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Aboriginal Housing Board of Victoria you are in: ahbv > homelessness report |
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2. INDIGENOUS HOMELESSNESS FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEConsidered in a broad historical perspective, ‘homelessness’ might be thought of as a spiritual issue of separation from home and family, rather than being without a permanent dwelling. Whole communities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been removed from their original homeland or experienced disruption of kinship relations. The cultural significance of ‘home’ in the sense of ‘homeland’ is not intuitively understood by other groups of Australians. The following comment by Professor Stanner attempts an explanation of this complex concept: No English words are good enough to give a sense of the links between an Aboriginal group and its homeland. Our word ‘home’, warm and suggestive though it is, does not match the Aboriginal word that may mean ‘camp’, ‘heart’, ‘country’, ‘everlasting home’, ‘totem place’, ‘life source’, ‘spirit centre’, and much else all in one. Our word ‘land’ is too sparse and meagre … The Aboriginal would speak of ‘earth’ and use the word in a richly symbolic way to mean his ‘shoulder’ or his ‘side’. To put our words ‘home’ and ‘land’ together into ‘homeland’ is a little better but not much. The first meaning of homelessness in this broader spiritual sense is not belonging to traditional lands. A second meaning is separation from family and kinship networks. This is a major issue for many Indigenous people who were a part of the ‘stolen generation’ and who became separated from their families and community. The third meaning of ‘spiritual’ homelessness is not really knowing about your Indigenous identity or what your place is in the community. The December 2000 workshop discussion recognised the importance of these spiritual issues, but considered that they were much bigger issues that did not specifically inform the debate about homelessness and inadequate housing. Subsequent consultation with a broader group affirmed the same position. Practical policy measures to improve the housing and support to Indigenous people in Victoria should not be delayed until the broader historical issues are satisfactorily resolved.
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