David Cooper's response to Louis Nowra's book Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal men's violence against women and children, and essay, Culture of Denial, in The Australian Book Review.

I'm all for white Australians taking a stand in support of Indigenous people's right to live healthy lives free of violence and sexual abuse. In this respect Louis Nowra deserves recognition for using his considerable reputation and cultural standing to raise such difficult and challenging issues.

However, though undoubtedly well-meaning, Nowra's intervention also delivers an unintended disservice to those he seeks to defend. I have two major concerns with Nowra's book, Bad Dreaming: Aboriginal men's violence against women and children and his essay based on it, Culture of Denial, published in The Australian Book Review. One is that they present a one-sided, simplistic argument that fails to outline the complex, multi-layered causes of, and solutions to, Indigenous violence and sexual abuse. His lack of focus on the critical context of non-Indigenous agency and responsibility is particularly concerning.

The second concern relates to Nowra's approach in "speaking out" without proper acknowledgement of the ground-breaking work by Indigenous individuals and communities over many decades in seeking to tackle these issues head on. Theirs is an invidious task, confronting governments that are ever willing to publicly express concern and moral outrage when it suits but never forthcoming with the necessary resources and political will to act. Nowra has missed an opportunity to inform non-Indigenous Australians about their work and provide his own work with much-needed balance.

No one can argue with the importance of Indigenous personal and community responsibility in tackling violence and sexual abuse. However, in concluding, in essence, that Aboriginal communities, particularly men, and their cultures are the central problem, Nowra reinforces, rather than challenges, the negative stereotyping that has been used to justify failure to tackle Indigenous discrimination and disadvantage since the First Fleet.

Fear of reinforcing stereotypes is not in itself a reason for avoiding speaking about an issue, particularly one of such seriousness. But it should urge caution in the use of evidence and ascribing causation. It also urges the need for perspective so that the big picture is not lost.

In relation to evidence and causation, Nowra's undue focus on Indigenous culture is questionable. For example, the recent Breaking the Silence report on the abuse of Aboriginal children in NSW listed the following factors as significant in the incidence of child sexual assault:

• substance abuse;
• social and economic disadvantage;
• exposure to pornography and a sexualised society;
• the "normalisation" of violence (or intergenerational cycle of violence);
• the presence of family violence;
• unresolved trauma and grief;
• breakdown of family and community structures;
• lack of community engagement with the issue;
• lack of support for community-driven solutions; and,
• inadequate responses from service providers.

It is clear that many of these factors have little to do with culture, but are more indicative of a broader, long-term failure of government services and programs to Indigenous communities. The list also shows us where effort must be concentrated if we are serious about tackling child sexual assault and other forms of violence and sexual abuse.

Aboriginal culture and customary law do not condone family violence and sexual assault. This has been stated repeatedly by many Indigenous leaders, a recent example being Social Justice Commissioner, Tom Calma, who stated:

"Family violence and the abuse of women and children have no place in Aboriginal culture. Customary law cannot be relied upon to excuse such behaviour."

The fact that such excuses have been mounted in some cases is not a failure of Aboriginal culture, but of its misrepresentation in the context of the judicial system and other situations. Supporting those Indigenous leaders, both men and women, who are speaking out about the misrepresentation of culture would seem far more constructive than mounting a retro critique of traditional Indigenous culture as inherently violent.

After all, male violence towards women is not uncommon in contemporary mainstream Australia. A recent Queensland study by Professor John Mangan has found comparable rates of spousal abuse amongst both Indigenous and middle-class white Australians. While there are areas of acute dysfunction where the rates and intensity of Indigenous spousal abuse are higher, Mangan's findings remind us of the dangers of making generalisations based on worst-case examples. And it was not that long ago that "wife bashing" was all but condoned in non-Indigenous society. That it is no longer condoned has been in large part due to law reform, education and special programs around the issues of domestic violence. We should contrast this with the fact that over the same period there has been no corresponding systematic attempt by governments at education or other programs within Aboriginal communities around these issues, particularly in remote situations.

However, overshadowing any lack of specific Indigenous programs on violence and sexual abuse are the impacts of (and example set by) non-Indigenous male sexual violence and assault towards Indigenous women and children. Nowra inexplicably ignores this issue despite the fact that it has been a universal experience of Aboriginal communities since first contact and has persisted to varying degrees ever since, often involving men in positions of power and authority. Such experiences are particularly common among members of the stolen generations.

In fact, it would be possible to construct a catalogue, similar to Nowra's, of horrifying cases of non-Indigenous male violence, murder, rape and sexual assault against Indigenous women and children. But this would be as questionable in terms of its representation of the overall relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians as Nowra's unrelenting catalogue of shocking examples of Aboriginal male violence is in representing the broader picture of relationships within Indigenous communities. Nowra leaves us with the impression that an alternative, non-violent male culture doesn't exist in Aboriginal communities. But it does. Similarly, the fact that he fails to provide a single example of a functional Indigenous community leaves the impression that there is none. This is far from the truth.

The immediate impact of this on Nowra's work is the lost opportunity to learn from those communities and men how violence and abuse have been avoided or addressed. Instead Nowra's solutions, limited as they are, seem reactive and narrow, leading us down a path of further paternalism. Broader impacts also flow from reinforcing negative stereotypes. Non-Indigenous attitudes are further hardened and support for coercive measures increased. And within Indigenous communities there is increasing concern about the enormous potential for young people to adopt the negative stories that the stereotypes portray. It contributes to the sense of hopelessness that fuels violence, substance abuse and suicide.

Nowra's failure to sufficiently identify or put in proper context the roles and responsibilities of non-Indigenous Australia in the genesis and development of this terrible and tragic social crisis also causes him to overlook or gloss over significant causes and solutions. As a result he lets white Australia off the hook.

For example, the fact that an Aboriginal woman badly injured by her husband in Tennant Creek had a history of 40 to 50 presentations at the local hospital for domestic violence, tells us that local health and community services have been unable to deal effectively with this issue. However, Nowra fails to make this observation even though it is important background to the example he uses. At present in the Tennant Creek area, Family and Community Services (FACS) has up to 50-60 cases at any one time, which, with limited staff and resources, results in many cases not being dealt with in an adequate manner or time frame. A local health administrator, aware that alcohol, violence, sexual abuse and suicide are "deeply imbedded within the daily life of people" observed to colleagues:

People have also indicated that daily life is not improving in TC because fundamental social issues are not being adequately addressed/developed which include economic (welfare), substance misuse (alcohol/drugs), infrastructure (housing/roads) and law. These are giant issues that no one person nor agency can address alone ... but they are the issues that need to be addressed ...

In his book (but not in his essay), Nowra does provide some acknowledgement of the lack of case workers and other key social welfare and health professionals. He similarly acknowledges the lack of police presence in many communities, the lack of facilities such as women's shelters and issues of inadequate health services and programs, welfare dependence and unchecked alcohol and substance abuse. However, the problem is that these and other serious deficiencies in Indigenous policy and service provision are overshadowed in Nowra's work by his preoccupation with the narrower issues of culture and the extremes of men's behaviour.

Solutions to these broader deficiencies are central, not incidental, to eliminating the toxic environment that breeds violence and sexual abuse. Achieving solutions requires us to hold to account governments that have ignored these issues for decades, withholding resources and the capacity for solutions, safe in the knowledge that non-Indigenous Australians won't care about the well-being of Aboriginal communities come election time and that Aboriginal people themselves have no political clout.

There is always the need to question the logic and evidentiary basis for policy intervention. So, for example, when Nowra argues that the importance of education justifies the removal of children from communities, we have to ask why this is necessary. Answering this question raises the counter-observation that the key reason young Aboriginal people are less educated now than even a generation ago is the neglect of governments towards Aboriginal education, including the provision of infrastructure, services and amenities that support an education culture. Isn't it a bit rich to have to send children away from their communities to be educated because governments have for decades shirked their responsibilities to provide such a basic human right to Indigenous communities? Why is it that Aboriginal families have to be the ones who pay twice over for the institutional racism that permeates Indigenous education policy?

And if we argue, as Nowra does, that kids must be taken away to "rescue" them from "toxic" situations, we also have to ask what will they come back to if there has been no serious attempt to break the cycles of substance abuse and nothing meaningful to do? We need to focus on how individuals, families and communities affected by violence and sexual abuse can be healed. The evidence tells us that the key to healing is empowerment – in creating an environment where it is possible for people to work through their own solutions.

There are many other concerning aspects of Nowra's essay and book that space does not permit adequate discussion of here. One is the contradiction of calling for greater Indigenous personal and community responsibility while at the same time appearing to question, on the basis of inadequate analysis, the concept of self-determination and the workability of Indigenous community control. In terms of solutions, this places him at serious odds with most of the Indigenous leaders he cites. Another concern is the evidentiary basis for some of his assertions, for instance, in relying on the opinion of journalists in relation to statements about the relative levels of violence on Aboriginal-controlled land and the currently topical issue of the control of access to such land. In the Northern Territory, levels of violence are generally lower in those communities where traditional law and culture are strongest, including remote outstation communities.

And, on the subject of "getting away with murder", Nowra is perhaps unaware that, until very recently, a murder conviction in the Northern Territory (from where most of his examples are derived) carried a mandatory life sentence without parole. This helps put in context attempts to seek a lesser manslaughter charge in order to prevent the effective permanent loss to their families and communities of those convicted. Further, there has never been a case in the Northern Territory where a defense based on customary law has secured an acquittal for rape or murder.

Yes, Aboriginal men's behaviour is an important factor, however we need a much more rigorous, contextualised analysis of the problem. And most importantly, we need comprehensive, evidence-based solutions.

We could start with the 40 official inquiries into domestic violence and sexual abuse in Indigenous communities since 1999 that Nowra cites. Shouldn't it strike us as scandalous that we have seen preciously little in the way of government response? What of those governments that have callously ignored those 40-odd reports? Or the hypocrisy of the federal Indigenous Affairs minister in calling an urgent national summit on Indigenous violence in 2006, but eight months later still not having expended a single cent on responses to this urgent crisis. Or the NSW government, that has offered not one dollar in extra funding to implement the 118 recommendations of the 2006 Breaking The Silence report into child sexual abuse in NSW. We could begin by condemning such callous and cynical behaviour by our governments and demanding that they back their words with action.

The recommendations from those inquiries provide a detailed blueprint for tackling violence and sexual abuse. Unsurprisingly, there are no silver bullets but rather, complex solutions requiring extensive responses across multiple portfolios. A clear message that comes through such reports is the absence or inadequacy of existing services and programs addressing violence and sexual abuse, and lack of support for community-initiated solutions.

Importantly, solutions need to address the intergenerational effects of trauma and the phenomenon of lateral or internalised violence that occurs in Indigenous peoples who have experienced colonisation, oppression, intergenerational trauma and ongoing experiences of racism and discrimination. It is through these processes that the oppressed become oppressors and the abused become abusers.

Understanding of these processes together with the need to heal all those affected by trauma, abused and abuser alike, informs ground-breaking work already being done in the Indigenous community to address violence and sexual abuse. Work such as that of Professor Judy Atkinson who heads the College of Indigenous Australian Peoples at Southern Cross University. Inexplicably, Nowra makes special acknowledgement of Professor Atkinson but fails to include any examples of her work, or that of other individuals and communities, with the exception of a passing reference in his book to women's night patrols. Highly successful community-based programs have long been in place throughout Australia, including around responses to the painful legacies of the stolen generations. In contrast to Nowra's focus on the defects and misuse of traditional culture, men's anti-violence programs have found success through re-connecting offenders and those at risk with their traditional cultures and values. Professor Mick Dodson outlined some of the many community-based programs in his landmark 2003 National Press Club speech, noting the lack of support they received. These include

"night patrols, community justice groups, therapy camps for victims and offenders, youth services, violence education, family violence prevention, women's shelters and resource centres, suicide prevention, counselling services, men's anti-violence services and sobriety groups, and substance abuse programs."

Under-funded, local Aboriginal community-controlled health services are often at the front line providing culturally-sensitive intervention and holistic healing and care plans to affected individuals and their families.

However, tragically, much of this work, as with the many recommendations of those 40-odd inquiries, remains largely under- or unsupported by governments. Nowra's failure to detail this context is a significant omission, leaving his analysis long on problems but short on solutions.

White Australia, and especially successive governments, federal, state and territory, of every political persuasion, have sat by and let this crisis develop and deepen, even as the evidence was put, time and time again, in front of their eyes. And is it any wonder that things have got so much worse after a decade of the demonisation of Aboriginal communities – and especially their leaders – and the ideologically-based dismantling of Indigenous control that has characterised Indigenous affairs under the Howard governments? Not to mention the indifference of state and territory governments content to shirk their own responsibilities towards Indigenous communities and exploit the "blame the blacks" game that has underpinned Howard's policies.

Such policies have undermined the self-respect and standing of Indigenous people, particularly Aboriginal men, and weakened their communities and authority structures, even as the double whammy of ill health and shortened lives continues to deplete communities of the parents, grandparents and elders who would otherwise be a precious source of authority, guidance and stability. Commentary such as Nowra's, that bases its arguments on an intrinsically violent traditional culture, is sadly off the mark.

What I welcome from Nowra's intervention is his keen sense that this is a crisis that demands urgent attention. The damage being caused to individuals, families and communities cannot be tolerated and nothing short of across-the-board action to an extent previously not achieved is required.

We know that things can be turned around. A glimpse of what's possible is evidenced by the recent progress in reducing petrol sniffing in Central Australia. This would not have been possible without community-led solutions backed by significant resources provided by the federal and NT governments, including subsidising the regional roll-out of unsniffable Opal fuel.

This example highlights the necessary pre-condition of effective government engagement, both in finding the political will to act decisively and backing this with funding and resources based on need and directed towards evidence-based solutions designed and delivered with the active engagement and participation of communities. It is both counter-productive and unjust to sheet blame and responsibility onto Indigenous people without also acknowledging their significant efforts to tackle these issues and without simultaneously holding governments to account for their own actions and responsibilities.

Influence carries with it responsibility. Having taken such a significant step, Nowra needs to confront the deficiencies of his own work, including the undeserved discredit it has brought Aboriginal people and their cultures.

David Cooper is a former National Director of Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation (ANTaR) and a current member of ANTaR's National Board.