Suchergebnisse

Using several categories of data from the 1996 Census, this paper assesses the socioeconomic status of Torres Strait Islanders compared to that of non-Indigenous people. As in earlier research, the paper points out that Torres Strait Islanders in Torres Strait live in a different economic and policy environment from those on the mainland, suggesting the need for different policy strategies to improve socioeconomic status. The data indicate that Islanders on the mainland are closer to achieving parity with non-Indigenous people than are those residing in Torres Strait. The paper proposes that the policy environment for Torres Strait Islanders also varies across the mainland, with only the Queensland Government making any particular concessions to Torres Strait Islanders as a specific group. However, overall, the data suggest that it is in Queensland that Islanders are furthest from parity with non-Indigenous people. In no State/Territory do Torres Strait Islanders own their own homes to the same extent as non-Indigenous people, nor are they as likely to have tertiary qualifications. Though the employment data are influenced by the fact that it includes those working in the Community Development Employment Projects scheme, it suggests that Islanders are close to parity with non-Indigenous people in waged-employment and self-employment in all States except Queensland and the Northern Territory. Islanders are approaching parity in private sector employment everywhere on the mainland, but appear highly dependent on public sector employment in all locations, except Victoria.

This paper has been written as CAEPR's second response to the terms of reference of the current HRSCATSIA inquiry into greater autonomy for 'the people of the Torres Strait'. It notes that Islander submissions to this inquiry have predominantly interpreted these terms of reference as being about Torres Strait Islander autonomy, as a cultural group Australia wide, and have used the inquiry to further calls for a national statutory Torres Strait Islanders organisation; a Torres Strait Islanders Commission as we have indicatively referred to it. The paper explores the demographic background to this call for a national Torres Strait Islanders Commission and also the position of Torres Strait Islanders within the current ATSIC structure. It then goes on to discuss issues that are likely to arise in a move towards a Torres Strait Islanders Commission, under the headings of representation, funding, organisational scale, dual identification and Aboriginal people in Torres Strait. The paper argues that a national Torres Strait Islanders Commission is a real possibility, but that it would raise some quite significant and difficult issues. Because of this, the paper also discusses another reform possibility; better representation and funding arrangements within ATSIC and the TSRA for Torres Strait Islanders resident outside the Strait. The paper argues that Torres Strait Islanders themselves must determine which of these reform possibilities they want to pursue and to facilitate this it suggests a national Torres Strait Islander convention as a necessary next step. The final brief section of the paper attempts to clarify relationships between reform towards a Torres Strait Islanders Commission, or better representation and funding arrangements within ATSIC and the TSRA for Torres Strait Islanders resident outside the Strait, and reform towards Torres Strait regional government. Both, it argues, can be legitimately pursued under the rubric of seeking 'greater autonomy for the people of the Torres Strait'.

As an Opposition member of parliament in the 1950s and 1960s, Gough Whitlam took a keen interest in Australia's responsibilities, under the United Nations' mandate, to develop the Territory of Papua New Guinea until it became a self-determining nation. In a chapter titled 'International Affairs', Whitlam proudly recalled his government's steps towards Papua New Guinea's independence (declared and recognised on 16 September 1975). However, Australia's relationship with Papua New Guinea in the 1970s could also have been discussed by Whitlam under the heading 'Indigenous Affairs' because from 1973 Torres Strait Islanders demanded (and were accorded) a voice in designing the border between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Whitlam's framing of the border issue as 'international', to the neglect of its domestic Indigenous dimension, is an instance of history being written in what Tracey BanivanuaMar has called an 'imperial' mode. Historians, she argues, should ask to what extent decolonisation was merely an 'imperial' project: did 'decolonisation' not also enable the mobilisation of Indigenous 'peoples' to become self-determining in their relationships with other Indigenous peoples? This is what the Torres Strait Islanders did when they asserted their political interests during the negotiation of the Australia–Papua New Guinea border, though you will not learn this from Whitlam's 'imperial' account.

This paper is an outcome of a survey of access for Torres Strait Islanders living on the mainland of Australia to government programs and services, commissioned by the Office of Torres Strait Islander Affairs. The survey found that there were no data or statistics on access for Islanders to government programs and services, nor were there any specific government programs and services for mainland Islanders. The survey questionnaires did not reveal evidence that Islanders experience great difficulties accessing mainstream programs and services. The survey did, however, reveal some perceptions about programs and services. For instance, some service providers and Islanders appear to believe that Islanders are supposed to access Indigenous programs and services rather than mainstream programs and services. This is contrary to the generally held policy view that Indigenous programs and services are intended to supplement rather than replace those in the mainstream. Governments believe that Islanders do not experience access problems and that in any event there are too few Islanders to warrant any special forms of access for them. Islanders meanwhile perceive that, within the system of Indigenous programs and services, and especially within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), they are marginalised with respect to Aboriginal people. It is argued that this largely stems from the fact that Islanders are a numerical and cultural minority within the mainland Indigenous system. Two approaches to improve the situation are discussed. One is to strengthen the position of Islanders within the present Indigenous system. It is felt that such an approach would have a limited impact unless resources were reserved for Islanders. The other approach is to establish an Islander system outside ATSIC. However, this approach has little government support because, as already discussed, there are relatively few Islanders on the mainland and a separate system for Islanders would be costly.

This book explores Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perceptions of their helping styles with their own people and the type of help they provide in the social welfare context. Through semi-structured depth interviews, the use of video as stimulus material and collaborative analysis with Aboriginal and Torres Islander participants, the book identifies the helping process within their own cultural communities and in particular the cultural aspects of their helping approach. In the course of this project active collaboration has occurred between indigenous and non-indigenous people in methodological and ethical processes that reflected as much as possible a political position of indigenous control of the project in relation to problem definition, choice of research methods, data analysis and use of findings. The intent of 'Murri Way' was to provide a 'springboard' for the development of Indigenous Best Practice Models. Readers attention is drawn to the recognition of the contribution of participant's wisdom and knowledge, page iv-vi; the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Terms of Reference, p.95; and details of the inception and aspiration of the project in Chapter 2.

Smallacombe reviews 'Fighters from the Fringe: Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders Recall the Second World War' by Robert Hall.