Closing the Gap is a government initiative started 10 years ago to improve Aboriginal people’s health, education and employment opportunities across Australia.

Many dozens of meetings have been held in Yolngu communities where government personnel talked to community leaders about looking for ways to “Close the Gap”. Unfortunately, the Yolngu leaders did not understand what “Closing the Gap” meant, leading to ten years of wasted resources and confused Yolngu leaders.

Many Yolngu people did not realise that the Government has been concerned about fixing the same issues that Yolngu parents and leaders have also been concerned about. Consequently, community leaders have been unable to participate effectively in program development and rollout. The problems with low English skills and the lack of English to Yolngu Matha resources also continue to undermine Government attempts to try and turn things around.

Using a live dialogue method, these 6 podcasts work through the meaning of “Closing the Gap” and talk about how it relates to life expectancy, child mortality, education, and employment.

There are 6 Stories in this podcast. Please see time stamps below –

• What does Closing the Gap mean? – 0:00
• Confusion in Government meetings with the communities. – 14:32
• Closing the gap in life expectancy and child mortality. – 29:32
• Need community working with Government to close the gap. – 45:54
• Closing the gap in education. – 58:11
• Closing the gap in employment. – 1:10:49