Yarrabah in about 30 miles by road from Cairns and situated on Cape Grafton. It is an Aboriginal Community and in the 2006 Census there was a population of 2,371. The Yarrabah area was originally inhabited by the Gungganydji people.
Description: Gable-roofed church with mud floors at the Yarrabah Mission in Queensland.
What happened? The Anglican Church happened! Earnest Gribble set up a mission and through lies and deceit he managed to convince the people to move there around 1893.
In 1957, the Yarrabah residents staged a strike to protest poor working conditions, inadequate food, health problems and harsh administration. The church expelled the ringleaders and many others left voluntarily, never to return.Excerpt from Courier Mail 22 May 1908Aboriginal Marriages.If marriages were regulated in the general community as they are in the Yarrabah Mission Settlement there would, perhaps be fewer people ready to declare that marriage is a failure.
From the “Aboriginal News”, a paper published monthly in connection with the mission. We learn that "a new rule has just been passed by the court which deals with marriage.
Persons wishing to marry, and having obtained the consent of the head of the mission, must, after banns have been published, produce for the court a written report as to conduct and character, from the persons under whom they have lived and worked for the last three months.
The court will also decide whether the persons have been doing a fair share in the daily work of the mission."
A few years later, the Government of Queensland assumed control of the mission. In 1965, an advisory council was set up which allowed Aboriginals to give "advice" to the Department of Aborigines, but it had no actual power and the government continued to control all aspects of the people's lives.
In 1979, several community members joined a union but were stood down.
Eventually, on 27 October 1986, the community received Deed of Grant in Trust land tenure, making it subject to the Community Services (Aborigines) Act 1984, which allowed for self-governing Aboriginal Community Councils with a range of powers and controls over the land. With the passage of reforms in 2005, the Council became an "Aboriginal Shire" and gained the authority of a legal local government.
On 23 July 2007, Yarrabah hosted the Cabinet of the Queensland Government in the first ever Cabinet meeting to be held in an indigenous Australian community.
On 1 October 2007, the Howard Coalition Government chose Yarrabah as the first recipient of what was said to be a 'landmark housing and welfare reform agreement'
This is called a DOGIT = Deed of Grant in Trust.
What is a DOGIT besides Dodgy.. Nothing its all dodgy. There is too much room for corruption by one brother against another brother. Money has a strange way of doing this to people. The elections are dodgy and everyone says its rigged. So that constitutes dodgy to me. The other question I would ask is where are those Anglicans? The church expelled the ringleaders and many others left voluntarily, never to return.
This is the Government using a corrupt system as an example of how other corrupt systems are going to be metered out. I wonder how Yarrabah stands with the "Stronger Futures Legislation"?
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrabah,_Queensland
Image by Happytribe
2 comments:
I visited Yarrabah last year and it gave me the impression that "reserve" in Australia is more like a ghetto than a land where the ancient customs are respected and aboriginals can live according to their own ruling.
Unfortunately, my stay in Australia was too short to dig into it.
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