Key Result Area Guideline 1:
Establish and maintain relationships with Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and services
- Creating a welcoming environment
- Acknowledging and respecting Aboriginal history and culture
- Involving Aboriginal people in governance and advisory roles and processes
- Partnerships with Aboriginal organisations
- Identifying relevant Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations in your area
- Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations: their history and role
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations: their history and role
Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations have a long history. William Cooper founded the Australian Aborigines League in 1932. This was the first entirely Aboriginal organisation.
In Victoria, the Aborigines Advancement League (AAL) was established in 1957 and became the voice of Aboriginal people in Victoria. The League was instrumental in the foundation of the Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders (FCAATSI).
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) began with the establishment of the Aboriginal Medical Service in Redfern NSW in 1971. In Victoria,
These services were founded by Aboriginal activists who deplored the lack of suitable and accessible health services for Aboriginal people. There was minimal government funding for these services. From those small beginnings, ACCHOs have been established around Australia.
The national peak body for these services is the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO), formerly known as the National Aboriginal and Islander Health Organisation (NAIHO), established in 1976. The Victorian equivalent is VACCHO.
Joan Vickery is writing a history of Aboriginal health services in Victoria, to be published in 2005. This will be a valuable contribution to the written history of Aboriginal services in Victoria.
Community Control
The following section is summarised from Chapter 3 of General Practice in Australia 2000 (website address below)
NACCHO defines ACCHOs as follows:
Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services must be:
- Incorporated Aboriginal organisations
- Initiated by a local Aboriginal community
- Based in a local Aboriginal community
- Governed by an Aboriginal board of directors that is elected by the local Aboriginal community
- Delivering holistic and culturally appropriate health services to the community, by which it is controlled (Bell et al 2000:78)
The benefits of community control in health include:
- Significantly improved access
- Integrated and holistic service delivery
- Culturally appropriate care
- A source of education, achievement and pride for Aboriginal people
- Contribution to building Aboriginal community capacity and social capital
- Provision of culturally appropriate information for the non-Aboriginal community
- A significant intellectual resource on Aboriginal health matters (from NAHS Working Party, Bell et al 2000:79)
In practical terms, the benefits of a strong Aboriginal community controlled health sector are already being demonstrated through health gains such as measurable improvements in immunisation rates and reductions in sexually transmitted disease (STD) rates. .Valuable partnerships are also being developed in a number of jurisdictions between the Aboriginal community controlled health sector and other players such as hospitals, GPs, specialists, other health and community organisations, and academic institutions.
(Bell et al 2000:80)
Read more about Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in Chapter 3 of General Practice in Australia 2000
To learn more
See the Further Reading list in this Toolkit for several sources on the history of Aboriginal organisations.
Contact: Koori Human Services Unit, Department of Human Services, 20/50 Lonsdale St, Melbourne 3000
Telephone (03) 9096 7032
Email: koori@dhs.vic.gov.au