Among Us and Between Us: Indigenous Justice Elective at Cherbourg
Cherbourg is a town in the Aboriginal Shire of Cherbourg in Queensland. It is located in Wakka Wakka tribal boundaries, near the border of Gubbi Gubbi territory, and about three hours’ drive north west of Brisbane. As part of an elective subject, I collaborated with a community organisation in Cherbourg in Semester 1, 2021. All I knew about the town when I applied for the elective was that Cherbourg had the unenviable title as the most disadvantaged local government area in Australia. In fact, what I saw when I visited was a town that is resilient, vibrant, and fighting for self-determination.
The Colonial History of Cherbourg
Cherbourg was established as a mission in the early 1900s, after the enactment of the Aboriginal Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act 1897 (Qld). The law was, according to historian Henry Reynolds, ‘far more restrictive than any legislation operating in other states [at the time] and implemented a system of tight controls and closed reserves’. As evident from the law’s title, the Act was cached in paternalism, but at its heart, it enabled the government to control every aspect of Indigenous people’s lives and organise a process of white supremacy. For instance, the Act provided for the definition of a ‘half caste’.
The effect of the law was that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were uprooted from different regions and tribes located across the thousands of kilometres of colonial Queensland. They were placed against their will in a Mission administered by the Salvation Army, in lands foreign to their own, in mixtures of tribes and language groups.
Indigenous residents were then forcibly hired out for casual labour in the region. Health, education and food were of poor quality. Reports indicate that, in the height of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1919, 20% (600 people) of the local population died. In 1940, a new building had to be made for young women who were returning from their time as forced or underpaid labourers on agricultural stations, as many of these women were pregnant and had children as a product of rape. This was the 20th century foundation of the community of Cherbourg.
QUT Indigenous Justice Placement
We learned about the history of Cherbourg in our initiation for the elective, which was taught by Associate Professor Christopher Emzin, an Aboriginal and South Sea Islander man who co-ordinates the Indigenous Justice Placement elective. Chris also took us to the Ration Shed, a museum in Cherbourg, where we had a guided tour by Auntie Elizabeth. QUT has engaged with the Cherbourg community for over a decade, when QUT first collaborated with the community in its Master of Social Work program. In our initiation with Chris, we discussed the value of the unsaid (listening more than you speak), the importance of respecting Sorry Business and the ability of the community organisation to control the relationship.
With four other QUT students, I travelled to Cherbourg throughout the semester to meet and collaborate with the Cherbourg Regional Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Services (CRAICCHS). CRAICCHS supports the Cherbourg and South Burnett regions by providing a diverse range of social, health and wellbeing services for the community, and has for almost two decades. CRAICCHS’ principal goal is to provide comprehensive and high-quality health, social and wellbeing programs to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of the Cherbourg and South Burnett region.
Our Project with CRAICCHS
Specifically, we met with CRAICCHS to prepare a research project, the Cherbourg Child Protection Report. The Report examines the five core elements of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle, provided for by the Child Protection Act 1999 (Qld) and the Child Protection Reform Amendment Act 2017 (Qld). Our Report specifically analysed the extent to which the various bodies that CRAICCHs interacted with—particularly Child Services—are abiding by the connection principle. This involved asking CRAICCHS whether they were heard by Child Services, whether their needs were considered, and whether they were able to connect with government organisations in their work. Our report reveals that CRAICCHS workers feel they ‘go to battle for Cherbourg families every day’.
The Myth of a ‘Lifestyle Choice’
I learned a lot in this volunteering. The trips to Cherbourg made me reflect on a statement once made by a former Prime Minister that living in a remote community as an Indigenous person is a ‘lifestyle choice’. While Cherbourg is by no means a ‘remote’ community, the history of Cherbourg is a rebuke of that colonialist lie: the majority of the community’s ancestors were forced onto this land. Despite the embattled history of the community, the people in Cherbourg are building a life and community: strong and resilient.
Article by Catherine Bugler
This article appeared in the The Gavel #1 ‘The Among Us Issue’ (2021) Publication