Homelands

A camp on Perth's Heirisson Island set up in response to the planned closure of remote Aboriginal communities has been granted a stay of execution, after the city extended the deadline on an order to tear it down.
The island camp, which lies just east of the city's CBD, was set up about 10 days ago.Campers had been told to remove the tents, couches, tables and chairs by 12pm Thursday, but the City of Perth has now extended that deadline to 12pm Friday. [node:read-more:link]

City of Perth chief executive Gary Stevenson said on Wednesday that the group seemed to be more of a political protest on broader state and federal issues, rather than on the needs of homeless. The campers had been given until midday on Thursday to leave, but that deadline has now been extended to noon on Friday. A City spokeswoman said the deadline did not mean the council would enforce anything at that time, but that the situation would be reassessed. Two articles and an audio report from Marianne Headland McKay. [node:read-more:link]

Past experiences of forced removal off country have proved disastrous. The result is more fringe dwellers, social problems, suicides and incarceration. Western Australia already has the highest rate of incarceration of Indigenous people, around 20 times the rate of non-Indigenous Australians. In fact Barnett hypocritically admitted that it “will cause great distress to Aboriginal people who will move, it will cause issues in regional towns as Aboriginal people move into them.” [node:read-more:link]

The Federal Government has struck a $100 million deal with Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and Victoria for the provision of basic services in remote Aboriginal communities. Under the deal, the states would take permanent responsibility to provide services like power, water and roads - areas the Commonwealth managed in the past. Nigel Scullion set up the deal but South Australian Government won't agree and the WA government said they agreed under great pressure. [node:read-more:link]

Gerry Georgatos The Stringer 13 May 2014 [node:read-more:link]

The First Nation Swan Valley community was closed down amid allegations of violence and abuse, but many residents want to return because they don't feel safe in government housing ... not to mention the cultural wealth and self determination value.

Gerry Georgatos The Stringer 18 March 2014 [node:read-more:link]