Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

always associated with the alienation of the children from the education system’ (NSWAECG submission 362 page 1). The 1994 ABS survey found a relationship betweeneducation and reported arrests. ‘Rates of arrest were highest amongst persons who hadleft school but not completed Year 12 and had no formal qualifications compared to thosewho had either completed Year 12 or obtained post-school qualifications. Rates werelowest among those still at school’ (ABS 1995a page 58). The Royal Commission intoAboriginal Deaths in Custody also identified the effect of high arrest rates on pooreducation and problems with transition into the workforce (National Report 1991 Volume 2).The submission from the NSW AECG to the Inquiry noted, after drawing the linksbetween racism, marginalisation, school exclusion and entry into the juvenile justicesystem, that the provision of culturally appropriate education and training is crucial toprevention of contemporary removal of Indigenous children and young people (NSWAECG submission 362 page 5).Inter-generational effects and later removalThe effects of separation on past generations can be handed on and contribute tofurther separation of children from their parents today. Many submissions to the Inquiryraised this issue. It has also been noted in previous Inquiries (HREOC 1993). BothIndigenous people and non-Indigenous experts in mental health and genocide studieshave commented on the inter-generational effects outlined above and these have beendiscussed in more detail in Part 3 of this report.Separation is linked with psychiatric disorders and with trauma and loss. Separationfrom the primary carer may render a person less secure and create later difficulties informing relationships. Those who have been separated may carry with them a fearconcerning the loss of their own children. In some cases children in successivegenerations have been removed. Beresford and Omaji, in an extensive analysis ofIndigenous youth and involvement in the WA juvenile justice system, argue that it ‘isimpossible to overstate the destructiveness of forcible removal’ (1996 page 33). Removaland institutionalisation had a number of effects including loss of opportunities to acquirecultural knowledge, lack of good models of relationships and parenting and a sense ofunresolved psychological trauma. All of these factors have affected children andincreased their likelihood of institutionalisation.Many of the children of those who were removed have not been exposed to, or insome cases have rejected, the controls and authority of Indigenous culture (ALSWAsubmission 127 page 338).Sean is my son. He is 16 years of age. He is in jail at the moment. He has been in and out ofjail since he was 12 years of age. He does not know how much it hurts me to see him lockedup. He needs his family. I need him.