Reforms to give dignity
19.08.2000
ONE of the most significant, life-changing events in the lives of indigenous Australians in recent decades will take place next week at Weipa on Cape York.
For the past century, commentary on Aboriginal people has centred on their disastrous living conditions and the hopelessness they suffered as they struggled with forced integration with white Australia.
Alcoholism and disease have wrought havoc on Aboriginal society.
With monotonous regularity, well-meaning people have called for the situation to be addressed.
Governments often have thrown buckets of money at the ``problem'' and then pleaded that it has been ``solved''.
Nothing has worked.
It has proved impossible here, as it has for indigenous people in other countries, for them to emerge from the abyss.
Consider this -- the life expectancy for non-indigenous Australians is 75 for males and 80.9 years for females. For Aboriginal men and women it is 49.
Eighteen months ago, Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson threw a hand grenade which was to change everything.
He stated publicly and forcefully that grog was the poison that was killing his people; that the welfare system was equally poisonous; and that the only way Aboriginal people would survive was to break the welfare cycle.
He drew the expected criticism from those who did not want to see change -- the public servants who had built themselves comfortable little empires servicing the ``Aboriginal industry''; and there were the Aborigines themselves, including some of their leaders, suspicious of any change.
Premier Peter Beattie was impressed. Any government would be -- it echoed the new philosophy of reciprocity and responsibility.
This week there's a gathering of the most high-powered advisers, achievers, MPs, Aboriginal leaders and bureaucrats yet to assemble on Cape York. After a year of planning along the lines proposed by Pearson, they are going to make things happen. The principal aim is to facilitate greater economic self-determination for indigenous people on the cape. If it works there, no doubt it will be adopted in other remote communities -- and there is little reason this will not work.
It is proposed that an Indigenous Business Institute be established to provide culturally appropriate business skills, training and mentoring to sustain proper business enterprises -- not Mickey Mouse proposals like crocodile or emu farms.
Selvita Systems Pty Ltd and the Department of State Development have reviewed the proposal. Funding and pledges of support have been received from the State Government, ATSIC, The Body Shop, the Myer Foundation and The Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Trust.
More central to next week's meeting are proposals to establish real and lasting structures that will enable Aboriginal people to function in the ``real'' economy, if that is their choice.
The proposals include:
* A family income management system to allow families, through pooling, to better manage their finances, provide incentives to work and build wealth and economic opportunities;
* Community economic development planning to focus community assessment and implementation of economic development opportunities;
* Community enterprise hubs in each indigenous community to facilitate business development, sound financial management and provide general support to small businesses;
* A Cape York credit union to administer family and personal income management programmes and to maximise financial and investment opportunities through financial planning advice and the provision of low cost credit;
* A regional art and cultural resource centre to develop, promote and support a range of indigenous art, craft and cultural business opportunities;
* A regional housing authority to plan and prioritise the housing needs of Cape communities and to negotiate funding with governments;
* A Cape York digital network to provide appropriate digital services to communities at an affordable price.
As an impetus to these proposals, a regional development strategy, developed by the Government in conjunction with indigenous organisations, identified the business development opportunities as: cultural tourism, art and craft industries, agriculture and horticulture, hardware and white goods supply, aquaculture, commercial fishing, regional housing and construction, biotechnology (bush foods and medicines) and community services such as aviation.
The greatest change of recent times that will advantage Aboriginal people is the undoubted pool of goodwill that exists among the Australian people. Reconciliation marches by hundreds of thousands of people have demonstrated this.
Governments have heard the clarion call, and responded.
The media, too, is adopting a more responsible and productive attitude.
We all have a part to play to ensure that Aboriginal people are lifted to a standard where they share equally, and contribute, and therefore live with the dignity they deserve.
