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The core business of ARDS is to provide quality community education services to Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory and the Kimberly region of Western Australia. Due to a lack of resources and trained personnel, we have only been able to undertake this work with the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land. As ARDS has stated on a number of occasions, Yolngu suffer from one of the highest death rates in Australia, they have lost almost all of their traditional economic enterprises to English-speaking Australians and they suffer extremely high levels of unemployment. They are losing control of their communities, substance abuse and suicides are on the rise, and education and training are failing. ARDS has been providing community education and community development services 'on-the-ground' for a long time now but we know we are going backwards - nearly all the indicators are getting worse. Just to cover the physical area requires us to work in five major communities and to visit some ninety homeland villages (see map of coverage area) - all in an area approximately a third the size of Victoria. Without a large team of dedicated staff members it is an impossible job. A radio service is the only way we can effectively deliver the information and community education necessary for the Yolngu people to regain control over their own lives. At present the contemporary media and education services are failing the people, mainly because they do not communicate in the language of the people, they do not work from the people's cultural knowledge base and they are not addressing the questions that the people themselves want answered Secondly, much of the education is aimed at individuals and not the community. This method 'loads up' the individual with 'training', only to send them back into their cultural group where they become strangers, different from their own people. At times the trained individuals challenge, sometimes by subtly undermining, the traditional leadership causing much stress, division and hopelessness within the community. This leaves the community broken, displaying many of the negative features that Aboriginal communities now display. The fate of the Western-educated and trained individuals and community leaders is failure - usually resulting in early deaths. This is not the way to develop any community but especially not indigenous communities. Any knowledge and information delivered to the people must be delivered to the whole cultural group so they learn and move forward together. This is what the Community Development Radio Service aims to do. Explanation of the aims and outcomes are outlined in the following documents. If you are able to help in any way, or you would like to discuss any part of the proposal, then please ring Dale or Richard in our Nhulunbuy Office on 08 8987 3910, or click on one of the following links for more info |
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