Working
Papers are available free to mailing list subscribers for 24 hours.
After this time most papers are available for .90c plus GST. This is
the minimum price to ensure the maintenance of the working papers
website. Members of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
community, students and pensioners who would like a copy of a
particular paper need only email their request to pbotsman@bigpond.com"It’s a simple story about spell bounding wealth of tens of billions of
dollars and thousands of jobs. But what makes the Browse gas
development such a compelling proposal to sell is that there is
apparent Aboriginal support.
Traditional Owner "in principle"
support for the construction of the proposed processing plant at James
Price Point will result, we have been told, in increased government
investment for health, education, housing and other citizenship
entitlements; the Closing of the Gap.
And we are assured it will
mean that young Aboriginal people have a chance to grow up knowing that
they have an economic future because a so called "real economy" will
have been created. Not just a narrow economic base reliant on tourism,
pearling and government administration.
Like me, I am sure many
of you here do not find this argument convincing. Where in the world
has large scale industrial development ever benefited Indigenous
societies? World history tells us that that economic development on a
grand scale leaves Indigenous people more marginalised as their
environment is taken over by waves of settlers from the dominant
society.
Many Kimberley people I know look to the Pilbara’s
historical experience and imagine a fearful future in this region for
their children and grandchildren. The Pilbara has been a huge source of
Australia’s national wealth over the past five decades but while people
in Perth and other places have benefited from iron ore and gas
development the Traditional Owners of that region have been devastated,
both socially and economically. "
Howard Pederson works for the Kimberley Institute.
This paper was delivered as the Barrgana Lecture at Notre Dame University, Broome, on July 2, 2009.
 |
 |
