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Gallery|Human Rights

Indigenous Australians may soon lose ancestral land

Facing the biggest threat to their way of life in decades, indigenous communities may be forced off their homelands.

Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
An Aboriginal elder at the opening of the new $15m headquarters of the Kimberley Land Council - an Aboriginal rights group - in Broome. Many elders remember the late 1960s when white pastoralists were forced to pay Aboriginal workers the minimum wage, but instead sacked them and dumped them en masse on the edge of towns without work. To escape the alcohol and violence of the towns many moved back to their ancestral lands to establish remote villages. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
By 101 East
Published On 10 Sep 2015

Western Australia, Australia – The arid, rural territory of Western Australia is home to over 270 remote indigenous Australian communities that live on their ancestral land. This land has sustained the oldest living culture for over 50,000 years and carries deep spiritual and cultural significance for the people living there today.

Yet many of these communities are now under threat. They may soon be shut down by the state government, and hundreds of Aborigines could be forced to leave terrain they consider sacred and which is integral to their way of life.

In November 2014, the state premier, Colin Barnett, said the Western Australian government planned to cut essential services to up to 150 of these communities. The government says maintaining them is too costly, but they also say their closure will help tackle social problems like substance abuse, alcoholism, domestic violence and the sexual abuse of children, which they claim is widespread across indigenous communities.

Aboriginal leaders and human rights organisations say the communities have a right to stay on their land and accuse the government of racism.

Critics say the government’s plans are yet another example of politicians excluding the Aboriginal people from the decision-making processes that will affect their future and that the plan will only exacerbate the problems that affect these fragile societies. Indigenous leaders say community reforms must be led by their own people.

RELATED: Shutting down Australia’s Aboriginal areas

This isn’t the first time the Western Australian government tried to address social ills by shutting down communities.

Oombulgurri, in the state’s north, was gradually closed after a coronial inquiry found high rates of domestic violence, child sexual abuse and alcoholism. First the shop went, then the health centre, which forced the sick and elderly to move away, and then the school. The last remaining residents were evicted in 2011.

Most of the buildings were bulldozed in November 2014. The site remains home to several sacred, ancient, Aboriginal sites.

Since its closure, most of the children who lived there have not returned to school, and youth suicides – cited by the government as a reason to close the town – have increased.

A 2011 Amnesty report found that the mortality rate for Aboriginal people living in urban areas was far higher than those living on ancestral lands. Some of Oombulgurri’s former residents are now homeless.

While the future of Western Australia’s indigenous communities remains uncertain, Aboriginal community organisers say the closure of these communities will bring social chaos and looking back on past policies, this plan could augur yet another lost generation of indigenous Australians.

For more: 101 East meets the indigenous people facing the closure of their communities in “Waiting for Eviction.”

Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Cliffs and the river at Oombulgurri, an Aboriginal settlement in the far north of Western Australia that was closed by the state government on the grounds that it was unviable and unsustainable. [Amnesty International]
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Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
While houses were demolished when the government officially closed down Oombulgurri in 2011, the old mission church was spared as an historical site. [Amnesty International]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
The residents from the remote Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri, which was closed and demolished by the Western Australian state government, have been displaced and now live in the small town of Wyndham. [Amnesty International]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
The empty main street of the now-closed Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri. [Amnesty International]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
The government-funded school at Oombulgurri, in the eastern Kimberley region of Western Australia was demolished along with the houses where Aboriginal people lived. The remote community of 106 official residents was closed by the state government, which claimed it had become a dangerous place for children. [Amnesty International]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Floyd Grant is the former chairman of the now-closed remote Aboriginal community of Oombulgurri. The state government cited one reason for its closure as the protection of children, yet months after they were forced to relocate to the small town of Wyndham, Grant's own 12-year-daughter committed suicide. He believes this happened after she was exposed to drugs. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
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Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Floyd Grant's extended family now live in the small town of Wyndham. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Anthony Watson, chairman of the Kimberley Land Council (KLC), stands on his family's ancestral land in the remote community of Jarlmandangah in the far north of Western Australia. With about 70 inhabitants, this is one of the communities at risk of being shut down. Watson believes the state government has not properly engaged leading organisations such as the KLC in its remote community reform processes and says Aboriginal leaders and organisations want to take a leading role in reforming their society. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
In the remote community of Jarlmandangah, alcohol is banned. The community has a school and children there are actively encouraged to connect culturally and spiritually with their ancestral land. Some children go on to attend boarding schools in the cities, but leaders say they are much safer here rather than in cramped living conditions on the outskirts of towns and cities where inter-clan violence and easy access to alcohol can lead to violence and disorder. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
The Fitzroy River passes through the largely Aboriginal town of Fitzroy Crossing, which is an almost six-hour drive inland from the coastal town of Broome. While this area has been blighted by heavy alcohol consumption, it has also made great strides in addressing heavy drinking among pregnant Aboriginal women. It is also the site of Aboriginal corporations, medical and other service providers taking charge of their own future. Residents have been unimpressed with the state government's approach to reforming remote communities and want more control over shaping the future of their community. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Dickie Bedford and Anthony McLarty from Marra Worra Worra, the oldest and largest Aboriginal service provider in the Fitzroy Crossing region, say organisations such as theirs have not been properly involved from the start and warn of social chaos if remote communities are closed and people are forced to live in towns already overstretched to provide services. [Evan Williams/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
Aboriginal Elder of the remote community of Jarlmandangah and founding chairman of the KLC, John Watson conducts the Yiriman Project, bringing young Aboriginal men from the towns to help them reconnect to Aboriginal lore, law, and traditional ways of life as a way of getting them off drugs and alcohol and building up their self-esteem. [Liz Thompson/Al Jazeera]
Waiting for Eviction - DO NOT USE
The remote community and ancestral land at the settlement of Jarlmandangah. Aboriginal groups like the one at Jarlmandangah chose the location for their community because of the land's sacred sites and cultural connections that stretch back thousands of years. [Liz Thompson/Al Jazeera]