Precisely Joe, self determination is going on in many communities. I have good friends from several East Arnhem Land communities I met serving in NORFORCE. Guys who are pushing the proverbial uphill, battling the negative influences of booze & ganja coming into their communities through the back door.

Quite often it is the FIFO workers smuggling contraband through the regional GA terminals onto islands and into communities .e.g. Christmas 2004, I worked on Tiwi Islands for one of the forestry/wood chipping operations. On Christmas Day after lunch, several of the company supervisors went to a local water hole where they met local girls, plying them with grog & ganja. Having observed this, I later reported those observations to the NT Police at Garden Point. As well to the Manager of the operation who was away in Tasmania at the time. As it was Christmas Day they must have thought it was ok to carry on like this regardless.

The company's response was to then summarily sack me, and arrange a Special Charter flight - arriving the next morning, to get me out of the equation.

I gave a short interview to ABC Radio Darwin the same day, which aired the next day and stirred up little interest. A detailed letter - with photographs, GPS references and times was forwarded to Marion Scrymgour, (an Indigenous Tiwi woman) & one the NT Ministers at the time. It was over a month later before I received the reply from her offices.

To my knowledge, the two supervisors involved were still working there over a year later.

OTB, the best thing they could do regarding health is to get rid of the scabby, diseased & underfed camp dogs that infest the majority of communities I have stayed at or seen. They live in far too close proximity and contribute to many of the ailments common in communities. The accumulated rubbish issue & 'sanitation' per se is another important one you mentioned.

I have had several apologists of varying skin colour tell me that the Aboriginal culture does not understand the concept of "non bio-degradable containers" & that before THE INVASION, that we/they used coolamons and food containers made of bark & wood etc which were discarded as they went walkabout from campsite to campsite. All of which sounded like a Cop Out.

The traditional way of life is so far divorced from most alive today, that it has to be seen to be believed.

Hi Onthebeach,

You've just initiated a whole new stream of professionals - 'hygiene officers', or 'health and hygiene communication and engagement officers' to give them a more important (i.e. longer) title - who could go around washing people's hands for them.

Or going through the motions, like the current batch of truancy officers who might 'recruit' one kid per year if they're working really hard. Perhaps their own kid. On full salary. And on community 'advice'.

Seriously - when I was living in one community, a nurse was appointed as regional health worker (in 1976, I think), a lovely Singaporean lady (Christ, did she cop some racism ?) and the older members of the Council wanted one of her duties to be to wash people's feet. She graciously declined, out of deference to self-determination.

Joe

Good Lord, Joe, I hope not! Did the WHO initiative ever result in that?

Still, in PC Oz it is possible, likely, as you say.

Nonetheless, hygiene is a priority and I agree with Albie Manton in Darwin on dogs etc.

My experience is from an interest in 4X4 and visits to remote areas. Now apparent in country towns that were previously clean, tidy and peaceful, but have changed. However I have been told by REA property managers that they see much the same in the 'burbs where police are always unwelcome (and property investors should never consider).

HI OTB,

I've always thought that self-determination meant a lot of work and responsibility, of people making their own decisions which usually included a lot of work and certainly responsibility. Living in a community taught me that people didn't see it quite that way.

But I grew up when many African countries were fighting for and achieving their independence, their right to self-determination. It obviously hasn't been a panacea, given the corruption so often of their leaders (Zuma isn't the first and certainly won't be the last).

I would still support genuine self-determination in Aboriginal 'communities', of course, but this raises thorny questions:

* If people in 'communities' don't want to work and take responsibility for all the tasks incumbent on self-determining populations, should those 'communities' be continuously funded to keep people in idleness, not to mention the substance abuse, violence and child abuse ?

* Why should publicly-funded housing be provided (for people on their own land: not the usual set-up in Australia) where there never will be any real jobs ?

* Why not offer very generous housing deals to people who move away and find work in neighbouring towns ? Where their kids can get a better education and learn about how people outside of 'communities' actually work for a living ? Like people did in the 'south' after the War ? Ergo, now nearly forty thousand Indigenous university graduates, two and three generations later ?

Or do we wait for another two or three generations ?

Joe

Joe,

You had me searching for the photos I have of abandoned almost new houses with a large set-up of solar power generation panels nearby. Gave up, the photos must be in packed boxes.

Keep up the good work.