Closing the Culture Gaps: Policies and Codesign in Remote Western Australia. A Long-Time Story of a Community-Based Kimberley Aboriginal Organisation

Date of Award

2024

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (College of Arts and Science)

Schools and Centres

Arts & Sciences

First Supervisor

Doctor Christine de Matos

Second Supervisor

Professor Patrick Sullivan

Third Supervisor

Doctor Janelle White

Abstract

This research is the result of a collaboration with the Kimberley Aboriginal Law and Cultural Centre (KALACC), a remote community-based Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation (ACCO) located in Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia. The research investigates the organisation’s strategies to overcome systemic barriers to support remote Aboriginal communities to achieve Closing the Gap (CTG) socioeconomic targets in improving education, employment, and health. KALACC believes that without culture at the centre of CTG strategies, the targets will not be achieved. The key question is how will diverse understandings of culture be achieved through codesign and engagement with Aboriginal people and their community-based organisations to achieve CTG’s socioeconomic targets? To address this question, the research adopted collaborative ethnography, Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), reflexivity and participating observations as its methods, guided by KALACC’s interpretative frameworks.

The research identified ‘culture gaps’ between KALACC, remote Aboriginal communities and the government. To close these gaps, codesign engagement led by KALACC affords a pathway for culture’s social values to inform CTG targets. The research identified challenges for the CTG National Agreement’s (2020) Priority Reforms in shared decision making and empowering and building partnerships with ACCOs, although there are synergies between government and ACCOs that can bridge these gaps. The significance of the research is that it expands on conceptual understandings of culture for CTG policies, and on ways that government engagement strategies can better support ACCOs. Lastly, it contributes to recognising the valuable role ACCOs can play in closing the gap, one that supports and advocates for the cultural strengths of marginalised remote Aboriginal communities in Australia.

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