Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Engagement will do more than a treaty for indigenous health

By Fred Chaney - posted Friday, 24 September 2004


For Indigenous peoples, health is related to concepts as diverse as spirit, creation, emotions, cognition function, knowledge, culture, land, place, cultural obligations to land (to protect story places), body chemicals and reactions, history, and collective familial and community wellbeing.

How do many indigenous people feel about themselves? I copied a bit of graffiti on the gate of the Leonora Community Recreation centre last November which seemed to me to capture the despair, hopelessness and lack of self-esteem that exists for too many Indigenous people:

You're a nigga when ya born you're a nigga when Die quite tryen Nigga your A Nigga for life.

Advertisement

The real question is whether treaties or something like treaties are really likely to impact on that crushing sense of despair which in any community, not just Indigenous communities, tends to lead to violence and so many forms of self-harming behaviour. A treaty would hold great symbolic significance in terms of reconciliation, and could settle the vital question of the relationship between first nations and the rest of us.  However, my suspicion is that not many Indigenous people currently think treaties would make a significant difference to their daily lives - even though holistic framework agreements, which encompass strategies for dealing with the social issues, such as education, welfare and housing, that are detrimental to the health of Indigenous Australians, could have a profound influence on health. We don't have access to ATSIC's research on the treaty and attitudes towards it within the Indigenous community. I suspect if it showed a lot of interest in a treaty among Indigenous people we would have heard about it.

Reconciliation Australia, which I co-chair, is an independent civil society organisation established by the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation to provide ongoing leadership in reconciliation. We have seen the issue of a treaty or treaties as an important piece of unfinished business on the path to reconciliation. We have supported ATSIC's program of research and consultation about a treaty and the work of The Gilbert and Tobin Centre of Public Law.

We remain of the view that this is a long-term exercise with much to be done before the Australian community can attempt to respond to Indigenous aspirations in this area. For myself, I believe that we are making more progress in the practice of agreement making than in the theory of treaty making. I have direct contact with a number of current agreement making processes between Aboriginal polities and other elements of the Australian community, in particular mining companies, through my work with the National Native Title Tribunal. Negotiations between miners and traditional owners seem to routinely concentrate on Indigenous desires for access to education, training and employment, and economic developments which will reduce their disadvantage.

Even in these comparatively benign negotiating circumstances, however, there are gaps that may well see more well-meaning efforts founder. For example some Aboriginal groups in Western Australia are getting extensive high order native title rights without there being a solid supporting and mentoring structure, which will enable them to capitalise on newly recognised property rights.

Nowhere I know are all the dots of relevant policies being joined to enable a holistic approach to ensure that good intentions across the board are translated into sustainable outcomes. There is a danger therefore that even carefully negotiated agreements may not produce expected outcomes leading to further despair. In this context the current Council of Australian Governments (COAG) trials are an attempt to achieve more holistic approaches. But they are so far no more than that: ­ trials.

We are yet to see:

Advertisement
  • how effective they are in improving top-down administration and bottom-up capacity; and
  • how sustained that bi-partisan intergovernmental commitment will be.

Notwithstanding those limitations, my personal view is that there is a real opportunity being offered by governments and oppositions in the COAG trials and it should be possible to build on their acknowledgement of the critical importance of Indigenous engagement to achieving change.

If the top-down bottom-up improvement which is planned succeeds, and if the focus on regions and hence naturally on Aboriginal nations is maintained as the basis for government and Indigenous interactions, there are real possibilities that changes will be based on consensual, that is agreement-based, models.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. 3
  5. All

Article edited by Sarah Lord.
If you'd like to be a volunteer editor too, click here.

This is an edited version of an address given by Fred Chaney to the Indigenous Health and Treaty Conference on September 11, 2004.



Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Fred Chaney is Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia and Deputy President of the National Native Title Tribunal. He was Federal Minister for Aboriginal Affairs between 1978 and 1980.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Fred Chaney
Related Links
Reconciliation Australia
Photo of Fred Chaney
Article Tools
Comment Comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy