Indigenous Community Project Development

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INTRODUCTION TO INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY

Indigenous community refers to the culturally distinct societies and communities and include are 370 million people around the world. Indigenous community people can also be referred to aboriginal people and are generally more poor and vulnerable. Further, indigenous community people also faces high level of discrimination and violence. Along with this, indigenous people have lower life expectancy rate than the non-indigenous people due to lack of adequate health care services. However, indigenous community people are practitioners of unique culture and way of living which cannot be separated from their practices. The main concern of this research is on indigenous community people of Australia that accounts to around 2 % of Australian total population. Further, it has been identified that around 20 % lives in the remote areas of Australia. Health of indigenous community people is also very poor in comparison to health of non-indigenous people and it has been identified that rate of poverty is among this population is thrice of the non-indigenous people.

ISSUE FACED BY ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND CHILDREN

The main aim of conducting this research is to challenges faced by aboriginal community people of Australia where special emphasis has been placed on the separation and housing related problem faced by such people. It has been identified that Aboriginal children are separated from their families as social workers generally remove aboriginal child from their families by believing it to believing it to be unsafe. Further, it has been identified that placement of such children in out of home care is major concern and challenge faced by community people(Muir and Bohr, 2014). According to the government survey reports, number of aboriginal children being separated from their families has doubled over the past decade. Thus, the need is to place aboriginal children in the family or at least with an aboriginal family. Furthermore, it has been identified that parents of aboriginal children want their child to live and stay in the family network to learn the native language and culture (Fernandes, 2018). Furthermore, it has been identified that forced separation and relocation of aboriginal children has caused devastating consequences both in terms of social and cultural dislocation which further is affecting the health and wellbeing of such people. separating aboriginal people from their communities has been identified as relocation of children away from their traditional lands of special cultural and spiritual significance The intergenerational effects of forced separation on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal children and young people. Along with this, various other issues have been identified along with forced separation such as mental health of children, emotional and behavioral difficulties etc.(Ivers et al., 2006)

Following graphical representation highlight the issue of forced separation and relocation of children between age of 4 to 17 years. This include separation both from family and traditional land.

Thus, it has been identified that the problem of separation of aboriginal children from their families and traditional land is faced in whole Australia among indigenous community – aboriginal people. Along with this, aboriginal people are facing various challenges relating to their language and culture. The main challenge that is faced is difficulties in preservation of language and culture(Bernard, 1996).

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

To solve the problem faced by aboriginal community people, various community development projects have been undertaken in Australia to solve the problem faced by indigenous community people (Herbert-Cheshire, 2000). One of the main community development project that has been undertaken is “Partnering with aboriginal community controlled organizations to deliver trusted services with stronger outcomes for Aboriginal people”. This community development project has been undertaken to improve the lives of people by undertaking fair and equal partnerships. Furthermore, the main aim of this partnership is to understand the problems of indigenous people in better manner which further will help in solving community problems in better manner. Along with this, the key component of this project is to improve the outcomes for aboriginal children and families. Self determination has been identified as the key element to solve the issue faced by aboriginal people of Australia. In addition to all the plans and practices, the major concern of this project is on raising the aboriginal children with safety by connecting them to families, communities and culture. In the partnering plan, it has been identified that respectful engagement and shared decision making have been identified as important variables for improving the well being of aboriginal people. Practices for removal of health disparities should also be adopted to solve the problems faced by aboriginal Australians. For this purpose, aboriginal health team of south metropolitan health service in Perth also had partnership with local aboriginal communities (Durey et al., 2016). National partnership agreements have also been promoted to improve the health of aboriginal people by developing inter cultural behaviors and through emphasizing health service providers to develop partnership with aboriginal communities(Federalfinancialrelations.gov.au, 2019).

Following are some of the key values that have been discussed in the current project to improve the collaborate among various organizations and to develop indigenous people position and wellbeing:

Promoting the rights of aboriginal people i.e. children and families to protect all the rights by adhering to united nations declarations on the rights of child and of indigenous people.
Setting up of aboriginal family kinship structures to improve the care for aboriginal children.
Developing and promoting fundamental right of self-determination.
Developing cultural security and wellbeing

Along with this, various community development projects have been undertaken to improve the language and cultural position of these community people which is base for setting up the identity of aboriginal people. language and cultural identity of community people is key to define the unique identity of aboriginal people. “Indigenous languages preservation: Dictionaries project” is one of the main project that is undertaken to strength the culture, identity and wellbeing of aboriginal indigenous Australians(Thieberger, 2015). Under this project, various dictionary databases have been created for preserving the language of aboriginal Australians. The main aim of this project is to identify dictionaries that are in advanced stage of development. Along with this, “indigenous Australian languages” is another major project undertaken to create strong cultural identity to enable aboriginal people feel proud of their culture and language. (Vigilante et al., 2013) further identified that Kimberley land council in Australia is undertaking various community development activities to improve “aboriginal people position in Kimberley region”. The community development activities of Kimberley land council community includes focus on understanding government programs for aboriginal people. Thus, it has been identified that number of community development projects have been undertaken to improve the position of Aboriginal Australians in Australia with the aim to solve the problem of separation of Aboriginal children from their families and to give unique identity to language and culture of aboriginal people.

STAKEHOLDERS OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Partnering and language strengthening project involves active participation of various stakeholders and parties. The main organizations that have been involved in completion of community development projects are government, non-government and non-profit organizations and community associations(Mcgill.ca, 2019). Government organizations helped in development of all the initiatives for the aboriginal community people i.e. partnering various communities, language strengthening projects and healthcare projects. Government organizations identified the problems faced by aboriginal people such as health, poverty, separation, housing and lack of various facilities. On the basis of same, various measures were initiated by government to strengthen the position of aboriginal people by developing effective policies for them(Simpson, Wood and Daws, 2003). Major emphasis of whole partnering project was on improving the condition of aboriginal people by strengthening their rights and by influencing the child care practices. standardized norms for all community projects were set by the government to influence relationship of aboriginal community people with health care organizations.

Following points shows the Government’s role in assisting partnerships:

Designing strategy and agreed approach for collaboration in evaluation.
Arranging Funds for capability building.
Auditing quality and integrity of partnerships.
Reducing administrative burden associated with arranging Aboriginal community services.
Ensuring budget levels are adequate for sustainable service.

Furthermore, NGOs also played key role in influencing the completion of the project by adopting various funding practices which is the main driver for successful implementation of projects. NGOs also helped in identifying the local conditions which further helped in better implementation of projects. Partnership project was framed after identification of need to avoid separation of aboriginal children from their family members. Along with this, various community organizations also played key role in completion of project. To develop partnership values, understand cultural values and improve outcomes for Aboriginal familes and children, the Noongar Family Safety and Wellbeing Council (NFSWC) and The West Australian Council of Social Service (WACOSS), organized many roundtables about partnership between Community Service Organisations (CSOs) and Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations (ACCOs) within the time period of April 2018 and June 2019. The main objective of such roundtables was to identify reasons of unsuccessful partnership between ACCOs, public sector agencies and CSOs, find ways to improve it and work together for the betterment of Aboriginal people. Issues such as increasing rates of Aboriginal child removal, cultural safety plans, legal representation in court proceedings were discussed as part of such meeting.

STRENGTHS OF THE PROJECTS

Successful implementation of community development projects was possible only because of effective implementation and number of strengthening factors of the project. The key strengths of the community development projects are enlisted as follows:

Effective Identification of issues faced by aboriginal people.
Setting up of number of partnerships effectively.
Focus on strengthening the rights of aboriginal people
Establishment of various partnership agreements for land, family and knowledge.
Identification of various voting rights of aboriginal people and setting up vision statement.
The main focus of the vision statement was on avoiding removal of aboriginal child from their families and traditional land and culture.
Identification of future service design strategies and services for Aboriginal children.
Setting up of order of partnership agreements on the basis of priority.

LIMITATIONS OF THE PROJECTS

Despite the successful implementation of community development projects, there were some of the limitations in the community projects that could have been removed through various other measures. Following are some of the limitations of community development projects:

Lack of funding is one of the major limitation of partnership project as more funding could have helped in better implementation of project.
Lack of travelling was done outside the metropolitan area.
Although round table member organizations participated in the project, but it has been identified that only limited round table member organizations were involved in the project.
No formal rules had been established for roundtable member’s participation.
Lack of proper governance structure is another major limitation of the project.

CONCLUSION

In nutshell, it has been identified that aboriginal people of Australia are facing various issues such as lack of services, separation from family members, separation from traditional land, staff exhaustion, higher crimes, lack of health care, little education etc. which has worsened the position of these people in the Australian environment. It has been identified that bread down in the families of Aboriginal people is rising at faster rate. “Partnering with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organizations to deliver trusted services with stronger outcomes for Aboriginal people” has been identified as important project of western Australian council of Social service. Various organizations involved in this project helped in successful implementation of the project. Along with this, various other projects have also been discussed in this report for better understanding. Further, some of the limitations have been identified that should be avoided in all government projects in future.

REFERENCES

Aifs.gov.au. (2006). The intergenerational effects of forced separation on the social and emotional wellbeing of Aboriginal children and young people. Available at: https://aifs.gov.au/sites/default/files/ss%282%29 .
Bernard, H. (1996). Language Preservation and Publishing. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287202702_Language_Preservation_and_Publishing .
Durey, A., McEvoy, S., Swift-Otero, V., Taylor, K., Katzenellenbogen, J. and Bessarab, D. (2016). Improving healthcare for Aboriginal Australians through effective engagement between community and health services. BMC Health Services Research, [online] 16(1). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4936288/.
Federalfinancialrelations.gov.au. (2019). National Partnership agreement on closing of the gap in indigenous health outcomes. Available at: http://www.federalfinancialrelations.gov.au/content/npa/health/_archive/ctg-health-outcomes/national_partnership.
Fernandes, D. (2018). As more Aboriginal children are removed from families, critics say government risks a second Stolen Generation. [online] Public Radio International. Available at: https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-10-09/more-aboriginal-children-are-removed-families-critics-say-government-risks-second .
Herbert-Cheshire, L. (2000). Contemporary strategies for rural community development in Australia: a governmentality perspective. Journal of Rural Studies, [online] 16(2), pp.203-215Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016799000546 .
Ivers, R., Castro, A., Parfitt, D., Bailie, R., D’Abbs, P. and Richmond, R. (2006). Evaluation of a multi-component community tobacco intervention in three remote Australian Aboriginal communities. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, [online] 30(2), pp.132-136. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-842X.2006.tb00105.x .
Mcgill.ca. (2019). An Overview of Community Development Initiatives Engaging Indigenous People in Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America. [online] Available at: https://www.mcgill.ca/isid/files/isid/pb_2014_01_geboe.pdf .
Muir, N. and Bohr, Y. (2014). Contemporary Practice of Traditional Aboriginal Child Rearing: A Review. [online] Journals.sfu.ca. Available at: http://journals.sfu.ca/fpcfr/index.php/FPCFR/article/viewFile/231/218
Simpson, L., Wood, L. and Daws, L. (2003). Community capacity building: Starting with people not projects. Community Development Journal, [online] 38(4), pp.277-286. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/cdj/article-abstract/38/4/277/264881
Thieberger, N. (2015). The lexicography of indigenous languages in Australia and the Pacific. International Handbook of Modern Lexis and Lexicography, [online] pp.1-16. Available at: https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/bitstream/handle/11343/55705/lexicogPacificAustralia.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
Vigilante, T., Toohey, J., Gorring, A., Blundell, V., Saunders, T., Mangolamara, S., George, K., Oobagooma, J., Waina, M., Morgan, K. and Doohan, K. (2013). Island country: Aboriginal connections, values and knowledge of the Western Australian Kimberley islands in the context of an island biological survey. Records of the Western Australian Museum, Supplement, [online] 81(1), p.145. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285047654_Island_country_aboriginal_connections_values_and_knowledge_of_the_Western_Australian_Kimberley_islands_in_the_context_of_an_Island_Biological_Survey

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