Aboriginal
Activist Alice Haines speeks in Canberra at the May 1 Rally, 2015 - Subject:
'Closing the Coonana Community' - #SOSBlackAustralia Video by Enlightning
Productions
Coonana,
170km from Kalgoorlie-Boulder was once a busy community but now there's just
one or two people left who have no water or services. This is an example of the
government starving the community of services until it is unlivable.
Article
by Lorraine Horsley, ABC Goldfields (Some editing by SU)
In
the 1950s the Spinifex people living at Maralinga in the Great Victoria Desert
were dispossessed from their homelands to allow for atomic testing carried out
by the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia.
The
people were placed at Cundalee but when there were issues with water the
Coonana community was set up in the mid 1980s to accommodate these people.
Coonana
lies approximately 170km east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder along the Trans Access
Road, once a busy community it is now all but deserted.
Geoffrey
Stokes is an Indigenous pastor and has grave concerns for the people that used
to call Coonana home.
Tjuntjuntjara, Goldfields, WA, another regional communitywhere some of the Coonana people are now living.
He
blames the government for what's happened in the community, saying they want to
commence mining in the area.
"When
I first went out there, there were over 300 people, then in the last few years
that I've been going out there, there would have been about 120, they don't
exist anymore.
"I
think they've been moved out quietly and quickly, the Government has come in
and taken over.
"The
funds for the shop stopped, the water and electricity and the other thing they
took out was the health services, and that's the most important service that
they had out there."
Indigenous
pastor, Geoffrey Stokes
The
mining companies and government propaganda
'Paedophilia',
'suicides' and 'social problems are such easy labels for the governments and
the media to spin because they know the wider Australian population are racists
and believe themselves to be superior to Aboriginal people ... and here it goes
again, this time the indoctrination is 'Social problems' ...
The
Minister for Mining and Housing Bill Marmion was contacted for a response to Mr
Stoke's comments. He declined to comment but issued the following comments in a
statement:
“ 'The
suggestion the government let the community run down because it wanted the land
back or to make it available for mining prospects is simply untrue.
The town had large social problems and
gradually became depopulated as a result. The assets, houses, do not belong to
the department... It should be noted that the Department of Housing's role in
the town was to undertake limited maintenance to housing that was already in a
limited state of disrepair when it came on board in 2009. It should also be
noted that the antisocial behaviours of the residents and visitors at Coonana
impacted significantly and detrimentally on the housing stock.' "
Former
Coonana residents
Christopher
Baker called Coonana home for close to two decades and wishes the community was
as it once was.
His
family and friends from the community are now split between Kalgoorlie-Boulder
and Tjuntjuntjara.
He
believes the problems at the community would be solved if all the parties
involved could work together.
"It
was good before, but not now, it's all gone down because of the funding not
coming in.
"Not
enough power, the councils and all that not working together, I would like to see
people more back to Coonana.
"(My
family) they moved back to Tjuntjuntjara or Kalgoorlie, I'm here for
dialysis."
Victor
Willis has a similar story to Christopher but says that social issues played a
big part in the community's downfall.
"I
used to live in Cundalee then we moved to Coonana, it was good back in that
time, everything was running smooth.
"A
lot of staff (were) still working, we had a clinic running there.
"But
we had problems there, since the white staff moved on, that's when the problems
start.
"I
lived there for many years... (People began to) steal money, steal money from
the shop and since then that's why the government can't fund the place."
Where
the people went: Tjuntjuntjara
Many
of the people who have moved on from Coonana chose to go to Tjuntjuntjara.
Fiona
Pemberton is the general manager of the Tjuntjuntjara community.
She
said the influx has put pressure on the already severe housing crisis.
"We've
had a lot of discussions out here about the demise of Coonana, people were
certainly very concerned about the prospect of Coonana closing and it's because
people have a very strong connect to Coonana, a lot of babies have been born in
the last 30 years and have grown up there, there is a cemetery there so there's
a number of people buried there.
"People
have enormous concerns about what will happen to the cemetery and who will look
after it and how it will be protected.
"Coonana
has memories and stories."
A
statement from the Housing Department said that the supply of portable water in
Tjuntjuntjara is insufficient to support additional housing at this time.
Aboriginal Lands Trust
The Coonana community lies on land in the care
of the Aboriginal Lands Trust. ALT chair Clinton Wolf said a number of towns
and places in regional WA become abandoned when people move on.
"Effectively,
you can't keep throwing a massive amount of resources out to a community where
I believe there is only one dwelling that is occupied now, there are some
people who travel through there from time to time but it's a matter of saying
'where's the need?'... it's about prioritising and working out what fits
best."
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