Oombulgurri was an Aborigine 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 2011 the Western Australian government moved to
close the community and while the state government insists the residents of
Oombulgurri left voluntarily, the closure began with the withdrawal of services
from the community. 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. 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. None of the social problems that had developed in Oombulgurri over the
previous decade have gone away, with many former residents turning to alcohol
more than ever.
The experience of Oombulgurri's closure may be repeated
across the country. 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. Western Australian Premier Colin Barnett has taken a cautionary tone saying
“the reality is that WA will struggle to afford subsidies of that amount."
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.
South Australia 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.
"This is about our people's right to stay on our
land," National Congress of Australia's First Peoples co-chair Kirstie
Parker told Al Jazeera. "People are very frightened that the days are
numbered and their communities will be closed." In an open letter to the prime
minister Abbott, the organization said:
“The First Peoples of Australia had, and will always have,
inherent rights to exist on and develop our lands and territories. These rights
derive from the continuing and ancient title to these lands and territories,
and according to our collective rights to self-determination as Peoples. By
circumstances of Australia’s colonial and post-colonial history, and
particularly in the absence of a consent agreement for acquisition and
distribution of the wealth from our lands, territories and resources, our
Peoples hold as a very minimum the right to enjoy equal outcomes from social
and economic advancements benefitting all Australians. This must be clearly
understood and respected by all governments in Australia.”
Kirstie Parker said targeting of their communities by states
and territories was racially discriminatory and the Commonwealth must urgently
intervene.
“While jurisdictions quibble about who is responsible for
what – our peoples are vulnerable, under threat and in distress,” she said. “Hundreds
of communities could potentially be forced to shut down and families moved away
from their traditional lands into regional centres. This discriminatory action
is happening across multiple states and territories. The fate and concern of so
many communities cannot be left to the whims of different jurisdictions. Governments
need to stop treating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as pawns…”
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