"Indigenous people are doing nothing about their own problems and expect government to do everything"
Despite the effort and commitment of most Indigenous Australians to overcome problems confronting their communities, there is a pervasive myth of Indigenous passivity.
Since settlement, Indigenous leaders and communities fought long and hard for citizenship rights, land rights and the right to be counted in the census of the population; rights that non-Indigenous people take for granted.
A recent example of communities fighting to overcome their problems is the strong leadership of the Pitjantjatjara communities of South Australia in combating the scourge of petrol sniffing. As Social Justice Commissioner Tom Calma recalls: ‘they were prepared to own the problem of petrol sniffing in their community – they simply needed help in dealing with the outside forces that were causing it…they almost begged for a ban on sniffable fuel – at a time when all governments thought that would either be too hard or too expensive. But the community knew what it needed.’26
This is one of the many instances of community leadership that has triumphed over a specific problem facing a specific community.
LINKS
26 Tom Calma speech 4 July 2007 – press club. p. 4
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