A recent Federal Parliamentary Inquiry looked at the matter of economic self-determination for First Nations Peoples in Australia. In making a submission to the Inquiry, ANTAR put forward recommendations on the structural reforms necessary for achieving meaningful economic self-determination for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
When we’re talking about economic self-determination, it’s important to ground the term in a larger discussion of what First Nations self-determination, more broadly, both means and looks like.
The essence of self-determination is about having the ability to exercise choice, participate fully in matters affecting one’s life and community, and maintain meaningful control over those matters. It is an inherent individual and collective right, recognised in international law, which cannot be divided or compartmentalised.
In this sense, it is more accurate to talk about economic development as a tool for self-determination or the economic dimension of genuine self-determination.
It is equally important to acknowledge that for many First Nations communities, the goal of economic self-determination is prosperity in ways that are not limited to strictly monetary or capitalist notions. Rather, economic self-determination should be understood in an expansive sense to include social, cultural, environmental, and economic success that is in accordance with a community or Nation’s laws and responsibilities to community, culture and Country.
Still, it remains the case that while traditional value systems of First Nations Peoples did not prioritise money, financial prosperity is now necessary to achieve many cultural, social, health and environmental goals, and the gap in financial prosperity between First Nations peoples and non-Indigenous peoples in Australia is stark. In Australia, First Nations Peoples experience significantly higher rates of poverty compared to non-Indigenous people, with research showing that severe financial stress affects half of the First Nations population, compared to one in ten in the broader Australian population.
In particular, legislative barriers and severe underfunding continue to create obstacles for First Nations Peoples, making it difficult for communities to utilise land-based assets for economic development. Did you know that banks won’t lend against land held under Native Title? This is because it’s not a transferable form of freehold title, meaning that the land can’t be transferred to the bank in the event that the loan is defaulted on. This is one example of many barriers which restrict First Nations communities from accessing capital or commercial loans, and undermines their attempts to close the resource gap between themselves and non-Indigenous Australians.
Genuine economic self-determination requires more than performative or symbolic actions from governments (including parliamentary Inquiries!).
Firstly, it is crucial to recognise that the root causes of economic disparity between First Nations and non-Indigenous people in Australia all stem from the imposition of the ongoing settler colonial project, which includes historical and ongoing land theft and dispossession, forced child removals, and the disproportionate criminalisation of First Nations Peoples. Governments acknowledging and addressing these root causes is an essential first step.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that the very solutions to the problems that the Federal Government aims to ‘solve’ through repeated inquiries and reports have in most cases already been given to them. Landmark processes such as the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families and the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody, among many others, have culminated in comprehensive reports and recommendations that continue to be ignored, or at best, only partially implemented.
In light of this, if the Federal Government – in seeking to effect socio-economic uplift for First Nations Peoples – wants to make genuine change, they would do well to begin by reflecting on and honouring the solutions that have long been articulated by First Nations Peoples. Deep listening should then be immediately followed by committing to the full implementation of recommendations through substantive structural reforms.
In our submission, ANTAR proposed three major structural reforms that we believe are necessary in order to facilitate meaningful economic self-determination for First Nations Peoples. They are as follows:
The Australian economy, following a colonial-capitalist model, was established in order to facilitate wealth accumulation for the settler colony (mostly in the form of land and resources). It did this based on stolen land and wages as well as the forced labour of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. In this way, it was and still is designed to uphold and serve the Western interests of British colonists, making it inherently discriminatory and exclusionary for First Nations Peoples.
Since colonisation, billions of dollars of profits have flowed from resources developed on or extracted from stolen First Nations Countries, with none of this benefit shared with the traditional custodians of these lands and waters. Consider, for example, the recent admission from the Victorian Minister for Water, the Hon Harriet Shing MP, that despite the Victorian Government receiving $83 billion in water revenue over the past decade, none of that wealth has been passed on to Traditional Owners.
While it is not a silver bullet to remedying this fact, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is an important tool that, if implemented properly, can be leveraged to make spaces and systems accessible and beneficial for First Nations People.
At least 11 of the 46 articles of UNDRIP articulate economic rights and give expression to the economic dimension of self-determination (in particular look at Articles 3-5 and 20-21).
By incorporating UNDRIP into Australian legislation and ensuring all laws and policies are consistent with its principles, the Government could begin to redress the imbalance of an economic system that systematically disadvantages First Nations Peoples.
ANTAR has long maintained that both national and state/territory-based treaty making is crucial for facilitating First Nations self-determination, including in its economic dimension. In our submission, we urged the Government to engage in formal treaty making at a national level that recognises First Nations sovereignty, includes reparations and compensation for past harms, and bridges the economic divide caused by dispossession.
We recommended the establishment of a national Self Determination Fund, using a similar model to the Fund set up by the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, to be funded by the Australian State and controlled and managed by First Nations Peoples. A fund like this would support First Nations Peoples to negotiate treaties on a more level playing field with the State, as well as ensure ongoing improvement of First Nations Peoples’ economic and social conditions.
Connection to traditional lands and waters, along with custodianship and authority over their use, is vital for First Nations self-determination and economic prosperity. For First Nations Peoples, caring for Country ensures it will care for them in return. Unfortunately, colonisation (itself ongoing) creates significant structural barriers to the ability of First Nations Peoples to make self-determining decisions about caring for Country.
Where there are opportunities for First Nations Peoples to hold legal rights to their land, they are often structurally constrained. For example, land held under Native Title can only be used for the purpose of “satisfying personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs” and cannot be used for commercial purposes. Furthermore, most First Nations individuals and communities are not adequately consulted when development decisions are being made concerning their lands and waters, and their right to grant or withhold consent for such decisions through the principle of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is often disregarded or ignored.
Ultimately, ANTAR maintains that genuine self-determination needs to be at the heart of any framework or model for First Nations economic development. First Nations Peoples and communities already have the solutions – it is the Government’s turn to listen and act.
For more detail, read ANTAR’s Submission: ‘Economic self-determination for First Nations Australians’.
