This flood has hit us hard but it has hit Indigenous communities even harder. As we scramble to rebuild, we need to make sure that vulnerable communities who were already struggling for equity are supported, because their needs and their stories are at risk of falling by the wayside when thousands are competing for scant housing resources.
Elders have lost their homes, and everything they have worked so bloody hard for. They’ve had more to push up against than most. Ingrained racism, government interventions, stolen children. They’ve had to fight hard to live on Country, and then in one climate catastrophe – it’s gone.
Many elders are also creators of beautiful and unique art. One woman told me the tragic story of the important lifetime of artwork her mum had lost. This was a woman who had already lost everything she owned twice before in fires. Another Aunty who previously lived alone has taken in 16 of her family. The entire community of Cabbage Tree has been displaced – that’s 190 people who have lost their homes and had their community separated.
I spoke to a friend yesterday and was just blown away by her story. She is a single mum of young children. She also cares for her mother. They were one of many families who lost everything in these floods. She is now living off Country with her family because she can’t see how she can stay here. With an unwell mother and small kids she needs permanent housing. She can’t live in a tent or a caravan. She needs a house with three or four bedrooms. And she needs something where she knows she isn’t going to get turfed out when the tourists come, or when she can’t pay the rent because the landlord has hiked it up $50 every six months. There is no place for a traditional owner to live on Country where she belongs. That is not just a loss for Indigenous communities – it is a loss for the whole community. We have a lot to learn about caring for Country from First Nations people. But they have to be able to live on Country – and so many cannot.
My friend who struggles to get a rental can afford a bit more rent than most. She has a professional job, and is someone who has a senior status in her organisation. But she’s a single mother and she’s a woman of colour; it’s never stated as a race issue, but for some reason she keeps getting knocked back. As an Aboriginal woman she has experienced subtle, and not so subtle, racism her whole life. Now things have just got a whole lot harder, so she’s had to leave.
Aboriginal people are over-represented in disasters. In this disaster, approximately 36,509 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been directly impacted by the NSW floods. That’s 6.2 per cent of their total population in NSW. Considering that they make up 3.3 per cent of NSW’s total population it’s clear they have almost double the numbers affected as that of the non-Aboriginal population. Mob are living in the floodplains, or in flood vulnerable areas.
The Conversation sums it up: ‘These disasters have exposed the consequences of a lack of planning and preparation in and with Aboriginal communities. They have also shown how entrenched inequality produces further vulnerabilities in times of crisis.’
Perhaps during this flood the broader community will have a sense of the grief that First Nations communities have experienced through colonisation. The ripple of sudden dispossession will be felt for years to come. But theirs also goes back for generations.
First Nations people should be able to live safely on Country. If they can’t, then it’s absolutely a race issue.
(A shout out to the Koori Mail, one of the extraordinary community organisations who have been leading Mob and the broader community through this disaster.)
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