The other day, at Ali Curung, I came across a community leader. I asked him how things were going. He said “they should leave us alone”. Spend a little time in Ali Curung and understanding the sentiment is easy. It is a perspective that reflects some really pleasant aspects of life there. He has an easy job with a few perks, in a community that has made the best of welfare. A certain contentment exists with this very modest lifestyle that is without obligation to the broader Australian community. In fact many feel that the broader community is obligated to them.
Not long before, a group of aboriginal men were chatting and they brought up the subject of alcohol. Their perspective was interesting. They had the view that white-man introduced alcohol so it was white-man’s problem, not theirs and white-man should solve it.
So this blog is conceived with a strong awareness that each person has their own perspective on how things should be done. In the face of a culture widely condemning directness and truth as being 'negative', this is mine.
Ali Curung - THE GAP
The problems in Aboriginal communities are easy to see but how to fix them is not. For generations now, politicians, bureaucrats, churches and Aboriginal organisations have pushed and pulled these desert people. Now they are floundering under the weight of years of paternalism, political manoeuvring and the many initiatives overburdened by their dominantly white perspective. Communities such as Ali Curung have varied and multi-layered problems with few short term solutions. The patches being applied are shrouded with empty pharases such as ‘community consultation’ but the reality is that few people in government have any idea how to truly solve problems and largely ignore the on ground resource and view of people who are working there each day.
However, for the more concerned of these people struggling with the day to day fall out while working in communities, there is one obvious long term solution: education. Chronic illiteracy more than any other issue prevents these Aboriginal people from fully benefiting from all the available help. Luckily, though, a faint light is glimmering at the end of the tunnel. A small dedicated group at Centrefarm in Alice Springs have rejected many still accepted (and failed) training approaches to get people into work. Encouraged by the achievements of mining companies such as Newmont Mining and over coming cumbersome, dilly-dallying, bureaucratic procedures over years, they are now carrying out a small but impressive training programme that shows great promise. On a very small scale, there is an education and training effort at a community level, totally under resourced, that also shows promise. It suites the reality of community life and culture. It allows those who want to learn to do so at their own pace and in their own time. The idea shows promise and while being largely ignored by the council and CDEP, has been cautiously supported by a section of the Northern Territory government. This ad hoc approach is achieving results but needs more funding and support to reach full potential---- but more on this later.
Closing the Gap - from NT Govt Website http://www.action.nt.gov.au/at_a_glance/
Closing the Gap is the Northern Territory’s Indigenous Generational Plan, aimed at closing the gap in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Territorians. It contains a vision and objectives for the future socio-economic well-being of Indigenous Territorians and sets ambitious but achievable targets for the next 5, 10 ands 20 years. It also identifies priority areas for action in the next 5 years, based on the best available evidence of which actions will have the greatest impact.
On 15 June 2007, the Board of Inquiry into the Protection of Aboriginal Children from Sexual Abuse (the Inquiry) released its findings. The Inquiry report included 97 recommendations across 22 themes, addressing the child protection system, as well as broader social and economic factors including housing, unemployment, offender rehabilitation, health, alcohol misuse and education.
While the Northern Territory Government supports the messages and recommendations of the Inquiry, additional areas need to be addressed if we are to overcome Indigenous disadvantage within a generation. Closing the Gap goes beyond the recommendations of the Inquiry to provide a framework for overcoming Indigenous disadvantage.
The Northern Territory Government has committed 286.43 million towards 5 year actions to implement Closing the Gap. This commitment includes:
* 79.36 million for child protection
* 38.61 million to implement the Remote Area Policing Strategy, community justice and other safety measures
* 10.11 million for alcohol and drug management
* 23.4 million to achieve better health outcomes
* 42.32 million for housing in Indigenous communities
* 70.68 million towards education
* 13 million to improve Indigenous employment and economic development
* 8.95 million towards better cross-cultural understanding and engagement in service delivery.
Ali Curung is an Aboriginal community about 150 kilometres south of Tennant Creek. It has an ephemeral population of around 450 people. Some years ago, identified as a community in crisis, funding was set aside to help address some of the problems. In addition, about this time the federal government decided that Ali Curung should have a Shared Responsibility Agreement. Shared Responsibility Agreements are widespread in Australia and Ali Curung found itself recipient of one of the largest in the Northern Territory. They had 1.5 million allotted from Territory and Federal governments for a series of community programmes. Ali Curung, like most remote communities desperately needed such programmes and it was about this time, around two years ago that I became involved. The story of how this happened is quite unusual by eastern state standards however, by Territory standards it is normal practice and an important insight into some difficulties faced by communities.
A life changing decision by my wife to take a job as executive officer for a regional arts organisation in Tennant was the start of an extraordinary and unexpected experience. For around two years, I supported the organisation as part time office manager, IT manager, web site developer, DVD producer and office boy. It was a comfortable and unexpectedly fulfilling life working with Aboriginals and the community. The organisation blossomed and many considered it three years on, to be one of the best in Australia. Its most important attribute was a selfless commitment to the community, not an all-together common commodity in Northern Territory organisations.
One day, unexpectedly, the CEO at Ali Curung offered me the job of project manager for their Shared Responsibility Agreement, planned but yet to be signed. There was no job application, no job interview, and no job description. I suggested that I might not be qualified but was assured that I was. The money was good, there was a pleasant newly refurbished house, and it was another adventure.
Ali Curung was no surprise. Over the years, I had spent short periods in places such as Pormpuraaw and Bamaga in Queensland, Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory and passed through many others. Ali Curung, in fact, was a relatively well-kept almost attractive looking aboriginal community. The lack of aesthetics is mainly due to its setting on a vast waterless spinifex plain and a lack of greenery. Thankfully, it reflects little of the bombed out look of places like Doomadgee in Queensland and Papunya in Northern Territory. Coming to Ali Curung this time though, was quite different. This time, I was working in a community for a community rather than working in a community for my own ends. I was working for the Ali Curung Council.
Early on, I became aware that Aboriginals are very often victims of fluctuating staffing and attitudes. These can range from altruistic through apathetic to total self-interest. These attitudes can regulate how successfully and quickly Aboriginal communities similar to Ali Curung are likely to bridge the gap to mainstream Australia.
Community Living.
At a neighbours Christmas party in 2006 I had a conversation with an intelligent, well educated man who was not long from Canberra. It seemed that he had worked for a department servicing Aboriginals, (DEST). There was no doubting his sincerity when it came to assisting Aboriginals. He was quick to tell me that DEST in Canberra was full of bright young talented people who bend over backwards to get things done. As a person living in a community, I tried to explain that most of this effort and enthusiasm failed to translate to we people on the ground. I was almost sympathetic until he asked me several times what it was like living in a community. I told him the truth but he was not satisfied. Finally, he asked, “is it safe?” and “do you ever feel threatened?”.
Few Australians have ever been in an Aboriginal Community and few have ever interacted with aboriginals. Mal Bough’s intervention and the Rex Wild/Pat Anderson ‘Little Children are Sacred' report shapes most people’s perceptions of Aboriginals. Media hype and political spin contribute to the final touches.
I was in China for several months in the nineteen eighties, just as it was opening up. We were the first Europeans to visit many areas. In Yichang, on the Yangtze, we met some young women with gorgeous doll-like babies, wrapped in beautiful quilted clothing. I gestured to nurse a child as a way of communicating our friendship but I noticed the mother, while all smiles, seemed very nervous. Finally, she handed the baby over and pictures taken. Later I asked out Chinese interpreter what the problem was. She told me that these people believed Europeans were baby eaters. The mother was worried that we might steal the baby.
A few years before this, while in Borneo, I asked a young Malaysian man what he thought of Americans. This was after he had established I was Australian. He had gleaned his knowledge from American movies. He assumed Americans were dangerous, oversexed and promiscuous and never to be trusted with their women. Of course, all this has changed now thanks to tourism and the internet.
Trying to convey the true situation in a place like Ali Curung to anyone who has never been near an Aboriginal is difficult. Some might see them as the last of the noble savages while media reports of the intervention could completely influence others. Predictably, the truth is far more complex and lies somewhere between.
Ali Curung is mostly a peaceful place. It’s more like a refuge from the outside world. People return for peace and quiet after the party times in Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. Sure there is the occasional disturbance caused by illicit grog, there are family feuds and there is domestic violence. The seriousness of the problems though, is questionable and they tend to overshadow the really important issues such as education. Most people struggle each day to do the best they can for their families and the community just like any place in Australia. However, unlike most Australian communities, they are suffering from inept government and neglect.
The community is a place where most people feel safe and secure. It insulates them from the intimidating world of mainstream Australia. Without education, language and job skills, the outside world is a fearful place, far tougher than their harsh desert environment.
After reading the history of these desert people we wondered at their lack of malice and angst. At the level we operated at, we always found them polite, friendly, and above all ready to see the joke. Even when drunk they are full of ’super sociability’. Despite the big differences between our cultures, not falling in love with them is hard.
An Invitation to part of an Initiation Ceremony
As we waited in the heat of the late afternoon sun, the deadly western brown snake appeared in the clearing. People were yelling. Joseph hurled a hunk of firewood with deadly accuracy, nearly cutting the snake in two, muttering, “that pellow was sneaking up on me!” Squealing kids swarmed after the dead snake picking it up with sticks and scarring each other. The women had told us to wait here at 4.30 but by now we knew enough about desert time to know that 5.30 might be a better time. Even now, it was too hot but some distance away across the red sand clearing in the shade of an old tin house and bough shed, women and children were gathering. At this distance, we could tell that most of the women were topless and painted in the ochre red and white ceremonial patterns. The sun was getting lower. A man wandered off into the Spinifex desert and Joseph told us to follow. We two men started to follow. As we moved off an urgent message was signaled from the women for us not to follow. It was wrong to follow. We continued our wait in the heat.
The time of the year was February, it was the end of the ‘ceremony time’ in Australia’s central desert and the elders had asked us to a dance to mark the end of ‘ceremony time’. Seven boys had been in the bush close by the community, for some weeks and the brutal circumcision procedures had finished.
It was nearly dark by the time we were ushered into the bush. Clearly, now the men were in control. They yelled at the women and we all hurriedly made our way to our places. The women settled a distance away in the gloom. We were ushered to the men’s place and told to sit. We were behind a line of young men stripped to the waist and painted with red ochre and white paint stripes. We guessed they had already been initiated in past years. The old men led a singing chant. About a hundred people filled the clearing.
By now, it was dark. The men yelled again and the black bulk of women rose up from the Spinifex and trotted in a tight group beside where we were sitting with the men. They settled facing behind us. They were told firmly not to look back. A short time latter a single decorated figure appeared from the gloom and performed a short dance that only men can see. Joseph instructed us not to tell women even the name of the dance. Then the women danced close to us with stamping feet, black silhouettes against a night sky and sticks with glowing ends. The sticks are a special wood that keeps alight like this. The men did not look but Joseph told me to look. I had to remind my self that this was 2008 and I was in the very centre of Australia watching the remnants of a 50,000 year old culture that still burned surprisingly strongly in this community. I knew these people in their everyday lives and I knew about the struggles and problems. I knew that it was a privilege to be here but somehow the close involvement with the community and its problems over the last eighteen months had stripped away the magic of the occasion. Somehow, it all seemed to accentuate even more, the distressingly real problems these people faced in the cold light of day.
There was s a pause while the older men argued over the way the ceremony was being performed. Something was not quite right and there was the real concern by some that the young men were not learning the ‘proper way’. For a time it seemed the ceremony might dissolve into embarrassing shambles.
It was a surprise that so many young men were involved. These young men were the same who played football, drove cars, surfed the net, hated work, fathered unruly children humbugged their mothers and fathers ignored the elders got drunk and bashed their women. Yet here they were for the moment, seriously embracing their ancient culture.
They quietened and seven initiates appeared. Hand picked clumps of burning Spinifex provided the only light and the young men, some stumbling, all looking stunned, briefly danced around the burning clumps, some throwing them into the air and forming a cascade of sparks and fire. Then it was over and we were hurriedly ushered from the scene in total the darkness. The young men would stay in the bush for some time to come until their circumcisions healed.
We returned to our trim white air conditioned cottage and a drink.
Ali Curung Community
There are four language groups in Ali Curung. Warlpirri, Warumungu, Kaiditch and Alyawarra. The settlement is located on Kaiditch land. This makes for a volatile mixture. While there has been open conflict occasionally over the years, this mixture has created a pandora’s box full of perennial problems.
• Mixed Culture
Most of the old people in these language groups are relatively traditional, living much of their lives along traditional lines. However, this is not so for the younger generations. They tend to be in a no mans land between traditional law and Australian law. They don’t ‘play’ by either rules particularly well.
• Language
Some opinions suggest that this mix of groups has degraded people’s ability to communicate and learn. The level of spoken English in the community is poor. It looks as if the mixture of five main languages may have resulted in most people using a sort of Creole to compensate for the differences. Its possible that many no longer speak any of the languages well.
• Demand Sharing
We call it humbug. This is an extremely important part of Aboriginal culture. Complex rules say certain people must share what they have with others. In Ali Curung, the old people suffer most from humbug. The younger generation take anything they want from them according to the culture. We quite often gave food to old people who we knew and some staff still do. Without the meals provided by Ali Curung Homemakers Unit it is doubtful whether many old people would survive for long. Demand sharing would have been important to the desert people in the old times, ensuring a maximum chance for group survival in the harsh environment.
Demand sharing also means that the job of raising children often falls heavily on relatives while the parents travel to Tennant Creek to party. Extreme examples of demand sharing will see the recipient of tens of thousands of dollars in royalties have their money frittered away by relatives in as short as time a week. They save nothing. Nevertheless, under their system, this is the only way for a person to gain some medium term benefit. If they hold on to their cash their code says they must give it away if they are asked, so they spend it. Less negotiable items such as babies needs, cars, white goods, TV sets and alcohol are purchased before someone can take the money from them. Most of their money, though, comes from welfare and many businesses in the Territory including Tennant Creek are part of the welfare industry doing very well from Aboriginals.
This system of demand sharing at Ali Curung makes it almost impossible for most Aboriginals to work as managers. An person in any position of authority, particularly where there is responsibility for vehicles and money has to bow to group demands. There is great pressure to hand over money on demand and pressure to allow vehicles to be used for hunting or for long trips to far away palaces. The people I knew in Ali Curung who might have managed, avoided this responsibility. They knew this was the best way to a peaceful existence.
• Welfare
Ali Curung has been on welfare in its ever-changing forms for generations. The normal ideas of a working life do not exist, particularly in the younger generations. They have developed comfortable lifestyles. There is enough money to buy food, gamble, drink even travel to other communities. They live surrounded by friends and families. In many ways they are quite happy. However, in many ways they are not, as the evidence suggests.
• Shame
The group bond is strong in this culture. Anyone in the community who might like to ‘break out’ risks being ostracised by the group. To be ostracised is a serious thing in a small isolated community. Before Europeans arrived, anyone rejected by the group would find survival difficult and this mind set is still strong. Consequently, if someone does want to learn more or work more they are likely to be criticised. It is the tall poppy syndrome magnified and it starts at school. High achievement is something that the group discourages. However, in Ali Curung there are signs that if small steps are taken to allow people to achieve at their own pace in their own time then some people will be prepared to stand a little outside the group.
The Shared Responsibility Agreement.
One thing is certain. Ali Curung needed the SRA or some such injection of funding. It provided bases essential to community development and capacity building. Ali Curung now has some of the facilities regarded as normal in mainstream Australia. Already there are small but meaningful signs of their effect. People are showing pride in the appearance of their community, a hand full of individuals spasmodically and spontaneously pursue their own education and many artists now having entrée into the lucrative aboriginal art market and are developing their techniques and administration skill.
Before the SRA there were few diversions in the community. Most activity revolved around football and CDEP a kind of work for the dole programme. As a new arrival, I could not help feel that Ali Curung was really an Australian gulag. It lacked much of what we accept as normal in our communities. Any excuse for this lack, in a society as rich as Australia can only reflect a profound misunderstanding and disregard of these fellow human beings. There can be no valid excuses. Ali Curung lacked a library, internet access, good sporting facilities and an all important art centre for the Ali Curung's artists.
When I first arrived, I found staff attitudes were often patronising and the atmosphere hinted of the age of the great white planters and their cheap black labour forces in America's deep south. Aboriginals were yelled and sworn at by council staff and contractors. If one manager omitted the word ‘f**k' from his dialogue, the office would have been very quiet. My time in Tennant Creek had shown me that Aboriginals don't like being sworn at. It is particularly insulting to them. Under normal circumstances, they do not swear at all. At Ali Curung I watched a young man on the receiving end of a barrage of insulting bad language from a contractor. I was curious to see what effect it had and watched him closely. He was physically flinching. Under the Ali Curung Council administration this contractor could never return.
As time went by, staff and attitudes did change, however, the standard of staff behaviour is very much dependent on the individuals involved. Ideally, strict codes of behaviour should be set down and all incoming resident workers should be subject to orientation courses. It is small things such as this that can be influential in determining how quickly and successfully the much needed changes will occur.
Few aboriginal people would argue that changes are not needed. It is how the changes are implemented that causes problems. There is a fine line between patronisation and the cooperative involvement aimed for in achieving change. The SRA's were criticised by many for being punitive and patronising. In Ali Curung's case, the term ‘full consultation' is mostly rhetoric and cliché often found in bureaucratic dialogue and reporting.
The Steering committee for Ali Curung's SRA consisted mainly of bureaucrats as well as the Ali Curung CEO and President. Most of the committee spent their life in air-conditioned offices. A few may have paid fleeting visits in to a community or two in their white toyota 4WD's and a couple were long time Territorians who supposed they new it all. The committee members could be placed in two main categories. Some were waiting their time out to collect their superannuation, others were on career paths and Tennant Creek was a short stop over. Few were going to rock the boat and fewer were really that interested in the plights of the aboriginals. To maintain their status it was imperative that they listened closely to their superiors and blocked any advice from the people on the ground. To listen to people on the ground grappling with the day-to-day issues might create an obligation for change or incur greater work loads.
Apathetic bureaucrats limited by their own self interest and inept government policy meant that the SRA all but failed in its stated aims but all this became evident only after many of them had moved on. One day, later on, a lone bureaucrat turned up at Ali Curung. By this time most of the staff had left due to the new shire take over and a new group of bureaucrats had been charged with the SRA. This man had a problem. He had $350,000 and did not know how to spend it. I had been hunting for funding for a year to prop up a couple of the ill planned projects and not one of these people had ever responded. Via a process of subtle connivance, this money will end up in other government departments and little is likely fall to the ground in Ali Curung. The community is crying out for funding for child education, adult education and the art centre
The two members of the committee representing the community were the CEO and the council president. This CEO was a short term itinerant worker, essentially an administrator, but the president was a community member. Like most of his people, he had limited English and was poorly educated. At meetings, the presence of the bureaucrats would have been intimidating and his ability to understand the detail of the projects would have been limited as would have been his ability to express himself. During my time at Ali Curung, he never attended a committee meeting. Therefore, to say that the SRA was framed in full consultation with the community was simply untrue. The community had little interest in the SRA and this was born out by the luke-warm reception at the Ali Curung signing ceremony. Free food was served to all who turned up.
Bureaucrats with limited imagination and interest, planned the Ali Curung SRA. Their idea was to give the money and then ‘let them sort it out'. The committee did not want to know about how things worked on the ground. Problem was, much of the SRA was ill planned and unworkable without their close involvement. When we wanted the money to fix the poor planning or maintain operations already in place, the community was either met by a brick wall of silence or bureaucratic hand-balling. Non of this was served by the start of the intervention.
To make sure the community was toeing the line occasional flurries of white Toyotas arrived and words were delivered to an indifferent audience. The basic message was, 'we have given you this therefore you must do this'. Boxes were ticked but nothing changed. Internal newsletters were circulated in the community with details of the SRA and a representative from CAT targeted groups to explain it even more. The SRA and community remained unchanged. After nearly two years, indifference and apathy still reigned.
It was during this time that I began to suspect something about these aboriginal people. In the main their cross-cultural dialogue is non confrontational. They are very slow to express an opinion. To do so in a politically charged, multi-lingual group, community such as Ali Curung could lead to open conflict. I also came to believe that they are reluctant to put themselves into a position where they feel obligated. In the case of the SRA, it was easier to say they knew nothing about it rather than create the perception of default. In addition, they knew from experience that they would get the money anyway. Across the board, accountability is a frail concept in communities.
In many ways it would be better to have SRA's once a community has most of the basic facilities in place. In many ways though, the SRA has been very successful. It is still a work in progress but it has provided an art centre and art gallery, internet café, new sports oval and a refurbished recreation hall, all import components for building community. It also provided a market garden which failed but more on that later.
On the surface, the SRA was a lovely document full of good intentions. However, in practice, it was flawed. It wasn't long before this was obvious to anyone who wanted to notice but it became all too clear that no one wanted to notice.
The SRA targeted early child hood development, education, health and employment; all major problems in most Aboriginal communities. But above all, the catastrophic failure in Aboriginal communities is education. The more we in the community talked about fixes, the more we realised that education was a basic tool for solving most problems. Community problems are so difficult and complex that this SRA could only hope to be part of a solution. Very importantly, though, it seemed that the SRA could achieve some first steps towards improving things. The SRA might have been half baked but it contributed a great deal to uncovering the open sores in communities, that have been cloaked under wishy washy bureaucratic bandaging.
I have to add that due to my inexperience, the SRA's limitations were not at all obvious when I first arrived to start work. It was only over time, as I became more familiar with the people (staff and Aboriginals) that a picture began to emerge . The SRA needed flexible thinking from both the ICC and the Ali Curung Council as well as a more dedicated effort from the bureaucrats and council.
Coincidentally, at this time, the federal government at highest levels recognised and tackled the enormous problems on a national scale. They launched a massive intervention into Northern Territory communities to address many concerns already recognised in the SRA. The intervention is an Ali Curung SRA with ‘grunt' but even all this grunt still fails to adequately deal with many fundamental situations.
Bureaucratic indifference and a lack of understanding and awareness of the complexity of community culture is a hindrance. The ‘one size fits all' approach of the bureaucracy also creates antagonism. The culture in a community such as Ali Curung is so different from mainstream Australia that we have a saying. "It's like going overseas without going overseas." Because communities differ slightly from each other, they all require a tailored approach. The people on the ground, living daily in communities, are the only ones that can deliver this. They need proper support, schooling, experience and personal discipline and need to work with equally qualified bureaucrats.
The Intervention
Most Ali Curung staff were pleased to hear about the intervention. It seemed to signal that the federal government was very keen to tailor approaches towards helping communities. The rhetoric was encouraging and the money was there. The announcement barely caused a ripple in a community used to the fluctuating winds of change.
Business Managers on generous salaries were appointed and Territory roads busied with road trains transporting refurbished demountables to house them. The community looked on with listless anticipation and we wondered how they would attack the training and employment issues.
The Business manager was followed by and equally well heeled Employment Broker in his signature Nissan Patrol with two spare wheels. He was said to be on incentive payments based on head counts. Ali Curung Council's compound became busy with government vehicles.
As time passed by changes of note did take place. The business manager gave the go ahead for a shed for the new art centre and he threw himself behind a move to have Outback Stores take over the Ali Curung store. The committee running the shop and a substantial part of the community did not want this to happen.
Outback Stores is owned by the IBA (Indigenous Business Australia-the federal government) and promised to revitalise the business. The store was suffering from lack of cash flow due to ‘book-up' and was badly stocked, often with poor quality products. Take-over by Outback Stores saw improvements in the quantity and quality of the stock as well as price increases to address the increase in overheads.
The profitability of their business is unknown but the government could not be too worried about this. The quarantining of welfare pavements was managed in such away that the Ali Curung store had a windfall cash flow. Apart from the price rises and the sidelining of the Mirnirri Aboriginal Corporation all seemed to be going well until it was realised the Warrabri Bakery was being put out of business, once more ,by insensitive management and poor planning.
The bakery had been in business and serving the community since the seventies (See Warrabri Bakery blog). The quarantining of payments meant that many people in the community could no longer spend their money with the business. In addition, a long standing agreement by the Ali Curung store on opening hours was also broken. Warrabri Bakery was going out of business. After weeks of appeals, radio interviews and some help from Warren Snowdon and Elliot McAdam, the bureaucracy stirred and the bakery now looks safe once again.
During this time the government employment broker thundered into the community. The task was to get people into jobs or more properly, to work. He plundered the CDEP list of around 160 registered workers. Some training programmes were started. These were simple repeats of all that had been done before and failed. A hand full of people turned up to work along side highly paid contractors doing community maintenance such as fencing and housing refurbishment. As per normal Ali Curung worker numbers ebbed and flowed and schedules crawled on. The business manager and the employment broker claimed accolades and barrow loads of money. Exaggerated stories of their achievements spread to people who could never be wiser.
Employment remained as always. The programme achieved nothing that a properly resourced and supported Ali Curung Council could not have and at less cost. It was fairly clear that this part of the intervention was a very costly exercise that could just as easily been achieved if the bureaucrats had taken time to work more closely with the existing council. At the end of the day employment and training at Ali Curung remain unchanged. Also it is possible that an opportunity was lost to find out what small steps are needed to encourage engage the community in proper work.
The most obvious changes to the community come in the form of paint and fences. Homes that were painted as little as a year ago by a local painting team are now being repainted by outside contractors accompanied by their massive costs. Homes that were recently painted in colours chosen by their occupants are now repainted in standard colours. There has also been massive spending on fences and fencing contractors. The fences are welcome allowing some control over the hungry dogs and litter spread by careless children. However the work is slovenly. Poor construction will see many of the fences decay rapidly and a return to the status quo.
By now the business manger and employment broker are rarely seen in Ali Curung. Neither demonstrated much support for the community and its real needs. The Ali Curung school is in crisis, producing generations of young people who can barely read or write. 40 children in Ali Curung have never been to school. Of around 140 students there are days when only four will be in school. Adult education is ignored. There is no evidence that the intervention has had any impact. A government is pushing people into jobs. But most lack the ability to even read a tape measure or the number of litres in a tank, their skills are inadequate in the mainstream economy.
Such is the concern of a group of parents, it has been decided to form a committee to work out ways for them to manage the school and improve school attendance. The community now feel they can do a better job of management than the existing organisation and are meeting with key people from Darwin Alice Springs and Tennant Creek. No matter where the blame lies for poor school attendance and education standards, this group will be an indispensable element of future changes. In a community increasingly disaffected by the many changes over the last year or so this could be an opportunity for all parties to meaningfully engage with each other to achieve what is best for everybody.
Post Script.
FaHCIA and the IBA and Quarantining of Payments.
Using terms such as “I am the government so we do what we want” FaHCIA representatives attempted to bully business people into submission. The only defence available to business people badly effected by the quarantining of payments was to go to the media. Forty people from Elliot, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs met to defend themselves against an aggressive bureaucracy and bad planning. In most cases, with the help of ABC radio and people such as Elliot McAdam, they managed to get a better deal for themselves. Thanks to ABC radio, FaHCIA was found wanting in areas of truth and it is rumoured that a key player in the department has been moved on. There have been suggestions that FaHCIA and Outback Stores colluded to make sure any competition from other business be reduced so as to allow the IBA, the owners of Outback Stores maximum opportunity to increase their revenue.
In Ali Curung the strategy is clear. Outback Stores Business Development Manager is said to be ‘advising’ the Ali Curung store committee, the Mirnirri Corp, as to what they should do without any proper consultation process. Proper consultation processes in communities where English may be a second or third language is critical and takes time. Lack of proper consultation allows unscrupulous people or organisations to simply bully or bulldoze the people into doing what they want. Quite often, by the time the community understands the reality, then it is too late to stop the changes.
This has special meaning at Ali Curung. There are two shops. The Warrabri Bakery has been in business since around 1979 (see other blog) and has a good relationship with the Mirnirri Corporation now being managed by Outback Stores. While the bakery is recovering from almost being put out of business by the quarantining of payments, Outback Stores is pressing on with its agenda. The long-standing agreement with the Mirnirri Corp. for the Bakery to operate out side hours, including weekends, has been broken without consultation. In addition it seems that Outback Stores is now pressing the committee to extend the original one year management contract. Whatever the final decision is not important. What is important is the process used to reach the decision in a community increasingly alienated by the current era of change.
The Transition to a New Shire.
Amid all this change, the Northern Territory Government pushed ahead with the transition to the new shire. For Ali Curung this means that Ali Curung Council is dissolved and is now part of Barkly Shire, administered out of Tennant Creek. The takeover led to a mass exodus of staff from Ali Curung, in effect handing the community over to the Business Manager and ‘acting’ administration until the new shire administration became active. Just how the transition benefits Ali Curung is yet to be seen. However, the signs are not good. No matter what criticisms may have been levelled at the Ali Curung Council, it was important. It was a conduit for communication that no longer exists. It was an outlet for community opinion and provided a platform for people to become engaged and have in put into how the community might be run.
Above all, the new administration is even less likely to address one of the baseline problems of this multilingual/tribal community. This is one of leadership. Many of Ali Curung's problems stem from lack of leadership in the white and black sections. None of the aboriginal groups will accept a leadership from with in the community so the obvious choice for this roll is the council manager. There is little indication of shire administrations or the Northern Territory Government being aware or even interested in the importance of leadership in Aboriginal Communities. Also, there is little evidence that the new shire has made any of the promised improvements in the area of core services.
One wonders if the era of the gulag is not retuning.
The Transition to a New Shire.
Amid all this change, the Northern Territory Government pushed ahead with the transition to the new shire. For Ali Curung this means that Ali Curung Council is dissolved and is now part of Barkly Shire, administered out of Tennant Creek. The takeover led to a mass exodus of staff from Ali Curung, in effect handing the community over to the Business Manager and ‘acting’ administration until the new shire administration became active. Just how the transition benefits Ali Curung is yet to be seen. However, the signs are not good. No matter what criticisms may have been leveled at the Ali Curung Council, it was important. It was a conduit for communication that no longer exists. It was an outlet for community opinion and provided a platform for people to become engaged and have in put into how the community might be run.
Above all, the new administration is even less likely to address one of the baseline problems of this multilingual/tribal community. This is one of leadership. Many of Ali Curung's problems stem from lack of leadership in the white and black sections. None of the aboriginal groups will accept a leadership from with in the community so the obvious choice for this roll is the council manager. There is little indication of shire administrations or the Northern Territory Government being aware or even interested in the importance of leadership in Aboriginal Communities. Also, there is little evidence that the new shire has made any of the promised improvements in the area of core services.
One wonders if the era of the gulag is not retuning.
SRA Projects
The parts of the SRA attempting to address early childhood development, health and education were simply outside the scope of the council. In these particular areas, the absence of the relevant bureaucrats was noticeable. The government departments responsible for these elements of the SRA really had to come to the community and provide guidance, expertise and the funding. To have any other view of how these changes were to be actioned showed lack of understanding of the SRA and the situation at Ali Curung. There was a need to either employ the right people or provide help to those already in place in those departments. At no stage was there evidence that this might happen.
At an SRA committee meeting, the education department made it clear that they did not want to be involved. They had valid reasons. In many ways Ali Curung School had already been carrying out some programmes. They deemed others unworkable and the school administration at that time suggested that the increased workload could not be accommodated. Initiatives such as ‘no school no sport’ had been trialed both in Ali Curung and other communities and failed. It was a punitive approach that became divisive. There seemed little direct and honest dialogue on the huge problems of appalling literacy and numeracy and lack of school attendance. The school at Ali Curung remains a disaster. Health wise it seems the SRA has little if any impact. This is probably because the clinic is already doing all that can be done. It is not clear if the intervention has made improvements either.
This left four main projects in the hands of the council. These were a new sports oval, internet café, market garden and art centre. There were other smaller projects such as the formation of a sports committee, refurbishment of the recreation hall and the acquisition of some machinery. These were addressed by the community with some success though community participation was patchy.
The Market Garden.
According to the road map set out by the SRA this was to be developed in conjunction with a Centrefram (Central Land Council) initiative.
Long as this maybe there is a lot more to come.....................
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