Economic Development and Participation for Remote Indigenous Communities: Best Practice, Evident Barriers, and Innovative Solutions in the Hybrid Economy

My presentation today focuses on remote Indigenous communities of which there are 1,200, with a total population of around 120,000 or 30% of the total estimated Indigenous population. These figures suggest an average community size of only 100—clearly there is a great deal of variation from tiny outstation and pastoral communities to relatively large remote townships that are growing quickly. Most of these communities are in what was called ‘colonial Australia’ by Charles Rowley in 1971. While they are often also termed ‘discrete’ Indigenous communities many of the larger also have non-Indigenous, but often temporary, residents. My reasons for focusing on these communities, mainly in the NT, WA, Qld and SA, are twofold. First, according to official statistics gathered by the ABS with an Indigenous identifier only since 1971, the socio-economic status of residents of these communities is the lowest of all Australians—a view that I will challenge below. Second, these are the contexts where the issue of economic development looms largest, something that was highlighted by the Miller Committee of Employment and Training in 1985