even higher rates, accounting for 65 per cent of younger people in prisons. And, when we talk about Indigenous incarceration then we must too acknowledge the current endemic of deaths in custody.
A prominent voice in calling for Australia’s age of criminal responsibility to be raised is Deadly Connections, a community-led Sydney based not-for-profit that works to break the cycle of disadvantage and trauma and directly address the over-representation of Aboriginal people in the child protection and justice system(s). Deadly Connections’ primary aim is to improve mental health, reduce anti-social and risky behaviours to improve community safety, and crucially, to reduce the disproportionate rate of Aboriginal people coming into contact with the justice system. They do this by offering community centred, culturally responsive and holistic projects to develop stronger, safer communities for families, individuals and children. Some of these projects include:
Deadly Young Warriors
Deadly Young Warriors is designed to empower jargums and young people to increase/maintain their self-confidence, develop their skills, capacity, and strengthen their cultural identity. The project adopts an early intervention, prevention, and diversion approach and is delivered through a range of community led, purpose-driven activities and mentoring, as well as specialised justice support and advocacy.
Girra-Girra Place
A semi-independent therapeutic program for people whose lives have been impacted by substance use, homelessness, child protection and justice systems, family breakdown and violence, providing a safe place for people to begin their individual healing journeys. Girra Girra has been developed by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people and the program is staffed by people with lived experience, who have embarked on their own healing journeys.
Deadly Futures
The Deadly Futures program offers fun, creative, educational, and cultural activities for Aboriginal young people who have been suspended, or at risk of suspension or being disengaged from high school. It aims to strengthen Aboriginal young peoples connection to culture, improve school engagement, develop literacy/numeracy skills, disrupt the school to prison pipeline, provide mentoring, drug and alcohol information and education, and provide links to support for children and their families.
Bugmy Justice Project
The purpose of the Bugmy Justice Project is to identify the unique systematic, racial, cultural, and historical factors specific to Aboriginal people who will be sentenced by NSW criminal courts. By reducing information asymmetries this project seeks to improve the sentencing processes and outcomes for defendants by providing courts with additional information that addresses the personal and community circumstances of the individual Aboriginal person and relevant sentencing options. At present, Aboriginal people are disempowered by Sentence Assessment Reports (SAR) that provide a narrow snapshot and risk assessment of the individual, while current risk assessment tools are shown to be inaccurate and potentially culturally biased against Aboriginal people.
‘Our programs work at the heart of the community and are driven from our own cultural beliefs and traditions so we can break the cycle at key life stages where disadvantage and trauma emerge. They are innovative programs based on lived experience and personal skills that create change.’ - Deadly Connections
For this quarter, we were honoured to give $2,683 to Deadly Connections, to support their vital work in helping break the cycles of disadvantage, trauma, child protection and justice involvement so that Australia’s First Nations people can thrive and not just survive.
This #survivalday (Jan 26th) why not lend your support by donating to Deadly Connections here, and while you’re at it, you can also:
Sign the Raise the Age petition and write to your local MP
And spread the word!
Image credit: Luke Currie - Richardson