SOCIAL JUSTICE
SNAPSHOT
MARGINALISED
COMMUNITIES
By Dr Andy Marks andy.marks@vinnies.org.au
7 June 2009
W
Animation project brings true meaning back to ‘community’
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hen a whole community is stigmatised in this way, it’s only natural that they come together and fight back.” Teresa Harm, manager of the Vincentian Social Action Centre in Campbelltown has joined a growing chorus of community members from south western Sydney seeking to redress the negative publicity following in the wake of a disturbance in the Rosemeadow public housing estate. On 5 January 2009, several arrests occurred in response to an alleged brawl among residents at the so-called ‘3M’ region of the Rosemeadow estate. The term ‘3M’ refers to three cul-de-sacs, Macbeth, Macduff and Malcolm Way, adjacent to Copperfield Drive, roughly 2 kilometres south of Campbelltown city centre.
“When a whole community is stigmatised in this way, it’s only natural that they come together and fight back.” Many of the headlines that followed the incident were perhaps predictable: “Youth remained indignant, targeting police and media and taunting officers”, said one Sydney tabloid, adding, “pizza deliverers refuse to visit the troubled suburb”; “Rosemeadow is a cauldron”; and, “anyone who does not live [in Rosemeadow] is not welcome.” Considering the actual circumstances of the region in question, these kind of comments are unhelpful and grossly ill-informed.
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Residents of 3M are some of the most socio-economically disadvantaged in the state. Unemployment levels in the Campbelltown area are nearly twice the national average, a figure expected to worsen as the full impact of the global financial crisis spreads. Young men in particular, says Teresa, find it difficult to cope. It’s not always a question of motivation. Many youths actively try to get work, but as she explains, “they say where they live and they don’t get a look in”. This has a pronounced impact on already low levels of self-esteem. Teresa stresses that for the overwhelming majority of residents fighting back doesn’t mean resorting to violence. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite, a point emphasised by community elders. Respected Indigenous figure Uncle Ivan Wellington is one of many local leaders who have strenuously called for calm. Much of the community’s efforts to restore self-respect and compassion are based on a range of considerably successful grass roots initiatives. Although rarely reported in the tabloid press, Teresa tells how residents at Rosemeadow run a thriving community garden and a community eatery called the Yummy Café. These types of enterprises are not limited to the Rosemeadow estate. Throughout Campbelltown’s many community housing estates, residents are breaking down the myths and stereotypes unfairly attached to people in the region. In Claymore, the St Vincent de Paul Society’s Animation Project has enabled residents to establish a community laundromat and a range of other programs producing very encouraging outcomes for residents. Unfortunately, the media does not view these extraordinarily positive initiatives as newsworthy.
“Young men in particular find it difficult to cope. It’s not always a question of motivation. Many youths try to get work, but they say where they live and they don’t get a look in.” In response to the 3M disturbance, police called on residents to “take ownership” of their problems. It is unfair to blame police, as they are not social workers, nor do they have the resources to conduct intensive community building exercises; yet it is vital that the broader community, government departments, authorities and the media acknowledge the extraordinary efforts the majority of housing estate residents have undertaken to do just that, “take ownership”.
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In addition to community gardens, cafes and laundromats, Teresa comments on the remarkable initiative shown by residents involved in developing a barren patch of land now dubbed the “Dream Park”. The Dream Park grew in response to the local community’s wish to provide a restorative space for themselves and most importantly their children. It is a program totally driven by local residents, who worked together with few resources to design, landscape and maintain a beautiful park in the middle of one of the most disadvantaged areas of Campbelltown’s estates. Community ventures like the Dream Park are testament to residents’ desire to take control of their lives in a positive and constructive way. It is, however, critical that these efforts are reciprocated. To date, says Teresa, residents who wish to “get more involved in the park or get events happening in the space” have not always been taken seriously by authorities. For real progress to occur, this attitude on the part of those controlling the resources has to change. Positive and open communication must be a priority for both groups.
“The problem lays more with the fact that only the poorest of the poor and the terminally unemployed qualified for public housing”. In seeking longer term solutions to entrenched problems in the region, many researchers and policy makers have called for a large scale reform of social housing. Current thinking promotes the breaking-up of highdensity residential allotments. This has led to several large swathes of public housing being demolished. While the need to create adequate space and access in public housing design is no doubt legitimate, many commentators have criticised this response, arguing it addresses only a minor part of the problem. Commenting in The Australian, Dr Kurt Iverson from the University of Sydney said design considerations alone do not reflect the complexities faced by residents of public housing estates. “The problem lays more with the fact that only the poorest of the poor and the terminally unemployed qualified for public housing”.
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Dr Iverson is calling for more diversity in public housing. This approach reflects an emerging trend in housing that adheres to the notion that stronger communities are forged through diversity and not by lumping exceptionally disadvantaged groups together in restrictive and stigmatised environments.
“We must listen to and respect the voices of residents.” Professor Vivienne Milligan of the University of New South Wales joined Dr Iverson in seeking to promote a policy re-think. “While demolishing the estate and relocating residents is one option, another is to allocate a mix of incomes to an estate, so you don’t have one kind of community in income and social terms.” Certainly the views of researchers are to be acknowledged. Indeed, many of the theories they put forward have proved successful in practice in other areas. However, recent developments, both positive and negative across Campbelltown’s housing estates teach us that one vital factor cannot be ignored. Quite simply, we must listen to and respect the voices of residents if we are to bring true meaning back to the word community.
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