Travel with us to the remote community of Lockhart River and meet the people who are taking matters into their own hands when it comes to closing the gap.
Leah Warradoo wants only the best for her one-year-old daughter. The young mum sits under the shade of a fig tree at the Lockhart River family centre, letting the tropical heat wash over her as she watches her daughter Angejazayna - Ange for short - bounce around the playground with an infectious smile and relentless energy.
But Wednesday’s Closing the Gap report, showing the bipartisan strategy had met only two out of seven key targets, paints an uncertain future for Indigenous children like Ange.Lockhart River is nestled in a stunning corner of Australia, where the rainforest meets the sea. The landscape is an explosion of colours: red dirt roads, deep green forest and a vast blue sky that darkens with a sense of foreboding as the afternoon storms roll in during the wet season, from December to April.
This isolation lies at the heart of many challenges facing remote Indigenous communities such as Lockhart River, creating barriers for access, tourism, investment, jobs and career advancement opportunities. In the face of this, the local community is doing much off its own bat.“The social fabric of our community is our biggest challenge,” said Wayne Butcher, mayor of the Lockhart River Aboriginal Shire Council.
“They made us sit outside all day in the hot sun without a drink of water, anything. When we got in, they just yelled at us,” she recalled.The meeting was a catalyst for Ms Hagan to rethink what Mr Butcher calls the “paternalistic” government approach towards Indigenous communities. With this in mind, the foundation set up the Kuunchi Kakana Centre in 2016 as an early learning hub for children up to four years old. Five days a week, children and their carers learn life skills - from house work and personal hygiene to how to hold a pencil.Around eight in 10 local kids have attended the centre, which also screens children for hearing problems that would otherwise go unnoticed and lead to learning difficulties at school.
In 2014, the Indigenous-led organisation launched the Baby One Program, which has Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers doing home visits from pregnancy until a child is 1000 days old. Diabetes is “at the nexus” of many of the health issues in the community, leading to a prevalence of heart disease, lung disease and renal disease. The condition usually stems from lifestyle factors such as smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise.
Mental health is also a key concern, and too often, suicides send “huge shockwaves” through the community.“We haven't hit the nail on the head, but things are getting better. We just need to get away from election-cycle policy and we need to listen to what communities are saying,” he said. Most students will leave Lockhart to complete their secondary schooling at boarding school. For some, it’s the first time they will leave the community. From year 5, students start weekly lessons to prepare for the transition.
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