Internet Edition Issue 1
March 2006

Editorial

Viewpoint

A Roman Double for Kimberley Sisters

Compassion in Action - Project Compassion's 2006 theme

From the Office of Justice, Ecology & Peace

KCP Magazine

A New Year… A New Start?

When it comes down to the practicalities of implementing programs to overcome these symptoms of disadvantage, many governments seem to be at a loss to know what to do. There is almost always an ideological battle going on within any government department as to how things ought to be handled. The resultant strategies are often a compromise outcome at best or at worst the result of economic analysis throwing up the most cost-effective option. The Australian Federal Government is no exception.

An article in the Weekend Australian (Feb 4-5) highlighted some of the ideological tensions that have tended to plague the area of Indigenous Affairs for many years, no matter which Minister happened to be responsible at any particular time. It seems that in the midst of the political tug of war amongst departmental advisors and between the department and Ministers, the reasons for returning people to their homelands seems to have been lost.

Even the Australian article acknowledged that many of the desert people had been removed when the ‘deserts were cleared in the ‘60s for rocket testing’. Others were thrown off their traditional lands by pastoral and agricultural ‘advancement’. The ‘return to country’ has been a debt that the nation has been slow to repay. These were not, as the article suggests, ‘little symbols of self-determination, precisely to be “cultural museums”.’ These were acts of justice and recompense not charity. The fight for the ‘stolen wages’ of the Aboriginal people who were recruited to work in the agricultural and pastoral industries that took over their land is still going on.

The struggle for Government is a practical one: how can the smaller remote communities that have been settled back on their own land be made self-sustaining? How can the next generation be equipped to take their place in the ever more complex world that is modern Australia while at the same time being assisted to maintain the cultural values that are seen by their elders to be important? The option suggested in the Australian of gathering remote Australian Aboriginal people into settlements more equivalent in size to white town sites in areas with easier access to essential services seems fraught with difficulty and ignores significant cultural issues.

It may be that the move of the Indigenous Affairs portfolio into the care of Mal Brough, who is also the Minister for Family and Children’s Services, signals the desire for a change of approach on the part of the Government. At the very least it offers the opportunity for a fresh start in an area that requires delicate and culturally sensitive handling to achieve realistic and practical outcomes for Indigenous people.

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