“….When two Aboriginal women, Kwementyaye Murphy and Kwementaye McCormack were killed by their Aboriginal partners, the media reported how both women had suffered long histories of violent treatment until, eventually, tragedy was the ultimate result. Murphy was beaten to death, while McCormack bled to death from a stab wound.
To my dismay, I never noticed outraged posts on social media in response to those grim deaths. Nor did I witness any of the myriad Aboriginal activist Facebook pages post any of the news links regarding the deaths of these women. This made for a striking contrast with the explosion of social media commentary following the ‘black face’ incident of a 10-year-old boy who dressed as his hero, Nic Naitanui. Sadly, no-one seems now to remember the violent deaths of Murphy and McCormack but the ‘black face’ scandal still rages.
Traversing the same lines, when a recent article about Fitzroy Crossing described devastating incidents of child neglect, that scandal passed with little attention, yet Bill Leak continues to be branded a racist more than three months after he drew his infamous cartoon. The cartoon was neither racist nor did it involve stereotyping, despite what his critics would have us believe. The extent of child neglect and abuse in Aboriginal communities is serious enough for Western Australia Police Commissioner Karl O’Callaghan to express his concerns about the lack of power to remove children from highly dysfunctional homes and to do so in a timely manner. In another three months, few will remember O’Callaghan’s words, but Leak’s cartoon will still raise heated criticism — and, quite possibly, the attentions of more of “the offended” and, of course, their lawyers.
For too long political correctness has been valued more than the lives and safety of Aboriginal women and children. Excuses for the ongoing violence — and I here I think of the apologists and sophists who would blame the First Fleet for the deaths of Murphy and McCormack– are gagging needed discussion of underlying issues and practical solutions. Until then, sadly, Aboriginal children will continue to overload the states’ care services, just as their fathers disproportionately fill the prisons for their acts of violence.
Aboriginal women and children’s lives will remain in danger as long as misguided activists refuse to allow the truth be weighed, reckoned and rectified. That is the real tragedy….” Black Lives Don’t Matter