Everything seems big here

Blogs don't have to be politically correct. Right? And what I think can be understood as the ramblings of a new bloke with sensory overload. OK...

I thought climate change and carbon policies were complex issues. They seem to be as sorted as Collingwood winning the grand final compared with the challenges in policy making and living here. Maybe it takes more than 3 days to figure out what is going on! But it seems that the too-hard-basket needs to be an industrial skip.

First up, we are really enjoying being here. We feel welcomed by the white community, have good accommodation, think that the work we do will be helpful and are loving the weather. With all of that, we're strugging to understand why things are like they are.

The Health Centre is a beautiful big and modern building with lots of skilled and experienced white staff. Until last week there were 3 Aboriginal health workers, but 2 of those have just resigned. Apart from the one remaining, there is an indigenous driver. Even the cleaning is done by a lovely couple from Taiwan. Such minimal direct employment and involvement by local people isn't what we expected. We had hoped that there would be indigenous workers to help us with communication challenges and cultural pitfalls.

There is a store, fruit shop, butcher, furniture shop, PO and variety shop, all run by white people. It's hard to see how the local employment rate can possibly be more than 5%. How can that be good? There do seem to be little positives though. Chris, a ranger, employs about 20 indigenous people. They are dealing with a terrible noxious weed, and he is working on various locally appropriate schemes for job creation.

As much as we try to push the 3 G's to the back of our thinking (grog, gambling and ganja - marijhuana), they keep influencing what we see. What should our role be when confronted by domestic violence? While this is a dry community, people can drive to a town 90km away, get drunk and drive back. Last night there was evidence of that. We have to lock our gate and keep the house locked, as it has just been repaired after a break in a while ago.

There is a very elaborate complex being built to enable secondary aged kids from surrounding areas to board while going to school. Seems like a good model - youth workers on staff, appropriate facilities and good proximity. While there has been a process of consultation, no-one knows if it will ever be embraced or even used. But it is an election promise, and needs to go ahead. To me this sums up a lot of what seems to happen here. It would be better to have local management, involvement and labour, but in the absence of that, better to do something than nothing.

With all that, there is optimism I think. However, the problems of 22 clan groups living together on land that is only country of one of those groups will continue to challenge the most caring and thoughtful policy makers.

We have just had the local festival. Even with a grant from Rio Tinto, the kids had to pay $10 for 60 seconds in e dogem cars. But it was lots of fun, and showed wonderful football and musical talent.

We're hoping that we can write a different story in the next couple of weeks. I'll write about health issues next time.