This is how we get it right

The smile on Davis Wirrpanda’s face says it all. He’s at the wheel of a huge haulage truck at the Gulkula Mine in Northeast Arnhem Land, writes MATT CUNNINGHAM.

THE smile on Davis Wirrpanda’s face says it all. He’s at the wheel of a huge haulage truck at the Gulkula Mine in Northeast Arnhem Land.

It’s one of several pieces of heavy machinery he’s learning to operate as the workers move overburden to a mined pit as part of the rehabilitation process.

Among those helping him to learn is Ramsay Gurruwiwi, who’s mastered the art of bauxite mining since he started working at the mine when it opened four years ago.

Davis and Ramsay are two of 72 Yolngu employed by the Gumatj Aboriginal Corporation in jobs across several businesses including the mine, a saw mill, nursery, cattle station, community store and cafe and a concrete batching plant.

If all goes to plan they’ll soon open a space base in partnership with NASA and Equatorial Launch Australia. Even without the Space Base, the Gumatj expect to be employing more than 100 Yolngu by the end of the year.

While stories about Aboriginal Affairs tend to be dominated by either the terrible or the trivial, this is a real story of hope. Of what’s possible if the right conditions exist for the real advancement of Aboriginal people.

There are many keys to the Gumatj’s success.

They’ve had the guidance of non-Indigenous partners whose priority has been the advancement of Aboriginal people, rather than the advancement of themselves.

But most importantly, they’ve had strong Aboriginal leadership. Leaders who long ago decided they would control their own future, not have it determined by others.

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In the turbulent days just after the announcement of the NT Intervention, Gumatj clan leader Galarrwuy Yunupingu quietly organised a meeting with Aboriginal Affairs Minister Mal Brough.

There they began the negotiations for a 99-year lease that would give the Gumatj the ability to develop their own land.

“We negotiated a lease that left me in charge of my land at my birthplace of Gunyangara – more in charge than I had ever been – while giving Canberra everything it wanted in terms of security and certainty. I supported his bans on drugs and kava, and promised him my support for the harsher parts of his plan if he could balance these measures with proper action,” Yunupingu wrote in 2009.

In 2017, after a decade of negotiation, that lease was signed. The mine is up and running, the Space Base could be next, and there are plans for a new marina at Gunyangara, with new homes built by Yolngu above one of this country’s most spectacular beaches.

This week the Gumatj opened a new school at Gunyangara. The Dhupuma-Barker school will be owned and run by the local community, in partnership with Sydney’s Barker College, cutting ties with the NT Education Department.

If we want an end to the malaise of welfare dependency, substance abuse and increasing incarceration, then some of the answers surely lie in a community determined to take control of its own affairs.

Still, the public debate around Aboriginal Affairs is dominated by things that seem of little consequence.

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The name of a brand of cheese, or whether the word Indigenous should have a capital “I”.

We argue at length over the merits of raising the age of criminal responsibility, yet few would be aware just one child under 12 has spent any time in detention in the NT in the past three years.

In Canberra, the challenges of the Northern Territory are all but ignored as those in positions of power bicker over whether the Voice to Parliament should be legislated or enshrined in the constitution.

Yet developing a participatory economy in Aboriginal communities - the thing most crucial to solving the problems of dysfunction - rarely gets a mention. As Yunupingu wrote about a visit to Canberra more than a decade ago: “There is all this talk about nothing. It is not connected to the real goings-on. Eventually I can’t stand it any longer. I get up and leave the talkers to their talking and go back to Arnhem Land.”

In many places, little has changed.

Most of the talk is still about nothing. But in a tiny corner of Northeast Arnhem Land there are signs of real and meaningful action. That’s been possible because it’s been driving by strong Aboriginal leadership.

As Yunupingu says: “No government, no politician, no journalist or TV man, no priest, no greenie, no well-meaning dreamer from the city is going to put your life right for you.”