Shaping Sustainable Employment and Social Consequences of Indigenous Australians in a Remote Region

Abstract

This study aimed to identify employment barriers experienced by long-term working Indigenous Australians so that initiatives can be taken to ensure their social inclusion and participation in the workplace. A qualitative approach was carried out by interviewing 25 Australian Indigenous people in Nhulunbuy. The participants were without employment prospects and so embraced a vocational educational training (VET) program that enabled them to transition into sustainable jobs in small businesses and the mining sector. A qualitative analysis that employed the Leximancer process using data of comprehensive interviews recorded respondents’ experiences from being unemployed to the sustainable different states of wellbeing associated with long-term employment. The participants showed preparedness to confront entrenched barriers to employment in the Australian labor market, but their residual participation was a function of preferences as well as aspirations of cultural attachment. This paper offers helpful advice to decision makers at the national level to redress the high rate of Indigenous unemployment. The key message of our research is that government policies that pursue the ideal of socioeconomic equality need to examine the values of cultural diversity and differences to ensure Indigenous people successfully participate in Australian mainstream society.