Keep out: indigenous communities close off to avoid virus disaster
- Remote, vulnerable communities like Yarrabah in Australia that have limited resources and widespread underlying health conditions are restricting entry
- Some Pacific Island nations are adopting similar measures, while Canada’s First Nations reserves are trying to adapt to new routines
The only road into Yarrabah shut at midnight on Thursday. Like many remote communities across Australia, the town on the tropical far northeast coast is pulling up the drawbridge to stop the coronavirus from entering. Only emergency personnel and health workers are allowed in, after their temperatures are checked. Rangers have stepped up sea patrols to stop access by boat.
With Aboriginal Australians among the most vulnerable to underlying health conditions, the battle to stop the spread of the coronavirus could literally be life or death for their communities.
“It’s a very difficult crisis to manage because we’re talking about a segment of society that generally doesn’t respond well to heavy-handed rules and regulations,” Yarrabah’s senior medical officer Jason King said.
Indigenous communities across the world are preparing for similar fights.
In Canada, First Nations reserves are trying to adapt to strict handwashing routines even as many lack fresh drinking water.
The disease is now also spreading among the Pacific Islands – impoverished nations with already stretched medical resources. An island in Vanuatu is in quarantine amid fears its people have been affected by cruise ship passengers, while Papua New Guinea’s 9 million people entered a 14-day national lockdown on Tuesday.
“This disease has spread so fast that everyone has been focusing on battening down the hatches and protecting their own communities,” said Jason Agostino, a doctor who since the start of the crisis has worked as an advocate for the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation in Canberra.
“But going forward it will be important to share lockdown information and strategies with the indigenous peoples of North America, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. We’re all dealing with really similar problems – high rates of chronic disease, increased levels of poverty and overcrowding, and some extremely isolated places where ensuring supplies remain available through secure logistical routes is going to be a big problem,” he said.
The cascading knock-on effects of the coronavirus on everyday lives, along with measures to tackle them, are still being calculated throughout regional and remote Australia. There’s concern the iconic Royal Flying Doctor Service – which provides the sole access to medical care for many families running cattle stations that can be 10 hours’ drive from the nearest town – may need military backup should some of its medical staff become infected.
Residents in remote Outback towns are fearful the thousands of workers who fly in from around Australia to work in their mines may be bringing the virus with them.
Still, in Yarrabah, where hunting for kangaroos and other native animals remains a part of everyday life, the enormous challenges the virus is creating could lead to some positive outcomes.
“There are a lot of things that we’re doing in this huge upheaval that we’re hoping will stick beyond this pandemic,” King said, “[such as] empowering people to look after themselves better so they can reduce the chances of getting sick, often through educational multimedia tools that they may never have used before.
“This community has got by with very little for a long time. There’s a lot of resilience and resourcefulness that we can draw on and get through this.”
