Refused Service? 'Closing' Aboriginal Communities in WA & why it matters to all of us
This NAIDOC week event is open to UTS staff and students and interested members of the public; it has been made possible with the generous support of the UTS Equity and Diversity Unit, the UTS Communications Program and the History Council of NSW
In November 2014, Western Australian Premier, Colin Barnett, announced the imminent closure of up to 150 of WA’s 274 remote Aboriginal communities. Most remote WA Aboriginal communities are in the Kimberley.
This public forum brings scholars and activists together to discuss the history of these communities, how they got to be where they are, and what government promises were made that must now be broken in order to force Aboriginal residents to abandon them.
We will gain an understanding of the current context and status of communally-owned and private property Aboriginal remote homelands, the cost shifting by the Federal government to WA, and where the denial of services, that all other citizens expect, are forcing their people out.
Speakers:
Patrick Sullivan, Adjunct Professor National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University.
Stephen Kinnane, Senior Researcher, Nulungu Research Institute, University of Notre Dame. Via skype from the Kimberleys.
Research academic Stephen Kinnane will provide a historical and contemporary understanding of policy with regard to remote communities in Western Australia, and the Kimberley in particular. Drawing on his work with the Kimberley Aboriginal Caring for Country Plan, he will critically discuss Cultural and Natural Resource Management, the growth and value of working on country in the Kimberley, in addition to the social reconstruction that Fitzroy Valley communities have been initiating in earnest since the late 1990s. He will consider these in relation to recent shifts in policy from bilateral agreements to the recent abrupt policy change in November 2014 that have threatened community closures and caring for country.
Activist and scholar, Patrick Sullivan (Adjunct Professor National Centre for Indigenous Studies, Australian National University), provides a first-hand account, drawing on his involvement with these communities to the present. He discusses the social movements of the 1980s that provided the impetus for Aboriginal peoples’ return to their homelands, and the state and federal programmes and agreements that supported most Aboriginal communities in remote areas since that time. The WA government’s intention to deny services to many remote communities will be traced back to the Federal government’s new agreement with the states following the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) in 2005. He argues this is a fundamental rupture of previous commitments by both Liberal and Labor governments, re-writing Australia’s relationship with remote Aboriginal peoples without consultation or explanation. This talk concludes by placing the servicing of remote Aboriginal communities in the broader national context of equitably servicing all of remote and rural Australia, one part of a much larger crisis of the bush that metropolitan citizens must pay attention to.
More about the speakers:
Stephen has been an active researcher and writer for more than 20 years as well as teaching and working on community cultural heritage and development projects. His interests are diverse encompassing Aboriginal history, creative documentary (both visual and literary), and tensions surrounding the ideals of sustainability and the relationships between individuality, community, country, economy and human development; he is Marda Marda from Mirrowoong country in the East Kimberley. He co-wrote and produced The Coolbaroo Club (1996) an ABC TV documentary, awarded the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Human Rights Award for the Arts, and collaborated with Lauren Marsh and Alice Nannup on the completion of When the Pelican Laughed, (1992) the story of Mrs Alice Nannup (Fremantle Arts Centre Press). His book, Shadow Lines was awarded the WA Premier’s Award for Non-Fiction 2004, the Federation of Australian Writer’s Award for Non-Fiction 2004, The Stanner Award 2004, and was short-listed for the Queensland, South Australian Premier’s Awards. Recent publications include the chapter ‘Indigenous Australia’ (in collaboration with Anna Haebich) for the Cambridge History of Australia, the chapter ‘Blood History’ for the First Australians book accompanying the First Australians Television Series, and reports and chapters examining sustainable livelihoods and how communities are changing the future by confronting systemic impediments, addressing priorities and developing regionally relevant solutions.
Patrick is an anthropologist who writes about engagement between Aboriginal people and the public sector in Australia. He draws on his work in Western Australia’s Kimberley region since 1983. Much of this time has been spent working with independent Aboriginal organisations. His numerous collaborative projects have involved practical research and advice on issues of land use and distribution, community control of community development, and governance institutions at the local and regional levels. He worked on native title claims following the High Court Mabo decision in 1992 and has been the Senior Anthropologist for the Kimberley Land Council on two occasions, formulating anthropological and policy advice on local, national and international projects. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, practical reports and the recent book Belonging Together: Dealing with the Politics of Disenchantment in Australian Indigenous Policy (Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra 2011).
Chair: Dr Heidi Norman, Social and Political Sciences, UTS.
This NAIDOC week event is open to UTS staff and students and interested members of the public; it has been made possible with the generous support of the UTS Equity and Diversity Unit, the UTS Communications Program and the History Council of NSW.
