How much do you know about the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention?

An educational illustration depicting Indigenous Australian culture and the impact of governmental policies, incorporating imagery of community, resilience, and historical context.

Understanding the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention

Test your knowledge about the Northern Territory Intervention with our insightful quiz. Discover the complexities and implications of this significant policy in Australian history.

Explore the motivations behind the Intervention.
Examine the effects on Indigenous communities.
Evaluate who truly benefited from these measures.

10 Questions2 MinutesCreated by EngagingMind420

What was the main purpose of the Federal Government’s Northern Territory Intervention?

A) To address the issue of child sexual abuse and family violence in Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, which was identified by the 'Little Children Are Sacred' report.

B) To deny Indigenous sovereignty through the invasion of Indigenous land, as part of the ongoing settler colonial mission.

C) To refuse Indigenous women and children their autonomy by suggesting that they were in need of help from the white patriarchal state.

The problem of child sexual abuse and family violence in these communities was a result of…

A) …the ‘breakdown of Aboriginal culture and society’ (Minister of Indigenous Affairs, 2007).

B) ...the Government’s lack of service provisions to its Indigenous citizens as a continuing effect of settler colonialism, leading to the prevalence of other issues such as drug and alcohol abuse.

C) ...the white patriarchy that measures masculinity on the basis of men’s domination over women, which has had an influence on Indigenous communities because of its cultural hegemony.

Why did the Government use the term ‘emergency’ to describe the state of affairs in Northern Territory Indigenous communities?

A) In order to convey the seriousness of the issue of child sexual abuse and family violence in these communities, as well as the urgency with which action needed to be taken.

B) In order to legitimise the Intervention as a necessary response, but particularly the ‘state-of-exception’ that underpinned it, which has also characterised a long history of colonisation practices whereby Indigenous people’s behaviour is controlled through and beyond the law.

C) In order to reproduce the white patriarchal saviour narrative in which vulnerable Indigenous women and children must be rescued from abusive Indigenous men.

As part of the Northern Territory Intervention, the Federal Government implemented ‘special measures’ in Indigenous communities as a means to…

A) ...guarantee Indigenous peoples in these communities the 'full and equal enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms’ (International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965).

B) ...constitute an exception to the section of the 'Racial Discrimination Act 1975' that inhibits discrimination based on a person’s race, so that the settler state could carry out its colonial mission without having to engage in litigation on the basis of the Intervention being racist towards Indigenous peoples.

C) ...subject Indigenous peoples to laws which only apply to them, under the guise of a humanitarian intervention for the benefit of Indigenous women and children, in order to extend the white patriarchy’s control over this population.

One of these ‘special measures’ was the introduction of income management. What was the Government’s motive for doing so?

A) To ensure that money was not spent on drugs and alcohol, but was instead directed towards more essential things such as food and education for Indigenous children.

B) To restrict Indigenous people’s human right to be self-determining subjects, especially in terms of their ability to make monetary choices as autonomous individuals, as a contemporary process of settler colonialism.

C) To produce Indigenous economic dependency as a result of the white patriarchy which links power with economic prosperity due to its capitalist logics.

Why was the presence of the police significantly increased in Northern Territory Indigenous communities as part of the Intervention?

A) In order to enforce the ‘special measures’ implemented in these communities, such as restrictions on alcohol and pornographic material, as well as respond to suspicions or allegations of child sexual abuse and family violence.

B) In order to surveil and regulate Indigenous behaviour, which has merely contributed to the overrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in prison as part of the settler colonial logic of elimination.

C) In order to reinforce the white patriarchy's authority over Indigenous peoples.

Who benefitted the most from the Northern Territory Intervention?

A) Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory, particularly Indigenous women and children, because it tackled issues that contribute to child sexual abuse and family violence such as drug and alcohol abuse.

B) The settler state because the Intervention enabled it to maintain its power and control over Indigenous land and bodies, which is integral to its colonial mission.

C) The Australian Government, which was not only established by and for white patriarchs, but continues to be shaped by them through their overrepresentation in government today, because it privileges white men's interests above the interests of Indigenous Australians, particularly Indigenous women and children.

When did the Northern Territory Intervention end?

A) In July 2012, as the policy framework outlined that the legislation would only be active for five years.

B) It was repealed by the 2012 'Stronger Futures in the Northern Territory' legislation which ultimately extended the Intervention for another ten years but under a different name, demonstrating the malleability of settler colonialism.

C) It never did, and never will until the white patriarchal state recognises and accepts that Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded.

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How much do you know about the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention?

Understanding the 2007 Northern Territory Intervention

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