Funding Knockback Stuns Ration Shed

March 19, 2015

Cherbourg residents will send an open protest letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and local MP Warren Truss following a slashing of  funding available to the award-winning The Ration Shed Museum.

Ration Shed committee member Bevan Costello said on Wednesday the committee had been told to apply for funding under the Federal Government’s new Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) but had received “nowhere near” what they had asked for.

The $860 million IAS program has consolidated multiple previous Indigenous funding programs into “one bucket”. Its stated aim is to “get children to school, adults into work and build safe communities”.

The IAS divides support into five programs:

• Jobs, Land and Economy
• Children and Schooling
• Safety and Wellbeing
• Culture and Capability
• Remote Australia Strategies

Mr Costello said Senator Scullion and Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss had visited The Ration Shed last year and had indicated their support.

Ration Shed co-ordinator Robyn Hofmeyr said the committee was told the Ration Shed “ticked all the boxes” because it was a grass-roots, community-driven project.

Based on that visit, the committee put together a funding application to cover various projects, maintenance, upgrading and wages at the Museum for the next three years.

However, they were notified a fortnight ago that they had received just $31,000.

“We are going to have to put people off because we won’t have the money to pay them,” Mr Costello said.

The four people currently employed at The Ration Shed are helped by a group of volunteers.

The Ration Shed raises money from visitors to the complex – including many school groups – and the sale of items.

Committee treasurer Jeanette Brown said a lot of work had gone into building up The Ration Shed.

They had relied to this point on one-off grants for various projects, and the CDEP program – basically a work-for-the-dole program for Indigenous communities – which was axed by the Federal Government last June.

“The unemployment rate is pretty high in Cherbourg,” Mrs Brown said.

“We wanted to create employment pathways for our younger people.

“All we are asking for is a hand-up. In the long-term future we can become self-sufficient.

“The Ration Shed is an important place. It is a meeting place, a healing place.”

The committee is determined to keep The Ration Shed open, even if it is only with a skeleton staff.

The area houses an art studio, a sewing group, as well as the museum which details the history of the former Barambah Mission, and the sporting history of the town.

The Ration Shed also acts a community centre for Cherbourg, hosting cultural events, reunions, projects for youth and women, health promotions, and NAIDOC activities.

Mr Costello said the funding decision was “a real shame for our community”.

“It is an important part of our cultural and social life,” he said.

“We are not going to have the funds to do all the things we have done in previous years.”

 NB. The Ration Shed Fun Run will still go ahead on Sunday, May 17, as a fund-raiser for the complex.

 * * *

The ABC has reported that more than 2000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations applied for funding under the IAS but only 41 per cent  (900) were successful.

However “successful” includes the partial funding of projects such as the $31,000 offered to The Ration Shed.

Amongst the unsuccessful applicants was the national body representing all Aboriginal legal services which asked for $300,000. The organisation will now close down in June.

Indigenous Advisory Council chairman Warren Mundine told the ABC it wasn’t surprising many organisations had missed out.

“From day one we’ve said that there is going to be a reform agenda, and in that reform agenda there would be winners and losers because of the new focus of the government and its priority areas, and the drive for outcome driven proposals,” he told the ABC.

[UPDATED with correction. A previous version of this report was published as “Funding Cuts Stun Ration Shed”]

  Cherbourg