Outstation (Aboriginal community)

An outstation, homeland or homeland community is a very small, often remote, permanent community of Aboriginal Australian people connected by kinship, on land that often, but not always, has social, cultural or economic significance to them, as traditional land. The outstation movement or homeland movement refers to the voluntary relocation of Aboriginal people from towns to these locations.

The outstation movement

A movement arose in the 1970s and continued through the 1980s which saw the creation of very small, remote settlements of Aboriginal people who relocated themselves from the towns and settlements where they had been settled by the government's policy of assimilation. It was "a move towards reclaiming autonomy and self-sufficiency".[1] Also known as "homelands", the term outstation was adopted as it "suggests a dependent relationship between the outstation and the main homestead, but with a degree of separation". Outstations were created by Aboriginal people who "sought... autonomy in deciding the meaning of their life independently of projects promoted by the state and market", and could be seen as a sign of remote Aboriginal Australians' attempt at self-determination.[2][3] Government support for outstations ebbed and flowed over time.[2]

During the 1970s and 1980s several groups moved from towns, missions and former Aboriginal reserves to smaller settlements on their traditional lands.[4]

1987 inquiry

On 14 May 1987, the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, chaired by Allen Blanchard, tabled its report on the inquiry into the Aboriginal homelands movement in Australia, entitled Return to country: the Aboriginal homelands movement in Australia. It defined homelands as "small decentralised communities of close kin established by the movement of Aboriginal people to land of social, cultural and economic significance to them".[5] It said that the definition of homelands should include:[6]

  • acknowledgement of the significance of Aboriginal peoples moving ƒback to traditional country
  • a clear distinction between homelands and settlements, missions or ƒreserves;
  • an acknowledgement of the traditional connection to the land and the ƒancestral spirits; and
  • a description of the permanency of homelands as traditional home ƒterritory.

Today

As described in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991, a range of problems faced Aboriginal peoples living in towns.[7] As of 2018, there are about 1,200 outstations in Australia, and seen as significant for the maintenance of culture, language and relationships, thus contributing to health and well-being.

Outstation communities include:

See also

References
  1. Lim, Lisa (2 February 2018). "Where did the word 'outstation' come from?". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. Myers, Fred; Peterson, Nicolas (January 2016). "1. The origins and history of outstations as Aboriginal life projects". In Peterson, Nicolas; Myers, Fred (eds.). Experiments in self-determination: Histories of the outstation movement in Australia (PDF). ANU Press. Monographs in Anthropology. ANU Press. p. 2. doi:10.22459/ESD.01.2016. ISBN 9781925022902. Retrieved 2 August 2020. (Book details here.)
  3. Peterson, Nicolas; Myers, Fred, eds. (January 2016). Experiments in self-determination: Histories of the outstation movement in Australia [blurb]. ANU Press. Monographs in Anthropology. ANU Press. doi:10.22459/ESD.01.2016. ISBN 9781925022902. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  4. Altman, Jon (26 May 2009). "No movement on the outstations". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 9 February 2018.
  5. Parliament of Australia. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs (March 1987). "Inquiry into the Aboriginal homelands movement in Australia". Parliament of Australia. Published online 12 June 2011. ISBN 0 644 06201 0. Retrieved 15 August 2020. PDF
  6. Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderSocial Justice Commissioner (23 December 2009). "Social Justice Report 2009". Australian Human Rights Commission. ISSN 1837-6436. Retrieved 15 August 2020. Whole book; Chapter 4: Sustaining Aboriginal homeland communities
  7. Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody
  • Morice RD, (1976), Woman dancing dreaming: Psychosocial benefits of the aboriginal outstation movement, Medical Journal of Australia, Dec 18-25 2(25-26):939-42
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