Carol Innes on The Drum Program
Updated: Mar 22, 2021
Danjoo Koorliny co-leader Carol Innes appeared as a panelist on a recent episode of the ABC's The Drum program.
She was asked to speak on a wide range of themes, including recent allegations of sexual assault against federal political figures and the reporting and support processes related to such cases.
"It has to lead to systemic change where people report, how they report, what's the report structure around the reporting of it all, and how the family and others are supported through the process," Carol said.
The panel also spoke about the recent Western Australian state elections and current issues in WA.
"We've got some big changes with the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs stepping down." Carol said. "The climate change stuff is really important too, and I think we need to think more about that and when you think about the weather we're having in Perth at the moment - the humidity is pretty full on.
"We need to collaborate a little bit more and be respectful of the issues that we deal with at hand because we've got bigger issues than just COVID on our doorstep."
COVID vaccinations, including within the Aboriginal community, was also a topic during the show.
"I know there's been a lot of stress between people managing other chronic illnesses that they have themselves, and forgetting about their own healthcare...because of what we've had to deal with the COVID restrictions in the past," she said. "It's how we manage the next part of that and how people are feeling with it, because we're all heading into uncertain waters."
Finally, Meghan Markle's recent comments about race and the royal family were also explored.
"It is a really difficult space...sometimes an onus has to come back on the family, and how family embraces this, because if you know you're safe in family you'll take on the world. A decision that made them leave country and home and place, it must have been deep," she said. "It's really hard to talk about racism from a position of privilege, but it still hurts, and the child is the one that suffers.
"Racism is in our community, it's in every part of what we do...alot of what we do and take on board from a society space is that we have to push racism back to the past - we can't do that to go forward because our community has suffered enough - our people have suffered enough," Carol said. "We've got to change a lot of systems around how we manage that and educate people on many fronts.
"Racism is an institutional issue."
To watch the full program, click here.