Develop indigenous economy, says Marcia Langton
PUBLISHED: 12 DEC 2012 05:21:59 | UPDATED: 12 DEC 2012 05:44:30
ELENA DOUGLAS
Marcia Langton’s Boyer Lectures mark a turning point in indigenous economic history. In them, she presents both a portrait, and an argument.
The portrait depicts the economic, demographic and cultural shifts in Australia’s north, where indigenous people own 82 per cent of the land, with economic interests closely aligned with non-indigenous Australians in mining, cattle, and tourism.
The argument is for indigenous entrepreneurs, wealth creators and workers to be the centre of policy efforts to expand the reach of this economic renaissance.
Langton approaches the landscape of events moving from the epic to the personal and back, interrogates the historical record, and asks “why the economic life of Aboriginal people has come to mean mendicancy on the welfare state”.
She attacks opponents of Aboriginal economic interests, whether mining corporations past or present-day refusal by “romantics, leftists and worshippers of nature” to admit that “Aboriginal people, like other humans, have an economic life, are caught up in the transforming encounter with modernity and have economic rights”.
A cultural fault-line of 21st century Australia is thus laid bare with unmistakeable consequence.
Mabo and the Native Title Act are the pivot from conflict to negotiation between miners and Aborigines. Langton recounts the evolution of private-sector engagement in mining and energy, with its bold employment targets, on-the-job training, contracting and procurement totalling billions in recent years. Her comparative research project on Agreements, Treaties and Negotiated Settlements frames the story.
She tells of elders reinstating the work ethic and building a “diversified regional economy to free their members from the drudgery of poverty and indignity of welfare dependence”. She lauds their determination to solve problems and the alliances formed with experts to create the markets and institutions to build wealth.
There is nothing utopian in Langton’s reach. The change she describes as “radical but incremental, and with each success, more challenges to face”.
Her frustration with government is palpable. She trusts corporations and philanthropic bodies to proffer the best advice on the establishment of market systems.
Langton’s fear? That the stasis in indigenous policy will threaten the precious achievements of Aboriginal workers and business people. She calls for policy to move from protectionism to empowerment; incentives, tax reform and amendments to trusts unlocking the full potential of mining agreements.
Wealth creation becomes the central project for indigenous Australians. The conversion of assets into income streams presents heroic challenges, yet offers the most realistic prospects of “closing the gap”.
Last week at the Centre for Social Impact’s Indigenous Business and Enterprise Conference at UWA, Langton was electric in the company of the new generation of indigenous entrepreneurs, business advocates and advisers, driving this transformation.
The challenge is epic, but Langton’s Boyer lectures contain the ideas capable of inspiring the economic renewal of indigenous Australia. Don’t miss them.
Elena Douglas is convenor of the Centre for Social Impact, UWA Business School.
The Australian Financial Review
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