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Dowling, Jodie; Hall, Deb --- "Remote Area Advocacy Project - Services for the Disadvantaged in Remote Areas" [2003] IndigLawB 66; (2003) 5(28) Indigenous Law Bulletin 16


Remote Area Advocacy Project – Services for the Disadvantaged in Remote Areas

by Jodie Dowling and Deb Hall

The Darwin Community Legal Service’s Aged & Disability Rights Team (‘ADRT’) has just completed a four-month project to build awareness of rights and service standards among aged and disabled people and their carers in two remote areas of the Northern Territory (‘NT’).

The ADRT advocates for people with disabilities and people who receive services under the Commonwealth’s Aged Care Act (1997). The Aged Care Act clearly sets out the rights and responsibilities of care recipients in both residential and community care. The NT Government has set out Disability Service Standards that in many respects parallel the ones set out by the Aged Care Act and include such things as being informed about the care you receive, respect for and opportunities to know and practise your culture and access to an advocate.

The ADRT’s region is the Top End of the NT but its funding doesn’t allow a consistent physical presence in many of the remote Indigenous communities. The intention of the Remote Area Advocacy Project (‘RAAP’) was to pool the one-off money available from its three funding bodies (the Department of Health and Ageing, Family and Community Services and the NT Department of Health and Community Services) to provide long-term benefit to remote area communities.

The three Indigenous communities of Wadeye and Angurugu and Umbakumba on Groote Eylandt agreed to participate in the RAAP. Wadeye is a community of approximately 1400 people about 136 nautical miles south west of Darwin. The population of Angurugu is approximately 750 and the population of Umbakumba approximately 350.

From the outset the team looked for connections with the communities. The Top End Women’s Legal Service (‘TEWLS’) provided invaluable advice and support in this respect. Lawyers from TEWLS visit these communities when court is sitting and employ respected community members as Aboriginal Women Legal Workers on each visit. These women are trained by TEWLS and are often also accredited interpreters. The RAAP was able to pay these women to help introduce the workers to key community contacts and to interpret as the need arose.

The workshops used the teaching aids developed by the Willowra Women's Centre in Central Australia as graphic points of discussion.[1] These aids show scenes from community life with a special emphasis on the inclusion and integration of the aged and disabled into community life. People at the Wadeye consultation barbecue related to them at once and used them to talk about their personal situations. The issues raised by the group were written up on a piece of calico spread out at the meeting. The discussion then moved on to the information on the calico and how these points related to the Standards and what could be done to address issues.

Participants at the workshop and the RAAP team emphasised group advocacy as an effective mechanism to address group concerns. People who’d been at the workshop used the team’s next visit to further discuss and resolve their need to visit relatives at outstations. Another practical effect of the awareness raising and relationship building was the Centrelink workers’ offer to community members to use the telephone in the Centrelink office to phone ADRT. Most Indigenous people in remote communities must rely on the community phone, usually in a public area such as the shop. The Centrelink phone will be private.

The team will do a concluding visit to each place to deliver a report on the RAAP, copies of photographs and a big print, plain-English poster of the Aged Care Community Care Standards and Disability Service Standards.

This project adhered to and benefited from a number of important principles in working with Indigenous people such as:

People in these three communities now know more about their rights and service Standards and the ADRT has established some strong foundations for community-based advocacy education.

For more information about the project please contact either Jodie Dowling or Deb Hall at Darwin Community Legal Service’s ADRT. Phone 08 8982 1111, email to info@dcls.org.au or visit the DCLS website www.dcls.org.au

Jodie Dowling (Indigenous Advocate) and Deb Hall (Senior Advocate) are part of the Darwin Community Legal Service’s Aged & Disability Rights Team.


[1] A Good Life for Old and Disabled People produced by Willowra Women’s Centre 1999.


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