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The first National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People says she does not underestimate the job before her.
Sun-Anne Hunter was announced as the new Commissioner by Social Services Minister Tanya Pilbersek and Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy on Sunday.
Speaking to NITV, the Wurundjeri Ngurai Illum Wurrung woman spoke of the weight of responsibility she feels stepping into the role.
“I don’t take it lightly,” she said.
“It’s going to be tough, but we need it. The kids are our future.”
Ms Hunter was speaking from Gumatj Country, attending the annual Garma Festival in Northeast Arnhem Land.
Youth justice, a white-hot issue in the Northern Territory, has been a recurrent theme during the festival.
“It’s not only in the forums, it’s in the lineup, getting coffee, it’s walking around, connecting with people,” she said.
“Speaking about the conditions of community up here really hit home.”
Ms Hunter called the statistics “alarming”.
“One of my first priorities is really to speak to community organisations, to the commissioners, to the advocates … already in these positions around the states and territories and their jurisdictions.
“What’s already been done, what’s already happening, what are people already advocating for?
“Most of this work isn’t new. It’s not new. It just hasn’t progressed.
“So how do we actually … reduce the rate of children in care, reduce our children youth detention … better health outcomes, better education outcomes?
“The protective factor is culture, and so how do we keep kids connected to their country, their family, their culture?”
Ms Hunter is fresh from her role as a Commissioner and deputy chair of the Yoorrook Justice Commission, the nation’s first truth-telling inquiry, which delivered its historic final report last month.
In a powerful and far-reaching summary of its four years of work hearing testimony from Victoria’s First Nations peoples as well as government officials, the Commission declared a genocide had been perpetrated as a result of colonisation.
It’s a process that should be replicated across the country, says Hunter.
“I think each state territory really needs to have that … there’s other things at a federal level.
“We need to understand the past to build a better future.”
