Culture, development and the future of remote Aboriginal communities

Peter Sutton has pointed out that culture is never mentioned in reports on how things are going in remote communities because the issues it raises are too difficult. Many argue that the future of remote communities lies with jobs created by mining developments. This chapter points out that few people in remote communities work in the mining industry even when the mine is close to their place of residence, the Aboriginal component of the workforce mainly coming from urban centres often far away. It suggests some reasons why this problem is over looked and argues that until people in remove communities have mainstream standards of education employment and self-determination will be hard to achieve.