By Heather McNeill
Aboriginal elders in the states' North West plan to hold crisis meetings in the coming weeks to discuss the fall-out from native title gift cards being used to purchase thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, fuelling a surge in violence and crime in Port Hedland.
In the days leading up to Christmas, hundreds of people walked into Abbott Native Title Trustees' office in Port Hedland, had their name ticked off a list, and walked back out with a $1500 Coles gift card.
Some were handed out gift vouchers for $1500, redeemable at alcohol outlets like Liquorland.
The gift cards could be used at Coles Liquorland in South Hedland, with many choosing to spend their money on alcohol – one man spent his entire $1500 on grog.
"A security guard outside the Abbott office told one of my sisters that the money from the cards had already been spent just one day after they had been handed out," Kariyarra elder Patricia Mason said.
Some of the vouchers, like this one, only allowed the recipient to use the money at Coles.
"About 60 per cent of people did the wrong thing.
"If you go around and ask their kids if they got a Christmas present, I reckon they didn't."
Comment: The class gap is growing in Australia
It has been reported as much as $300,000 was handed out to native title recipients in the form of the Coles gift cards, with South Hedland police officer-in-charge Dean Snashall claiming police attended 46 jobs on December 21 - 33 alcohol related - while paramedics also received an unprecedented amount of call-outs on the same day.
The spike forced police to close liquor shops in South and Port Hedland due to the sudden increase in alcohol-fuelled violence.
Abbott Native Title Trustees has gone to ground since the uproar over the handouts, refusing to respond to repeated requests from WAtoday for comment.
Other Aboriginal trusts, however, have been quick to condemn the decision.
Njamal People's Trust chairman Rodney Carter said the move was in direct contradiction to the purpose of native title trusts.
"The object of virtually every single one of these charities is to reduce hardship and domestic violence and all the things associated with it," he said.
"We just couldn't believe it that they were giving out that amount of money all at once – it's unsolicited, that should have stopped 20 years ago."
He said there was a better way for trusts to help ease the burden at Christmas time, with his trust providing similar $250 Coles e-vouchers to around 1000 recipients in Port Hedland, but with a clause they could not be used to purchase alcohol or exchanged for gift cards.
Other trusts, such as those managed by IBN Corporation - one of the largest aboriginal corporations in the Pilbara - are charitable trusts which are not allowed to give mass cash payments, rather spending their income through investments in services and programs to help their people.
WAtoday understands how the income into a native title trust is distributed depends on the agreement signed off between the mining company, or land user, and the native title claimants.
Some agreements stipulate cash as the main income stream for recipients while others stipulate the opposite, and require the money be invested in projects and services rather than transferred directly into people's bank accounts.
Gumula Aboriginal Corporation also distributed nearly 900 $200 goodwill Christmas gift vouchers to its members that could be redeemed at "a range of outlets".
In a letter to its members, chairman Steven Dhu said media reports about the gift card distribution had not told the "full story".
"Let it be clear - Gumala Aboriginal Corporation does not condone or encourage alcoholism and anti-social behaviour in any form," he said.
"Contrary to police comments, the gift cards distributed by Aboriginal corporations have not created this problem.
"Alcohol and drug abuse is a long-running and widespread issue fought by many Australian communities, both indigenous and non-indigenous.
"We cannot be accountable for how members choose to spend their money, just like mining giants are not responsible for how its employees and executives spend their bonuses."
Yindjibarndi and Ngarluma elder Maureen Kelly OAM, from Port Hedland, agreed individuals should be accountable for their own finances, but called for more to be done to prevent native title benefits being misappropriated.
"At the end of the day, it's the individual person's responsibility and those native title groups were trying to ensure everyone had food on their table for Christmas," she said.
"Lore meetings were on at Yandeyarra, I was there and I saw people pulling up with tray loads of food – people need to look at that side of the fence.
"There were about 20 or 30 Christmas puddings, custard and cakes... that's what it's for – that's what needs to be remembered."
She and Mr Dhu called for the entire community to come together to address the problems plaguing the town.
"At the moment alcohol and drugs have got a grip on the town and it's affecting everybody, it affects every second or third member of the community, we need to stand united and say 'no more'," Ms Kelly said.
"You can't tell people what to do with their money and their lives, but you can put in place measures that, maybe, change people's behaviour.
"I'm all in support of a [cashless] welfare card because what we have in place now is not working."
Town of Port Hedland Mayor Camillo Blanco and Member for the Pilbara Brendon Grylls have also thrown their support behind a welfare card being trialled in the area following the recent alcohol-fuelled violence.
Ms Mason, however, has been long-opposed to implementing the card, which would restrict welfare recipients from withdrawing cash and purchasing alcohol.