Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report 2005

Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Report 2005.

Kerry Arabena

Visiting Research Fellow Native Title Research Unit AIATSIS

Friday 16 September
2005

The Mint 10 Macquarie Street Sydney NSW 2000

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I would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the country on
which we speak other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the
room, representatives of the Productivity Commission, Reconciliation Australia
and the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission invited guests and
other speakers.

I have been invited to present information relating to the Overcoming
Disadvantage Report 2005 and its implications for Torres Strait Islander
people. My grandmother was born on Mer, my father on Thursday Island and
I was born in Brisbane. Whilst I have had the opportunity to visit my
ancestral home, I have not had the opportunity to live there for extended
periods of time; much of my life has been spent with various communities
across Australia and makes me a Torres Strait Islander on the Mainland.

This report aims to describe methods that governments can implement to
address the root causes of disadvantage so 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people can reach their full potential wherever they live'.

I read the entire report from cover to cover and found it disheartening
to find the only references to someone being something other than 'Indigenous'
was on page 3.48 in a Table about home ownership, page 3.61 in a reference
to identifying 'Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander' children in the
child protection system and on page 3.71 where the term 'Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander' was used to racialise the categories of 'victims'
and 'offenders' in homicides.

Because of the use of the word 'Indigenous' I was unable to determine
any specific Torres Strait Islander issues to comment on, rendering TSI
people indistinguishable from Aboriginal people and as such, invisible.

For this reason, I would like to focus today on these things:

1. The impact of state or politically structured identities;

2. How to be more inclusive of Torres Strait Islander people; and

3. Where we go from here.

2. State or politically structured identities.

There are, of course, vast differences among Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people in our cultures, political-economic situations, and in
our relationships with governments and the wider society.

But the struggle to survive as a distinct peoples based on foundations
constituted in our unique heritages, attachments to land and sea, and
natural ways of life is what is shared by all of us, as well as the fact
that our existence is in large part lived as determined acts of survival
against the state who would seek to erase us culturally, politically and
physically. ¹

The challenge of 'being Indigenous' is a crucial issue for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people today. Who we are, and how we live,
is framed by artificial, state-created identities that resist and minimise
the recognition that is provided to our cultures, our history, our capacities
to contribute and our on-going connection to the land and sea.

Aden Ridgeway has argued that being defined as disadvantaged does not
address long standing structural and systematic barriers and we are coopted
into over simplified debates based on language benign in appearance but
loaded in meaning.²
Some of the language used throughout the report is particularly potent
and demonstrates Aden's point well.

For instance, on page 5.19 a paragraph in the section referring to
hospital admission, birth weight and infant mortality data says that
whilst data collection has been identified in the report as an important
area to address in future work a limitation of the birth weight research
is that it is based on births to Indigenous mothers only.

This data is loaded with particular meanings and history. This information
has been used in the past to question the Indigenous mother's capacity
to look after herself 'properly' during her pregnancy and her capability
to integrate and socialise the child into mainstream society. Her capacity
determined her vulnerability to policies that would separate her from
her child. This was never an issue for non-Indigenous women who had Indigenous
children. She was, by virtue of her race; capable of looking after herself
and integrating her child into mainstream society because of her training.
She was neither vulnerable nor policed. Authorities did not require data
to be collected for non-Indigenous mothers.

Similarly, tables containing state based information in the Juvenile
diversions sections detailed that 'an Aboriginality' or 'Indigenous status
depended on 'self identification' of the juvenile, or was derived from
the 'racial appearance of the offender which is a subjective assessment
of the police officer'. ³

Again, practices of oppression, removal, exclusion or inclusion in Australia
have often depended on someone else determining what we look like, and
how we were responded to is as a result of the attitudes and values that
underpin that person's world view.

The section about the 'outcome from education' approach states that most
people who had attained a certificate level three or above qualification
were in the labour force, however, Indigenous people with a certificate
level three or above qualification appear to be nearly three times more
likely to be unemployed than non-Indigenous people with a certificate
three or above qualification.

Whilst the report advises that care needs to be taken whilst comparing
this information, the way I read it is that if you attain this level of
qualification you may fare better than other Indigenous people, but you
can't change being black. This is not so much a description of Indigenous
disadvantage, but employer preference. Racist employers may in fact contribute
to Indigenous disadvantage. What whole-of-government approach do we have
in place to manage this?

Incomplete and incomparable data has been used to make the modern modes
of overcoming disadvantage both possible and judgeable. The ways in which
the information is collected and presented provides clear political authority
to government. This Report, in my view establishes the parameters of the
power imbalanced relationship between workers in service delivery institutions,
governments and Indigenous Australians.

The data in this report is not corrupt, but is highly charged. Implicit
in the data sets are the political judgements and choices of what to measure,
how to measure it, how often to measure and how to present and interpret
the results.⁴ Reducing
the complexity of our circumstances to measurable indicators is neither
ideologically nor theoretically innocent; the process of simplification
embodies both the expectations and the beliefs of the responsible technicians
and officials.⁵

The report sets out to measure the impact of changes to policy settings
and service delivery; providing a concrete way to measure the effect of
COAG's commitment to reconciliation through an agreed set of indicators.
The selection of some of the activities to show how we are being reconciled
is interesting.

[Refer to Slide]

We have been told that Indigenous disadvantage will be remedied by establishing
equal partnerships between government, individuals and families to

"allow us the opportunity to shape our own destinies". ⁶

These destinies, however, need to demonstrate a preparedness to engage
with and support unequivocally the views of government; ensure that government
does not have to manage any of the political consequences of Indigenous
identity (including separate governing structures or the accommodation
of separate cultural identity) and make manifest our legitimacy within
mainstream society so that we have the same opportunities, the same choices
and we have the potential to take responsibility for managing our affairs.

Whilst I am sure that there was no sinister intent in constructing the
identity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as a homogenised
group of 'Indigenous others' in the report, it did make it difficult to
find credible, distinguishable and coherent information to demonstrate
the effectiveness of whole-of-government interventions in overcoming the
disadvantage experienced by Torres Strait Islanders. This in some ways,
undermines the visionary and strategic core objectives articulated in
the introduction to the report.⁷

To make Torres Strait Islanders more identifiable in the next report,
I would make the following suggestions:

1. Include data from the Commonwealth agencies involved with Torres
   Strait Islander people who implement the Torres Strait Treaty.

It may be useful to include an overview and analysis of the Torres
Strait Treaty in the case studies about governance arrangements in the
next report. The Torres Strait Treaty is an agreement between Australian
and Papua New Guinea providing a framework for the management of the
common border area. It defines maritime boundaries, environmental protection,
and protects the traditional ways of life for traditional inhabitants
in the Torres Strait Protected Zone. This treaty is has a range of Commonwealth
agencies involved in the implementation. This analysis could emphasise
the importance of the interaction between sectors, and between governments
and with Torres Strait Islanders and is a useful demonstration of a
whole-of-government approach. This analysis would then provide information
to include against a number of indicators and provide a good governance
case study for the next report.

2. Differentiate between Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander
   peoples on the Mainland.

Whilst there is no denying that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people are similarly disadvantaged, there is varying needs between Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander living on the mainland that derive from distinctive
cultural identities. As the report states that cultural considerations
are of upmost importance to advancing reconciliation in Australia, recognition
of these distinct cultural identities could be better attended to by
the agencies monitored by Productivity Commission.

Torres Strait Islanders on the mainland have detailed a variety of
disadvantages including those related to access and equity, cultural
maintenance and acknowledgement of a separate though rich cultural history.

I think that there are difficulties in separating the data between
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people; however, including Torres
Strait Islanders on the mainland in detailed studies such as that conducted
by Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at Wadeye
community in the Northern Territory would be useful. It may be of benefit
to commission such a study in regional areas in which larger populations
of Torres Strait Islander people live, particularly in Brisbane, Townsville,
Cairns or Darwin to both assess the methods in which these communities
are being engaged post the abolition of the ATSIC Regional Councils
and the development of RPAs and SRAs with TSIM groups.

This may not give a fair or accurate representation of the circumstances
faced by Islander people across the country, but would provide some
level of understanding about the distinct cultures, needs and responses
by governments to overcome the disadvantage experienced by the Torres
Strait Islander peoples in Australia.

3. Change the narrative in which the 'Things that Work' is reported

The COAG Trials have been hailed as a success and are being rolled out
across the country. Many bureaucrats and others have actively promoted
the methods used by governments in these trials as effective. There is
limited research and certainly no evidence to show if these methods of
engaging with a community produce long term benefits for the participants;
particularly when a number of regions, through the ATSIC Regional Council
consultations were keen to seek a TSRA model for their region. Stories
of success, as contained in the report, are constructed in a narrative
that shows the success of the government with the implication that the
success only came about because of the new partnerships. The people with
whom they engaged are often viewed as compliant but competent partners;
either beneficiaries of government innovation, or conversely exalted as
examples of Indigenous innovation.

The forward to the 2005 report states that there is clearly more going
on in Indigenous communities than can be captured by statistics. I have
attempted to provide comments about the usefulness of the report and while
I agree with the majority of the indicators I am concerned that the homogeneity
of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people will be reflected in the
initiatives that are bought to bear in communities. The SRAs and RPAs
as yet are not grounded in agreed to baseline data at a local and regional
level to show whether collaborations and partnerships that are developed
under the new arrangements are in fact making the kind of difference necessary
for all Australians to participate in this, the wealth of our country.

In following years, the Productivity Commission may develop supplements
that show the data for regional activity as agreed to by regional agencies
and communities with their representative organisations. Non government
organisations could contribute to the development of this data set, and
facilitate collaborations in regions that benefit their constituency.

The report, I am sure will develop and improve over time. I am pleased
that the Productivity Commission has invested in this resource; I hope
that all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will have the
opportunity to do so as well. It was a good exercise to sit and read and
write and reflect on the framework for progressing Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander issues. Thank you all.

Endnotes

1. Alfred, Taiaike and Corntassel, Jeff 2005
   Being Indigenous: Resurgences against contemporary colonialism in Government
   and Opposition, Blackwell Publishing. University of Victoria, Canada.

2. Ridgeway, Aden 2005 'Addressing the economic
   exclusion of Indigenous Australians through native title'. The Mabo
   Lecture, Native Title Conference, Coffs Harbour 3 June 2005, Pg 5. available
   from http://www.aiatsis.gov.au

3. Steering Committee for the Review of Government
   Service Provision, 2005 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Key Indicators
   Report, Productivity Commission, Commonwealth of Australia, pp 7.30
   - 7.31

4. Rose, Nikolas, 1999 Powers of Freedom: Reframing
   Political Thought . Cambridge University Press p 204

5. ibid p 204

6. Senator Amanda Vanstone, Minister for Immigration
   and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Minister assisting the Prime
   Minister with Indigenous Affairs Opening Address, Bennelong Society,
   Sydney September 4, 2004:4 http://www.atsia.gov.au/media/index.htm

7. Steering Committee for the Review of Government
   Service Provision, 2005 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage Key Indicators
   Report, Productivity Commission, Commonwealth of Australia, pp 1.2

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Last updated 28 September 2005.