Redfern proves we must double our efforts to get policies right

No one has all the answers. But what we do recognise better today is that we need to be asking the right questions about what’s going wrong in Redfern and so many other Indigenous communities around Australia.

The maintenance of an Aboriginal cultural identity, which is so important to Aboriginal people’s sense of self worth, has to be accompanied by the skills and capacity to experience that same self worth when they are operating in the mainstream culture.

Over the last ten years of my continuing engagement with Aboriginal Australia, one of the most satisfying experiences has been working on the Indigenous education programs supported through the Graham “Polly” Farmer Foundation.

To watch young Aboriginal people from deprived circumstances progress through school to trades and university education, nurtured by community partnership, is to know that a better future is possible.

Or to monitor the work of Reconciliation Australia’s Dick Estens in Moree where his exceptional leadership in working with Aboriginal people to promote employment has started a process of transformation which is evident the moment you enter the town.

Last year, the scope of Indigenous policy review conducted at the federal level – including the ATSIC Review - gave interested people the opportunity to be frank, to open a new conversation around Indigenous affairs.

Without ignoring the urgency of the situation in Indigenous communities, nor the scope of the task, government, corporate Australia and the community are starting to show that they’re prepared to set aside ad hoc approaches of the past and engage seriously over the long term.

Engagement at many levels, education and employment included - that’s what it will take to build a healthy community in Redfern.

That’s what it will take to achieve reconciliation.

This maturing of the discussion has resulted in the Commonwealth Government being held more accountable to its own rhetoric on practical reconciliation. The big questions are being asked about how we can work together to get better results than we’ve got from Redfern.

We must not allow our despair over the tragic death of a young man, nor the reactions of those around him, to stop us from recognising that all over Australia people are working to come up with creative solutions to persistent problems.

Rather than throwing up our hands this week and saying that it’s all too hard, rather than allowing mean spirited commentators to blame the victim yet again, we need to redouble our efforts to get it right.

The pockets of success in reconciliation – the points of light – show us that it can be done. The challenge is to ensure that good intentions are translated into positive action.