RESPECT HAS A ROLE IN BREAKING PATTERNS OF VIOLENCE, SAYS ADVOCATE

Devon Cuimera. Credit: Supplied.

A Whadjuk Yued Noongar man is calling for parents to show the importance of respect to their children to break intergenerational patterns of violence that can be caused by heavy trauma.

Devon Cuimera is the founder of the Aboriginal Males Healing Centre in Newman and a spokesperson for the ‘Stop it at the Start’ campaign to encourage First Nations people to unite to ‘Bring up Respect’ with young people.

He said he has lived experiences of violence.

“My grandfather, my father and I are three generations that used and have used violence,” Mr Cuimera said.

“There’s also a fourth generation in my son. If my generation didn’t stop the use of violence, then there would have been a fourth generation in my son. So it had to stop with me, and to do that I had to respect my son and the next generation, and also respect myself and my wife and my family.”

Mr Cuimera is calling on parents to be role models.

“Children witness many disrespectful occurences and situations in their homes,” he said.

“That includes violence, alcoholism, gambling; all of those. Using myself as an example, I had to put my children first and lead by example, and live by example.”

He said injustices of the past and present have led to violence in Aboriginal communities.

“All of those traumas … when you are Indigenous and considered by racially biased government structures that make policy for us … those kind of things have an impact, and they are traumatic,” he said.

Mr Cuimera said the recent alleged murder of Noongar-Yamatji teenager Cassius Turvey was another example of the kind of traumatic impacts Indigenous people must “deal with as a community” and that can lead to further violence.