[Commpsych] FW: Mutitjulu Community Statement

[Heather Gridley]

Some reality testing from one NT Indigenous community
 
Heather Gridley 
School of Psychology 
Footscray Park Campus 
Victoria University 
PO Box 14428 
Melbourne 
VIC 8001 
Australia 
TEL +61 3 9919 5224 
FAX +61 3 9919 4324 
MOBILE: 0419 113 731 
Email: heather.gridley at vu.edu.au

________________________________

> Conversation: Mutitjulu Community Statement 
> Subject: Mutitjulu Community Statement 
> 
>  
> *Dear friends* 
> ** 
> *Please pass this on to as many people as possible. Send to the Media- these 
> are the questions which need to be asked. 
> * 
> Leaders of the Mutitjulu community today questioned the need for a military 
> occupation of their small community. 
> 
> We welcome any real support for indigenous health and welfare and even two 
> police will assist, but the Howard Government declared an emergency at our 
> community over two years ago - when they appointed an administrator to our 
> health clinic - and since then we have been without a doctor, we have less 
> health workers, our council has been sacked all our youth and health 
> programmes have been cut. 
> 
> We have no CEO and limited social and health services. The government has 
> known about our overcrowding problem for at least 10 years and they've done 
> nothing about it. 
> 
> How do they propose keeping alcohol out of our community when we are 20 
> minutes away from 5 star hotel? Will they ban blacks from Yulara? We have been 
> begging for an alcohol counsellor and a rehabilitation worker so that we can 
> help alcoholics and substance abusers but those pleas have been ignored. What 
> will happen to alcoholics when this ban is introduced? How will the government 
> keep the grog runners out of our community without a permit system? 
> 
> We have tried to put forward projects to make our community economically 
> sustainable - like a simple coffee cart at the sunrise locations - but the 
> government refuses to even consider them. 
> 
> There is money set aside from the Jimmy Little foundation for a kidney 
> dialysis machine at Mutitjulu, but National Parks won't let us have it. 
> That would create jobs and improve indigenous health but they just keep 
> stonewalling us. If there is an emergency, why won't Mal Brough fast track our 
> kidney dialysis machine? 
> 
> Some commentators have made much of the cluster of sexually transmitted 
> diseases identified at our health clinic. People need to understand that 
> Mutitjulu Health Clinic (now effectively closed) is a regional clinic and 
> patients come from as far away as WA and SA; so to identify a cluster here is 
> meaningless without seeing the confidential patient data. 
> 
> The fact that we hold this community together with no money, no help, no 
> doctor and no government support is a miracle. Any community, black or white 
> would struggle if they were denied the most basic resources. 
> Police and the Military are fine for logistics and coordination but 
> healthcare, youth services, education and basic housing are more essential. 
> Any programme must involve the people on the ground or it won't work. For 
> example who will interpret for the military? 
> 
> Our women and children are scared about being forcibly examined; surely there 
> is a need to build trust. Even the doctors say they are reluctant to examine a 
> young child without a parent's permission. Of course any child that is 
> vulnerable or at risk should be immediately protected but a wholesale 
> intrusion into our women and children's privacy is a violation of our human 
> and sacred rights. 
> 
> 
> Where is the money for all the essential services? We need long term financial 
> and political commitment to provide the infrastructure and planning for our 
> community. There is an urgent need for 10's of millions of dollars to do what 
> needs to be done. Will Mr Brough give us a commitment beyond the police and 
> military? 
> 
> The commonwealth needs to work with us to put health and social services, 
> housing and education in place rather than treating Mutitjulu as a political 
> football. 
> 
> But we need to set the record straight: 
> 
> ü There is no evidence of any fraud or mismanagement at Mutitjulu - we have 
> had an administration for 12 months that found nothing 
> 
> ü Mal Brough and his predecessor have been in control of our community for at 
> least 12 months and we have gone backwards in services 
> 
> ü We have successfully eradicated petrol sniffing from our community in 
> conjunction with government authorities and oil companies 
> 
> ü We have thrown suspected paedophiles out of our community using the permit 
> system which our government now seeks take away from us. 
> 
> ü We will work constructively with any government, State, Territory or Federal 
> that wants to help aboriginal people. 
> 
> 

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