Communities going hungry as minister fails pressure test

carli says:

10:54am | 06/09/11

Dear Nigel,
Do you think that they should perhaps move closer to cities where food is easily delivered to the shops. Where would they find accommodation in cities? How would that work logistically?
And honestly, having indigenous community members move to cities which are quite foreign to them and which honestly (let’s be brutally honest) don’t really want them, and are not at all prepared for them, and have a culture completely foreign to theirs, wouldn’t solve the problem. Rather economically it would create, at the very least, the same amount of expenses; far from being -ahem- integrated into the city way of life, they would become more disenfranchised and more difficult to care for and assist. This is what happens, often, when people who already have deep issues are removed from their way of life and asked to live in a way which is alien to them.  The youths out there are currently supported by drug and alcohol workers and youth workers who have assisted the community in stemming the endemic alchol and drug abuse.  In their small communities they are easy to access, and dealers are easy to spot and remove. Drugs are easy to find and hard to stamp out in cities – giving youths who are at much higher than usual risk of drug and alcohol abuse, easy access to dealers and bottle shops, is like giving a match to a powder keg.
But still, I guess taking thousands of indigenous people who have strong ties to their families and their land and who speak very little english, and who do not know how to live in big cities, and some of who have drug, alcohol and domestic violence issues , and thrusting them into cities where housing for disadvantaged and low income families is already hard to find… I guess that could be a good solution.
Easy solutions tend not to work.

Craig of North Brisbane says:

01:32pm | 06/09/11

Yep, like those Aboriginal people chose to move to the big smoke of Alice Springs to be nearer to commerce and jobs.  That worked out really splendidly, didn’t it?

mahhrat says:

09:51am | 06/09/11

@SeanR, you are neglecting to mention that these solutions simply don’t fit with indigenous lifestyles either.

Exactly the same thing happened to a friend who lived in an indigenous community.  She grew her own garden outside her house, as there was a lack of fresh produce available locally.

One of the local boys offered to look after it - offered! - when she went away on a business trip.

He simply didn’t, not because he was mean or horrible, but simply because the culture doesn’t place value on permanent structures.

We keep trying to apply the wrong values to the solution.

AdamC says:

10:29am | 06/09/11

Seanr, great comment. Only pollies, NGOs and credulous media types are surprised when, if you condition people to be dependent and dysfunctional, that is what they become.

Mahhrat, I don’t believe in this ‘cultural’ argument for ongoing aboriginal poverty. To put it bluntly, everyone was a hunter-gatherer once, with the attendant social structures and values. Most of us no longer are, for a whole set of excellent reasons. Indigenous people just victims of welfare conditioning. While substance abuse, poverty and violence are seen in concentrated microcosm in indigenous communities, they are present everywhere.

c says:

11:15am | 06/09/11

What does it take to get a community functional?
1.Education.
2. Infrastructure
3. Healthcare including assistance with mental health issues
4. Meaningful work -paid or unpaid

Where are these in aboriginal communities?

I agree with you, Adam C, in that I don’t believe, either, that it is ‘The Aboriginal way of life’ to not be able to look after things.

Rather, the people out in those communities show evidence of health problems that we would call ‘post traumatic stress’ and ‘alcoholism’ and ‘neglect’ and ‘suicidal ideation and depression’ in cities. Trying to pretend that it is any culture’s way of life to drink themselves to oblivion and to treat their children so neglectfully is racist and reductionist.

One interesting fact is that for some young indigenous people, a funeral a week is, however, currently a ‘way of life’, due to things I mentioned above.

If you want to look at the breakdown of the structures and routines which support and connect a community, you have to be honest about its’ causes and solutions.

Up until minimum wage was established for Indigenous people in the 1970s, Aboriginal men often worked on the farms out there, and history tells that they did a fantastic job. It gave them food and lodging in the housing provided by land owners, which they looked after, by all historical accounts, quite well. (Where is the evidence of a cultural predilection towards property damage and unemployment in that historical evidence?)
When minimum wage was introduced - by the kindness of people in the cities who thought they were providing new opportunities for these poor black workers - the farm owners dumped the aboriginal workers, who then were forced to return with their families to communities, or were shuffled off to towncamps and hasty thrown together communities. Then the men, used to working and providing for their families, even if they were getting utterly pitiful wages for it (tea and flour and other dry goods mostly), could not find jobs because nobody wanted to pay a blackfella the same as a white man. Endemic unemployment, when they WANTED TO WORK,  turned to drinking and community breakdown and the families fell apart.

MarkS says:

11:28am | 06/09/11

@Mahhrat
The time for being hunter gatherers has passed. To the extent that there are values or customs from their recent hunter gatherer past that are serving them poorly, then those values have to GO.

My ancestors where hunter gatherers once & later, head hunters. Does not mean that I should be allowed to cut off heads & hang them from my door.

Seanr says:

12:35pm | 06/09/11

@mahhrat, I refer you to what AdamC and MarkS said re ‘hunter gatherers’ and the Indigenous lifestyle argument, they are invalid and help keep these dysfunctional communities going.

AdamC says:

01:03pm | 06/09/11

I was meaning to say, those interested in indigenous policy should log onto ABC iView and have a look at their first episode of 50 Year anniversary vintage 4Corners. It comprises two episodes about indigenous people, the first of which concerned that celebrated equal pay case for indigenous stockmen.

It was a fascinating show. On the one hand, the pro-equal pay camp quite reasonably highlighted the mind-blowingly discriminatory state of affairs. On the other, most of the negatives that the anti side predicted as outcomes of the decision have come to pass. Big time.

Mahhrat says:

02:49pm | 06/09/11

@SeanR, perhaps, but that wasn’t the point of this article.

The other side of the coin is that where the elders were given authority to manage their communities, they do manage and they manage well.

If we’re going to expect assimilation, then let’s expect it, make it clear and be upfront about it, not whinge behind backs.  I agree this solution is poor, but if we’re going to do it, let’s make sure it’s the right thing to do, not just us being an ideological parent, which is what we’re doing now.  It’s disrespectful to them not just as a culture, but as human beings.

Seanr says:

03:34pm | 06/09/11

@mahhrat
Agree completely with your last paragraph but I would add that if Indigenous groups wish to maintain some semblance of their forefather’s lifestyle, they shouldn’t expect the rest of Australia to fund it if it is not sustainable.

Joe says:

04:29pm | 06/09/11

Mahhrat,  No we don’t expect assimilation today.  Assimilation is a personnel choice for the individual.  But what we do need for people to integrate, to get jobs, to pay their way, to get off welfare, to look after their children, etc, etc, which goes for the entire of Australian Society.  Australia will not survive as a country if we do not brake the habit of Welfare dependency that we have created over the last fifty years or so, again it goes for the entirety of Australian Society.  Fixing this problem is going to take some time.

John A Neve says:

06:56pm | 06/09/11

Joe,
I will not touch on the ownership issue, suffice to ask, who gave them ownership?
The reality is, if they cannot support themselve in the back and beyond, they will have to move.
Land that cannot support you is not worth 20c.