It's hard to explain in words how the policies of removal and dispersion are still being felt amongst by Aboriginal people. It's hard to explain to people who weren't part of the stolen generation the intergenerational effects it's had and is still having amongst Aboriginal people today.
It's frustrating when you see decisions about native title built on a continued connection to the land, when then connection was forcibly broken in most cases. It's crazy to see the way non-Aboriginal people, who are ignorant of Aboriginal history, language and culture, make policy decisions that just don't make any sense in the real world.
But there's also another story I want to tell. Aboriginal culture isn't just about dancing and art. It isn't about the stereotypes that non-Aboriginal people so often refer to, it's about what's happening now within our communities. It's something we all carry with us, it's something that happens when we interact with each other and it's something that's alive and based on what we do and say and share everyday. And it's this culture and community what makes the strongest base on which successful government policies should be built.
It's no wonder that so many indigenous policies developed by the government at a state and federal level fail - they are so far removed from the realities of the needs and concerns of indigenous people that they really don't have any chance of succeeding. Yet if I look around the community and look through my family, I can see dozens of cases where Aboriginal organisations are successfully delivering programs and support to Aboriginal people. If the current government really wants to make a difference, it should be going into the community and building on existing success.
Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Corporation Women' s Centre in Sydney is great example - it was launched in 1992, and continues through to today, providing support from everything from issues with housing and domestic violence through to leadership workshops and mentoring. All organized and delivered by Aboriginal women, for Aboriginal women. Another example is the Aboriginal Health Organisation which has been successfully delivering high quality health care and prevention campaigns all over the country, despite what you read in the papers.
The reason these organisations succeed is that they operate at a community level, and respond to the concerns and requirements of that community.
But it is a precarious existence. In recent times a raft of Aboriginal services have simply been closed down amid claims of poor management, leaving hundreds of people with no where to turn. If they slip up even a little Aboriginal community controlled organisations like Naamaroo Employment Services, and The Aboriginal Children's Service were simply closed, the Mac Silva Hostel was defunded. No community consultation, no attempt to change the management , or employ new staff, no will to recognize the good work that they were doing, and nothing to replace the services they were providing.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission dismantled and not replaced.
What is frustrating is the failure of both state and governments to recognize that good community programs grow out of communities. What's infuriating is the failure to recognize, by government and by the general media that it's Aboriginal people that invest the most time and energy into the Aboriginal community, and that projects are more likely to succeed if they use this good work as their base.
We succeed because when we're working for ourselves it's more than just a job, it's a commitment to the success of our kids and their kids. And we don't need or want hand outs - just the opportunity to manage our own lives and our own services.
Like the rest of Australia, we need our successes to be celebrated, and the opportunity to work through our failures as a community, rather than having them taken off our hands.
Bronwyn Penrith is a Sydney-based Indigenous community leader and director of Mudgin-Gal Aboriginal Corporation Women' s Centre.