Remote
government-funded communities are facing closures (Marieke Ceranna/Amnesty
International Australia)
“New
funding laws threaten the existence of remote indigenous communities already
facing profound social issues.”
Royce
Kurmelovs 'aljazeera' 7 December 2014
Perth,
Australia - The West Australian state government may bulldoze 150 remote
indigenous communities that it says are too expensive to keep open under a new
funding arrangement between federal and state authorities.
Canberra
has offered each state a one-time, lump-sum payment to take over the
responsibility of financing remote Aboriginal communities indefinitely.
In an
ultimatum, Western Australia was offered $90m, enough to fund remote
communities through to 2017.
But as of
June 30, 2015, past federal funding agreements will end, effectively giving
Western Australia authorities about seven months before they must start working
out how to fund remote communities in the future - and which ones will have to
close.
Similar
arrangements have been made with South Australian, Queensland, Victorian and
Tasmanian state governments.
All have
so far remained silent on the details with the exception of South Australia,
which rejected a $10m payment on the basis that it was not enough for the
obligation being created.
South
Australia's Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation Ian Hunter
warned if his government was forced to accept the new arrangement, 60 remote
communities - home to 4,000 people - would have to close.
Futures in
question
So far,
Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has taken a cautionary tone, telling
Al Jazeera it is "still very early", while admitting that community
closures are inevitable.
"No
decision has yet been made to close any of Western Australia's remote
communities," said Barnett. "But the reality is that WA will struggle
to afford subsidies of that amount."
This has
not helped soothe concerns about the possible dislocation from traditional land
of vulnerable communities dealing with profound social issues.
A recent
Productivity Commission report found that despite some success, Australia's
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples still face serious issues in
areas of mental health and suicide, disability and over-representation in the
country's prisons and criminal justice system.
The fear
is that changes to federal policy and funding arrangements that have raised the
possibility of community closures only threatens to derail any achievements
made to date.
That such
closures may occur around the country is also what has lead the National
Congress of Australia's First Peoples (NCAFP) to label the issue one of the
"most significant" facing Australia's indigenous peoples to date.
"This
is about our people's right to stay on our land," NCAFP co-chair Kirstie
Parker told Al Jazeera. "People are very frightened that the days are
numbered and their communities will be closed."
In an
effort to address the issue, Parker and her co-chair Les Malezer called on
Prime Minister Tony Abbott to act in an open letter (link is external) last
week, but so far they have not received a response.
For others
such as Tammy Solonec, Amnesty International Australia's (AIA) indigenous
peoples rights manager, there are serious questions about the Western Australia
government's ability to properly manage the transition.
Closing a
community with historic experiences of dispossession is no easy task, and doing
so with the care needed to carry out a closure may not be possible on the
relatively short period of time available and on such a wide scale.
"It's
just going to create chaos," said Solonec, who also works as a lawyer for
the Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia.
Most of
all, Solonec said she fears a repeat of what happened when the remote community
of Oombulgurri was closed in 2011.
Community
in crisis
Before it
was closed, Oombulgurri was a community of about 200 people on Balanggarra land
in Western Australia's far north. During the wet season, the road to
Oombulgurri is cut off, meaning the area can only be reached by plane or a half-hour
boat ride.
The area
was the scene of a massacre that took place in 1926 when law enforcement sought
revenge on local Aboriginal people for the killing of a pastoralist.
In 2005
and 2006, the community hit troubled times again when it was rocked by five
tragic deaths, including four suicides, in the space of a year.
David
Ryder has fond memories of life in 'Oomby', but said things are much worse
after the 'forced eviction' (Marieke Ceranna/AIA)
A Coronial
Inquest into the deaths (link is external) went on to highlight a string of
social problems that included alcohol-related violence, domestic violence, and
child sexual abuse.
In
response, the Western Australian government moved to close the community.
While the
state government insists the former residents of Oombulgurri left voluntarily,
the closure began with the withdrawal of services from the community in 2011.
The
process was gradual. Welfare payments stopped being processed before the local
store closed. After that, the schools and health services shutdown, followed by
municipal services. This effectively forced residents with children and older
residents in need of medical attention to leave in order to access services
elsewhere.
Finally,
the power and water were shut off. Despite this, 10 holdouts remained, one
being David Ryder who has fond memories of life in "Oomby" before the
trouble started a decade ago.
"It
was a good life," said Ryder, an elder who remembers the good fishing in
the mangroves nearby.
When he
and the other holdouts were finally removed from the area, he said he had to
leave his property behind. Once out, the physical remoteness of the area meant
there was no way to retrieve personal belongings without support from the
ranger and a 30-minute boat ride.
Few of the
former residents seem to have fared well in the transition, with many having
nowhere to go and ending up homeless, living on the fringes of bigger towns in
the region.
To combat
the problem, the state government was forced to spend at least $1.6m at the
time to provide temporary housing.
Worse yet,
none of the social problems that had developed in Oombulgurri over the previous
decade have gone away, according to Ryder, who said many former residents
turned to alcohol more than ever.
"It's
a sad thing," said Ryder. "Everyone's all in town now and they're
getting into trouble."
Earlier
this year the demolition of Oombulgurri (link is external) began. Solonec was
one of the last people to visit the place before it was torn down and described
how cars were left to rust, children's artwork still hung on walls, and wild
horses had taken over the area.
"It
was clear a forced eviction had taken place," said Solonec.
The
treacherous invaders say communities such as Oombulgurri are allegedly too
expensive to be kept open (Marieke Ceranna/Amnesty International Australia)
Premier Barnett
defended the decision to close the community, saying it was
"unviable" and the removals followed proper consultation.
"The
state government's decision to close a community found to be in a 'state of
crisis' - experiencing high rates of domestic violence, child neglect, sexual
abuse and excessive alcohol consumption - was necessary and in the best
interests of residents and the wider community," said Barnett.
Lessons to
be learned
The risk
now is that the experience of Oombulgurri's closure may be repeated across the
country, and for Solonec this would be the worst case scenario.
"We
can never let it happen again. If we're going to talk about closing
communities, we need to do it in a better way," said Solonec.
What's
needed she said are "creative solutions" to actually solve the
profound social issues within some remote communities, and prevent people being
removed from their land.
Her view
is echoed by Parker, who said self-determination is the key and closing down
communities merely on the basis that they are "dysfunctional" will
not solve problems, but only push them onto other communities.
"Our
communities are left wondering about the future of our communities and of our
children," said Parker.
"This
scenario doesn't address the problems in our communities everyone knows are
there, it doesn't deal with the people. To do that you sit down and talk with
them."
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