As soon as I turned on the radio this morning, I heard the newsreader saying that a new report has found that indigenous communities can manage themselves. How arrogant and condescending, I thought. But when I looked it up on the net, I instead found an article from last year that stated that this expectation that we ask them to take control themselves is the last great oppression. The writer raised some interesting points about the complexities of modern living and the difficulties of getting these facilities into aboriginal communities being too much to handle for a people with no interest in committee meetings.
Do they really need all the modern facilities? I’d like to say no, but then, if education is important to them, then how do they make enough time for the children to attend school when they have to find water and catch dinner? I’m painting an extreme picture here, but I think the question is valid.
The report mentioned on the news this morning seems to address these points. They can govern themselves, it says, if the greater governments don’t make things difficult with red tape.
Another article tells of a Victorian initiative to give indigenous council members training in governance. Presumably they came because they wanted to learn, since a number of them went on to take further study in the area. I’d be interested to see what effect the initiative on the communities these leaders returned to.
There are no simple answers, but surely we can guide our actions with the principles of
- Let aboriginal leaders make decisions for their people
- Give them whatever support they need to implement those decisions (within limits)