ABC News Media articles - Djurin Republic Embassy & Refugee Camp

Andrew O'Connor ABC News 3 March 2015

Photo: People have set up camp on Heirisson Island to protest against plans to close remote communities.
(ABC News: Marcus Alborn)

An Indigenous protest against remote community closures in Western Australia has been dismissed by the state's Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier as premature.

Aboriginal activists have set up camp on Perth's Heirisson Island, creating what they describe as a "refugee camp" for Aboriginal people displaced by the Government's planned closure of up to 150 communities across WA.

Mr Collier said no specific communities had been targeted for closure, and the Government would work through an extensive consultation process before any decision was made.

"Frankly, at this stage, no decision has been made with regard to any of those communities and that's only logical," he said.

"The Federal Government removed the funding.

"It's a perfect time, as a Government, to look at the sustainability of all those communities."

The Federal Government, which funded about two-thirds of the state's remote Indigenous settlements, in September announced it was transitioning that responsibility to the State Government over the following two years.

Mr Collier said uncertainty for those communities was a direct result of that decision.

"I don't want that," Mr Collier said.

"I'm Aboriginal Affairs Minister, they are our original inhabitants.

"So we're going to do something that's going to be much more sustainable for those communities."

Mr Collier also assured Indigenous people they would never be denied access to any of the communities under review.

However, the protesters on Heirisson Island remain fearful of the impact of any closures.

The group has written a letter to the WA Governor, in response to the State Government's pronouncement last year that they would close up to 150 Aboriginal communities on the basis that they are not financially sustainable without the Federal funds.

The group, which said it represented the Noongar Nation, said the shutdown of regional towns and cities would create increased homelessness, higher arrest and incarceration rates, family breakdown, forced removal of children and suicide.

The group said it despaired at the prospect of what had been described as a "fast approaching humanitarian crisis" in affected Aboriginal communities across the state.

Mr Collier said any decision may be more than a year away and the Government, at this stage, was simply assessing the best options to ensuring communities were sustainable.

"I'm not going to make an assumption on anything," he said.

"We're talking at the moment on assumptions that certain communities will close.

"Personally, I've been to a number of these communities, some of them operate very, very effectively with very small numbers."

Andrew O'Connor ABC News (Melb) 5 March 2014

Photo: The Aboriginal activists have posted a sign and hoisted a flag on Heirisson Island.
(ABC News: Andrew O'Connor)

Aboriginal activists have set up what they describe as a refugee camp on Perth's Heirisson Island for displaced Indigenous people, as the State Government prepares to close some remote Indigenous communities.

In a letter to the WA Governor, the group said the move was in response to the State Government's planned closure of up to 150 Aboriginal communities, judged by the Government to be unsustainable.

The group, which said it represented the Nyoongar nation and calls itself the Djurin Republic Executive Council, said the camp was "... a place of retreat for all Aboriginal persons who have been and will be forcibly removed by the West Australian Government".

Last year, Premier Colin Barnett revealed plans to close between 100 and 150 of the 274 remote communities in WA, saying the State Government could no longer continue to service them.

The Commonwealth provided funding for about two thirds of the state's Aboriginal settlements with the WA Government funding the balance.

But the Commonwealth has withdrawn its funding, and is handing over responsibility to the State Government over the next two years.

At least a dozen people were at the protest site.

The Nyoongar group on Heirisson Island said the displacement of people from remote areas to regional towns and cities would create increased homelessness, higher arrest and incarceration rates, family breakdowns, forced removal of children and suicide.

No elders were available for interview at the camp when the ABC approached a number of people at a security point near the car park entrance.

The ABC was told they might make a statement on Tuesday.

Heirisson Island was the scene of a major confrontation between police and Aboriginal activists two years after a Nyoongar tent embassy was set up on the site.

Police moved on to the island in March 2012 after a protest lasting more than a month.