Centre for Independent Studies (Australia). [Miscellaneous Titles] ; (May 2007)
Contents
1. Introduction -- 2. Historical background -- 3. Demographic trends -- 4. Security and the law --5. Land rights and land councils -- 6. Property rights and communal enterprises -- 7. Joblessness, welfare dependence and income distribution -- 8. Education -- 9. Health and life expectancy -- 10. Housing -- 11. Local government --12. Hyperbole or reality? -- 13. A progress card report -- 14. Communities helping themselves -- 15. Way ahead for the "homelands"
Summary
"Some 90,000 of Australia's 500,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders live appallingly deprived lives in 'homelands' throughout remote Australia. Their health and housing are so abysmal that their life expectation is 20 years shorter than that of other Australians. Deprived of education, they cannot access jobs even in settlements near mines and tourist resorts, leading to welfare dependency and consequent family and social dysfunction. The 'homelands' were created with the best of intentions. However, they not only have failed to provide a living for Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, but they have stultified the development of traditional culture so that alcoholism and violence demean and destroy many lives. Lands of Shame analyses why the 'homelands' experiment has led to Third World living conditions in the midst of Australia's prosperity."
Analysis
Aboriginal Australians - Economic conditions
Aboriginal Australians - Land tenure
Aboriginal Australians - Social conditions
All Australian Indigenous Material
Australian Aboriginal studies
Political issues (Australia)
Torres Strait Islanders - Land tenure
Torres Strait Islanders - Economic conditions
Torres Strait Islanders - Social conditions
Notes
Includes index
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-199) and index
