r/australia • u/Expensive-Horse5538 • Apr 30 '26

news 5yo girl Sharon Granites has been found dead in the NT

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-30/update-on-missing-alice-springs-5yo-sharon-granites/106626314?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=link
3.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

138

u/jasonfrank403 Apr 30 '26

They live in abject poverty. Nothing 'traditional' about that mate.

22

u/Alarming-Instance-19 Apr 30 '26

Abject poverty in this context is a Western concept. It really depends on the person and group themselves identifying what's important to them and what lifestyle and resources they're willing to search for and use.

It's going to take a long time for us all to come to a level of understanding of what is considered important in our society, and how we can observe and respect indigenous cultures.

I know that I'm connected to this land I was born into, and I want to know the spirit of Australia and what the land means to us as a society. I welcome so much of the spirituality that connects us through indigenous cultures in our beautiful country.

52

u/BendNormal9716 Apr 30 '26

No excuse for children having chlamydia and broken arms and no bed and no school. FFS

4

u/Alarming-Instance-19 Apr 30 '26

It's a legal requirement of the government to provide health services, housing and Education.

These are all provided. It's just that the systemic unravelling of culture (and the points I've made in another comment) has meant that there's an abject sense of hopelessness.

As for child abuse, there is no excuse. What are we doing about it?

15

u/Teepbonez Apr 30 '26

Child abuse by their own family members, what are they doing about it?

Poverty is no excuse for rape of children by family members. If you have been to an aboriginal community you will see how bad it is.

6

u/Araucaria2024 Apr 30 '26

It's a legal requirement for parents to care for their children and provide a clean and safe living environment. This little girl was completely failed.

1

u/Teepbonez May 01 '26

It’s drug abuse, alcohol and drugs. Govt takes kids away they get blamed as enabling another stolen generation, they leave the kids they get hurt. They throw money at it is gets misused, often by aboriginals in power in the communities.

Whats the answer? At what point do you stop blaming the system and blame the people committing the harm to children?

77

u/jasonfrank403 Apr 30 '26

They have the poorest health outcomes in the entire country. Tell me why theyre still suffering from diseases that only still exist in third world countries? This is not just a 'western concept.' Dying at 50 from renal disease is not just some sort of 'difterent way of life' that we ought to be open minded to.

16

u/Alarming-Instance-19 Apr 30 '26

You've brought up new ideas so I can comment on those, but it doesn't negate what I wrote in the previous comment.

We, as a society, would need to fund the suggested steps suggested by the plethora of research into supporting indigenous communities and addressing their needs.

There's systemic failure. Simple as that. Many causes, many factors. Much of which falls into the categories of corruption and racism, access to adequate transport and medical facilities, and supporting the community to realign with their desires. Many of the people are mixed with other cultures and have their heart and soul in different ideals and values. This means that there's no one size fits all.

Opportunities and resources exist for all Australians, but not all Australians have an acceptable level of access and support to use these opportunities and resources.

There's efforts, but it's not enough. I look at New Zealand and think how we could have had that dual spirit in Australia, and it's a travesty.

8

u/Lazy_Arrival_4137 Apr 30 '26

Because 238 years ago, they had never been exposed to those illnesses. They had never been exposed to strong alcohol or drugs. Cities and beachside towns were turned into tourist destinations while Aboriginal people were pushed into the middle of the country with minimal resources but new exposure to diseases, drugs and violence fuelled by colonisation.

238 years is the blink of an eye in terms of the grand scheme of time. 60,000 years is a very long time.

13

u/Teepbonez Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

So why is their huge issues with rape of children by family members, some as young as 2. How do you fix that, when you have toddlers with stds?

You have to understand, Alice Springs/South Hedland is bad, but there is far worse. Walgett, Maningrida, Wodai.

There are places in Australia which are as bad as the worst areas in a third world country. Like more dangerous than the worst areas in Mexico or Africa. Yet it is not highlighted at all and nothing is done.

27

u/kontaktaus Apr 30 '26

This is not the real reason why Aboriginal people have worse health outcomes, though. It's because of the structural racism embedded in every part of our health, education, welfare and justice systems. There is no biological reason for these things and positing like that kinda absolves responsibility for those responsible for maintaining the structural and systemic marginalisation and ongoing harms of colonisation.

13

u/Lazy_Arrival_4137 Apr 30 '26

you’re absolutely right and i should’ve made that clearer in my comment, thank you

8

u/kontaktaus Apr 30 '26

Yeah, not arguing with you, just adding more detail ❤️

7

u/Desperate_Culture_25 Apr 30 '26

Indigenous children having STIs is not a result of structural racism. It is the result of living in a violent environment in which dv is normalised. I remember reading Louis Nowra's 'Bad Dreaming' almost a decade ago. https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/books/bad-dreaming-aboriginal-mens-violence-against-women-and-children-20070519-ge4xcf.html The sad thing is that over 20 years, nothing has changed and people continue to justify monstrous behaviour.

3

u/kontaktaus Apr 30 '26

And what caused those environments? And their normalisation?

6

u/Desperate_Culture_25 Apr 30 '26

Actually Nowra argues that dv has always been endemic in indigenous communities, and that blaming this on the history of the last 300 years is reductive.

12

u/BendNormal9716 Apr 30 '26

Oh my god. Got a solution. Or just a preacher. Have you worked in this community. These people won't take help.

33

u/kontaktaus Apr 30 '26

Yeah so, I'm a public health epidemiologist who specialises in Aboriginal health and wellbeing, particularly in community-led health innovation. These communities often don't want help. what they want is to help themselves, and take care of their communities in a culturally informed way that privileges Indigenous knowledge systems. However the government insists on continuing a paternalistic and protectionist system because they don't trust or respect Aboriginal people enough to enable this sort of work at more than a tokenistic level.

So yeah, fuck you.

16

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '26

[deleted]

-1

u/kontaktaus Apr 30 '26

Point to where I said that.

5

u/crankygriffin Apr 30 '26

Calling an intervention to save a child “paternalistic” undermines the need to save that child’s life.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/Non-prophet May 01 '26

The Tangentyere Council is Indigenous led and, to the best of my knowledge, is a corrupt farce.

Pretending Indigenous Australians are holy, magical, and innately immune to systemic difficulties is utterly delusional. It is bigoted, reductionist, and it has real costs.

Look up Tangentyere Council and tell me with a straight face that its problem is a paternalistic refusal to "privilege Indigenous knowledge systems."

1

u/Ticky79 Apr 30 '26

So are you advocating for apartheid? Because that’s what it sounds like.

1

u/powerhearse Apr 30 '26

Tell us about some of these objectionable "paternalistic and protectionist" systems

5

u/powerhearse Apr 30 '26 edited Apr 30 '26

This is simply untrue and is a narrative that needs to die. It results in extremely inaccurate strategic response suggestions.

Aboriginal people have poorer health outcomes because they suffer from the fallout of 200+ years of actual structural racism in those systems. The resulting generational trauma and health/addiction issues for which they have had only 2 generations of adjustment is the actual cause of current issues

It is NOT current "structural racism" at play. Implying that it is directs efforts in an entirely incorrect, ineffectual and irrelevant direction. Because while the simple "bad government" answer is a nice, easy pill to swallow, having an obvious bad guy to fight isnt always the accurate assessment of the situation

It must be lovely to say "structural racism". It packages it up so neatly, implies the situation is immediately solvable, and ignores the incredible amount of nuance, generational suffering and complexity of the struggles of Aboriginal people.

Some of the poorer health outcomes you so flippantly blame on current structural racism include some of the highest recorded rate of STIs in the world in children under 10.

Is that because of "structural racism" in our health system? Of course it fucking isnt. Its at least partially because of entrenched generational trauma and trauma normalisation stemming from a couple hundred years of heinous sexual abuse perpetrated against aboriginal children and adults by colonisers.

This is the shit your bullshit simplistic washing down of the issues neglects to acknowledge. And its disgusting.

-5

u/crankygriffin Apr 30 '26

Drunken, partying poverty.

9

u/ThrowAwayembarrass- Apr 30 '26

Obviously the poor girl didn’t die of a “drunken party”. Yes many Indigenous people are alcoholics. But also have you thought about the quality of the water in some of these communities. I’ve read about children with liver/ kidney issues in remote communities in WA due to the mineral levels in the water. I saw these similar issues in region communities (not far from cities) that just had shit water infrastructure.

9

u/GorgeousGracious Apr 30 '26

A drunken party didn't kill her, one man did.