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| Social comment: poverty, health, war, migration, people trafficking, human rights, ideology. |
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INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES NEED EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Harry Throssell
In many Aboriginal communities material poverty is a characteristic which explains the prevalence of poor health. There is nothing new about this connection although it is rarely acknowledged by political leaders in Australia. Harvard Professor of Infectious Diseases Paul Farmer made the point strongly in his 2001 book Infections and Inequalities basing his observations on poor districts in USA, Haiti and Peru. Pus in the lungs has not been found in the general Australian community since the beginning of last century but it is still relatively common in Aboriginal children in the Northern Territory. Why? ‘It is caused by poverty’, Dr Paul Bower of Royal Darwin Hospital told ABC Radio National’s Fran Kelly on 25 June. In May 2007 The Guardian Weekly reported ‘The standard of health of Aborigines lags almost 100 years behind that of other Australians, according to the World Health Organisation. Some indigenous people still suffer from leprosy, rheumatic heart disease and tuberculosis ... Surveys reported Australia ranked last for health among rich countries with indigenous populations’. Yet in both 2006 and 2007 the Australian Medical Association implored the Government to include an extra $400 million for Indigenous health in the Federal Budget but Treasurer Peter Costello did not even mention the subject, nor did the Opposition Leader. That was as recently as May, yet now we’re at panic stations. Around the globe connections are evident between poverty and poor health, unemployment, addictions, involvement in illegal drugs, violence, sexual exploitation, prostitution at an early age as well as much older, despair. In some countries, like Brazil, most young men in the favelas (slum districts) sell drugs, own guns, and do well to survive beyond the age of twenty-five. Health and destructive behaviour patterns improve with improvement in a community’s economy. In other words when employment replaces welfare, produces personal income and a sense of pride. It has to be recognised, however, welfare payments are still often necessary for those unable to work - children, the aged, sick, disabled. Spiritual poverty Prime Minister John Howard’s current policy of sending in troops and police to take over communities, whatever the hope of protecting children from sexual exploitation, delivers an unfortunate, heavy-handed message, given Australia’s colonial history. You would think the PM would tread more carefully after people turned their backs on him at the 1997 Reconciliation Conference in Melbourne, his refusal to utter the simple word ‘Sorry’, lack of any reference to Indigenous needs in the recent Federal Budget, and disappointment in his record on Indigenous matters expressed by such respected figures as Lowitje O’ Donoghue and Mick Dodson. Suspicion of his motives is not helped by the imminence of a federal election. Solutions. Tourism is a huge industry in Australia, and knowledgeable Indigenous guides make a significant contribution because of their intimate knowledge of the environment. In the outback newcomers can learn the meaning of animal movements, knowledge of plants in different seasons, how to find food for survival, traditional cooking, age-old knowledge. It can be a significant experience. In places like the Gold Coast too Indigenous people know the local history, traditions, the meaning of place-names, the connections between the land, sea and sky at different seasons, traditional weather forecasting. I once wanted to learn an Aboriginal language but couldn’t find a teacher. There could be a market for this in educational institutions, libraries, community centres, with paid teachers. It would also help ensure language doesn’t die out. Australia has much to offer world tourists and Indigenous guides should be very much involved. Another employment possibility is Noel Pearson’s idea of combining training with conserving the environment, which could attract visitors.
It is not a question of whether we can afford to search vigorously for training and employment opportunities, but whether we can afford not to. A quick fix will not do. But sensitive attention needs to be paid to how people feel about what is happening in their lives, their families, their communities. Australia’s Indigenous people have been bashed about too much already. Poverty, depression, sickness, violence, addictions go hand in hand but, again, passive welfare is not the answer. It is vital the dignity of training or employment is available. There could, for example, be schemes like the New Town movement in the UK where houses, schools, churches, places of work, local administration offices, health centres, community centres, sports facilities, entertainment facilities and roads were planned and constructed for a whole urban population. Such schemes provide training and employment for many people as well as new places to live and a strong sense of ownership. Good for the soul as well as the pocket. Such an initiative needs to come from Government. . Indigenous communities often show signs of group depression, a sense of hopelessness. This is not surprising. Hovering in the background like a ghost is the attempt in the 19th century and much of the 20th century - recalled in both the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Deaths in Custody 1991 and the Bringing Them Home Report of 1997 - to bring about the disappearance of the Aboriginal race, known as the White Australia policy. This included stealing light-skinned children and forcibly keeping them separate from their families with the deliberate intention of seeing darker-skinned people phased out. Many people personally affected by that incredibly cruel phenomenon are still alive. You don’t forget losing your parents or your children in a hurry. A determined effort by government to create a sense of hope by respecting the country’s true history - which didn’t start in 1788 - would go a long way. But in the end people need also to be able to survive economically, and that means work skills and wages. | ||
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