Aboriginal outstations not the problem in northern Australia

The editors of a new book exploring the history of Aboriginal outstations believe that they are not the major funding or policy problem facing governments in northern Australia.

 

Outstations came under fire last year when former Prime Minister Tony Abbott backed a plan in Western Australia to close more than 100 remote communities saying "what we can't do is endlessly subsidise lifestyle choices”.

 

Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus QC MP will launch the book, Experiments in self-determination: Histories of the outstation movement in Australia, on Monday 18 April. Media are invited to attend.

 

Co-editor Professor Nicolas Peterson, Director of the ANU Centre for Native Title Anthropology, said the Western Australian Government needed to consider Aboriginal outstations, which are typically home to groups of only 20 to 30 people, as separate from remote indigenous communities which have up to several thousand residents.

 

“The people who live in outstations have demonstrated a high degree of self-sufficiency and many have knowledge that enables them to look after their lands,” said Professor Peterson from The Australian National University (ANU).

 

“They are also free of the sorts of violence and social problems that plague some remote communities.

 

“The few thousand Aboriginal outstation residents do not expect the full range of services found in the remote communities.”

 

Professor Peterson of the ANU School of Archaeology and Anthropology co-edited the book with Professor Fred Meyers, from New York University.

 

 

Experiments in self-determination: Histories of the outstation movement in Australia is published by ANU Press.