Aboriginal community fears loss of cultural connection as calls for upkeep go unanswered

ABC NEWS (Australia)

An Aboriginal community on the Murray River says it urgently needs help to fix its town. The former mission of Cummeragunja is in a state of disrepair and the local land council responsible for its upkeep doesn't have the funds for even basic repairs. Residents say they're being ignored by all levels of government and fear they'll lose their connection to the land if nothing is done.

Transcript

00:00On the New South Wales banks of the Murray, 25 minutes from Echucomoamma, lies Kamaragunja.

00:11This former Aboriginal mission is in an idyllic location, but beneath the surface lies a story

00:18of neglect.

00:24When I moved in, you know, and that's how it was.

00:26No guttering.

00:27Down the track, play a little bit.

00:28And we'll fix the place up.

00:30So nothing's done.

00:32So I didn't buy the plane, I'm not even paying electricity to keep the lights on.

00:35Coke Walker lives in a termite-infested home on the land of his ancestors.

00:40The study come going, it's just a joke.

00:42Since I've lived there, it seems to have gone worse.

00:45Like the housing, a lot of people can't get out their doors, the front doors.

00:51There are 24 houses for about 100 residents, but six of them are uninhabitable.

00:57Only five households pay rent.

01:00Others are simply too frustrated to continue paying.

01:03The village is just diabolical.

01:06It's up to the people themselves to basically look after their houses.

01:11The historic village is run by volunteers on the Kamaragunja Aboriginal Local Land Council.

01:18It earns about half a million dollars a year from grants, farming and rent.

01:23But repairs, insurance and administration costs eat it all up.

01:2690-year-old Yorta Yorta elder, Uncle Colin Walker, says he feels let down by laws which

01:38were designed to improve conditions.

01:40And I call it the land wrong out, because everything's gone wrong.

01:48This one here, Pastor Doug Nicholls.

01:51He travelled around Australia to different settlements and gave food, clothing, blankets.

02:00Aunty Nora Elsley's grandmother and mother grew up in Kamaragunja.

02:03She fears generations of sacred knowledge is being lost.

02:08Why not bring the school back to life and with a teacher in there to teach our children?

02:15Or our own, the language.

02:19Despite years of complaints and calls for better housing, residents and the local land council

02:24say they've been handballed between local, state and federal agencies, falling into what

02:30feels like a bureaucratic black hole.

02:32Both the New South Wales and federal governments refused to answer the ABC's questions about

02:38Kamaragunja's management.

02:39Federal and the New South Wales government have a responsibility to ensure that Kamaragunja

02:47is kept, is funded appropriately.

02:51When it rains heavy, we get a lot of flood here.

02:55I've asked to put a new gut in.

02:58Nothing's been done.

02:59But with a long history of resilience and self-determination, residents are refusing to

03:04give up.

03:05We will still fight for Kamaragunja because this is where we come from.

03:11This is our home.

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