Indigenous Leaders Are Rallying Against the Closure of A Sydney Community Centre

The Indigenous community is protesting against the compulsory closure of a centre that for the past 10 years has acted as a hub for Indigenous wellbeing and health in Sydney’s Redfern.

Local members of the community gathered on Tuesday to protest the impending loss of the National Centre for Indigenous Excellence (NCIE) after agreements of a title transfer between the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) and the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation (ILSC) fell through. 

This is thought to be attributed to the centre running at a deficit of $2 million dollars per year, according to representatives from NSWALC.

The “devastating” closure comes only a month after the site was divested from the ILSC, a Commonwealth body that aims to acquire and manage land in line with Indigenous rights and interests, to the NSWALC.

According to protesters, the loss of the centre would be detrimental to its indigenous community which houses various youth programs and employment services. It would also mean the loss of 50 employees, the majority of which are Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander.

“I walked into this site yesterday and our kids were distraught at the front. They’ve lost jobs and they finish in eight days,” Margaret Haumono, a Wiradjuri and Gomerai woman, and co-founder and executive director of Redfern Youth Connect, said at the meeting.

“As of 12 p.m. on Monday we will no longer have a space for our kids. None of our services can access this site. Nothing has been communicated to us,” he said.

“We need to save this for our kids.”

According to Haumono, there has been little to no conversation between representatives from the centre and the ILSC and NSWALC, though discussions of the divestment are said to have begun in 2017, reaching their peak in 2020.

However, a representative from NSWALC, chief executive officer Yuseph Deem, came forward during the speeches to explain that the centre was running at a deficit. 

“Up until April of this year NSWALC’s position is that we were only ever going to be the landlords of the NCIE if the ILSC made a decision to transfer to NSWALC.”

“Unfortunately through the historical analysis of the operations there has been debt funded to the value of $2 million a year.” 

According to Deem, NSWALC is a self funded organisation who keep the doors open through the management of an investment fund. One of their conditions in their agreement with the ILSC, was that there was enough rental income coming through the centre for it to be self-sufficient. 

“Our council said that not $1 more should be spent on the property out of that fund because it’s a fund set up for all First Nations people in NSW.”

The ILSC purchased the site, which was previously acting as the Redfern Public School, in 2006. Despite the statements from NSWALC representatives of the shortfall, community members say that it was a system disadvantageous from the beginning..

“The $2 million shortfall was set up by ILSC, so we were set-up to fail from the beginning,” Haumono said of the claims.

“Never once was there a talk, or even a look at the historical financial [figures] to say “okay, this is where we’re heading, this is where we’re going, how about we lower it so they can make the income targets,” he said.

“The centre can make money. They [the staff] have never done it the right way because they’ve never allowed us to.”

Advocate for Aboriginal rights and the chief executive officer of the Tribal Warrior Association – also a respected member of the Redfern community – Shane Phillips, said despite the decision the local community, as of Monday, would be sitting in at the centre everyday until their needs were met.

“I hope the outcome of today is that they sit down and talk to us and be part of the innovation by co-designing what that looks like, so it’s sustainable,” Phillips told VICE. 

“We never even got a chance to sit at the table with them before. There’s enough experience around this room to know how to make this work and to make sure the community, young and old, have a place and those programs continue.”

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