Social enterprise as a model for developing Aboriginal lands

AbstractCommon property (communal land) is often viewed negatively with some claiming that communal land ownership and the absence of private property rights more generally have been insurmountable barriers to Indigenous enterprise. This paper provides a brief overview of common property resources and explores how Aboriginal common property is being used by some Aboriginal groups to develop social enterprises that provide benefits to remote communities, the environment and wider Australia. It notes that while some conservation and philanthropic organisations recognise this and have begun to work with and invest in these enterprises, government support often remains risk averse

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

The future of outstations/homelands

&nbsp; In October 2009 the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (ASSA) and the Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR) convened a workshop at the Australian National University in Canberra on Homelands/Outstations. Invited to the workshop were homeland/outstation residents, their resource agencies, peak Aboriginal organisations, social and physical scientists, educationalists, medical practitioners and bureaucrats. This report seeks to record the broad commentary from the workshop, over which there was consensus demonstrated in the unanimous endorsement of a final Communiqué. The aim of the workshop was to give voice to homeland/outstation residents in relation to their growing concerns about being excluded from policy development about their futures. Image: Yolngu Matha Bible translation team, davidfntau / flick

Caring for country: An overview of Aboriginal land management in the Top End of the Northern Territory

Aboriginal People in the tropical savannah of the Northern Territory (NT) own 170,000 square kilometers of land including 85% of the coastline. Land and sea country have great cultural, economic and social significance to Aboriginal people, underpinning their culture and society. Aboriginal landowners continue to be reliant on the natural environment for both spiritual and physical well-being. Creation ancestors form part of a living landscape and practices such as hunting, foraging, burning, caring for sacred sites and ceremony have an important place in contemporary Aboriginal life. These practices ensure the maintenance of spiritual, cultural and economic connections to land and sea. From a scientific perspective these lands are some of the most biologically diverse and intact in the Northern Territory (and Australia). They support important biological values including nationally and internationally significant wetlands, migratory seabird and shorebird habitats and marine turtle nesting sites, rare and threatened species and endemic species. Many of these values are either very poorly represented or not represented at all in the Northern Territory\u27s park system. Of the 23 bioregions represented in the Northern Territory, about one third occur predominantly on Aboriginal land. Owning and managing lands of such significance brings with it many diverse challenges. In the mid 1990s, to better meet these challenges, Aboriginal traditional landowners in the tropical savannah of the NT began to formalise their land and sea management activities through the establishment of the Caring for Country programme or what are commonly referred to as ranger groups. To date the Caring for Country programme has grown to include over 36 groups with up to 400 Aboriginal people employed in land and sea management. This seminar provides an overview of the Caring for Country Programme and examines how and why it works, as well as, what some of the challenges are that the programme faces. Please note: This seminar is available in both Streaming Audio and MP3 formats

‘Like a Rusty Nail, You Can Never Hold Us Blackfellas Down’; Cultural Resilience in the Southwest Gulf of Carpentaria

Even though their countries were violently invaded by settler colonisers in the 1870s, the Indigenous peoples of the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region maintained their social capital – their laws, cultures, knowledge, ceremonies and songs – to survive as distinct groups. Then when legal opportunities became available they regained ownership of some of their ancestral lands and then, over a period of 40 years, they slowly rebuilt their natural capital; their lands, waters and other natural resources. Using both their natural and social capital have they developed innovative community-based cultural and natural resource management initiatives to provide social, economic and environmental benefits to themselves and to the wider Australian community

Open Cut 2017 Catalogue

Please note that in the catalogue, Jacky Green provided the Art, Sean Kerins the Research and Text and Therese Ritchie the PhotographyThis item was commisioned by Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Researc

Why the Northern Territory Government needs to support Outstations/Homelands in the Aboriginal, Northern Territory and national interest

The development of a Northern Territory outstation/homelands policy which meets the needs and aspirations of a dynamic and highly mobile population is extremely important. It is a complex and difficult task, but one which provides an important opportunity for outstations/homelands to be viewed as an integral component of the Northern Territory Government’s vision for ‘a framework for a sustainable future where development takes place within a context of land and sea conservation’ as envisaged in the Northern Territory Parks and Conservation Masterplan 2005. An innovative outstation/homeland policy which solves the problem of government service delivery of Indigenous Australians’ citizenship entitlements -- so that it provides a choice for Indigenous Australians where they want to live and how they want to engage nationally and internationally in social, cultural and economic life -- is urgently needed.&nbsp

Change and Continuity: The North Australian Cultural Landscape

As a framework for chapters which follow, here we set out a contemporary vision for a sustainable north Australian society and economy that builds on recognition of key landscape characteristics and drivers, tens of thousands of years of Indigenous occupation, and contemporary patterns of settlement and land use. Today, we recognise that there are two coexistent cultural traditions which, from time to time and place to place, may intersect constructively to provide mutual benefit. We focus first on giving voice to ongoing connections to, and the fundamental importance of, maintaining law, culture, and country, and the aspirations of Indigenous people across the North. We then consider the processes which have fashioned the northern landscape as we know it today, including the prehistorical record spanning at least 60,000 years of continuous occupation. Finally, to set our scene, we undertake a brief description of key environmental, demographic, and tenure features of the North Australia region as addressed in this book