She has been put out of the way.

It seems that inept and insensitive officials ignored, or did not recognise, her need for help.

Aborigines have shamed us, once again.

If the Cape York Aboriginal Community recognised her need for help and took her in why could not other Australians who took charge of Cornelia act in a similarly compassionate way?

And this is an additional horror: she was treated like a refugee.

How much longer are we to live with the shame of knowing that refugees, people who have suffered in ways beyond our comfortable knowledge are badly treated and held in places like Baxter Detention Centre?

Oh, shame, shame, shame.

Postcript:

The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) has welcomed the federal Government’s decision to hold an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the detention of Ms Cornelia Rau.
Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Sev Ozdowski said the inquiry should review   not only the tragic circumstances of Ms Rau’s treatment in mandatory   detention but review the overall provision of mental health services in   Australia’s immigration detention centres.
“From the circumstances reported, it seems this shocking case only confirms   what we said in the Children in Immigration Detention Inquiry (CIDI) Report   which was released by HREOC last year - that a law requiring mandatory   detention of persons found in Australia, pending confirmation of the   lawfulness of their presence here, is inherently unjust, and is contrary to   a person’s human rights,” said Dr Ozdowski.
“Detention should only take place after a full consideration of all possible   alternatives. Under the Migration Act there is no time limit on this   detention and only very limited review by the courts is available. This law   should be changed.”
The Commissioner said that this case also emphasizes another issue raised in   the CIDI Report - the absence of legislation governing the running of   immigration detention centres.
“Minimum standards of treatment for people in immigration detention should   be codified in legislation. There should be clear protocols and regulations   enacted which set out the rights of detainees, the responsibilities of the   body administering the detention centre and the remedies available for any   breach,” he said.
The Commissioner said that prisons and immigration detention centres are not   appropriate places for people with mental illnesses. The CIDI Inquiry   consistently heard from mental health experts that children and their   families who are psychiatrically unwell cannot be treated within the   detention environment because the environment is one of the major causes of   the problems.
Last year, HREOC and the Mental Health Council of Australia conducted   extensive national community consultations on the capacity of the mental   health care system in Australia.
“One of our major concerns was the trend towards a law and order approach to   detaining people with a mental illness, whereby governments seem to believe   that for some people with mental illness, the only realistic option is to   lock them up. Cases such as this one raise real concerns that our country’s   prisons and detention centres may be being used as substitutes for mental   health facilities,” the Commissioner said.
“Once again, I call on governments to provide adequate resources and   services to support people with mental health issues.”

Cornelia Rau could be me.

Sometimes I try to imagine and write about myself as if I am schizophrenic or in an unstable mental state.

Such a knife-edge possibility this is.

Perhaps this feeling of vulnerability is part of women’s collective memory, a memory of a time when women were put in asylums to be out of the way.

This is what has happened to Cornelia Rau.