AM - Wednesday, 17 May , 2006 08:08:00 Reporter: Gillian Bradford TONY EASTLEY: One of the country's leading experts on domestic violence has told AM the terrible crimes being highlighted in town camps in Alice Springs are just a snapshot of what's happening in other Indigenous communities.
Last year Lyla Coorey wrote a report for the Federal Parliament detailing the extent of child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities in the Torres Strait, Queensland and New South Wales.
And even though she'd worked with abuse victims for nearly 30 years, Ms Coorey says she was unprepared for the scale of what she found.
Ms Coorey is speaking here with Gillian Bradford in Canberra.
LYLA COOREY: I looked at the issues of Indigenous children in far north Queensland, Torres Strait Islands and Outback New South Wales. It's clear that the problem exists actually all over Australia and I'm certain in metropolitan areas as well.
GILLIAN BRADFORD: And how serious did you find the plight of children in Indigenous communities to be?
LYLA COOREY: I was absolutely appalled at the situation that our Indigenous children are in.
The sexual abuse was devastating, and clearly, when I interviewed adults who'd been sexually abused as children, their problems were still impacting on them from early childhood abuse.
It's just a problem that is not going to go away without some serious intervention across all government departments and Indigenous communities.
GILLIAN BRADFORD: Well, the problem appears so huge. So where do you point the finger? Who needs to do what?
LYLA COOREY: We must look at the factors that particularly make Indigenous children vulnerable to ongoing abuse.
It is not just sexual abuse they are experiencing, but I think we need to look at all aspects of Indigenous children's lives. And it will become apparent that they are probably singularly the most disadvantaged group of Australians.
GILLIAN BRADFORD: Give me some of those reasons why child sexual abuse is just so much more prevalent in Aboriginal remote communities.
LYLA COOREY: They are numerous. Where do you start?
You look at perhaps the social environment that they're growing up in. They're surrounded by neglect, parents who are involved in heavy substance abuse. And I think that in itself is a major issue.
And I think if you attempt to examine why that is the case you will find that a number of adults, Indigenous adults, are still suffering and still reeling from their own experiences of child sexual abuse.
GILLIAN BRADFORD: Did you get any understanding of how many Indigenous children's lives were being in some way touched by sexual abuse?
LYLA COOREY: Nearly everybody I spoke to knew of several people who'd been sexually abused as children. I think the scope of this problem is so widespread it is almost beyond belief.
TONY EASTLEY: Domestic violence researcher Lyla Coorey, speaking there with Gillian Bradford.
Australian media reports that a recently leaked Northern Territory police briefing paper exposes "shocking" cases of sexual abuse and violence against women and children in remote Australian Aboriginal communities.

Northern Territory, Australia
Central Australian Crown prosecutor, Dr Nannette Rogers, alleged a range of "dreadful" cases she has heard of. Her paper claims details of abuse (over a 15-year period), including the rape of a seven-month-old baby, and the sexual assault and drowning of a girl by an 18-year-old man. The report refers to a disturbingly abusive and secretive Indigenous male culture. She says a "web of kinship" has helped to create a "conspiracy of silence" and that Aboriginal communities were suffering from "tragedy fatigue," allowing horrific crimes to appear unremarkable. 

"It doesn't augur well for Aboriginal people to be functional human beings with the attributes of turning around and caring for children themselves," she said. "The child grows up seeing violence done to him or her and having violence done to him or her." 

 Tangentyere Council chief executive William Tilmouth says it is appalling behaviour. "It's a behaviour that's got to stop, it's behaviour that denigrates the family, as well as the women," he said.