Australia has been shocked by media revelations over past weeks about the extent of child rape and gang violence in remote Aboriginal communities, but a NT-based CMS missionary says the media has yet to report the worst news.
Steve Etherington says the media has not even begun to report on the mental health crisis and the "absolute failure' of the public education system.
"We are yet to hear of the almost absolute failure of government schooling in Aboriginal communities, with un-enforced attendance and no hope of employment," Mr Etherington says.
"This doesn't sound as serious as health and abuse issues, but is actually even more horrific because it means the next one or two generations of Aboriginal parents will be unemployable and self-destructive, and will remain in profound dependency for life."
"But this is not the worst news either," Mr Etherington adds.
Steve and Narelle Etherington have spent over 20 years developing leadership in the Kunwinjku speaking church.
Based at Kunbarllanjnja (Oenpelli) near Kakudu National Park, they co-ordinate a team of Aboriginal people who are translating the Bible into Kunwinjku and facilitate Bible study, literacy and other linguistic work. Narelle also teaches in the local Aboriginal primary school.
"Of course, the worst news from Aboriginal Australia is the fact that many of these lovely people are without Christ," says Mr Etherington.
The spiritual nature of the problem in remote communities, should give Christian cause for hope.
"None of us can fix the economic and political problems, though we pray we will keep on telling the truth and that it will be heard, and we pray that children are rescued from lives of abuse and hopelessness. We can do some things," Mr Etherington says.
"Those of us who minister to indigenous people can beg you all to pray that we will identify and train Christian Aborigines who will bring glory to Jesus Christ by their absolute allegiance to Him, their exclusive dependence on Him alone, their changed lives despite the garbage around them, and their visible love for each other despite the fragmentation and hatred that accompany societies in collapse."
Funding for church-based services
Meanwhile the leaders of the Anglican, Roman Catholic and Uniting Churches in the Northern Territory have released a joint statement about the violence, citing the lack of adequate funding of community infrastructure, including housing, as a key underlying cause.
The leaders churches urged better resourcing of non-government education facilities operated by the churches, specifically identifying the Anglican ministry training facility Nungalinya College "in its work of adult leadership and community development'.
"We speak as the leaders of three churches with a long relationship with the Aboriginal people of the Northern Territory. Between us we have a large percentage of our church membership living in over thirty remote and urban communities throughout the Northern Territory. Aboriginal clergy minister as full members of each of our denominations," said the statement from the Anglican Bishop of the Northern Territory, Philip Freier, Bishop Ted Collins of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Darwin and Moderator Steve Orme from the Uniting Church's Northern Synod.
The church leaders urged that there be full consultation with the Indigenous people whose social circumstances are the object of current public and media discussion.
"We believe that the social circumstances that are currently being discussed call all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous to penitence and self reflection.
"We call all in Australia who are engaged in this debate to recognise that the spiritual issues of identity and belonging must be dealt with and that human life cannot be reduced to merely material terms," the statement said. "We urge the Australian people to approach these issues with the love for the neighbour and those who are different in the way that Jesus taught."
