In 2007, the women of Fitzroy Crossing in Western Australia’s Kimberleys, faced with the effects of alcohol on surrounding communities, decided to act. There were high rates of violence and alcohol-related deaths, a suicide rate that in a city the size of Perth would have seen 150 suicides a month. As well, there were the effects of alcohol in utero: children born with irreversible damage to their central nervous systems and not only facing terrible lifelong handicaps themselves, but, in an oral culture, unable either to remember or pass on cultural traditions.
Led by June Oscar, CEO of Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre, and Maureen Carter, CEO of the Nindilingarri Cultural Health Services (two astonishingly impressive people) the women mobilised, fighting vested interests and successfully lobbying the WA Licensing Board to stem the flow of full-strength alcohol in the Valley. The effects on public order and public health were dramatic. In a short time they turned the Valley from a state of crisis to a state of control.
They then made Foetal Alcohol Disorders their priority. They established partnerships with the Sydney University Medical School and the George Institute of Global Health. The Sydney group, led by Professor Elizabeth Elliott AM and Associate Professor Jane Latimer, responded wholeheartedly, and with Aboriginal workers carrying out culturally sensitive surveys, contacted 95 per cent of the women whose children had been born in 2002 and 2003. This allowed the first prevalence survey of Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders anywhere in Australia and led to management plans being set up for every affected child. The work has won worldwide admiration at the highest level, and is ongoing.
This year, the Australian Human Rights Commission will be celebrating 25 years of amazing contributions by Australians to the protection and promotion of human rights.
Nominees for the Awards will compete in 10 categories including the Human Rights Medal and the Young People’s Medal. The remaining categories include Law, Business, Community (Individual), Community (Organisation), Literature (Non-Fiction), Print and Online Media, Television and Radio Awards.
The winners will be presented with their awards at a luncheon ceremony taking place on Monday December 10 at the Hilton Sydney, located at 488 George Street.
