” There could me a myriad of reasons why there is population growth – it could be naturally occurring or it could be people coming in from country areas, rural and remote, and/or other places within Australia.
We offer stuff to do with smoke cessation, alcohol and other drug use emotional and social well being, and general health checks.
It is an Aboriginal community controlled health organisation so it is being given direction by a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are from the region.
The DANILA DILBA organisation’s chair, Braiden Abala, isn’t sure what’s behind the population shift.
The clinic was commissioned by Danila Dilba, after Census data in 2011 revealed Aboriginal people had moved from Darwin’s city centre to the northern suburbs.
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MARK COLVIN: The Australian Bureau of Statistics is about to embark on a huge Census data collection mission in Indigenous communities across Northern Australia.
A key aim of the research is to capture more accurate statistics on the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban areas.
Sally Brooks compiled this report.
MALE SPEAKER: I’d just like to introduce James Parfit to do a welcome to country for Larrakia.
JAMES PARFIT: I’d first like to say welcome everyone and thank you all for coming and a big congratulations of the opening of this great new facility that will make our people healthy and strong again.
SALLY BROOKS: A new Aboriginal health clinic opened in a suburb outside Darwin today.
DANILA DILBA: We offer stuff to do with smoke cessation, alcohol and other drug use emotional and social well being, and general health checks. It is an Aboriginal community controlled health organisation so it is being given direction by a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are from the region.
SALLY BROOKS: The clinic was commissioned by Danila Dilba, after Census data in 2011 revealed Aboriginal people had moved from Darwin’s city centre to the northern suburbs.
The organisation’s chair, Braiden Abala, isn’t sure what’s behind the population shift.
BRAIDEN ABALA: There could me a myriad of reasons why there is population growth – it could be naturally occurring or it could be people coming in from country areas, rural and remote, and/or other places within Australia.
SALLY BROOKS: The trend is something Northern Australia Census director Tony Grubb thinks is being replicated in other jurisdictions.
TONY GRUBB: I think we are seeing that in a lot of our capital cities and even in our regional areas and we need to remember that 60 per cent of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are actually in urban environments.
SALLY BROOKS: Tony Grubb is about to oversee a huge five to six week mission to collect data from Indigenous communities across Northern Australia.
TONY GRUBB: From Darwin we actually manage all the remote teams for the NT, the Kimberlys, Cape York, Torres Strait, and in that we actually use about 65 teams of about 200 staff and whilst we are actually out in communities we employ up to 1,500 more people to actually help with that undertaking.
Actually, we like to say, you know, it’s the largest peace time logistical operation that the country does.
SALLY BROOKS: Many of the remote employees will help to collect data by interviewing people in their own language.
TONY GRUBB: In our remote areas, quite distinct to how we do mainstream Australia in terms of asking people to actually jump online or fill in a form, we will actually employ local facilitators and local interviewers and actually interview the population and that allows us to get across to meet some of those challenges of cultural differences and language.
SALLY BROOKS: Like with the health clinic opened in Darwin today, Tony Grubb thinks this Census data will be critical to informing how Governments allocate resources for Indigenous people in future.
TONY GRUBB: So in addition to being one of the drivers for the allocation of funding across states and territories it’s also used by all levels of Government for organising and planning for services such as housing, education, and transport, and infrastructure.
So, yeah very important Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
MARK COLVIN: Northern Australia Census director Tony Grubb ending that report by Sally Brooks.