Close message Due to scheduled maintenance on Friday 19th April 2024 between 7:00PM and 9:00PM AEST, the Scootle website may face disruption in service. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Back to search results
Marion Scrymgour discusses representing Indigenous men, 2008

Audio Marion Scrymgour discusses representing Indigenous men, 2008

TLF ID R9400

This is an edited sound recording of a Northern Territory politician, Marion Scrymgour, talking in July 2008 about representing the views of Indigenous men after she became the first Indigenous woman to be elected to the NT Legislative Assembly in 2001. Scrymgour says that she seeks to empower Indigenous men to take responsibility for solving problems in their communities. She also says that being Indigenous means that she is better prepared to represent the views of people in remote communities without compromising herself by breaching cultural protocols.

View resource


Educational details

Educational value
  • Marion Scrymgour (1960-) stresses the importance of working with and empowering Indigenous men. The Howard government's so-called 'intervention' into Indigenous affairs in the NT in 2007 because of claims of widespread child abuse in Indigenous communities had undermined the position of all Indigenous men. In the interview, Scrymgour is partly responding to the need to overcome this damaging aspect of the accusations.
  • This recording was made in July 2008, during the NT National Emergency Response program, initiated by the Howard government and continued by the Rudd government. The 'intervention', as it was called, followed the release in June 2007 of a board of inquiry report called 'Little children are sacred', which called for federal and NT government action on child abuse. Scrymgour initially condemned the intervention and still sees it as politically motivated.
  • Scrymgour's emphasis here on ensuring that Indigenous men are made to feel 'part of the solution, rather than the problem' reflects part of the response to the intervention that was occurring within Indigenous communities. Around the time this recording was made, an unprecedented meeting of Aboriginal men at Inteyerrkwe in the NT issued a collective 'sorry' to Aboriginal women and girls, promising to develop strategies to ensure safe family environments.
  • Scrymgour says that she is able to communicate well with Indigenous men and describes the view that an Indigenous woman is not able to as a 'myth'. It is common in Indigenous Australian communities for certain knowledge to be gender-specific, to be kept secret from the other gender, and also for complex rules to govern interactions between men and women. Scrymgour sees her knowledge of protocols as an advantage.
  • Scrymgour has been one of Australia's most successful female Indigenous politicians. She was elected to the NT Legislative Assembly as a representative of the Australian Labor Party. In 2003 she became Australia's first female Indigenous cabinet minister, and in 2008 her brief role as acting chief minister made her the first Indigenous woman to lead a state or territory government.
  • Scrymgour was elected in the sparsely populated electorate of Arafura in the northern part of the NT, taking in the Tiwi Islands, the Cobourg Peninsula, Kakadu National Park and western Arnhem Land. About three-quarters of the electorate is Indigenous. Scrymgour comfortably won the seat in 2001. She retained the seat in 2005 with 2,137 votes after preferences, out of a total of 3,053 votes.
Topics Aboriginal peoples Activism Political power Gender equality Gambling Legislative assemblies

Other details

Contributors
  • Author
  • Person: Marion Scrymgour
  • Description: Author
  • Contributor
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Content provider
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Person: Marion Scrymgour
  • Description: Author
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au/
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Colour independence
  • Device independence
Learning Resource Type
  • Audio
Rights
  • © Education Services Australia Ltd, 2013, except where indicated under Acknowledgements.