Indigenous men step up to the mark for defence
The Age
Friday December 18, 2009
PRIVATE Kaine Wunta is the new face of the Australian Defence Force in the remote far north.Private Wunta, 19, an indigenous man from Hodgson Downs south of Darwin, graduated this week from a new program to build cultural awareness and closer geographic understanding of the 1.8 million square kilometres that make up the Kimberley and the Northern Territory.Before Private Wunta signed up, he had been overwhelmed with boredom in the small community of 800 people that boasted two schools and a police station."I used to drink too much and get into trouble, and that is why I wanted to get out of Hodgson Downs," he says. "I joined because I wanted to get a full-time job."Private Wunta is one of 10 indigenous men in a class of 50 to graduate from the Defence Indigenous Development Program €” intended to lift the number of indigenous men in North Force, the command responsible for border protection and national security across a region the size of Europe.For several years academics and strategic thinkers have urged the ADF to do more to provide jobs for Aboriginal men and women while at the same time building a security network to monitor unprotected coastlines and isolated communities €” many on or near vast mineral reserves €” where communications are poor.The program, in its first year, also aims to improve the general employment prospects of indigenous men by developing literacy, numeracy and basic work skills. The graduates spend 150 days a year with North Force.ADF spokesman Major Chris Delaney acknowledged the program's strategic implications. "Graduates bring an extensive knowledge of communities and a terrain that varies between the central desert, the tropical north and the open coastline," he said.Private Harvey Ladd, also 19, said he hoped to work as an Aboriginal community police officer when he was not on duty with North Force. A Warlpiri man from Wilowra near Tennant Creek, Private Ladd said he decided on a new direction after completing work experience at the Aboriginal Police Centre in Darwin as part of the program.Major Delaney said the ADF had plans to start similar programs in the navy and the air force. "We also plan to bring women into the program once the cultural issues have been sorted out," he said.
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