Institute for Social Sustainability

Socio-Cultural: Community Values

Community Values in the Pilbara Region

Kate Allingham

Introduction

The communities of the Pilbara region hold a unique mixture of isolation and interconnectedness. Dependency on the mining and petrochemical industries for income and services make the townships vulnerable to exterior economic forces and overseas investors, leaving a majority of the community with a sense of insecurity and unease about the future. This feeling of instability is exacerbated by the organisation of fly in fly outs from the region. The interconnectedness, however, stems from the arid hostile nature of the land and climate, coupled with the isolation and shared hardships of the people, which combined, results in a highly valued sense of mateship.

This report has found a significant division amongst community values within the northwest. ‘Value’ has been defined as “The worth, desirability, or utility of a thing, or the qualities on which they depend”[1]. Amongst the Non-Indigenous people, the split lies between the fly in fly out community and the permanent locals whose lives are based in the regional towns. The other group of community values is that of the Indigenous people. This report examines the different values between these communities as well as the general values of Youth and Women across all sectors of the region.

1. Divided Communities

1.1 Indigenous Community

The generations of political oppression, racist community attitudes and the unappreciative, careless nature of Non-Indigenous people towards Indigenous culture has greatly changed and re-shaped both the Aboriginal culture and its values. Current and historical treatment of Indigenous communities has made many people feel like refugees within their own country[2]. Their loss of land and power seems to have left a sense of separation and inferiority to the white communities.

“Non-Indigenous people come and go from the Pilbara as industry requires. The Ngarluma and Yindjibandi people were here before anyone else, and we will still be here when everyone else has left. We only ask that people respect our love of our country and our attachment to it’ (Media Release).

Many indigenous people still hold the land as a core value within their culture. A lack of understanding about Aboriginal culture and history appears to be seen as a main source of racism, as well as misinformation about Native Title legislation and stereotyped perceptions of Indigenous communities[3].

The key issues of Indigenous communities in the region include:

• Poor standard of housing and living conditions
  
• Crime and Vandalism
  
• Alcohol and Drug abuse
  
• Domestic violence
  
• Unemployment and limited job opportunities
  
• Poor standards of health
  
• Pervading sense of hopelessness
  
• Mistrust from the past[4]

All these issues are still highly prevalent within the region and have resulted in Indigenous people holding very little value for many aspects of the Non-Indigenous way of life, policies and culture. The high value they hold over their own culture is yet to be integrated or even fully understood by the Non-Indigenous people of the Pilbara region.

1.2 Local Non-Indigenous Community

“People don’t come here to live, they come here to work”
“Town could be here today and gone tomorrow”
“Employ locals not fly in fly outs”
“Less dependence on industry and mining”

The above comments portray the mixed feelings of dislike and dependency on the mining companies that so strongly impact on and influence the local lifestyles. Changing shift rosters directly affect community and family life, the declining community spirit and commitment to the region due to instability of the fly in fly outs and the uncertainty of the town's future are important influences within the region. However, the Roebourne Cultural Study found that both children and adults of the local community listed the lifestyle, small size of towns and the strong sense of community as their greatest values[5].

Due to the huge economic disparity within the region, people who are not employed by the resource companies, such as schoolteachers, government workers and local business owners, live a different life “particularly when you have to pay your own rent and air-conditioning bill”[6]. This factor contributes to the inhibition of the towns to move away from the resource companies and take control of their own townships - economically, socially and environmentally.

The isolation and harsh physical attributes of the land have given many locals within the town a sense of mateship and need for community. The Non-Indigenous locals want to develop an agreed action plan to redress the current erosion in social capital, as well as focus on the future development of the towns to achieve greater social sustainability[7].

Beautification initiatives such as removing litter, tree planting, more shade, more parks, improving gardens, less signage and power lines were the most commonly suggested improvements. If a stronger sense of local identity is to be fostered, then some priority must be given to improving the public space[8].

1.3 The Fly in Fly out Community

Due to the improved efficiency of mining technologies and the increased costs of establishing new towns, Fly in Fly outs have become an ever-growing community within the Pilbara region[9]. This increasingly exaggerated demographic structure of predominantly single, young physically orientated young men can be expected to be powerfully structured by the dynamics of competition and conflict[10].

The value structure amongst this community seems to be highly materialistic, with work and economics being a major priority. Men isolated from family controls who labour for many hours a day in very hot conditions with few alternative leisure pursuits are prone to a huge consumption of alcohol, with many drinking their weeks wages away[11]. “We don’t have a culture here” or “the only culture we have here is sport and drinking” are common conceptions[12]. Due to the fly in fly outs being directly linked to the mining companies and the domination of their demographics within the region, their interests and values also have the potential to dominate. These interests are generally associated with alcohol consumption, which has created problems within the region and has resulted in towns catering mainly for the needs of these men more than others. This syndrome was referred to within the Roebourne Cultural Plan as one of the most offensive and less fortunate aspects of living in the Pilbara[13].

The uncertain length of employment and therefore living period within the region, results in this community taking a much less active interest within community life.

“I think fly in fly out is a dreadful way to operate in this region. I’ve tried to relate to some of the minds that run on that and it’s almost impossible because people are only interested in one thing and that is work and money. They’ve got no time for anything else because they work twelve hours a day and they need to rest and sleep” (John Dolling)[14].

The fact that a majority of the population does not contribute to the development and sense of community and holds very little value on the importance of community has a very negative impact on the social development of the region.

2. Values of Youth

2.1 Education

Indicators of Regional Development in WA has given the figures for the Pilbara region showing that in year 2001, 5,002 students attended primary school, 2,123 attended secondary school and only 293 students from the Pilbara region enrolled in University[15]. Eighty-nine per cent of Indigenous children participated in primary school whilst only fifty-five per cent enrolled in secondary education[16]. These figures demonstrate that a continued high level of education is not a priority amongst youth within the region. The youth unemployment rate of 10.8% of 15-19 year olds and 8.1% of 20-24 years olds is the second lowest to the Kimberly, amongst all Western Australian regions[17]. These figures indicate that much of the youth are going directly into unemployment benefits or to work for the mining companies that dominate the region. The monopoly hold of resource companies within the region perhaps results in the perception that it is the only employment opportunity, with practical work experience seen as a more important option than mainstream secondary and tertiary education.

The regional youth policy recorded that what most children learn is picked up informally, particularly between birth and age five. This implicates the educative power of the family background as a force, influencing the child’s educational and social destinations[18]. In regional WA, figures show that the Pilbara has the highest proportion of tradespersons at 19.5% and the second highest percentage of labourers and related workers at 26.6%[19]. These percentages support the fact that many families are involved in the mining workforce and may either intentionally and unintentionally transfer their related values to their children.

2.2 Employment

“Why should we work for forty hours in forty degree heat amid the flies, dust and sweat for $160 when we can get $80 for sitting at home with air-conditioning, our mates and television? We’d be getting $2 an hour to work. We’d be ordered around the whole time and the job isn’t leading anywhere” (Youth, 83).

Lack of occupational choice leads to powerlessness among all people, particularly the young[20]. There is no doubt that having a purpose in life gives a focus for living and contributes a sense of meaning, wholeness and connectedness to the personal development process and coherent identity, which in turn gives enthusiasm to one’s involvement in life[21]. This lack of choice about future employment, coupled with the lesser value of education, which results in less employment opportunities, may have the impact of loss of ambition and an increased feeling of isolation within the region for Youth.

2.3 Boredom

In all Shires of the Pilbara region, children listed ‘hanging out’ as the highest rating for fun in the area. The highest percentages were found in Roebourne and Karratha at fifteen percent and Wickham at twenty-six percent[22].

Interviewed youth’s greatest requests about improving their town included things like:

“Get an ice skating rink and make an Adventure World and more stuff for older kids to do”
“Give us something to do! Without cops! – we want a kid’s nightclub”
“Give us kids a place to hang out without parents watching, something without police being involved either – maybe a kids nightclub”
“Make this town more worthwhile to live up here”
“Get shops in the new shopping centre like music shops that sell musical instruments, Doc Marten shop with weird shoes – a better shoe shop than Betts and Betts”
“Make the new shopping centre on a main street with individual little shops along the street. NOT in one big building”
“Make a hang out place especially for the teenagers because we have no where to go. Like a cafeteria or something”[23].

It has been widely suggested that vandalism and the use of alcohol and drugs occur because of boredom and a lack of things for young people to do[25]. It is important that there are services and entertainment for youth in each town as the difficulty for young people to get between towns due to lack of public transport is further exacerbated by 12 hour shifts, making it more difficult for children to rely on the parents for transport.

3. Values of Women

3.1 Isolation

The harsh contrast of lifestyle and physical environment between the Pilbara region and the more metro-orientated region of Western Australia increases the feeling of isolation in the Pilbara, particularly for women. With many activities being male dominated, there is little entertainment for women in their leisure time.

“There’s not enough nightlife for women. With so many men in town it's awkward going out. Men come up and pinch you and put their arms around you and brawls start”[26] (Women, 9)

For many women the move to the Pilbara means their first major break with their own family. The loss of the extended family as a support system, help with small children, advice on marital problems and general social interaction, adds to a greater feeling of isolation[27].

3.2 Expected role

It has always been a major objective of the mining companies to encourage the employment of married men because, it is believed, the presence of their families has a stabilizing effect on the area[28]. Unions in the area are often hostile to the employment of married women, upholding the idea that “a woman’s place is in the home” and that preference should be given to young, unemployed men[29].

In a society that began to be organized around the production of goods and where ‘value’ was increasingly understood in terms of money, the recognized values of women’s work has deteriorated[30].

At the core of any social policy is the creation and distribution of power. The participation of women should be encouraged at all levels, including those of central decision-making in youth and community institutions[31]. This would enable women to hold a greater value of themselves as well as achieving the necessary recognition of the value of women within all communities.

3.3 Employment

Economic dependence plays an enormous part in determining the position of women in our society. In the Pilbara region there is an average of 36% of females in the workforce with the difference between male and female earnings averages at $31,000 per year[32]. Pilbara women are generally employed as cleaners, clerical workers, shop assistants, barmaids and waitresses rather than mine workers. Those few women who do work in non-traditional areas in the mine hold positions which require a low level of training and are therefore confined to the lowest-earning section of the workforce with little chance of advancement[33]. For married women who no longer need or want to be full-time child rearers a job can mean financial independence, greater social contact, a release from the boredom of domestic chores, and a means of becoming involved in the wider world of the community[34]. If married women were employed the community would benefit as a whole from increased spending power and social stability as it would provide women an opportunity for them to contribute to the family income and to take a greater role in the world outside their homes[35].

Conclusion

It is difficult to accurately report the values of a community without having actually lived within it. This report is very much based on generalised speculations, which are generated from facts and comments within government reports. This source of information has resulted in the more negative issues and values being reported

In regards to the Indigenous communities there is little information available about their current values and this report could have potentially done a poor job of interpretation. The massive changes and impacts on indigenous society would probably have diversified the values and made them more fluid. Indeed the constant changes and social instability of the region may result in regular fluctuations of all community values.

An accurate regional survey should be held in the Pilbara region so as to achieve a greater awareness of the full range of community needs, issues and aspirations and consequently adjusting their policies and organizational arrangements to ensure that related activities are properly coordinated and their efforts are generated towards agreed priorities[36]. The division of the three communities and lack of interaction seems to be currently inhibiting the formation of a holistic viewpoint on environmental, economic and social issues, with these issues instead being treated separately and continuing to support the division within society.

Footnotes

[1] Oxford Encyclopaedic English Dictionary

[2] Rijavec, Frank, Exile in the Kingdom

[3] Shire of Roebourne, Roebourne Cultural Plan, Local Government, 2001 p.93

[4] Shire of Roebourne, Op.Cit p.73

[5] 'Ibid' p.27

[6] 'Ibid' p.19

[7] 'Ibid' p.13

[8] 'Ibid' p.83

[9] Joynson, Tracey, ‘Unstoppable Pilbara Project’, The West Australian, Liftout of Wednesday February 19, 2003, p.4

[10] Youth Policy, p.62

[11] 'Ibid'

[12] Shire of Roebourne, ‘Op.cit’, p.1

[13] 'Ibid' p.95

[14] Douglass, Trevor (ed.), Pilbara Journey – Through the Twentieth Century, Robe River Iron Associates, 2000, p.274

[15] Department of Local Government & Regional Development, Chapt. 7 ‘Regional Performance – social’, Indicators of Regional Development in WA, Government of WA, March 2003 p. 102

[16] 'Ibid' p.103

[17] 'Ibid' p.163

[18] Youth Policy, p.30

[19] Department of Local Government and Regional Development, ‘Op.Cit, p.112

[20] Youth Policy, p.27

[21] ‘Ibid’ p.47

[22] Shire of Roebourne, ‘Op.cit’, p. 132

[23] ‘Ibid’, p.133

[24] Youth Policy, p.49

[25] Shire of Roebourne, ‘Op.cit’, p.94

[26] Workers Information and Research Centre, ‘Housewives: The Pilbara Experience’, Women in the Pilbara – A series of Discussion Papers, p.2

[27] ‘Ibid’, p.10

[28] ‘Workers Information and Research Centre, ‘Op.cit’, p.1

[29] ‘Ibid’

[30] ‘Ibid’, p.9

[31] Youth Policy, p.29

[32] Workers Information and Research Centre, ‘Op.Cit’, p.1

[33] ‘Ibid’

[34] ‘Ibid’

[35] ‘Ibid’

[36] Cultural Plan, p.102

References

Department of Local Government & Regional Development, Chapt. 7 ‘Regional Performance – social’, Indicators of Regional Development in WA, Government of WA, March 2003.

Douglass, Trevor (ed.), Pilbara Journey – Through the Twentieth Century, Robe River Iron Associates, 2000 pp.273-286.

Joynson, Tracey, ‘Unstoppable Pilbara Project’, The West Australian, Liftout of Wednesday February 19, 2003

Rijavec, Frank, Exile in the Kingdom, Video documentary (further bibliography available on request).

Shire of Roebourne, Roebourne Cultural Plan, Local Government, 2001.

Youth Policy