ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 reveals how Indigenous resurgence and community development have been realised through the creation of community organisations in cities, which provide facilities and services to local Indigenous people. It illustrates how the creation of urban Indigenous social infrastructure in cities is really at the heart of urban Indigenous self-determination in Newcastle, Phoenix, Chicago, Vancouver, and Auckland. This concerns the creation of medical and health services; education institutes and programs; employment and training services; legal services, childcare services; language services; refuges, hostels, social and affordable housing services; transport services; youth services; justice services; and child protection and out-of-home care services.
It describes the building of Indigenous social infrastructure in Newcastle, illustrating how it has provided a pathway to economic empowerment for Indigenous people living in this locality. It also explains how the creation of community facilities, programs, and services has improved quality of life, created jobs, improved educational outcomes, improved health and wellbeing, encouraged social inclusion, created a sustainable community of association, improved Indigenous people’s access to facilities, services and programs, as well as increased Indigenous social mobility. What is more, it details how Indigenous culture, ways of doing business, governance, ownership, and control are at the centre of Indigenous community development in Newcastle. Indigenous people have thus been engaged in designing innovative culturally centred solutions to meet the needs of local Indigenous people.
