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Tarwangin - Talking To Me - 10 July 2009
In this edition read about the Kimberley Toad Busters, healthier communities and see pictures from NAIDOC.
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Message from the Director-General
This year’s NAIDOC theme Honouring our Elders and nurturing our Youth has great resonance for all of us.
There is to learn from our Elders, equally our young people have so much to offer and I take the opportunity to acknowledge and recognise the immense value of both.
It is perhaps coincidental that the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) met this week and Aboriginal Affairs was a primary focus of discussion.
The Chair of the Productivity Commission, Gary Banks AO, gave a presentation to COAG on the findings of the 2009 Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage: Key Indicators Report.
This report shows that while there has been some progress towards the Closing the Gap targets, including infant mortality, employment and home ownership, overall the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians remains unacceptable.
My job, and one that I take most seriously, is to work with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in making the most out of the opportunities afforded by COAG for our young people, our Elders and everyone in between.
It was within the context of the Productivity Commission Report that COAG agreed to the effective implementation of the existing National Agreements and National Partnership Agreements in the areas of health, education and employment to name a few.
The challenge for Government is to make the best of the opportunities afforded by the National Partnership Agreements and the millions of dollars being invested by COAG in the Closing the Gap strategy.
And we can only achieve this by working together.
We need to strongly advocate with and on behalf all Western Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to ensure the services we deliver are what are wanted and needed.
These services must be the best that they can be and this very much depends upon the input provided by the people for which these services are designed.
And we need to be accountable for the quality of service delivery, take stock of those programs that have been a success in the past and learn from those that have not.
It is only by enhancing the life opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through real and positive improvements that we will celebrate the achievements of many more people on this day in future years.
Patrick Walker
NAIDOC in pictures
NAIDOC Perth opening ceremony
PALS and AHRU get into NAIDOC
The PALS (Partnership, Acceptance, Learning and Sharing) and AHRU (Aboriginal History Research Unit) teams from DIA hosted information stalls at the NAIDOC Perth opening ceremony on Sunday 5 July 2009.
It was an action-packed day with the NAIDOC Awards, battle of the didge competition and the launch of Noongar Radio Station.
The following day the PALS team attended the launch of the Beananging Kwuurt Institute in Queens Park.
Chairperson Sealin Garlett gave the Welcome to Country and spoke about the future of the Institute.
Guests enjoyed live entertainment and a fantastic lunch and the event was filmed by Channel 10 news.
DIA’s Principal Indigenous Advisor and AHRU staff visited Acacia  Prison to acknowledge NAIDOC Week on the same day.
On Tuesday PALS set up in the Fremantle Town Hall – there were lots of activities for kids and a delicious kangaroo stew for lunch, and the Old Flames band kept everyone entertained.
Meanwhile, the  AHRU team headed east to Armadale to share information with the community on how to trace family history.
Playtime in Halls Creek
The Halls Creek Intensive Support Playgroup will receive up to $100,000 in start-up Federal funding and up to $200,000 per annum in operations funding in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
It aims to provide support services to assist Indigenous families with young children.
Under the Federal Government’s Expansion of Playgroups for Indigenous Families measure, facilitators and social workers will provide extensive support to Intensive Support Playgroups and to families, including providing information about the wide range of services available to them.
The facilitated playgroups available to families provide a safe environment for Indigenous parents, caregivers and children to gather in their communities and be supported by skilled early childhood and family support workers.
As a Federal Budget measure, funding will be implemented nationally for the establishment of 36 facilitated Intensive Support Playgroups to provide services to families living in crisis; in overcrowded or problematic housing arrangements; or at risk of homelessness.
More.
Airport’s partnership is reconciliation in action
An historic partnership agreement has been signed between Westralia Airports Corporation and the Noongar traditional owners of the land on which Perth Airport stands.
The agreement, at which Indigenous Affairs Minister Kim Hames officiated, covers a range of practical and symbolic commitments to the future of the airport.
The partnership brings into reality Perth Airport’s desire to work with Noongar traditional owners, who are represented by the Combined Swan River and Swan Coastal Plains Working Group and the Ballaruk and Bibbulmun groups.
The Minister said under the agreement, the airport would include Noongar elders in its planning and land use processes, and employ local Noongar experts in land management and cultural education.
It will work with a steering committee, including Noongar representatives, to devise a program of cultural events and projects to celebrate Aboriginal culture at Perth Airport.
The steering committee will also have input into the awarding of several $5,000 scholarships each year to Aboriginal students undertaking tertiary study.
More.
Kicking a goal with community participation
Community sporting clubs, schools and not-for-profit organisations are invited to apply for funding for sport and recreation projects targeting low participation groups.
Community Participation Funding, available through the Department of Sport and Recreation, provides grants of between $1,000 and $5,000 for community projects that target low participation groups.
The funding particularly targets culturally and linguistically diverse and indigenous populations, which can be vulnerable to social and structural disconnection and had been shown to have a range of positive effects in communities, including specific benefits for people from Indigenous backgrounds.
More.
WA Week Small Grants Scheme
Got an idea for a great WA Week project or event?
Celebrate WA has grants of up to $1000 to give to community groups planning an event or project during WA Week (19-25 October). Projects need to foster community pride, confidence, inclusiveness and identity, develop rewarding and enduring partnerships, highly Western Australia’s achievements and potential, promote the State’s history, heritage and culture and recognise achievement and contribution.
Grant applications close 5pm, 23 July 2009.
More.
On the road to healthier Indigenous communities
A partnership to improve the health of Indigenous communities across the Kimberley has been boosted with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the State Government and the Unity of First People of Australia (UFPA).
The UFPA will receive $500,000 per annum for four years to expand the not-for profit organisation’s A Roadmap Towards Better Health Program, almost doubling the amount previously provided to the organisation.
The agreement cements the relationship between the WA Country Health Service (WACHS) and the UFPA which have been working together to tackle indigenous health issues in the Kimberley, particularly in relation to diabetes programs.
A Roadmap Towards Better Health Program is a holistic wellness program, which focuses on the promotion of healthy behaviours and lifestyle choices to decrease rates of chronic disease among Aboriginal people.
The program will build on the existing mobile diabetes management and care program already offered to several Indigenous communities in the Kimberley by incorporating a range of activities aimed at promoting positive lifestyle changes.
More.
Office of Public Advocate training
Protecting vulnerable adults - Introduction to the guardianship and administration system. Bentley, 23 July (9am-1pm) $90.
Enduring power of attorney. Perth, 16 September (12-1pm) Law Week free
Mandurah October: $70 (expression of interest only).
Private administrator training. Bentley, 15 September (9.30am-12.30pm), $25.
Aboriginal service provider training. Kimberley, August (expression of interest only).
For further information contact the Office of the Public Advocate
Telephone: (08)9278 7300 or freecall 1300 858 455 Fax (08) 9278 7333
email opa@justice.wa.gov.au
Registration form.
Noongar aquaculture enterprise wins grant dollars
The Ngalang Boodja Council Aboriginal Corporation’s aquaculture project is the recipient of a $251,585 grant under the South West Regional Grants Scheme.
The Ngalang Boodja Council Aboriginal Corporation is using old coal mines near Collie to farm marron for commercial sale.
The venture provides an exciting new industry for Collie as well as employment for local Noongar people.
The grant will be put towards installation of a processing and purging system, bird netting over ponds and a security fence around the site.
It will also be used to construct gravel roads around the ponds and a building to be used in farm operations, training and research.
More.
Kimberley Toad Busters
The Banksia Environmental Foundation has recognised the Kimberley Toad Busters as a finalist in the Indigenous Caring for Country category in its 2009 Banksia Environmental Awards.
The group – comprising more than 2000 volunteers – has waged a tireless war against the invasion of cane toads from North-Eastern Australia into the Kimberley.
Their work has included catching toads, recording information about their age, gender and whereabouts, humanely disposing of the toads and their eggs and spreading the message about the imperative to stop the spread of cane toads.
The campaign has brought Indigenous and non-Indigenous Western Australians together in a spirit of Reconciliation, as they face a common enemy.
More.
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