 Architects of their own progress |
Issue 158 |
Leadership in Indigenous communities March 2007
Each year, the United Nations publishes its Human Development Report. In 2006, this report showed that Australia ranked third in terms of the general wellbeing of its citizens. This same report showed that the income per Australian in 2004 was over US$30,000 and the average Australian can expect to live for 80.5 years.
Of course these figures are only averages and can hide quite a lot of variation. For example, some people will live longer and some people will not reach this age. This is to be expected in a large population. There also appears to be a link between income and life expectancy. The higher the average income of a country the longer people tend to live on average. This makes sense as richer countries can afford the best health care, nutritious food, sanitation and clean water. This is confirmed by looking at the Human Development Report. A quick look down the list of countries will show that those countries with lower life expectancies also have lower incomes. Poverty, poor health and shortened life expectancy go together.
Averages can also hide quite large variations. If one group within this population lived on average almost twenty years less than the rest of the population we would want to know why and to do something about it. If at the same time we found that the average income for that group was also much lower than the rest of the Australian population we might put two and two together and discover that poverty and lower life expectancy go together.
Indigenous Australians on average, live around 17 years less than other Australians and their health and education levels are far below the rest of the Australian population.
The causes of the shockingly low life expectancy of Indigenous Australians are complex but it seems obvious there is a clear link between chronic poverty and disadvantage. Looking down the list of countries where life expectancy is low, so also is the average income per person. Poverty, poor health and a shortened life are inextricably linked. Poverty leads to poor health and poor health leads to poverty. This cycle is difficult to break but must be challenged on many fronts.
Indigenous people need access to improved health services to treat illness, better access to education to promote healthy lifestyles and better access to employment to increase incomes. Further, Indigenous Australians need to be in control of their own lives, so, as Pope Paul VI says in Populorum Progressio, they can be "architects of their own progress."
Caritas Australia supports projects within Australia that have been developed by Indigenous people for Indigenous people. One such project is under way at Dubbo in western New South Wales. This program called Manage your Income, Manage your Life, promotes leadership by Indigenous people who run a financial management course focusing on budgeting skills. These skills can also be applied in people's lives more generally. Such skills as recognising that you need to be prepared for lean times in your life, to set goals, to prioritise those goals and to plan for the future apply as much to ordinary life as to how to manage your money. Creating awareness of banking facilities, how to manage payments for your rent, electricity and to the RTA, are skills that participants are learning for the first time. Co-ordinated in East Dubbo by Indigenous woman Lynda Edwards from Narromine, the Manage your Income, Manage your Life, program is making a real difference to peoples lives. Recently, with the help of Caritas, Linda has begun studying to become a fully accredited financial counsellor.
Ellen, one of the participants in the program is featured in the 2007 Project Compassion story for week six. A volunteer community worker in a community centre in Dubbo, Ellen is a leader who listened to people in her community wanting to learn more about how to budget and mitigate financial pressures. This program has helped Ellen and her community take control over their own lives by being more prepared for the uncertainties of the future.
In Ellen's words: "The program has empowered us to look after ourselves. It has helped me to look at the way I'm handling things in my life and to see where I need to make changes to go forward."
This program is about real development. It is about giving people the skills they need to live and participate in their communities. Manage your Income, Manage your Life, is about giving people more choice over how they live their lives and enabling people to achieve their full potential and be more in control of their own destiny.
"People are truly human only if they are the architects of their own progress." Pope Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 1967
1. Go to Sec7.pdf
Read Ellen's story. Answer the following:
- Why is having choices important in a person's life?
- Imagine how you would feel having no choices. Note your main feelings down.
- How does poverty limit choice?
- What important jobs does Ellen do to help her community?
- What sorts of things are covered in the Manage Your Income, Manage Your Life program?
- Why do you think that Ellen likes the fact that the program is run by an Aboriginal person?
- How does Ellen manage to have some money to spare?
- What plans does Ellen have for the future?
- Why do you think that is a good thing to have plans for the future?
2. Go to Centacare Wilcannia-Forbes
The organisation that Caritas Australia supports to run the program that Ellen is involved in.
- What area is covered by this branch of Centacare?
- What is their mission?
- How is that reflected in the program?
- Click on Services and note down the types services offered. How might these services help in the "development of people"?
3. Go to Photo Story
View the picture presentation of some of Pope Paul VI Populorum Progressio.
- What does this Latin title mean?
- What do you think that the main elements of "the development of people" are? Click on the photos and read the quotes from the document to answer this.
- Go to Sec12.pdf for a worksheet on Populorum Progressio.
4. Go to Human development Reports
Read the United Nations explanation of what Human Development is.
- Can you find any similarities between this and the quotes from Populorum Progressio?
- What according to Mahbub ul Haq is the main purpose of development?
- How can income influence this?
- What elements must be taken into account apart from income when measuring the level of human development?
- What do freedom and development have in common?
- Read the following quote from the above website: "Fundamental to enlarging these choices is building human capabilities - the range of things that people can do or be in life. The most basic capabilities for human development are to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community. Without these, many choices are simply not available, and many opportunities in life remain inaccessible." (UNDP)
From your knowledge of Indigenous disadvantage, in what way are Australian Indigenous people denied their right to a decent standard of living and to participate fully in the Australian community?
Go to
www.hreoc.gov.au
For health statistics.
www.hreoc.gov.au
For related information.
www.hreoc.gov.au
For more general statistics.
5. Go to www.antar.org.au
Read the famous "Redfern Speech" by Paul Keating. Part of the speech talks about non-Indigenous Australians who have benefited from the prosperity of living in this land having a responsibility as a result to do something about Indigenous disadvantage.
"And, as I say, the starting point might be to recognise that the problem starts with us non-Aboriginal Australians: It begins, I think, with the act of recognition. Recognition that it was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the disasters. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us. With some noble exceptions, we failed to make the most basic human response and enter into their hearts and minds. We failed to ask - how would I feel if this were done to me? As a consequence, we failed to see that what we were doing degraded all of us."
Paul Keating, Prime Minister of Australia when speaking in 1992.
Discuss this quote in small groups. Should we accept responsibility for doing something about the disadvantage suffered by Indigenous Australians or any other group in Australia?
6. Go to www.hreoc.gov.au
For a study guide and teaching and learning activities for the film Rabbit Proof Fence.
7. Go to www.hreoc.gov.au
For more teaching and learning ideas.
8.
Go to www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au
Find out more about Ellen's people (Ellen is a Wiradjuri woman). Answer the following:
- Where is Wiradjuri country?
- What are the boundaries of the country?
- Why were trees carved?
Go to www.murrumbidgee.cma.nsw.gov.au for a picture of such a tree. - What special item of clothing did the Wiradjuri wear?
9. Go to rosella.apana.org.au
To access materials in the Wiradjuri language
10. Go to www.schools.nsw.edu.au
For a list of some common Wiradjuri words.
11. Go to www.ncca.org.au
For more ideas for activities.
Read about an art competition that you can enter which explores the theme of Reconciliation. There are seven prizes with a youth category. There are generous cash prizes to be won. The competition is open to all Australians.
Go to www.apsc.gov.au
for more details and for entry forms.
Sign up to the pledge to close the 17-year gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous life expectancy at www.antar.org.au
Go to www.ncca.org.au
Find out about the Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign.
Go to www.ncca.org.au
For action ideas.
Go to www.ncca.org.au
Find out about the boiled lolly campaign. Write a letter to the Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs using the suggestions at the above web page.
Go to www.ncca.org.au
For resources and to get involved in the Make Indigenous Poverty History campaign.
Gear up for a final surge in the Project Compassion campaign. Go to the revamped Caritas website for more ideas and information at www.caritas.org.au