Given The Health Divide Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Australiana The Referendum Needs Some Commentary!

This appeared least week:

Indigenous voice to parliament: ‘Out here’ in the APY Lands, early death the great divide

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By Greg Bearup

Feature writer, The Weekend Australian Magazine

3:44PM October 7, 2023

Out here, the houses are overflowing with kids and cousins. The cost of fuel and fresh food is eye-watering.

Teachers out here use a device called a Soundfield to amplify their voices so kids can hear through the gunk in their infected ears.

If you were born and raised out here in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in the remote northwest corner of South Australia, the odds are you’ll be dead before you’re 55. A Torrens University study found that out here they have the highest rate of “premature mortality” in Australia. Out here is out of kilter with the rest of this healthy and wealthy country. Some argue the voice will divide us, but this nation is already divided.

The Anangu live in small communities on their traditional lands in the foothills of the spectacular Musgrave Ranges – it’s softly stunning, like an Albert Namatjira watercolour. Two thousand people are spread across an area the size of Germany 1200km from Adelaide, speaking either Pitjantjatjara or Yankunytjatjara. As a result of this extreme isolation, traditional culture is still deeply etched into the fabric of life. It’s pretty much a dry community, apart from occasions when grog is smuggled in. There’s a vibrant arts sector, the community is strong and there are some wonderful, committed whitefellas working with the Anangu to bring about change.

But on just about every social measure the folk of the APY Lands are the most disadvantaged people in Australia.

And so you’d reckon that out here they’d be clamouring for a voice in Canberra to address these myriad ailments. But despite this poverty of outcomes, or possibly because of it, there’s uncertainty about the referendum and an understandable distrust, an ingrained wariness, of anything that has the sniff of coming their way from whitefellas “over east”.

I first talked to the chair of Ernabella Arts, Anne Thompson, about the voice when I was visiting the APY lands in early September. She was deeply sceptical. “No one has really ever listened to Anangu in the past. Why now? What’s gunna change?”

She said she would need to be convinced about what the voice would do for her people before she’d vote yes. At that time she was leaning heavily towards no.

However, I spoke to Thompson again a few days ago when she was visiting Sydney for an exhibition and she is now more enthusiastic about voting yes. “I don’t think it’s gunna bring peace, but I am gunna vote yes, probably.” She says the voice will not fix all their problems, but First Nations people should be recognised. “We want to be respected.”

When I first spoke to the previous chair, famed artist Alison Milyika Carroll, she said she didn’t really know anything about the referendum and that “maybe” she would vote yes. A few days ago she told me people have been talking a lot about the voice. “Everybody is saying they are gunna say yes. Everyone in the arts centre and everyone in the community, they are all saying yes. People have been talking a lot. (A few) still (say) no, but most say yes.”

Old versus young

Rueben Burton, director of the Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Education Committee, has the same view as Anne Thompson, that whitefellas never listen. He says programs are foisted on the APY Lands from afar without any consultation, then the locals are blamed when those programs fail. But he reckons this is a chance for his mob to finally be heard.

Burton says the great challenge for his people is integrating the kids into the Western world – giving them opportunities for further education and good jobs – while maintaining a hold over traditional culture and language.

“My understanding about the voice … is to educate the government people to recognise the importance of Anangu (knowledge),” he says. “Maybe one day the voice can help us get the things that Anangu (need) … we want to say this is how we want to change things. We should be saying ‘This is how you do it’. I’m a supporter of the yes.”

Vastly more here:

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/indigenous/indigenous-voice-to-parliament-out-here-in-the-apy-lands-early-death-the-great-divide/news-story/a288c5e93c9b6aa5a170151126f2477a

As noted above, there is a vote on Saturday that proponents suggest, if carried, will do good things for indigenous health! If that outcome is even probable, on that basis alone, it has to be supported. The state of indigenous health is really a national shame IMVHO and must be addressed in all ways possible!

My concern, and it is obvious, is that there have been efforts on the health front forever, and pretty much zero progress forever too!

If I could believe the Voice would really make a difference, then you have won me hands down! My only concern is that it might not turn out to be true. Nevertheless, some good people seem to be sure it will really help and on that basis I am in!

Time will tell if I have been conned or not, but I hope not.

My other worry is that I would rather not embed unproven solutions in our constitution and so I favour a legislated Voice initially and then a move to the constitution after we know it works!

But what would I know?

David.