What will you do to Make Indigenous Poverty History?

Ways to get involved...

Don't just sign a petition - sign a Poverty Pole.

A Poverty Pole is visible sign of your personal commitment to a more just Australia. Create your own, or come together with friends, relatives, classmates or church group and create a group one. A Poverty Pole can be large or small, colourful, painted, with decorations, or just plain. Sign it, write comments on it, use your imagination and create a Poverty Pole that represents your understanding of Indigenous poverty. You can display it to show that you have made a commitment to stand up and Make Indigenous Poverty History.

Find out more about Poverty Poles.

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Involve your community...

The Bayside Churches in Brisbane had a Make Indigenous Poverty History focus in their local Spring Festival. This was a great way of involving people, educating the community and two poverty poles were signed and presented to local politicians. To see what they did download a presentation here. Bayside Community Church MIPH .

Here's another  great idea from the St Martin's Community Church in Collingwood, Victoria. Their poverty pole (pictured right) was signed as part of Anti-Poverty Sunday. The whole service was dedicated to Anti Poverty and part of it included a segment on Make Indigenous Poverty History. During the offering time the congregation was asked to come and sign the pole and say a prayer for our indigenous population. This poverty pole is now on display in their church.

Learn more

Use the MIPH resources - click here to go to resources.

MIPH CD-ROM - The CD has facts and figures, stories, case studies and interviews with Indigenous leaders. Easy to use with PDFs and videos this CD-Rom is a must have for teachers, social justice groups and anybody who wants to understand more about Indigenous poverty.

Education Kit - NATSIEC have produced a series of nine worksheets which guide you through each area of the MDGs and how it relates to Indigenous Australia. Each sheet presents some facts and figures, some stories about solutions as well as discussion points and ideas for action.

Educational forums

Invite an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person to be a guest speaker at a seminar to help you and your group understand more about the disadvantage suffered by Indigenous peoples.

Local Forums

It's important that we understand the big picture and you will find heaps of good information on our website. But often the greatest change can occur at a local level. Do you know about the disadvantage in your own community? Do you know what problems Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People in your local community have to deal with?  What can you do about it? First of all you need to talk to people; you could invite Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander People to participate in a forum at your school or church group and formulate an action plan to address the disadvantage.

Are you a community experiencing poverty? Perhaps you could hold a community meeting to discuss what the issues are and to identfy solutions and commit to action.

Does it seem too hard? Too many big issues to focus on? Try focusing on one goal or area that has particular interest to your group and find out what you can do in your local area to address disadvantage.

Lobby your elected representatives

Make your opinions known to your representatives, at all levels of government. Ask them what they are doing about Indigenous poverty and ask them to make a public commitment to the Make Indigenous Poverty History Charter. Don't forget that it is your democratic right to lobby your parliamentary and local government representatives.  Sometimes people say they are only one person what can they do? Don't be swayed becasue you can do alot and it's important to keep informing our MPs about the real situation.

Here's a great example of effective lobbying...

Sutherland Shire Citizens for Native Title and Reconciliation

The SSCNTaR Secretary, Mr. Patrick Fitzgerald together with Stuart Hills gave a Poverty Pole signed by participants during an Ecumenical service held for National Reconciliation week 2008, in the Kamay-Botany Bay National Park, to the Federal member for Cook, Mr. Scott Morrison. Mr. Morrison, along with Catholic Bishop, Rev. David Cremin - Catholic Pastor to the Aborigines was one of the patrons. Mr. Morrison presented the signed Poverty Pole to the Speaker of the House of Representatives next week. Mr Morrison also gave a speech in Parliament about MIPH.

How often do we hear people make statements that are inaccurate or simply not true about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples? Make a commitment to dispel the myths. Go out of your way to engage people in a conversation and inform them of facts. If we all convert one person this year to a better understanding of the situation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples this will make a difference.

Donate

The Make Indigenous Poverty Campaign is aimed at education and action. However, of course, it does cost money to run. The more we raise the better resources we can produce. If you would like to make a donation to the campaign, please click here. Please be sure to identify that your donation is to Make Indigenous Poverty History.

Other ideas?

Don't let us tell you what to do! What ideas do you have? Let your imagination run away with you!

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