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5. Inhibiting factors


5.1 Overview

This section describes the main factors that were identified by Strategy projects as inhibiting their progress. They are:

Each will be considered in this section.

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5.2 Unsupportive social environment

In reflecting on what has and what has not been achieved by Indigenous projects, it is important to take account of the context within which these projects seek to make a difference. Many exist in social environments that are not conducive to smooth and easy project implementation. An appreciation that not all projects have the same starting point provides insight into why it is that many Indigenous projects are yet to produce outcomes commensurate with the higher levels of the outcomes hierarchy.

The literature suggests that the social conditions experienced by communities under stress typically include low levels of trust, high levels of anxiety, low levels of social control, high vigilance, low efficacy, disorganisation, unpredictability, and high and frequent mobility.

[I]ndividuals in socially disadvantaged situations are exposed to more psychosocial stressors (adverse life events) than those in more advantaged environments. These stressors act as triggers for the onset of symptoms and the loss of the individual psychological abilities necessary for social functioning … The psychosocial pathways to the development of mental disorders include higher levels of life events, anomie, learned helplessness, thwarted aspirations, low self esteem and less security … (Cullen & Whiteford 2001, p. 21)

Chronic stress and anxiety is known to be closely associated with feelings of vulnerability. Cullen and Whiteford (2001, p. 39) refer to the psychological pressures associated with low social status, specifically 'perceptions of indignity, inferiority, and a lack of control'. Common consequential behavioural patterns include high risk behaviours such as substance abuse, smoking and unsafe sexual practices (2001, p. 39).

Aggressive behaviour and violence, including internalised violence, are also common psychological responses among minority groups that have been subjected to trauma, poverty, marginalisation and prejudice. The consequences of separation of children from their families, for example, are known to include a sense of deprivation arising from the lack of a loving childhood, loss of cultural training, a lack of bonding and mentoring, an inability to develop parenting skills, identity issues, an inability to sustain intimate relationships, lack of life skills, substance abuse, mood swings, grief and anguish, and self harm.

Such behaviour patterns are the markers of social distress right throughout the world, including Indigenous Australia.

In a setting of unremitting deprivation, adaptive potential is compromised with the orientation increasingly towards the short term, a day-to-day existence. Such activities as gambling and drinking are powerfully reinforced among a group with little to lose. (Hunter 1993, p. 239)

Opinions differ as to the extent to which alcohol misuse is a cause of violence and other social dysfunction in Indigenous communities. But at the very least, alcohol misuse certainly does contribute to a loss of control and responsibility.

Many Indigenous communities also lack social cohesion. The literature indicates that divided communities are not able to maintain effective control over dysfunctional forms of social behaviour or to define and realise whatever common values their residents might possess (Cullen & Whiteford 2001, p. 23). Social pathologies such as substance abuse, violence, and the abuse of women and children are all symptoms of such communities. Furthermore these social pathologies have generally been found to interact with each other and with underlying causal factors such as poverty and dependence, thereby intensifying the detrimental effect on individual behaviour and family and community wellbeing (Desjarlais et al. 1995, pp. 6–7).

National and international research suggests that where a person is exposed simultaneously to many risk factors the damage caused by each is compounded. The effects are seen in later life, in ill-health, behavioural problems and continuing disadvantage … Many Indigenous children are experiencing multiple risk factors, and are growing up in multi-generational households where intergenerational welfare dependence and poverty have become entrenched. (Daly & Smith 2003, p. 14)

The three Indigenous case studies in this evaluation revealed the extent to which Indigenous projects can be disadvantaged by their starting point on the climb up the ladder that leads to stronger families and communities. All three projects had to travel far and carry a heavy load due to both the magnitude of their disadvantage and the general absence of any other complementary interventions. There were major gaps in existing family and community services and also access issues. The case study of the integrated family strengthening project discussed the dearth of mainstream family and community services in the region and its adverse impact. Even in urban environments, Indigenous people may be reluctant to access family and community services due to issues of cultural security.

The occurrence of traumatic events within the wider Indigenous community often disrupted Strategy-funded project activities. In one instance a project worker was murdered and some activities were delayed for several months as a result. A tragic house fire in another community meant that work on the project ceased for several weeks.

In addition to generally high levels of stress and anxiety, a high incidence of alcohol abuse and violence, frequent trauma, a lack of social cohesion, and the absence of many mainstream family and community service providers, there may also be other factors at play that also make it more likely that an Indigenous project will not be able to match the achievements of a similar scale mainstream activity. Contextual differences in the Indigenous project may include:

The prevailing social context affecting many Indigenous projects and the time required to build trusting relationships in such environments are factors that need to be carefully considered in any assessment of the appropriate scale, duration and resource requirements of a project. Furthermore, most Indigenous families and communities have multiple needs and require intensive ongoing support. Recognising all of this serves to temper expectations as to what Indigenous projects might realistically achieve.

With the benefit of hindsight it appears that some may have been overly ambitious. As one project staff member commented:

[We] are still juggling the constraints of having stated what the project will do with the reality of where we are. We are having to run before we can crawl or even more before we have got a footing. Given all this—how do we adjust our action plans and work goals? (Project Progress Report)

All of the available evidence suggests that in order to strengthen Indigenous families and communities, a substantial and sustained long-term commitment to building social capital is ordinarily required.

Regardless of the level of intervention, the process of developing social capital takes a long time. Consequently, investing in social capital should be seen from a life-course approach, for investments now may not only benefit this generation, but also the next. Similarly, current dis-investment may not have parallel long-term effects. It has been posited that interventions that target various dimensions of social capital simultaneously may be more effective. This would entail intervening across multiple levels, including macro-social policy reform while also increasing access to external resources and power. (Cullen & Whiteford 2001, p. 13)

There is no good reason to expect that outcomes, such as improved parenting or a reduced incidence of child abuse and neglect, could be achieved in the short to medium term in Indigenous contexts. There is a tension between the bold long-term ambition of building stronger Indigenous families and communities and the relatively short-term nature of most Strategy interventions. Within Indigenous affairs and within the broader field of community development there has long been discussion about the value of short-term funding and one-off interventions that are not sustained.

The risk is that expectations are built and then projects fold because no source of ongoing funding is identified. The Western Australian Government's Gordon Inquiry (Gordon, Hallahan & Henry 2002) was most critical in this regard. Does such funding do more harm than good?

Programs may be effective but unsuccessful in gaining ongoing funding and so can damage communities. We have seen too many examples of programs which draw heavily upon the social capital in a community—that precious reservoir of hope and goodwill, and where people invest energy and hope only to have the program collapse after a year or two for lack of funds. These programs drain the social capital from vulnerable communities. Thus it is essential that before the program begins there is a viable strategy for its sustainability in place. (Scott 2002, p. 9)

The prevailing social circumstances within which many Indigenous families and communities are located are difficult. These need to be carefully considered at the project design stage if project objectives are to be realistic and achievable.

Intervention with families who demonstrate serious dysfunction requires long term and intensive therapeutic services. (Gordon, Hallahan & Henry 2002, p. 80)


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5.3 A complex and 'wicked' problem

'Wicked' problems are those that are:

Such problems challenge the understandings of both practitioners and policy makers about how best to respond because knowledge about what works is often so limited.

Solving the puzzle of how to strengthen Indigenous families and communities is complex work. The underlying causes of dysfunction are not always well understood, the problems deeply entrenched, and the solutions often uncertain.

Daly and Smith argue that the situation in many Indigenous families and communities is now so serious that the capacity of Indigenous society to reproduce desired cultural values and relationships is under serious threat.

From our work in communities with families and households, it appears that Indigenous forms of family, social and cultural capital are under enormous pressure as a result of poverty and exclusion from the economic mainstream. The problem is compounded by the age structure of the Indigenous population, which is youthful and rapidly expanding. For example, female and aged family members are vulnerable to excessive demands on their incomes … culturally-based networks of social and cultural capital are being distorted and undermined by the extent of 'whole-of-community' welfare dependence, the erratic flows of cash, and the unrestrained and sometimes physically intimidating demands by some family members for cash and resources … (Daly & Smith 2003, p. 16)

This kind of Indigenous family and community dysfunction constitutes what policy analysts term a 'wicked' problem (Rittel & Webber 1973).

Prevailing circumstances for Indigenous people in one community, as described in one Progress Report, spotlight the sheer multiplicity of hurdles to be overcome.

The community is very impoverished. Across the surviving three-four generations there is a huge loss of cultural knowledge and identity and a breakdown of traditional social structures. There are generally low to very low levels of literacy and numeracy skills, poor school attendance/completion to year 10, high levels of unemployment that in some families includes up to three generations of no one having a job, poverty, high levels of juvenile crime and incarceration, learned welfare dependency, high levels of drug and alcohol abuse and family violence. There are limited community services and no public transport ... There is intense conflict between families in relation to a land claim. Each of the Aboriginal services tends to be dominated by one family and there is a common perception that whatever family dominates the service will only make decisions that are favourable or advantageous to their own family making access to the service difficult for other families … At every meeting the issue about the land claim has been raised but we have managed to agree to put it aside and focus on family matters however we believe that some women will not attend because they want to avoid any situation that may lead to conflict. (Project Progress Report)

The list of causal factors commonly identified in the literature as contributing to the current situation of Indigenous families and communities is daunting to say the least.

Table 10: Contributing factors to the current situation of Indigenous families and communities
 
Historical factors
  • the impact of colonisation and consequential socioeconomic marginalisation and deprivation (for example, dispossession, unemployment, poor housing)
  • the breakdown of authority structures and social controls within families and communities
  • the lack of social cohesion which occurs when different families and language groups are thrust together against their will
  • life experiences marked by racism, discrimination, violence and a lack of respect from others.
Social factors
  • loss or prolonged separation from one's mother or father due to a multiple factors (for example, ill health, death, relationship breakdown, institutionalisation of children by welfare authorities, incarceration)
  • the absence of parenting role models for those who were institutionalised as children has inhibited the intergenerational transmission of positive child-rearing behaviours
  • gender inequality
  • the loss of the traditional Aboriginal male role as a provider and authority figure
  • the peer influence of regular association with people who routinely engage in high risk behaviour
  • the normalisation of violence and substance abuse in value and belief systems.
Economic factors
  • unemployment
  • poverty
  • lack of education.
Psychological factors
  • intergenerational trauma (for example, exposure to death, violence and child abuse)
  • detrimental experiences in early childhood (for example, suffering rejection, feelings of insecurity, lack of attachment and affection, exposure to physical punishment, bullying and threats)
  • high levels of stress and safety related anxieties
  • feelings of social disconnection, isolation, alienation, powerlessness and lack of control over one's life
  • a confused sense of identity
  • substance abuse
  • lack of coping strategies and social skills as evidenced by an inability to control anger, aggression and impulsiveness
  • mental health disorders.

Not surprisingly the combined impact of such factors can make it difficult to form healthy, stable, secure and loving emotional attachments. Quayle (2002, p. 2), for instance, refers to 'the difficulties that Aboriginal children experienced in forming relationships later in life due to prolonged separation from their families, culture, identity, community, language and land'.

The central point here is that when it comes to finding strategies to strengthen Indigenous families and communities causality is seldom simple or linear. Indeed one of the characteristic features of family and community dysfunction in Indigenous contexts is that it is often extremely difficult to distinguish between cause and effect.

For example, the presence of domestic violence may cause children to roam the streets and makes them more vulnerable to sexual abuse, especially in areas with high alcohol consumption. Further, female heads of households often care for large numbers of children (which may in itself be due to family violence) and are forced to live in derelict houses that cannot be adequately locked to prevent external intruders entering the house and assaulting residents (children or adults). (Gordon, Hallahan & Henry 2002, pp. 61–62)

Similarly, substance abuse is both a contributing factor to family and community dysfunction and a consequence of it. Furthermore it has an adverse impact on other elements, such as the incidence of violence thus perpetuating the cycle.

Adding to the difficulty of doing something constructive about Indigenous family and community issues is the fact that one-size-fits-all prescriptions seldom work well in a policy environment that is characterised by cultural and contextual diversity (Libesman 2004, p. 1). Rather programs and services have to be tailored to meet local needs and circumstances.

Table 11: Possible policy and program interventions
 
Family support services
  • parenting support
  • child care and playgroups.
Community development
  • community centres
  • women's groups
  • men's groups
  • youth groups
  • healing and personal empowerment.
Community safety
  • safe houses
  • refuges and emergency accommodation
  • community wardens and night patrols
  • family violence support services
  • community-based justice initiatives
  • advocacy
  • strengthening cultural identity.
Building human capacity
  • leadership development
  • on-the-job training
  • formal training
  • mentoring
  • peer education
  • life skills education, for example, personal financial management skills, communication skills, literacy (reading, writing and computer).
Behavioural change
  • suicide prevention
  • conflict mediation and resolution
  • awareness raising.
Therapy
  • anger management
  • group therapy
  • family and other counseling
  • cognitive behaviour therapy.
Health promotion
  • nutrition education
  • health awareness
  • substance education.
Welfare responses
  • child protection, for example, foster care
  • emergency and financial assistance
  • income support measures
  • services for the homeless
  • Meals on Wheels
  • school breakfast programs.

Such complexities challenge practitioner understandings about how best to respond to family and community issues. Do practitioners start by addressing the historical, the social, the psychological, the economic or the physical factors? Or should they endeavour to work holistically across all of these fronts simultaneously?

The list of possible policy and program interventions that the litany of Indigenous family and community issues gives rise to (see Table 11) is equally as long as the possible causal factors.

When it comes down to effective responses to Indigenous family and community issues there is much hesitation, not just because policy makers do not yet know with much certainty which policy levers to pull and in which order and in which combination, but also because of the legacy of a past era of policy intrusiveness.

Intervention in Aboriginal families has become such a vexed issue that responses now range from inertia based on fear to instant inappropriate intervention based on over-reaction. Non-Aboriginal workers with an understanding of their own ethnocentrism and a personal desire not to compound the injustices of the past, may fear to intervene at all. (Task Force on Aboriginal Social Justice 1994, p. 502)

There are still very real limits to what is currently known and understood about how to strengthen Indigenous families and communities. There are many unanswered questions:

Some of the core areas where there is still much to learn include:

In summary, ameliorating the situation of Indigenous families and communities is difficult because current understandings by policy makers of the interactions between the multiple causal factors is limited and confidence in any set of chosen strategies not always well founded. This is not to imply that the problems are necessarily intractable, but it is to suggest that it is still early days when it comes to making strenuous efforts to solve these 'wicked' problems. Documenting the collective experience of the Indigenous Strategy projects promises to be a valuable learning aid in this regard.

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5.4 Staffing issues

This national evaluation has found that the quality of project staff is crucial to project success, but it has also found that many Indigenous Strategy projects have experienced difficulties in recruiting and retaining quality staff. Staff turnover and human resource management issues have long been problematic in most organisations working in Indigenous contexts, especially in isolated and remote locations. There is an almost constant movement of people in and out of communities and agencies.

First and foremost, family and community work with Indigenous communities is a difficult and stressful occupation that inevitably takes an emotional toll. The prevailing social situation is such that staff are inevitably required to deal with traumatic events and traumatised people. Not surprisingly burnout is a common phenomenon in these environments (Memmott 2002, p. 13).

Staff are also routinely called upon to make tough judgment calls in relation to a range of complex issues that defy simple answers such as:

Workers may also find that their political skills and instincts and their capacity to maintain professional standards under duress are severely tested.

While coming into a project with complete trust in your own ideas, ethics and commitment there is an underlying tension that constantly sabotages the process … Workers need to be skilled in iterating between their professional practices and personal values. Although the passage has not always been easy the workers on the project have all expressed growth and learning by being involved with the project and the community. (Project Progress Report)

External factors such as delays in project approval and commencement, long project lead times, delays in the release of funds, disappointing levels of participation and lack of continuity of funding can also be frustrating and do impact on the capacity of projects to attract and retain good staff. The hard reality in Indigenous contexts is that needs are endless, while the resources available to address them are always limited. One project offered the following advice to others following in its footsteps.

DO NOT underestimate the client time needed. DO NOT take on too much—look for quality rather than volume outcomes. (Questionnaire response)

Secondly it is difficult to recruit and retain local people with the skills and motivation required, especially in remote regions.

Experienced, reliable and consistent staff at the RW [Resource Worker] level is vital at all sites … Local staff recruitment is an issue. We have had five locals at times but no-one sustains. Other crews have similar problems I am led to believe. Local skill levels (literacy/numeracy) are inadequate for administration at the level we require and regularity and reliability are hard to find … The few locals who are adequately skilled are already employed. Employment of locals will be a long road that we cannot give up on. (Project Progress Report)

And even when capable local employees are recruited there is always the risk that they will be poached by other employers in the region offering better pay, conditions or longevity of employment.

When experienced staff members leave for whatever reason, it is not just knowledge and expertise that is lost, but also a whole delicate network of goodwill. The cost to the project is high. Cooperative and trusting relationships take a long time to build, not just with the families and communities, but also with potential project partners. Capacity is seriously eroded.

Staffing problems are further exacerbated in those situations where basic infrastructure such as adequate staff housing, office space, equipment and vehicles are not provided, as is the case with some Indigenous projects funded under the Strategy. One project working in remote communities, for example, has been inhibited by ongoing staffing problems.

Staff conditions are not ideal and … accommodation standards ... will affect the sustained employment of the quality of staff we require. It is one of the [organisation] foundations to look after skilled staff including good conditions and housing—and this needs attention. (Project Progress Report)

Issues of staff recruitment, management, professional development and retention have been problematic, providing good reason to reflect on how projects might be more effectively supported in this crucial area in the future. To date insufficient attention appears to have been given to effective staff recruitment and retention strategies in Indigenous contexts.

There is an opportunity to institute good practice human resource management strategies in a range of areas to ensure that staff are supported in their work:

Staffing is a critical issue for the whole Indigenous sector, especially in rural and remote areas. This includes Strategy projects. The extent and nature of staffing issues encountered throughout the Strategy 2000–2004 suggests that there is scope to provide greater support to projects in areas such as recruitment, training and the maintenance of personnel management systems.

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5.5 Lack of infrastructure

There is considerable variation across Indigenous projects throughout the country in the level and type of physical infrastructure that is available. The non-availability of staff housing, office space, vehicles and suitable venues to conduct project activities is especially problematic in many rural and remote localities. And it is particularly acute in towns experiencing mining and other development booms where there are chronic shortages of land and housing.

Several projects complained of inadequate working conditions.

The [project] office is adjacent to the Store. It is secured behind a perimeter cage and after hours access from the store is through the office … The office is one room and (at times) houses the RW [Floating Resource Worker] and administrator, two local workers, two bank secondees, project manager, numerous participants—and additional visitors. It is noisy, disruptive and matters of participant privacy, telephone conversations etc are compromised. (Project Progress Report)

The Family Income Management project in Cape York has been inhibited by the lack of banking facilities in the Gulf and Cape regions. Establishing a credit union to address this gap in service provision has been mooted.

It is noted that Strategy funds generally cannot be used to purchase or construct major capital items and the lack of infrastructure in some areas has delayed the commencement of certain project activities. One project took many months to find a building from which it could operate, by which time its Strategy funding period had only a short period to run.

Some project staff were surprised by the amount of time that it took to acquire the infrastructure necessary to support the implementation of their projects after Strategy funding had been approved.

When we started this project I didn't have any idea that we would have to worry about finding a home for the organisation as well as running the project. (Project Progress Report)

In some instances the development of facilities has, by necessity, become a major project activity in itself (for example, the refurbishment of disused buildings for use by playgroups). However, there are very real limits on the extent to which a lack of essential social infrastructure can be overcome through self-help alone. The case study of the integrated family strengthening project highlights the impact that a lack of staff housing and some other basic infrastructure has had on that project.

Lack of basic infrastructure, such as office accommodation and vehicles, has limited what some projects have been able to achieve. And as noted in the previous section, it also adds to the difficulties of attracting and retaining quality staff.

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5.6 Low levels of participation

Some projects funded under the Strategy have struggled to get and maintain adequate levels of Indigenous participation as reflected in poorly attended meetings and low turnout at project activities. As previously discussed, substance abuse, family violence and a lack of social cohesion are major concerns in many Indigenous communities. Understandably such factors necessarily exacerbate difficulties associated with engaging project participants and maintaining high levels of participation.

In some communities, internal conflict has been a major obstacle to participation.

Some of the difficulties relate to the different Aboriginal Family groups … It has been difficult to get the different groups involved in the project and some people have been suspicious of the Working Party concept. (Project Progress Report)

Another project identified ill health, lack of transport, high social mobility and cultural obligations as factors that inhibited participation.

Aboriginal youth and men's participation on the program fluctuates depending upon the issues confronting particular people and their families. A significant factor contributing to the fluctuating number of participants for the program is the high morbidity rate experienced by Indigenous communities. Adding to the fluctuation of Aboriginal participants is the lack of adequate transport services and cultural kinship obligations that may have participants leaving town on short notice to care for extended families ... (Comment from a project)

One project found that Indigenous participation was adversely affected by an influenza outbreak and the absence of two families, who were attending a funeral in a distant community. This project also struggled to get community members involved in its project management group.

It is difficult to establish a representative group of people from the various communities owing to distance of travel and the need for us to establish relationships with them first. [Another organisation] has experienced similar concerns in establishing Indigenous governance … The level of dysfunctionality in the region has meant that they have had few regular attendees from a limited number of communities to their meetings. (Project Progress Report)

It is important to note that the difficulties were not limited to the community side. One project in a remote location found that for logistical reasons it was difficult to get relevant agency representatives from the capital city to attend meetings in the region all at the same time.

Similarly, another project in a remote location had little success in establishing stable and consistent local project reference groups at a community level. The project has had to contend with constantly changing membership.

The board of one project was comprised of up of 50 per cent young Indigenous project participants. The experience has been that 'it is often difficult for our most committed young people to attend meetings due to the irrational and violent circumstances in which many of them live' (Project Progress Report). This is hardly surprising given that this project caters for the needs of the most marginalised and at-risk youth in this community, namely those involved in petrol sniffing and other substance abuse.

Some non-Indigenous organisations were perplexed and frustrated by the low levels of Indigenous participation and in one case appeared to adopt blaming behaviour towards the target group.

In summary the main reasons put forward by projects to explain low levels of participation were:

In some cases there also appears to have been an assumption that participation would be a natural flow on from extensive prior community consultation, and there was some surprise when it was discovered that this was not necessarily the case. But the talking and doing phases of a project are different and may therefore require different strategies and techniques in order to foster and sustain high levels of Indigenous involvement. Following on from the earlier discussion about effective participation, it may also be the case that some projects did not give sufficient consideration to identifying an effective hook of engagement at the initial design stage.

First and foremost, projects need to reach people before they can even begin to make a difference. There is a need for more dialogue between projects around the effectiveness of strategies of participation in Indigenous contexts. The high levels of participation achieved by some of the Indigenous Strategy projects suggest that there are opportunities to learn from each other's experience.

Opportunities for projects to learn from each other are provided in the new Strategy 2004–2009 through the Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia as well as through regular forums involving projects funded through Communities for Children and the Invest to Grow funding streams.

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5.7 Peer pressure

The link between greater awareness and behavioural change can be tenuous. Most people are aware that smoking causes cancer, but many choose to smoke nevertheless. This is testimony to the power of peer pressure and makes us aware of the limits of awareness raising.

The norms that govern interpersonal behaviour within families and communities are transmitted through processes of socialisation that occur as a result of social interaction. Where the bonds between people are strong, knowledge, understandings and patterns of behaviour are transmitted more quickly and easily. The upside is that this can facilitate the transmission of positive messages about things such as diet, lifestyle, parenting and child care.

But on the downside 'Social interaction can have negative as well as positive effects—as good behaviour spreads, so does bad … Networks can just as easily influence and reinforce bad choices as they can good' (Cullen & Whiteford 2001, p. 12). Examples of such dysfunctional behaviours spread in this way might include drinking and gambling circles, gang culture and petrol sniffing. A parallel could be drawn with the rapid spread of disease through close-knit communities, where people come into frequent contact with each other.

Furthermore, in families and communities where bonds are strong it is also easier for some to make excessive demands on the resources of others (Cullen & Whiteford 2001, p. 38). Experience suggests that in Indigenous family and community contexts it is those who are in receipt of regular income who come under most pressure. It is especially so for the elderly and women who are in the most vulnerable position. This kind of social behaviour works to undermine the impact of positive messages such as those about the need to better manage the household budget.

There are certain entrenched patterns of dysfunctional behaviour which undermine effective governance and which do not create an environment conducive to positive social change. These behaviours include alcohol misuse, grog running, petrol sniffing, family violence, interpersonal violence, suicide, self harm, child abuse, theft, misappropriation, vandalism and littering. Many of these behaviour patterns are characteristic of those suffering feelings of disempowerment, low esteem and a sense of fatalism associated with underlying factors such as poverty, hunger, ill health, unresolved trauma, dispossession and despair that sap hope. Arguably all people have a need for belonging and social status. If these needs cannot be met through constructive social interaction then some will naturally seek the recognition they need through more destructive behaviour, especially where this is the only avenue open to them. People need to feel valued.

Human behaviour is a product both living environment (economic, social, cultural and psychological) and of the systems that govern us (processes and structures). It naturally follows that behaviour can be influenced by environmental and system changes. The challenge is to design environments and systems that foster more positive patterns of behaviour.

There are several effective ways to influence the behavioural choices that people make including counselling, education, monetary and other incentives, and behavioural therapy. In one project, education and awareness raising strategies are credited with all but stamping out petrol sniffing. In several communities, the perpetrators of family violence are not allowed to play football, an effective social sanction. At Warburton there is a 'no school, no pool' policy. One Strategy project in an Alice Springs town camp community is credited with contributing to a substantial reduction in petrol sniffing behaviour.

In the broader community, attitudes to wearing seatbelts, smoking and drink driving have been changed radically by social marketing, by intensive community education and by the use of heavy financial penalties and price signals. This is not to imply that strategies can simply be lifted from other contexts and applied in Indigenous Australia. It is important not to reduce strategic responses to an oversimplified level that fails to take account of culture, kinship, history, remoteness, environment and other social, economic and structural realities. It is not suggested that behavioural modification is easy. We simply wish to make the point that there are some grounds for optimism that dysfunctional behaviour patterns can be modified when the right levers are pulled.

Indigenous Strategy projects have certainly raised awareness about many family and community issues, but it is important to bear in mind that there are very real limits on the capacity of greater awareness to bring about sustained positive social change. This harsh reality is a source of much understandable frustration for many project staff, despite their best efforts.

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Appendix A: Lessons learnt from site visits to Indigenous projects

4. Enabling factors