Productive jobs breathe life into desert outposts

With remote communities under the spotlight recently with threats of closures, one Pilbara group has shown that their programs in desert communities are saving the WA Government millions of dollars while getting Aboriginal people working and giving children a healthy path to follow.

A recent independent study by Social Ventures Australia found that the Martu people in the Western Desert have seen “transformative change” through ranger programs run by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa that get them working on country.

The study said: “Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa has demonstrated success where many other initiatives have failed, by improving the lives of Aboriginal Australians.” It found that KJ’s promoted activities have saved 41 years of Aboriginal incarceration over the last five years, saving the WA Government $3.7 million.

A further $4.2 million in savings in reduced crime costs were identified because of a reduction in drinking. Martu communities are dry, but bored young people can be enticed into towns such as Newman by alcohol. As one community leader stated: “Before KJ, young people were just wandering around the community.” A ranger’s family member suggests that young people “used to drink and drink and drink, and now they focus on their ranger work”.

The programs take young rangers out into remote country to do work like burning spinifex in traditional ways, managing feral animals and threatened species and cleaning waterholes. While out in country, they learn from their elders, who walked this desert country in a traditional life well into the 1960s. The last Martu couple left the desert in 1977, brought into Wiluna.

This environmental work is funded by a mix of Commonwealth, corporate and philanthropic funding. Over half of the organisation’s funds now come from non-government sources.

The study estimates that for every dollar spent on these programs, $3 of social benefit is returned. This is in addition to the environmental benefits that are the chief reason for the funding.

This is a sweet spot, where government and Martu priorities meet. Employment levels have grown every year since 2009. The key lesson from this study is that Martu want to do this type of work because it fits with their cultural values.

In the past year, KJ has paid more than $1.5 million in salaries to Martu staff, with more than 30 permanent workers and another 200 casuals. As one female ranger from Parnngurr said, this “work means that I can look after my family, look after my kids”.

It is clear that, with work they want to do, young people in these communities are now choosing participation over antisocial behaviour.

The programs have the support of the local magistrate: “The programs run by KJ Rangers in the various Martu communities have the potential to break cycles of bad health, regular interaction with the justice system leading to incarceration, dysfunction and trauma.”

The study also found that young workers’ confidence and pride had markedly increased through ranger work.

The chief executive of the Martu Trust told researchers: “KJ has given participants the confidence to interact with mainstream people and government. I’ve seen a great hunger in young people to improve relationships with those that they have to engage with.”

The ranger program is also good for Martu children. One teacher from Punmu School told the researchers: “Every single kid in my class wants to be a ranger.”

A junior ranger program is starting, in conjunction with community schools. It is hoped that this will help to focus children on education and boost school attendance. If children have a clear path to work while they’re still at school, if we can catch them early, then they will create their own, positive pathways for the future.

The WA Government recently announced that it was looking at closing up to 150 remote communities. This study shows that there is hope for a bright future in many remote communities. The same approach, building community participation through ranger work, is working in Wiluna.

The study identified the reasons behind KJ’s success. Chief among these was “the alignment between Martu interests and those of mainstream Australia”. It’s an approach that makes sense to Martu and works for government.

Since the end of the mining boom, there are fewer jobs in the remote eastern Pilbara. Aboriginal people want to keep living in their communities but they want to work. Our challenge is to find realistic ways that people in remote communities can earn money, delivering value to the State and to the communities, while staying on their country.

With the right approach, it’s working in Martu communities, delivering sustained value for all stakeholders. In these communities, Martu children can see a pathway to a healthy, engaged future that will give them the confidence to take up other employment opportunities.

Fred Chaney was Federal Aboriginal affairs minister in the Fraser government.