A candidate for the post of Chairperson, Erica Kyle, says that it is time for the island to get serious about local government, and to put self-determination on the agenda.
Palm Island has a long and bitter history of colonial oppression. The governmental practice of forced relocation of Aborigines to reserves like Palm Island from the 1890s to the1970s has often been compared to the ‘trail of tears,’ when members of U.S. tribes were marched from their homes to open the way for development of the eastern states. In Queensland, families were split up and sent to different reserves as wards of the state. In the 1970s, a policy change would see Palm Island becoming a ‘temporary training camp’ that would serve as a springboard for the assimilation of inmates into mainstream society. Only in the 1980s did the policies of self-management and self-determination become a guiding principle in the administration of Aboriginal Affairs.
Palm Island, often described as a prison by Aboriginal residents, has freedom and autonomy in its sights. The diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups from across the state have merged to form a new people, the Bwgolman, and they are taking control of their lives and communities.
Ms Kyle says that the next four years will be a learning phase for the Palm Island Council as it moves towards becoming a local council in its own right. “We want to be able to make our own decisions, set our own agendas and also work out what changes we need,” Ms Kyle said. “The way it’s going is very crippling to all of us in that community.”
Ian McIntosh is the senior editor at Cultural Survival.
