听补苍诲 ,
National Reconciliation Week is a time of reflection, talking and sharing of histories, cultures and achievements. It is a time to think about our relationships as Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
This year鈥檚 theme is 鈥溾��, a phrase that has taken on extra meaning as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic.
We have seen a range of measures to manage the spread of coronavirus in Australia, including movement restrictions, closures of government- and community-based services and border controls.
Governments have also put forward specific measures to protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, including into and out of remote communities under the Biosecurity Act.
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This 鈥渓ock-down鈥� has undoubtedly been essential and, to date, has prevented the pandemic from reaching remote communities. It has also been supported by the .
But local Indigenous communities have also shown tremendous leadership in protecting their own peoples from the virus. And perhaps ironically, the federal government has shown a willingness to listen to and engage with the expertise of the Indigenous health sector.
One of the many things this crisis has highlighted is that while disease continues to threaten Indigenous communities, Indigenous peoples have maintained their strength, tenacity and determination.
The loss of communities to pandemics
The threat of the pandemic has affected Indigenous Australians in very different ways from the general population.
For example, the collective rights and identities of Indigenous peoples are bound to place via language and territory. So there鈥檚 a fear that even if you lose a small number of a community 鈥� through an event like a pandemic - you begin to lose the people.
We鈥檝e lost Indigenous communities to pandemics before.
For instance, Norman Tindale鈥檚 iconic 1974 map, , includes a language group in central Australia called Jumu. The country associated with this group on the map is Mount Liebig, Papunya and Haasts Bluff (today all located in the Haasts Bluff land trust, 250km northwest of Alice Springs).
However, created by the 30 years later, does not include the Jumu. Rather, the language group incorporating the lands of these three communities is Pintupi-Luritja.
Though language groups and their territories are dynamic, the fate of the Jumu has remained an unresolved question.
When one of this piece鈥檚 authors, Sarah Holcombe, undertook her PhD field research in the region in the mid-1990s, many senior community members had heard of them, but said they were mirri tjuta (all dead).
Tindale, rather blithely, that several years after an anthropological expedition to the region in 1932, an 鈥渆pidemic killed off many of the Jumu鈥�. Little is known about this epidemic, but it was likely influenza.
Tragically, there are many other examples of entire groups of Indigenous peoples being decimated by diseases against which they had no defences. And the threat remains ever-present with communities across Australia today, due to their .
Such was the concern as the coronavirus pandemic was worsening in late March, for instance, that , deputy chairperson of the APY Land Council, even suggested evacuating all the senior Anangu from the lands to hospitals in Adelaide as a pre-emptive measure.
How Indigenous communities showed strong leadership
There are obvious parallels between the 鈥溾�� that Indigenous Australians were subjected to in the colonial era and current measures to contain the pandemic.
Restrictions on movement within states and across borders, as well as into and out of remote communities, seem disturbingly resonant with this ugly history. One could say Indigenous Australians are no strangers to 鈥渓ock-downs鈥�.
However, Indigenous organisations have also shown leadership in this time of crisis. These include the network of representative bodies (such as land councils) and the 143 Aboriginal-managed health services and affiliates that are members of the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation.
The acted early in central Australia by and .
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Indigenous Australians have always had some form of agency, even if this was 鈥減assive resistance鈥� against punitive laws. But the Indigenous response to the pandemic is driving home the importance of local-level decision-making.
Though it is early days, evidence emerging from remote communities shows just how strong and effective this local leadership has been.
In the Kimberley region, for instance, , only allowing essential services in.
The evacuation of 鈥渃ountry-men and women鈥� from regional towns back to remote communities, as happened in the Kimberley region, also provided opportunities to spend time with family, hunt, return to country and pass on inter-generational knowledge.
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In far north Queensland, residents set up roadblocks outside their community 鈥� a as being 鈥渨ell ahead of the rest of the country鈥�.鈥�
And some communities in central Australia put a fuel limit of $20 at the bowser to ensure community members would not be tempted to travel too far.
Is government finally ready to listen?
There have been signs of a shift in the federal government鈥檚 approach to working with Indigenous NGOs and representative bodies, as well.
According to NACCHO CEO Pat Turner, these groups have had 鈥溾�� with the government over how to best respond to the crisis and protect vulnerable communities.
There is hope this may provide Indigenous peak body representatives with additional authority and leverage in the new . And that there will be scope to push towards greater structural change and give Indigenous communities greater power to manage their own affairs.
This would be in line with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which seeks to to participate in decision-making over matters affecting them.
These are also lessons Indigenous Australians have to share, and experiences non-Indigenous people can learn and benefit from. As Reconciliation Week comes to a close, we should reflect on this and ensure we don鈥檛 go back to what was 鈥渘ormal鈥�, the status quo.
, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Indigenous Engagement), and , Senior Research Fellow,
This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .
Image credit: Vicki Smith/Getty Images
