Scotch College

Radio Station for Arnhem Land

In September 2000 I took long service leave and with my wife Louise and two children, headed across to Adelaide, then up the Oodnadatta Track through the Centre and up to the Top End to Darwin and Kakadu. However, for all of us the undoubted highlight was the two weeks we spent with the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, at Ramingining on the north central Arnhem Land coast and then as guests of the Laynhapuy Homelands Association at Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula.

Pictured: Louise, James and Isabel Officer with members of the Mildjingi family at Katji, North Central Arnham Land.

This is the same country that Yothu Yindi come from. It is also one of the last parts of Australia where Aboriginal people still have their law, ceremonies and spiritual life largely intact. For Louise and I this was the fulfilment of a long cherished ambition to go to Arnhem Land and meet the sons and daughters of the people who had meant so much to her father, the late Dr Donald Thomson O.B.E., D.Sc. (an Old Scotch Collegian - class of 1920).

Donald was one of the most distinguished scientists Australia has ever produced and among the first anthropologists to champion equal rights for Aboriginal people. His story was filmed as Thomson of Arnhem Land, screened on the ABC about two years ago.

Although we were only there for two weeks, we could not help noticing the conditions under which so many of the Yolngu live. Dental health is in an appalling state with nearly everyone, including very young children, having severe tooth decay caused by bad eating habits which, among a people whose metabolisms have evolved through thousands of years of eating "bushtucker", must lead to other health problems such as obesity and diabetes. Smoking rates amongst the adult population are also very high.

Of course these were only the things that we could see. The situation for Yolngu is much worse, as we found out when we met Richard Trudgen, author of Why Warriors Lie Down and Die and the head of ARDS in Arnhem Land (Aboriginal Resource and Development Services inc.), an organisation affiliated with the Northern Synod of the Uniting Church.

Richard told us that Yolngu suffer from one of the highest death rates in Australia from kidney failure, obesity, heart conditions. and other health problems caused by poor nutrition.

Pictured: Portait of Donald J Thomson by Dr Julian Smith.

In addition they suffer extremely high levels of unemployment, leading to other problems such as substance abuse and suicides. Many of these problems are exacerbated by the extreme isolation of some homeland communities and poor educational opportunities.

Why is this happening? The problem is that most community education in Arnhem Land is carried out in English. For most Yolngu people, English is their fifth language - with a completely different syntax and structure to their own. They don't always understand what the words mean or what the concepts behind them mean because they cannot relate them back to concepts in their own languages. The word bacteria is a good example. Many Yolngu know the word, how to say it and even how to spell it - but have no concept of what they are or what they do. They've never seen them through a microscope. Think about the health implications of that.

So what can be done to turn this situation around? ARDS is in the process of developing an AM radio station broadcasting entirely in Yolngu Matha (the "international language" of Arnhem Land) with the express purpose of providing community education services so that all Yolngu will have access to information and knowledge that the people desire in their own language from health issues to economic as well as international and Australian news services, current affairs etc, services that other Australians take for granted and accept as a right. ARDS is planning to have the station started by next February, however much money and equipment is still needed to set it up properly. The boys have already raised seven hundred dollars towards the project however any contributions towards it by other members of the wider Scotch community would be more than welcome, particularly if anyone who has worked or is working in the broadcasting industry has broadcasting equipment that is superfluous to current requirements but would still be suitable for this project.

My personal belief is that this represents an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution towards practical reconciliation with Aboriginal people, an opportunity to help bring closer a vision of dignity and autonomy for Aboriginal people first articulated by an Old Scotch Collegian some 65 years ago.

Anyone wishing for more information is welcome to contact me at john.officer@scotch.vic.edu.au or alternatively go to the ARDS website at www.ards.com.au

John Officer
Staff