Widespread sexual abuse of children in remote Aboriginal communities of South Australia and Northern Territory was documented by former Supreme Court judge Ted Mullighan (2008) and by Anderson & Wild (2007), respectively. Ten years on, child abuse, extreme violence and substance abuse are still rampant (News Limited, ABC). In the face of the ongoing crisis, lawmakers seem reluctant to introduce any new measures targeting Aboriginal communities, as the existing measures are already attracting scathing criticism from Human Rights advocates (The Guardian).

The Australian Human Rights Commission and the leading Aboriginal advocacy organisations (SNAICC, Healing Foundation) explain the disproportionately high incidence of child abuse among Aborigines in terms of intergenerational trauma and call for greater focus on healing instead of race-oriented laws and social control. Here I consider relevance of the concept of intergenerational trauma to the present crisis and emphasise the associated ethical dilemma: should Aboriginal perpetrators of crime be regarded as moral agents who are fully responsible for their actions, or should they be regarded as individuals with diminished responsibility on account of the intergenerational trauma associated with their race. I conclude that any downgrading of the adult capacity for moral agency on the basis of race or culture dehumanises that race or culture. Some call this racism of low expectations, an attitude which “rejects the idea that social change is the product of individual agency” for some racial or cultural identity-group.

The notion of intergenerational trauma is routinely identified by social-welfare organisations as the primary cause of the present crisis of Aboriginal culture. “Indigenous people in Australia have experienced trauma as a result of colonisation, including the associated violence and loss of culture and land, as well as subsequent policies such as the forced removal of children. In many Indigenous families and communities, this trauma continues to be passed from generation to generation with devastating effects.” (Australians Together) I accept this general explanation of the problem just as an explanation; not as a mitigating factor with respect to the crimes committed by Aboriginal people. This, I believe, is crucial to recognising someone as possessing undiminished moral agency, and therefore to respecting Aboriginal people as fully and unequivocally human. The opposite approach may have the unintended consequence of contributing to social dysfunction. If members of some racial identity-group are systematically treated as if they were not fully responsible for their actions on account of impersonal factors, then the underlying message is that they are not fully moral agents, therefore not fully human agents. Such signalling of racial or cultural devaluation, even if well-intentioned, could be a major causative factor in the mechanism of intergenerational trauma. Conversely, for genuine moral agents – persons acting on reasons taken to be their own reasons, in virtue of what one ought to do – intergenerational trauma does not in any way justify antisocial behaviour: it may inform reason about the social cost of trauma without negating the capacity for moral choice, which is the condition of meaningful social relations and cooperation.

Healing and change are possible only where there is meaningful choice and meaningful consequences of action, what in turn entails absolute moral agency, but the schema of transgenerational healing cannot be based solely on validation and affirmation. It is not possible to tackle intergenerational trauma without interrupting its transmission as it takes place before our eyes. On that level, every person in the affected communities has the capacity for vigilance and for participation in collective intervention against threats of abuse. Involvement of the entire community in organised prevention and policing of abuse may provide just the kind of boost to moral agency necessary to break the cycle of abuse and create an opening for transgenerational healing.

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