# A Different Inequality

> Professor Austin-Broos examines the twin issues of cultural difference and inequality facing people who choose to retain their links with their own traditional land

7 September 2011 · Reviews / Books

Canonical: https://insights1.uca.org.au/articles/a-different-inequality/

**Diane Austin-Broos,** **Allen & Unwin, $29.99**

## From her experience of life among the Western Arrernte people inCentral Australiaand from the proposals of many anthropologists, ethnographers and economists, Professor Austin-Broos examines the twin issues of cultural difference and inequality facing people who choose to retain their links with their own traditional land.

## These “remotes” as they are termed, face separate issues from those of people in urbanised areas. Government responses have varied but inequity and disadvantage remain.

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The early establishment of “missions”, both government and church-sponsored, gathered different scattered communities into Aboriginal townships.

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In the last 50 years there has been a significant movement away from these centres to “outstations”. Recommendations to help meet the needs of these people have become polarised.

## On the one hand the economists tend to view the “problem” as a pathological one to be overcome by assimilation into the wider economic community.

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Noel Pearson identifies current problems in theCape Yorkarea: “demoralisation, substance abuse, illness and violence … burgeon in remote communities”.

## He is emphatic in his belief that Aboriginal people must be fully involved in the solution.

## In large, anthropologists, captivated by the study of various communities and their ties of kinship and community obligations, have overlooked issues of social justice.

## However Jon Altman sees a hybrid solution of customary income-producing activities, along with state patronage, towards ensuring national security in remoteAustralia, environmental protection, natural resource management and fire control.

## We tend to see issues from our dualistic ideas of the sacred as distinct from the secular. Many societies see this as a false dichotomy.

## The author goes close in her assessment: “ Moreover, remote elders often display knowledge, an aesthetic and a delicacy of spirit that shouts an ‘*other*’ history of human experience.”

## Professor Stanner got it right years ago in the title for his series of essays, *White Man Got No Dreaming*.

## You will recognise some of this “other” if you look on the internet for the comments of aUnitingChurchminister: “Statement from Dr Gawirrin Gumana AO”.

**John Atkinson**