More housing needed now
YOU would think a movement to empower Aboriginal Territorians to inhabit, protect and maintain their ancestral lands would be well-polished after about 50 years.
Instead, we are left trying to wheel and deal with the federal government to support a more positive future for our homelands, which are intrinsic to cultural wellbeing on so many levels.
The homelands movement took hold in the 1970s as Aboriginal people rejected the missions, reserves and settlements to which they had been relegated, and returned to land to which they belonged. Places that held deep cultural and spiritual significance to them and were central to the belief systems that connected them to their country and lore. Where they could pass on traditional knowledge and practices to their children, grow stronger and practice selfdetermination. Today, there are more than 500 homelands across the Northern Territory with about 10,000 residents living in 2400 homes. About 40,000 other Aboriginal Territorians have connections to these places.
Despite initial investments in housing, services, transport, communications, and support programs that enabled the homelands to be economically viable, the dream has been bungled by successive governments. One of the deals done by the federal government during the NT Emergency Response was to handball responsibility for service delivery to homelands to the NT government with a four-year funding lure and a payment worth a pittance that relieved the commonwealth of the obligation to augment or replenish the housing stock. Challenges continued through the NT government’s first homelands policy in 2009, and another ill-fated agreement in 2015 where the Giles-led CLP government accepted fiscal responsibility for homelands in return for a one-off payment of $155m.
As Remote Housing and Town Camps Minister, a Legislative Assembly member representing one of the most expansive electorates in Australia, and an Aboriginal person with family members who live on homelands, I consider it my responsibility to right the wrongs. We need more housing on homelands and we need to improve the condition of homes which, quite frankly, in many cases is shocking.
Earlier this year, I launched the Territory Labor government’s homelands policy review towards developing a new homelands policy in collaboration with land councils, the Australian government and homeland residents.
It will set a new direction for the delivery of housing and services, and commits to building a sustainable homelands sector that will not only continue to strengthen Aboriginal people’s cultural obligations to their land but will also construct and upgrade housing leading to better health, education and employment outcomes. The new policy will also support increased capacity for economic sustainability.
People on homelands are healthier, with overall stronger physical, mental and cultural wellbeing so it is important to support them to live on their traditional lands, their way.
Premised on strong local decisionmaking, our National Partnership for Remote Housing NT is making the difference. It is an innovative, jobcreating quest to build better homes and stronger futures for Aboriginal Territorians. In remote communities right across the Territory I’m seeing that our new and upgraded housing is a real game changer. And in homelands, I’m hearing from residents about how much they
We need more housing on homelands and we need to improve the condition of homes which, quite frankly, in many cases is shocking
want to be included in our housing program so they too can lead more productive lives.
It makes sense to develop an integrated remote housing model where Aboriginal families in remote communities can share equally with homelands residents in the improved health, education, employment, wellbeing and cultural life that decent homes provide. This program has demonstrated improved economies in remote communities that could, and should, be extended to homelands, which as they stand, are unsustainable.
It’s why I’m calling on Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt and his government to support the Northern Territory’s quest to deliver housing on homelands, to work in partnership with our Territory Labor government for real and sustainable outcomes towards addressing the injustices of the past and achieving true reconciliation.