Setting the context

Introduction

There are two distinct groups of Indigenous Queenslanders: Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander people. The state is home to approximately 27 per cent of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. A total of 125,910 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people resided in Queensland in 2001, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2001Population and Housing Census data. This number comprised 3.5 per cent of the total Queensland population of 3,628,946.

Of the 125,910 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in Queensland in 2001, 31,208 (or 24.8 per cent) lived in urban areas, 22,995 (18.3 per cent) in larger regional areas, 41,318 (or 32.8 per cent) in smaller regional areas and 30,389 (24.1per cent) in remote and very remote communities.

This guide describes a range of processes that can be customised to meet the different engagement needs and expectations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these varied communities.

It is not within the scope of this resource to give adequate attention to the full extent and impact of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. However, for the purposes of engagement, it is important to recognise and acknowledge the effects of the extensive legislative controls imposed by the state on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from 1897 to 1974 and their impact on engagement practices.

History

Since European colonisation began in the 18th century, the experience of most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland, and throughout Australia, has been one of hardship. They were not granted full citizenship rights until 1967, and waited until 1972 for legislation enabling them to be paid equal wages. In Queensland this was rarely adhered to until 1986.

Throughout the period since colonisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have experienced systematic social, cultural, economic, legal and political discrimination including dislocation and dispossession from their traditional land and culture, loss of traditional languages, separation from children and families, disease, disproportionately high levels of abuse and violent or premature death. Key social and economic indicators demonstrate that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to be the most disadvantaged in our society. These experiences have had a significant negative impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s attitudes to, and relationships with, governments and wider society.

Since enactment of The Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897, there have been distinct phases in the history of policies relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Queensland.

Protection and segregation 1897 to 1965

The 1897 Act enabled government officials to make decisions and control the lives of Aboriginal people, based on the early belief that Aboriginal people were a dying race. Early legislation did not distinguish between those people who self-identified as Aboriginal and those people who self-identified as Torres Strait Islanders.

Val Donovan, a leading writer on Aboriginal history, gives an account of the life of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people under this legislative control:

Every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander over the age of about thirty would have a story to tell about ‘living under the Act’ in the State of Queensland. The stories reflect the comprehensiveness of government regulations, which controlled all aspects of the lives of the Indigenous people while ‘living under the Act’. (Donovan, 2002:175)

Assimilation

The period between 1965 and 1984 was marked by continued government management of most aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s lives, and resistance to provision of federal government social welfare benefits direct to individual recipients. The Aborigines Act and Torres Strait Islanders Amendment Act 1974 repealed earlier property management provisions and provided for fully elected local councils. However, government executive officers continued to manage the affairs of local councils until The Community Services Act (Aborigines) 1984 and The Community Services Act (Torres Strait Islanders) 1984 were introduced, granting local government powers to Community Councils. A process for paying award wages to reserve (and then community) employees was not implemented until 1986.

Enactment of The Aborigines’ and Torres Strait Islanders’ Affairs Act 1965 initiated a critical time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Office of Aboriginal and Island Affairs (DAIA), established in 1966, was responsible for enforcing the Act, which was designed to transition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to living in mainstream society. Under the 1965 legislation and local by-laws and regulations, reserves established their own Community Council, Aboriginal Court and police force. Despite this policy, the DAIA continued to maintain legislative guardianship over Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and thereby maintain strict control over their lives.

Another leading writer on Aboriginal history, Colin Tatz, tells of disadvantages for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living on settlements:

‘There was a “significant contrast between the policy hopes and aspirations and the very modest advance of the actual practice”. One area especially that remained the same was the Department’s guardianship of property, wages, estate. This guardianship put Aboriginals living on settlements or missions at a disadvantage compared with those who worked outside the community.’ (Tatz, cited in Donovan 2002:165)

Self-management and self-determination

It was not until 1975, when the federal government passed The Racial Discrimination Act 1975 that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experienced greater freedom from government control over their lives and communities. By this time calls for self-management and self-determination were beginning to be reflected in government policies.

Two other significant milestones for the advancement of the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were the:

 

• 1967 referendum when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people gained full citizenship rights
• 1993 High Court ‘Mabo’ decision which upheld the late Eddie Mabo’s claim for native title and abandoned the legal concept of ‘Terra Nullius’, or ‘empty land’ pronounced at the time of British colonisation in 1788. 

Partnerships since 2000

Queensland Government policy acknowledges the need to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. This policy supports the commitment made by the Council of Australian Governments that all Australian governments will develop policy based on partnerships and shared responsibility with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community governance

In Queensland, the governance of remote Aboriginal Deed of Grant in Trust (DOGIT) communities was until recently provided for under the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984, which established the 15 Aboriginal Councils of Cherbourg, Doomadgee, Hope Vale, Injinoo, Kowanyama, Lockhart River, Mapoon, Napranum, New Mapoon, Palm Island, Pormpuraaw, Umagico, Wujal Wujal, Yarrabah and Woorabinda.

On 20 October 2004, the Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004 was approved by parliament and converted the Aboriginal Community Councils into shire councils, enabling them to exercise powers and responsibilities similar to other shire councils. Existing restrictions, such as alcohol restrictions, will continue to be enforced by councils.

The Bill applies only to Aboriginal councils and excludes the 17 island councils created under virtually identical legislation, the Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984. The status of the island councils is to be reviewed shortly.

Aboriginal contact history

Dispossession from land

Settlers forcibly removed Aboriginal people from their traditional lands to allow for farming, grazing, mining and timber felling. Many Aboriginal people were killed or incarcerated during this period. The state government intervened and removed Aboriginal people from their homelands to missions and reserves. These church and government-run institutions prevented Aboriginal people from accessing their traditional lands, practising their culture, or interacting with the wider community.

In some places Aboriginal people were poisoned, shot, massacred, incarcerated or forcibly taken away. In other areas Aboriginal people were held in camps and used as underpaid labour: women worked as domestics and men worked as station hands. Without this supply of low-cost labour, the pastoral and cattle industries would not have achieved the growth experienced in this period.

Aboriginal people who were removed and forced into labour were not able to acquire a formal education or develop their own economic base. People were restricted from practising their customs at significant places and sacred sites. Separation from the land, coupled with oppressive legislative control, continues to have a major impact on contemporary Aboriginal society, including the capacity of people to mount successful native title claims and build secure economic futures.

Removal of children

Until the 1960s, all Aboriginal children to the age of 21were wards of the state. This meant the state could remove children from their parents without reason and place them in institutional care. Many children were sent to dormitories and were required to do hard, manual labour. These children were forced to stop practising their culture and speaking their traditional languages, and many suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse.

Controlled wages

Until 1972, successive Queensland governments controlled the labour, wages and savings, education and even personal relationships of most Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders. These controls, and the manner in which they were exercised, resulted in considerable distrust of government and damaged relationships between government workers and Aboriginal Queenslanders for many years.

Torres Strait Islander contact history

Although ships had passed through the area since 1606, contact between Europeans and Torres Strait Islander people was infrequent until the early 1830s. Before this date the few recorded instances of contact between ship crews and Torres Strait Islander people tell of violent clashes, but the extent to which these incidents are representative of contact experiences is unknown.

European exploitation of marine resources intensified from the 1830s. By 1872, around 3000 Torres Strait Islander people were working in the marine industry alongside 500 Pacific Islanders. The islands were officially annexed by Queensland in 1872. A major social and cultural impact began in 1871when teachers and evangelists from the London Missionary Society arrived in many communities. The introduction of Christianity in the Torres Strait is still marked on 1 July every year in celebrations known as the ‘Coming of the Light’.

Colonisation in the Torres Strait consisted of three phases:

1. Indirect rule: From 1879 to 1904, the government resident on Thursday Island appointed ‘head men’ on inhabited islands. Head men and appointed assistants were given police and magisterial powers, but were subordinate to the missionaries in their communities.
2. Paternalist exclusion: From 1904 to 1939, the state government controlled the island communities and declared reserves. Islanders were segregated, and most aspects of their personal, domestic and community affairs were controlled by the local protector. Christianity developed a strong influence in communities and this remains the case today.
3. Controlled integration: From 1940 to 1984, the policies and practices of paternalism and segregation were continued, but were adjusted to accommodate the labour needs of capitalist expansion.

Dispossession from land

Torres Strait Islander people, for the most part, were not forcibly removed from their lands. However, under The Aborigines’ and Torres Strait Islanders’ Affairs Act 1965 the government could remove individual Torres Strait Islander people as a form of punishment; in some circumstances people who were removed were not allowed to return to their island. Torres Strait Islander people experienced the impact of colonisation and government legislation with changes to their lifestyles, cultures, traditions and families.

Controlled wages

The state government controlled the wages of Torres Strait Islander people who worked in marine produce industries such as pearling and trochus fishing. Their wages were sent to the local protector.

Local councils

In 1939, the Queensland Government introduced more progressive legislation, following the 1936 maritime strike, which provided for elected local government councils, thereby allowing Torres Strait Islander people a greater role in the day-to-day running of their communities. In 1984, under the policy of self-management, the government introduced The Community Services (Torres Strait) Act 1984, which granted limited local government powers to community councils.

Engagement impacts of past policies and practices

As a result of the past practices and policies outlined above, many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have limited trust or confidence in government engagement processes. Cynicism, fear and, at times, disbelief that government is seeking the opinion of community members can all impact on engagement outcomes.

Owing to the nature of the historical contact between government officers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, particular effort needs to be made to enable genuine, inclusive and effective engagement.

A new era of Queensland Government engagement

The Council of Australian Governments has committed all Australian governments to a policy setting based on partnerships and shared responsibility with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In Queensland, the role of the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships has changed from direct service delivery towards policy development and coordination of government and community partnerships. As part of this process, other agencies have taken on the responsibility to serve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, as they serve other Queenslanders, through their core business.

The vision of the Queensland Government is for better lives and better futures for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders. The Queensland Government is leading a broad change agenda to improve community engagement across the state. The government’s agenda challenges agencies to assess the way they do business, and the way they develop policies, programs and services. Since 2000, a range of strategies have been developed by government agencies and communities working in partnership to create measurable, sustainable outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The diverse needs of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities means that priorities vary greatly, and there is an increasing need for government policies, programs and services to be tailored to local circumstances.

An emerging body of national and international evidence shows that better outcomes can be achieved through effective engagement of Indigenous communities in the design and delivery of solutions at local and regional levels. It is clear that dynamic relationships between government and communities are critical for responsive and effective government services.

In recent years the Queensland Government has increasingly worked with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through partnership and negotiation rather than simply through consultation. This approach is leading to the development of more effective mechanisms for negotiation and agreement and formal partnerships between the government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders.

The Queensland Government has embraced the partnership philosophy which has led to the development and implementation of key initiatives:

• Meeting Challenges, Making Choices (2002)
• Partnerships Queensland (2005).

All initiatives focus on engaging with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in a spirit of co-production through active partnerships that address issues of concern at the local level. Each initiative uses community action planning and negotiation tables as mechanisms to bring government, community and the business sector together for joint planning and service delivery, and to reduce bureaucracy between communities and decision makers. Good governance is critical to the success of these strategies and the Queensland Government has recognised this by enacting the Local Government (Community Government Areas) Act 2004 on 27 October 2004 and a new Community Governance Improvement Strategy. This Act came into effect on 1January 2005.

The Queensland Government also has an ongoing commitment to advance reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. As stated on the Queensland Government Reconciliation website, reconciliation acknowledges that:

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are the Traditional Owners of Australia
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures have unique relationships to the land, sea and waterways
• some past government policies that applied to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have led to present-day social problems for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• recognition of past injustices is essential in building a better future
• there is no place for racism or discrimination in Queensland.

In 2001, the government adopted the Reconciliation Action Plan that aims to reduce barriers to social and economic participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The plan also supports the Queensland Government’s commitment to address reconciliation under the Council of Australian Governments’ reconciliation framework.

Further information about the mechanisms and strategies being developed and implemented nationally, and across Queensland Government agencies, is in the following section of this publication. The Queensland Government reconciliation website, www.reconciliation.qld.gov.au, provides further information on reconciliation in Queensland.

Key Queensland Government Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander engagement strategies and initiatives

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can participate in, and benefit from, broad engagement strategies such as Community Cabinet, Ministerial Regional Community Forums, the Community Renewal Program, the Queensland Youth Charter, and online consultation through ConsultQld. In addition to these, specific programs have been developed to address the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Some key initiatives across government include:

Partnerships Queensland

Partnerships Queensland was developed to integrate major state government policies and programs into a single statewide framework to guide future initiatives affecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It signals a new way of doing business where there will be a greater emphasis on community engagement, improved governance, increased performance and accountability in service provision, and shared responsibility. This new business environment will be one of co-production where government and communities share responsibility for delivering outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.

For example, it extends community engagement mechanisms beyond the Meeting Challenges, Making Choices focus. Successful approaches such as negotiation tables will be expanded across the state to communities not in remote areas. Current mechanisms for engaging across government and with business will also be expanded, with a particular focus on developing partnerships to deliver solutions at the local level.

Partnerships Queensland gives the government the direction and focus it needs to deliver on its commitment to a better future for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Towards a Queensland Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ten Year Partnership 2000–2010

The ‘Ten Year Partnership’ is a statewide issues-based approach to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy in which the efforts of various agencies are linked to address the underlying social, cultural and economic issues that face Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

In consultation with the community, the government has identified key areas for action under the Ten Year Partnership and has proposed outcomes for each area. These areas are justice; family violence; reconciliation; economic development; community governance; service delivery; human services, and land, heritage and natural resources.

Some of the initiatives which commenced under this partnership include:

• chief executive officer subcommittee to oversee the Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Justice Agreement
• Queensland Government’s Reconciliation Action Plan
• Action Plan for the draft Safe and Strong Families Agreement to reduce family violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
• draft Looking After Country Together strategy to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s access to and management of land and sea country
• draft Queensland Indigenous Economic Development strategy to support business development
• legislative changes to transition Aboriginal community councils to local government status, coupled with a Community Governance Improvement strategy.

These initiatives have now been incorporated into Partnerships Queensland.

Meeting Challenges, Making Choices

In 2001, Justice Tony Fitzgerald carried out the Cape York Justice Study into the impact of abuse of alcohol and other substances on Cape York Peninsula communities. The Queensland Government responded to the uncompromising assessment with three months of community consultations seeking practical suggestions. The outcome, the Meeting Challenges, Making Choices strategy, is a strategy for government–community interaction and partnership development in 19 nominated mainland Indigenous communities.

The Meeting Challenges, Making Choices strategy includes targeted intervention, community development and public sector reform that address the causes and effects of alcohol and substance abuse and other key social, economic and environmental issues. Each community targeted under Meeting Challenges, Making Choices plans and negotiates the process and implementation of change at a local level.

Community Justice Groups provide advice to the courts, police and others within the community justice system. The groups also make recommendations to government on justice matters, help the community deal more effectively with social and justice issues, take action to prevent law and order problems, work closely with councils to put appropriate by-laws in place, and help councils make the community a more peaceful place. Under Meeting Challenges, Making Choices they were given the legislative backing to work with councils to rebuild communities from their traditional bases to create safer and better places and lasting change.

Negotiation tables

Meeting Challenges, Making Choices established the negotiation table mechanism to provide for more effective engagement between government and the state’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Negotiation tables are the key interface between communities and government to address priority issues within each community.

Negotiation tables are a sustained process of consultation, planning and negotiation between community leaders and senior public officials. State and federal government agencies, elected officials representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests, regional and local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations and community groups work together in a four-step process. This process involves evaluating existing plans, producing community development plans which identify needs, negotiating a government response and establishing a mutually agreed shared responsibility agreement and community action plan which clearly define the commitment of all participants.

Negotiation tables may be locally or regionally (cluster) oriented. A cluster negotiation table may be convened when a group of communities has identified a common issue and agreed there would be advantages in negotiating cross-community resolutions.

An important feature of negotiation tables is that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community representatives can directly influence government decision making. They promote diversity, flexibility and equality of opportunity for communities.

Negotiation tables are based on a partnership approach, the strength of which is the ability to bring multiple agencies to the table with community and representatives to:

• develop new ways of working together
• undertake mutual planning and goal setting
• develop community action plans
• be responsible for outcomes.

The government’s responsibility is to respond to the priorities identified by communities, negotiate cooperative and shared responsibilities, and harness resources to deliver its part of the agreed outcomes. Communities’ responsibilities are to identify and articulate priorities, work in partnership with the government, and share responsibility to achieve these goals.

Cape York Partnerships

The Cape York Partnerships strategy is a regional place management approach with a key focus on economic development as a means of breaking the cycle of welfare dependency in Cape York. As part of this initiative the Queensland Government has provided significant resources to the Cape York Partnerships Office and the Cape York Economic Development strategy to strengthen government, community and business sector partnerships.

One of the innovative outcomes from the Cape York Partnerships approach has been the formation in Cairns of the Cape York Strategy Unit within the Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships. The Cape York Strategy Unit, which supports and facilitates the process of negotiation tables, works closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander partners, government champions and individual Cape York communities. The Unit, which is staffed by Office for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships officers and interchange officers from other departments, enables a coordinated whole-of-government effort based on reciprocity and a shared sense of mutual obligation.

Government champions

Under the Meeting Challenges, Making Choices strategy, chief executive officers of state government departments have been appointed as government champions for specific communities to represent the government acting in partnership with communities.

The government champion initiative adopts a whole-of-government and holistic approach to opportunities and solutions within a participating community. The government champions pursue opportunities to join up the efforts and contributions of different state and federal government departments, elected officials representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interests, regional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations, and community groups. By appointing government champions the government aims to build a productive relationship with communities and ensure that government commitments are met.

Relationships are critical in the development of partnerships. However, it is the shared responsibility for outcomes and the delivery of those outcomes that sustain any partnership.