Living in two camps: the strategies goldfields Aboriginal people use to manage the mainstream and indigenous economy at the same time (original) (raw)
Related papers
Maru and Davies 2011 netowrks and aboriginal employment.pdf
Employment is generally considered as essential for improving individual and social livelihoods and wellbeing in Australia. Typically, employment rates are low among Aboriginal people living in remote regions of Australia. Often this is attributed to a lack of mainstream labour markets. However, Aboriginal employment participation is low even in remote places where there are employment opportunities, creating a seemingly paradoxical situation of lots of job vacancies and lots of unemployed locals. Social networks are one of the factors that contribute to this phenomenon, and that can potentially help to address it. We applied social network and social capital theory in research in the Anmatjere region of central Australia. Our findings indicate that Aboriginal people have strong and dense bonding networks but sparse bridging and linking networks. While the existence of such ties is supported by research and observation elsewhere in remote Australia, the implications for employment have not been considered from the perspective of social network theory. Dense bonding networks reinforce, and are reinforced by, Aboriginal norms of sharing and reciprocity. These underpin the Aboriginal moral economy but can have negative influence on motivation to engage with mainstream employment opportunities that are driven by workplace and market norms. Brokers who can bridge and link Aboriginal individuals and their dense social networks to potential employers are essential for Aboriginal people to be able to obtain trusted information on jobs and have entrée to employment opportunities. Brokers also foster new norms that mediate the conflicting values and expectations held by potential Aboriginal employees and employers, who are generally not Aboriginal people. Social network theory suggests that bridging and linking provides advantage to the broker. However, stress and burnout are readily suffered by the people who broker networks with divergent values in cross-cultural settings. To improve employment outcomes and expand livelihood options for Aboriginal people in remote Australia, it is essential to recognise, support and recruit brokers.
Employment is generally considered as essential for improving individual and social livelihoods and wellbeing in Australia. Typically, employment rates are low among Aboriginal people living in remote regions of Australia. Often this is attributed to a lack of mainstream labour markets. However, Aboriginal employment participation is low even in remote places where there are employment opportunities, creating a seemingly paradoxical situation of lots of job vacancies and lots of unemployed locals. Social networks are one of the factors that contribute to this phenomenon, and that can potentially help to address it. We applied social network and social capital theory in research in the Anmatjere region of central Australia. Our findings indicate that Aboriginal people have strong and dense bonding networks but sparse bridging and linking networks. While the existence of such ties is supported by research and observation elsewhere in remote Australia, the implications for employment have not been considered from the perspective of social network theory. Dense bonding networks reinforce, and are reinforced by, Aboriginal norms of sharing and reciprocity. These underpin the Aboriginal moral economy but can have negative influence on motivation to engage with mainstream employment opportunities that are driven by workplace and market norms. Brokers who can bridge and link Aboriginal individuals and their dense social networks to potential employers are essential for Aboriginal people to be able to obtain trusted information on jobs and have entrée to employment opportunities. Brokers also foster new norms that mediate the conflicting values and expectations held by potential Aboriginal employees and employers, who are generally not Aboriginal people. Social network theory suggests that bridging and linking provides advantage to the broker. However, stress and burnout are readily suffered by the people who broker networks with divergent values in cross-cultural settings. To improve employment outcomes and expand livelihood options for Aboriginal people in remote Australia, it is essential to recognise, support and recruit brokers.
Grounded in country: Perspectives on working within, alongside and for Aboriginal communities
Issues in Educational Research
This paper presents the experiences of four researchers working within, alongside and for the Gumala Aboriginal Corporation in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. The focus of the research was a health and education needs analysis of Gumala Aboriginal Corporation members that would inform future education and health planning in the region. The research project was a collaboration between the Gumala Aboriginal Corporation, Rio Tinto and Murdoch University. The research comprised a combination of paper and pen surveys, interviews, focus groups and meetings with elders. What we learned about researching in Indigenous contexts through these experiences is the focus of this paper. Building on Indigenous research methodologies, theories and ways of being and doing, we explore the need to be build trust and relationships, respect Indigenous protocols, understand what it means to be 'on country' and perhaps most importantly to learn to sit and listen. Based on our research and ...
Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II: Historical engagements and current enterprises
2012
Economic Histories In Chapter One, Christopher Lloyd takes up the challenge of the hybrid economy model, along with two other concepts applied in settler economic history: 'conquest' and 'production regimes'. Distinguishing between the hybrid economy model and the concept of hybridity more generally, Lloyd argues that hybridity needs to be part of a larger set of concepts if it is to carry the weight placed on it. It is a useful concept, but potentially overly general and misleading in its application. Not all examples of socioeconomic articulation, blending, merger and fusion are hybridisations. Moreover, generalising concepts of this kind need to be tempered by detailed descriptions of particular cases. A major difference between biological and social hybridity, he suggests, is that the former is of closely related species and subspecies, whereas the latter occurs between social forms of very different types. The essential point about social hybridity is that of combining elements from the 'parental' contributors in ways that produce new, emergent entities, processes and structures, and that these are viable-which is to say that they reproduce themselves through time. Hybrid forms are not simple articulations but have emergent properties. The utility of the concept of hybridity, Lloyd argues, depends on its implicit or explicit relations to a field of other concepts including 'conquest', 'articulation', 'fusion' and 'agency'. Lloyd traces the importance of processes of conquest in colonial history, for conquest and transformation were common features of settler colonies. Hybridity might be seen as a survival strategy on the part of Indigenous peoples, for hybrid forms had to be developed if local autonomy was to be maintained to some degree. Lloyd constructs a model of alternative historical pathways, from conquest or articulation to mestizoisation, hybridisation, creolisation and other outcomes. In the settler economies a variety of outcomes between settler and indigenous peoples resulted in the emergence of new production regimes of many kinds, The six chapters of the third section of this volume examine a range of Indigenous enterprises, past and present. They provide examples of economic structures in remote and semi-remote areas, which have had some success in linking Indigenous skills and values to the market and to government funding. Several of these chapters describe development alternatives for those living culturally and geographically beyond the mainstream, as discussed by Jon Altman. The section begins with a focus on art and craft. In Chapter 14, Paul Memmott begins with the challenge for remote Indigenous communities to generate economies that are embraced by the Indigenous communities themselves, are grounded in Aboriginal culture and social capital, and that reconcile viable enterprise with the motivation to participate voluntarily. Such motivation, he argues, can arise from the demand for and provision of services, and he takes the Myuma Group based in western Queensland as a model. This is a group of three interlinked Aboriginal corporations established by Indjalandji-Dhidhanu people, and based in Camooweal and Mount Isa. Like Thorley and Greenslade, Memmott gives attention to the personal qualities and relations behind the enterprise-namely, the background of members of the Saltmere family who have been instrumental in setting up the Myuma Group. One might argue that the Myuma Group represents an example of a hybrid economic structure embedded in the wider economy, for it has been supported by government funding, engages in the market economy across northern Australia, provides support for the local Indigenous community, and the Myuma Group's practice, Memmott writes, is based on a strong commitment to Aboriginal law and culture. It is an intercultural organisation with both Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in senior positions-an
2019
The successes and failures of interventions to close the disadvantage gap for remote Aboriginal communities have been well documented but the role of the non-Indigenous advisers tasked with carrying out those interventions has remained obscure. This study explores the development of the culture of non-Indigenous government staff living and working in remote Aboriginal settlements in Central Australia in the 1960s and early 1970s. Elements of Constructivist Grounded Theory Methodology and its methods were used to analyse interviews of a representative group of workers. Three core themes were identified: Confronting disconnectedness, Finding our own space within the institution, and We formed a new social framework. Further analysis led to a descriptive narrative that incorporated personal characteristics, social processes, reactions to ambiguous governance structures, and the creation of a new social structure. From this analysis, three propositions can be drawn: (1) Remote communities with an absence of governance structures attracted workers characterised by a preference for autonomy and self-organisation, workers who sought difference, meaning and adventure. (2) Remote Aboriginal settlements with inadequate governance structures resulted, paradoxically, in social connectedness being contingent on the ability to maintain and navigate distance from other people. (3) The stronger the governance structures, the more cohesive the group. This led to less need for external networking, which, in turn, lessened the likelihood that remote workers would be influenced by other external factors. The relationship between the strength of governance structures and the workers' personal characteristics determined how, and with whom, non-Indigenous workers formed meaningful connections. Conclusions: The ongoing heterarchical network-an unranked collective of absent, unclear or frequently changing hierarchies-that is ii
2008
Please find attached a brief submission to the Inquiry into developing Indigenous enterprises. The attached submission by Ms Kirrily Jordan and myself summarises some of the relevant research produced by the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) at the Australian National University. By way of background, CAEPR is a research centre that has been at ANU since 1990. Its role is to contribute to better outcomes for Indigenous Australians by engaging in constructive academic and public policy debates based on evidence-based and innovative research. It should be noted though that CAEPR does not adhere to any corporate view and so this submission focuses primarily on research that we have undertaken and has a particular geographic focus on remote Australia. It is our understanding that our colleague Dr Boyd Hunter will be making a separate submission to the Inquiry. This submission principally focuses on the first two of the terms of reference for Inquiry into developing Indigenous enterprises and especially the aim of the Inquiry to identify areas of Indigenous commercial advantage and strength. In particular, it highlights the emerging opportunities for Indigenous enterprise in natural resource management, including in the response to climate change. Appropriate action to identify and support these activities will provide benefit to Indigenous Australians through the development of Indigenous enterprise, including joint ventures, as well as combining culturally-informed commercial activity with the potential for much-needed financial return. In addition, it will have positive outcomes for environmental and ecological sustainability, not only for the 20 per cent of the Australian land mass that constitutes the Indigenous-owned estate, but also for the nation as a whole. Support for these activities is pressing not only in the face of continued Indigenous economic disadvantage, but also in the face of the ongoing threat to biodiversity and the critical need to respond to climate change.