Fighting for Aboriginal Self-Determination - Forty Years of Policy Conflict in the Kimberley (Episode 3)

This podcast is based on the research and personal experiences of Patrick Sullivan, a professor and senior fellow at the Nulungu Research Institute at the University of Notre Dame in Broome, and an honorary professor of the Crawford School for Public Policy at the Australian National University. It was created for the Nulungu Research Institute. Patrick was in conversation with Steve Kinnane a Mirriuwung man and a writer and researcher. Comments from local community members, government bodies and NGOs were sourced from the book Voices from the Frontline to be published in 2022. Comments were performed by local Kimberley Community members and recorded at Kullari Media Enterprises in Broome. Recordings of Kimberley meetings and ceremonial singing and dancing were donated by the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre. Podcast production costs were funded by the Australian Research Council. The podcast was produced recorded and edited by Alex Smee and Co-produced by Kate Golson. Thank you in particular to the Aboriginal people of Halls Creek and surrounding regions, who welcomed and assisted Patrick so warmly over many years, and also to the members of the Kimberly Land Council, the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Culture Centre and the Kimberly Language Resource Centre for their strength and good fellowship.Across Australia and throughout our colonial history, the space where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people meet white people has often been fraught and challenging. The self determination of Australia's First Nations people has been at the mercy of government policy, industry and the politics of the time. For the people of the Kimberley, in far north Western Australia, these influences have played no small part in determining the welfare of Aboriginal people and how they interact with mainstream Australia today. This series of conversations explores the legacy of government interventions and bureaucracy on Kimberley Aboriginal people, and the resilience that has grown from the struggle to protect their land and human rights.Podcast production costs were funded by the Australian Research Counci