Strong Voices: Looking back on 2021

From left, Deborah Di Natale, Phil Brown and Selena Uibo. Picture: Philippe Perez/CAAMA

2021 is coming to a close and on the final Strong Voices program of the year we look back.

We start by looking back to May when CAAMA’s Gilmore Johnston caught up with Arrente woman and Trachoma Community Engagement Officer Lesley Martin. She gave an update on reducing rates of the disease in remote communities.

Back in September the remote New South Wales community of Wilcannia was in the grip of a COVID outbreak. The outbreak saw many of towns predominately Aboriginal population getting COVID-19.

In 2020 Australia saw the devastation inflicted on the more than forty-thousand-year-old Juukan Gorge caves. Senate committee inquiry into the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelter handed down its final report in October of 2021.

In October the Aboriginal Justice Agreement was launched in Central Australia. The agreement is a seven-year plan looking to engage Aboriginal Leadership and improve services for remote NT communities.

Strong Voices will be taking a break over January and will return in February. Stay safe and have a wonderful Christmas and New Year’s break.