Mission & Justice

Tony Koch; 17/2/10

Mining magnate Andrew Forrest’s goal of finding jobs for 50,000 Aborigines is almost half complete. The Queensland government became the first state government to commit to Mr Forrest’s Australian Employment Covenant, offering 2800 employment opportunities to indigenous applicants in the public sector and adding to the 17,000 jobs employers throughout Australia have already made a commitment to provide. As the scheme continues to grow, Mr Forrest said the persistent criticism employers levelled at first-time indigenous workers – that they didn’t stick at the job – could be overcome by using a mentoring system. The Fortescue Metals Group chief executive, who is also chairman of the AEC, said his experiences from growing up with Aboriginal children on a cattle station, and more recently as an employer in mining ventures, had convinced him that a “one-on-one” system would work where the mentor was committed to ensuring the indigenous employee was properly trained.

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Paul Myers; 30/1/10; Weekend Australian Magazine

Gina Sebastian and Frederick Cox have never heard of Wave Hill or Vincent Lingiari, the Gurindji elder who led the epic 1966 Aboriginal walk-off from English aristocrat Lord Vestey’s Northern Territory cattle station. That momentous event, which changed the human landscape of the northern pastoral industry, occurred in another place and time, far removed from contemporary life and its limited opportunities in remote areas of the far north. But Sebastian, 26, and Cox, 18, are two striking examples of young indigenous people building a new future for themselves on country where the legendary skills of Aboriginal stockmen were forged from the mid-1800s. Beyond the good intentions of many, and the failure of governments to deliver meaningful careers for young Aborigines, indigenous people are taking it upon themselves to turn back the clock, if only nominally, to a time when station jobs were there for the taking and good stockmanship was second nature to any lithe youngster willing to get in the saddle.

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Tony Barass 26/12/09

Be it shooting feral pigs or hooking 2m sawfish from the billabongs of the Fitzroy River, rangers at the Kimberley community of Jarlmadangah are determined to make their own way in an ever-changing world. A stronger understanding of their indigenous culture, a whiff of self-assuredness and a sense of place and responsibility are becoming the norm rather than the exception in places such as Jarlmadangah, a respected, dry community 230km east of Broome. Travis Faceldean and Justin Gray are two rangers being trained in all facets of culture – even white man’s – as other communities around them struggle for survival and relevance. Not unlike the catchcry in the agricultural sector during the 1980s – get big or get out – the finances of many Aboriginal towns across the top of Australia are under scrutiny like never before. Hot on the heels of the 2007 federal intervention into Aboriginal communities throughout the Northern Territory, the commonwealth and West Australian governments are making no apologies about pressuring outback communities to re-examine how they spend taxpayers’ money.

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