Bennelong Society Conference 2007:
The Task Ahead

Bennelong Medal presentation for 2007 to Louis Nowra
on 31 August 2007 at Victoria Hotel, Melbourne

Medal presented by John Reeves QC, member of the Prime Minister's NT National Emergency Response Taskforce

In the past few years or so a number of people from quite different backgrounds have begun to speak out and draw attention to the enormous problems that exist on Aboriginal communities in Australia with sexual abuse and domestic violence. They have included:

Noel Pearson---a lawyer by training, now the head of the Cape York Institute and a male Aboriginal person.

Warren Mundine---the former President of the ALP, also a male Aboriginal person and a past recipient of the Bennelong medal.

Sue Gordon---a WA magistrate, the author of the WA government's commissioned report on Child Abuse on Aboriginal Communities in that state, an Aboriginal woman and, of course, the Chair of the NT Emergency Response Taskforce.

Nanette Rodgers---a Deputy Crown Prosecutor in Alice Springs who had previously worked for Aboriginal legal services defending Aboriginal men charged with sexual abuse and domestic violence and who had become so disenchanted by the whole process that she decided to cross over and work for the other side, so to speak.

And of course---Louis Nowra---the person whose efforts we are here to honour tonight.

This is obviously not an exhaustive list---it ignores the efforts of many members of the Bennelong Society too numerous to mention such that if I start I will be here all night, or offend some by stopping mid stream in the interests of brevity.

If it were not for the efforts of these people and others, the enormous problems on these Aboriginal communities would have gone largely unnoticed---as they had for decades past.

Whilst Minister Brough was undoubtedly aware of these problems before June this year, I have little doubt that the attention generated by these people speaking out significantly strengthened his hand in going to the Prime Minister in June and persuading him and the rest of the Cabinet to back the NT emergency response and the intervention into these 73 Aboriginal communities in the NT.

And without the NT emergency response, I also have little doubt that nothing much would have changed on these Aboriginal communities for years hence, if ever.

They would have continued to experience horrific levels of child abuse, domestic violence, alcohol and other drug abuse, no meaningful work, welfare malaise, poverty, despair and general helplessness.

They would have continued to experience, to quote from Louis Nowra's book "Bad Dreaming":

"a rate of syphilis infection 65 times that of the non indigenous population or

"with one third of the 13 year old girls in Central Australia infected with chlamydia and gonorrhoea

Truly confronting statistics.

So all these people who spoke out about these issues as Louis Nowra did in his book "Bad dreaming" can, I think, claim to have taken a role and a significant role at that, in creating the political climate that lead directly to the Commonwealth's emergency response and intervention into these Aboriginal communities in the NT.

As those of you have tried it will know, speaking out on these issues is not without its reputational risks---anyone who dares to say something that might not fit with the orthodoxy proclaimed by the self appointed Aboriginal leadership or the elites of the eastern seaboard of Australia is usually subjected to the basest forms of personal attacks.

At the same time there is usually no attempt to debate the issues raised.

Speaking out in this area takes quite some courage.

For example: some members of the so called aboriginal leadership have attacked Noel Pearson for speaking out---they have not debated the issues he has raised, but attacked him personally.

Similarly, Sue Gordon and Warren Mundine.

But Louis Nowra is in a different category altogether---for starters he is not an Aboriginal person.

I first heard of his book "Bad Dreaming" when I saw him being interviewed on the ABC's Lateline program earlier this year.

At the time I said to my wife: "this fellow is very brave, if they attack Noel Pearson like they have, just imagine what they will do to him".

She said something about: "isn't he the fellow who wrote 'Cosi'". I confess I pleaded ignorance about that.

But the interview made me curious as to what motivated Louis to write the book.

A short time later I read a review of the book in the Australian Newspaper and that review began by posing this question: "Why would a white male playwright in late middle age buy into the vexed issue of indigenous domestic violence and child abuse?"

I suspect the "late middle age" tag probably reflected the youth of the reviewer---firmly in Generation Y I imagine.

So I went out and bought the book and read it. There I learnt about his personal Epiphany---so to speak---in an Alice Springs Hospital bed and the confronting evidence of violence that passed before him as he lay there.

I read through the graphic and horrific stories of violence and child abuse---I had heard many of them before, but that does not reduce their shock value.

At the end of it I was left with at least two impressions:

First, for those of us who have seen this violence and dysfunction in the NT over many many years---whether in our work---in the courts in my case, or reading about it in the media, or seeing it with our own eyes.

We have unfortunately become conditioned to this violence and I think we needed a book like this:

• to shake us from our lethargy---to remind us that we should not accept excuses for this,
• to remind us that we should not be willing to accept a lower standard of behaviour from Aboriginal men because they are Aboriginal and it is not our business,
• to remind us that it is really not good enough for us to stand by while Aboriginal women and children live lives of daily violence and mayhem on our doorsteps and shrug our shoulders and say "that's their problem".

We needed to be embarrassed out of turning a blind eye to all this ......

And the second impression related to that other group of Australians---those of you who make up the majority of Australia's population and who live on the eastern seaboard of this country.

As an outsider looking down from the "deep north" let me presume to say I think you needed a book like this for different reasons.

You needed to see that embracing Aboriginal culture involves a lot more than admiring dot paintings and dance and engaging in mystical musings about "the dreaming".

You needed to see that the original inhabitants of this country are in deep trouble and they need help to get out of it---not just more handouts but serious long term structural changes---a completely new approach. The sorts of solutions canvassed in chapter 7 of Louis Nowra's book---many of which, not surprisingly have found their way into the Commonwealth's NT emergency response and intervention.

You needed to realise that when someone like Nanette Rogers from the "deep north" had the courage to break ranks and speak out about the mindless and endless violence on Aboriginal communities, that she was genuine, that she should be listened to and not treated as just another "racist red neck", or as someone who is merely trying to demean Aboriginal culture.

You needed to be embarrassed away from turning a blind eye to all this ......just like we, in the "deep north" did.

So congratulations Louis Nowra on having the courage to write "Bad dreaming"

On having the courage to withstand the inevitable attacks from the usual suspects that you are a racist, or ignorant, or similar---and I know there have been those attacks.

Congratulations on having the courage to embarrass us all away from turning a blind eye to the Aboriginal women and children who are the sorry victims.

This award is in some small recognition of that courage and the great service you done by writing "Bad Dreaming" and speaking out on these issues.

Could I ask you to come forward and receive the 2007 Bennelong medal?