The Way Foward for Australia's First Peoples

Shane Wright reported in The West Australian, Monday 8 August, 2011, p 13 "Indigenous money waste huge: report".  He was reporting on a report commissioned by Kevin Rudd and compiled by Finance Department officials early in 2010. The report was "scathing of the 232 programs aimed specifically at indigenous people or which have had a focus on Aboriginals or Torres Strait Islanders since 2000. "...much of the  $3.5 billion a year in special programs delivered 'appalling' results".  "Past approaches to remedying indigenous disadvantage have clearly failed and new approaches are needed".

Wright indicated:  "The reports authors struggled to find all the programs aimed at indigenous Australians, saying more money was not necessarily the answer".

Against the background of this article by Wright one sees sick Aboriginal persons camped in appalling conditions adjacent to the Port Hedland Hospital.  They must be there as many of them have for example regular dialysis treatment. Admittedly a new hostel is being built nearby but it is far from completion and some of those it is meant to house fear that it will mean a sort of institutionalisation.

The plight of the Oombulgurri people has been highlighted in a previous post on this blog.

Also in The West Australian, Monday 8 August 2011, p11, Nathan Dyer reports on a serious suicide problems for young indigenous persons at the Balgo community.

To balance these examples of sadness above the writer of this blog gets a lot of good news stories in emails from Generation One which is all about education and jobs for indigenous persons.  There are also lots of good news stories of remote indigenous communities that have conquered the scourge of alcohol and other drugs. What about the indigenous Clontarf Football Academy in WA?


Put these good news/bad news scenarios in a context of the promised 2013 referendum on recognising the First Australians in the Australian constitution. 2013 is not far off and I am tipping that there will be a resounding yes for such recognition because Australians have an active sense of a fair go.  If a "fair go" is the main basis of a strong yes vote then it will only have meaning if it is based on each voter having demonstrated that they have a deep respect for the First Peoples that is manifest in all sorts of positive relationship actions.

How will this respect be nurtured in those who have little or nothing to do with indigenous Australians?  Following are some suggested actions:

• Federal and State governments need to cooperate in a massive bipartisan TV advertising campaign that highlights the good news stories and shows that urgent actions are taking place to alleviate situations like the Pilbara sick persons camped near the hospital or the Balgo youth in crisis.  This campaign needs to be developed by advertising professionals not well meaning boffins . The TV campaign would get to most Australians whereas Twitter and blogs would have a more restricted audience.
• Federal and State governments need to identify influential indigenous leaders, listen to them, and support them in their planning and actions to lead their people to a life that is rooted in the Aboriginal culture while embracing  such things as the benefits of modern medicine and rejecting the temporal pain relief that alcohol and other drugs might give for cultural loss.  No more NT interventions. These leaders already abound some recognised like the Dodsons, Noel Pearson, Rosalie Kunoth-Monks, Mandawuy Yunupingu and Tania Major and others waiting to be identified.  Australia at large will easily understand the work of non-government movements like Generation One (see above) but will have to be tolerant and non-judgemental if say elders in remote communities are supported by their leaders in living out their lives based largely on the old ways.  These elders have suffered enough as they lived through the destruction of their cultures. If these indigenous leaders want to take their people down the path of negotiating with mining companies over their land then so be it.  For communities that don't have mineral wealth then State and Federal Governments must support the leaders' plans as the way forward.
• These great indigenous leaders need the wisdom of Philosopher Kings to bring indigenous and non-indigenous Australians together in a true reconciliation where forgiveness for wrongs of the past is strong and stubborn prejudices are banished.  Maybe treaties are needed.  The ultimate goals are:

1. .....a nation that manifests respect, non-indigenous for indigenous and vice versa as the norm, such that the world at large easily recognises that this is how it is in Australia and;
2. .....indigenous Australians able to easily satisfy primary needs and enjoy some of those extras that modern life offers in ways that do not rely on government handouts with their choices being rooted in self determination.