She has smashed the myths about Aborigines and jobs
What a wonderful story about Rosemary Maraltadj escaping the remote community of Kalumburu in Western Australia and getting the opportunity for a fulfilling and important job as an aged care trainee in Newcastle, NSW (”At last, Rosemary gets taste of ‘real life“‘, 3/10). She has smashed the myth that Aboriginal people can’t or should not be mobile. The important moral to this story is that her opportunity came courtesy of contact with an outsider—Ruth Donald, a captain in the Army Reserve.
Contact with the outside world is an important pathway to opportunity, which makes me wonder why the federal Government should even consider re-imposing the permit system on Aboriginal townships in the Northern Territory. It shouldn’t be left to chance or the will of particular Aboriginal corporations or powerful men to determine when and how there should be contact between these communities and the rest of Australia. The sooner those closed communities connect with the real world in a more holistic fashion the better.
I hope it works out for Rosemary and all credit to her for having the guts and commitment to have a go. Let’s hope she gets the support she needs as a young woman a long way from home. Given that there are so many people in remote communities without job opportunities and that we have labour shortages in a range of vital industries elsewhere in Australia, let’s hope that a lot more Aboriginal people can aspire to having opportunities similar to Rosemary’s; David Moore; Bridgeman Downs, Qld
Tags: Aboriginal, Australia, Workers