The WA State government is about to launch a new plan to assist regional remote indigenous communities to survive and prosper (See several relevant articles in the West Australian newspaper of 14 July 2016.).
The plan is a step away from the Barnett government's statement of some months ago that foreshadowed the closing down of many of the remote communities. This came as a result of the Federal government indicating that it would cease to fund the states for these communities to the tune of many millions of dollars.
The new plan is for some $200 million plus of state government money to be available over several years to assist communities in housing, education, jobs and health. Remote communities that want to survive must show that they have a high school attendance rate and at least one member of each of its families in a job in order to tap into this funding. The planners are using models from communities that already meet these sorts of criteria and hope that the model will be taken up by other communities. I fear that very remote communities will disappear.
Only time will tell if this plan works. Having visited almost every remote community in WA as an educator with the Education Department of WA I worry that the criterion of job availability may be very hard for some communities to meet. If a very remote community does not have access to job opportunities will it fail to survive? I feel for the old people who understandably cling to their land and don't want to see their community numbers depleted with the young moving off to find work.
Is there some way to transition the elders so that they don't become broken hearted if their community fails to survive as such? They have suffered enough from the cultural disruption of white settlement.
I can't even bring myself to think of a community shutting down and leaving the elders in limbo.
GD
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