Actor and activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks calls on NT and Federal Government to protect the future of outstations and homelands in the Territory
TERRITORIAN of the Year Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has called on the NT Government to not close remote communities.
Northern Territory
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TERRITORIAN of the Year Rosalie Kunoth-Monks has called on the NT Government to keep its promise to not close remote communities.
She said remote communities were at a critical juncture in their relationship with mainstream Australia.
Last Tuesday’s Federal Budget saw Treasurer Joe Hockey announce plans to hand over responsibility for essential services at remote communities to the Territory Government.
The proposal, if approved, could allow the NT Government to arbitrarily close remote communities, as has been proposed by Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett.
Despite Treasurer Dave Tollner’s reassurance that outstations and homelands will remain open, Ms Kunoth-Monks (pictured) said she didn’t trust the current government to keep its word.
READ: ROSALIE KUNOTH-MONKS CALLS FOR RECOGNITION OF SOVEREIGNTY
READ: COMMUNITY PROUD OF ROSALIE KUNOTH-MONKS
She said the widely criticised Stronger Futures program introduced by the Gillard government left her untrusting of both sides of politics.
Ms Kunoth-Monks, an Arrernte-Alyawarra elder who lives in the Utopia region, said eight years after the Federal Government’s 2007 intervention, many Aboriginal in remote communities remain untrusting of to government funding.
“The intervention came down with such force, with the police – and in many cases the army – called into peaceful communities,” she said.
Ms Kunoth-Monks, said the Barnett Government’s plans to close communities in Western Australia would spell disaster for those who lived there.
“Once tribal Aboriginals are removed from their land, they lose direction and meaning in their lives.” She has long been critical of government and bureaucratic interventions in remote communities.
“We have these sugar-coated politicians from Canberra and Darwin telling us how we should live our lives,” she said. “The key thing First Nations people in remote communities need to decide is cultural. We need to think about what parts of our culture to retain – what is the essence of being Aboriginal – and what we should adopt from the outside, so we can be global citizens.”
Originally published as Actor and activist Rosalie Kunoth-Monks calls on NT and Federal Government to protect the future of outstations and homelands in the Territory
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