Ideas@TheCentre
Community initiatives more effective
A while ago, in an attempt to install some order into my chaotic household, I followed some advice I had read in a parenting book. I asked my children what they thought would be suitable punishments for breaking household rules.
I was surprised at their responses, which were far more punitive than the punishments I would have given. The reason that the parenting book gave for involving children in rule making was that it is easier for kids to obey rules they had some part in making. This seems to apply equally well to Indigenous communities.
Tuesday’s ABC 7.30 Report reported on an Indigenous community that has improved school attendance and showed that communities can come up with ideas a lot harsher than ones government could impose.
The Aboriginal community of Hermannsburg, 130 kms west of Alice Springs, decided to close the two shops in town if they found too many kids truanting. Since 2007, attendance rates have risen from 50% to more than 80%.
But imagine if the government had tried the same approach. The outrage from Aboriginal welfare (or rights) organisations along the lines of ‘government makes community go hungry’ or ‘draconian measure to improve school attendance’ would be deafening.
Community involvement in rule making helps give communities a sense of empowerment and ownership of the problem. Local initiatives also have a better chance of success because local people know what buttons to push to get people to change their behaviour.
Besides closing the two shops in town if school attendance is low, use of the school bus by the football team to travel to matches is conditional upon a particular level of attendance during that week.
Hemmansburg is not the only Aboriginal community coming up with its own solutions to problems.
In Fitzroy Crossing, two local women introduced alcohol restrictions that are, in many cases, more restrictive than those introduced under the Northern Territory Intervention. Although they received some local opposition, there was not the public outcry by activists and do-gooders there was towards the Intervention.
Rather than trying to bring about reform through a centralised bureaucratic process, government should listen to and involve local people from Aboriginal communities with good ideas about how to improve things. As the examples above illustrate, their suggestions could be harsher and more effective than measures introduced any other way.
Sara Hudson is a Policy Analyst at the Centre for Independent Studies.
