Oh, boy… I’m really setting myself up for the obvious “Tasmanian” jokes, with this one. Which would be pretty rich, really, coming from a country where there are five times as many sheep as people. But, c’mon, let’s get serious: this is not a joking matter.
A report into the prevalence of sexual violence in regional Tasmanian communities has identified a culture of “normalising” assaults within families and intimate relationships, and a lack of understanding about consent.
This is obviously horrific, and I can attest from my experiences as a census collector, the boundary between rural idyll and Deliverance Country can be a matter of kilometres. One moment, you’re in a charming, tree-change town that could be mistaken for Byron Bay or Napier — and ten kilometres down the road, there are dead roos hanging on the gate and lantern-jawed yokels glaring at you in dull suspicion.
As H. P. Lovecraft wrote, true horror haunts, not gothic castles, but “the little unpainted wooden houses remote from travelled ways”. “In such houses have dwelt generations of strange people,” Lovecraft said. “These folk were not beautiful in their sins.”
But… who are these communities? The ABC skirts around the issue.
Conducted by the Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES), the report found a need to improve the community’s understanding of what sexual violence involves, and to build up trust in services in regional, tight-knit communities.
“A related theme that emerged from interviews with community members and stakeholders was that consent within sexual interactions was often poorly understood,” the report summary read.
“Concerns were expressed by participants that sexual violence within families was normalised, and many young people lack the education they need to understand and exercise their rights to bodily autonomy,” it added.
Women and children are “commonly the targets”, of assault, the report said, and consent was “often poorly understood.”
My first suspicion was that it might be some of the ultra-conservative religious sects that haunt Tasmania’s Bible Belt along the northwest coast. But, apparently not…
The report, commissioned by the Sexual Assault Support Service (SASS) in southern Tasmania, involved 21 stakeholders and nine community members and made 11 recommendations to reduce barriers for people seeking support.
OK, that rules out the God-Botherers.
“It’s not frowned upon for a 15 or 16-year-old to date someone in his mid-20s and be impregnated by him,” they said.
“I mean, two of my siblings, are the children of what I would deem paedophilia … and it was completely normalised. Their families didn’t care.
OK… which families?
Then, right at the end of the article, which almost no one will read, comes this…
The TILES report made 11 recommendations to increase access to services for Tasmanians and to target barriers such as stigma and a lack of understanding preventing victim-survivors from coming forward.
They included further research on support for culturally diverse Tasmanians, as well as engagement with Indigenous stakeholders and communities.
ABC Australia
Make of that what you will.
