Ms Rosemary Adaser:

When we came together, we needed some evidence, as much as for ourselves as to convince the wider public, that our intuitive understanding that our experiences were racially motivated was correct. We did research, but there is nothing about us. There is a plethora of worthy civil liberty organisations, but we do not exist. The only documentation about us merely refers to us in denigrating and insulting terms such as the one Ms Carole Brennan outlined in the letter to the Minister. I believe the research we carried out was the first of its type in this area. We started off with just the three of us and now have 72 members in our community. Out of this, 56 have proudly shared their experiences of institutionalised racism. We have the results and they are disturbing. While the actual racism does not surprise us, it is its scale that does. We discovered that 11% of our group had died early, between the ages of 22 and 45 years, by suicide or killing. Seven of our members committed suicide. That is just not right as most of us are in our early 50s.

When we interviewed everyone, sexual abuse was a dominant factor. Up to 44% of our community will admit to sexual abuse. That includes those who have reached a certain amount in their healing to be able to articulate the trauma. Many of our members, as Ms Evon Brennan said, will not be able to articulate it. Up to 35% of us have endured a long-term mental disability and-or substance misuse. We all will admit to trauma in varying degrees. Up to 9% of our young men were incarcerated. When one is of a mixed race, one is considered to be a savage or stupid and will not be educated. In some cases, young mixed race men were sent to farmers to work for free instead of being schooled. Not getting any wage, they might have stolen a few apples, but they were sent before a judge who then sent them to a young offenders’ institution. What hope do they have? They are ex-offenders, of mixed race with a stunted education. How are they supposed to be educated and work in society?

For those who escaped that fate, we emerged from institutions with low self-worth. When people talk about having low self-esteem, they are told to read a self-esteem book. However, to have self-esteem, one has to have a concept of who one is. That is one’s self-worth and who one thinks one is inside. We did not have this. We emerged into the world completely lost, knowing that we were not wanted in this society. It is doubly tragic because this country still refuses to ratify anti-racism laws. Accordingly, we never feel safe.

We are an indigenous group. We are not migrants, we were born here. We have members approaching their 80th birthday. We did not arrive yesterday. Please start including us. Can we get the CERD sorted, please?