Public Relations

Indigenous Perspectives

Dr Kate Fitch

School of Arts

Lecture objectives

• To consider Indigenous perspectives in relation to communication and culture

• To understand the history of Aboriginal people in Australia

• To recognise why communication managers require an understanding of linguistic and cultural diversity in Indigenous communities

• To introduce principles of engagement and empowerment in stakeholder engagement

Background

• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are disproportionately affected by poverty and disadvantage.

• Long history of marginalisation and disempowerment, e.g. right to vote, right to marry, stolen generations, welfare

• Indigenous people have a life expectancy that is on average ten years less than that of non- Indigenous people (Closing the Gap Report, 2015).

• Western Australia has the highest rate of Indigenous imprisonment (ABS, 2013).

Aboriginal culture and history in Australia

• Aboriginal ‘community’ does not capture the diversity of perspectives and experiences in the Aboriginal population in Western Australia.

• Indigenous language map: http://www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/

• To develop a stronger awareness of contemporary issues in Australia, follow @IndigenousX #IndigenousX

• Kylie Farmer, ‘Keep our languages alive’, TedX, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAxhh6DguUo

• Bringing Them Home: The ‘Stolen Children’ Report (1997)

• Watch Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s Apology (2008) or Prime Minister Paul Keating’s Redfern Address (1992) on YouTube

Why do PR practitioners need to know about Indigenous perspectives?

• 9b. That all undergraduates and trainees in relevant professions receive, as part of their core curriculum, education about the history and effects of forcible removal (Bringing Them Home: Appendix 9 Recommendations, 1997)

• Employers of public relations graduates in Singapore and Perth identified a gap in the knowledge of public relations graduates regarding communication and engagement with Indigenous communities (Fitch & Desai, 2012).

• Working with Indigenous communities: ‘it can be quite dangerous if you just go in there and impose our views on local people…because you always take your own international perspective and then you think that it’s right because it’s universal, or common sense … but not as far as these people are concerned.’ (Singaporean practitioner)

Principles for engagement

• Kaupapa Māori: striving for partnership, consultation to be fully informed as to publics’ needs and wishes, protection of the rights of all publics, and redress for any wrongs done to publics (Tilley & Love, 2010; Love & Tilley, 2014)

• Engaging with Aboriginal Western Australians (2005) attempts to address lack of Indigenous involvement in government policies that affect them.

• All parties should be involved in co-negotiating the terms of, objectives for, and measures of proposed engagement.

Further reading

• Murdoch University’s Reconciliation Action Plan 2015-2018

• http://our.murdoch.edu.au/Committees /_document/Murdoch-University-RAP- 2015-2018-Endorsed.pdf