FOUNDATION FOR INDIGENOUS AMERICANS OF ANASAZI HERITAGE

AT least 50,000 Aborigines in tiny Outback communities may be forced to uproot and move to larger settlements under a plan by federal Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone.

Senator Vanstone says more than 1000 communities with fewer than 100 people are unviable and government funding cannot solve poverty, unemployment and health problems caused by isolation.

She said the Government could not go on supplying money to suit the whims of chardonnay-sipping commentators who wanted to keep the "cultural museums".

The only way to provide a proper education and chance of a decent job was in a larger community, she said.

Hundreds of tiny Aboriginal communities are dotted across the north and west of Australia; most have fewer than 50 people each, according to the minister.

Land councils in the Northern Territory estimate more than 50,000 people would have to be moved under such a plan.

Victoria has one such tiny community - Framlingham, near Warrnambool - home of ex-ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark.

Mr Clark said Vanstone's plan was an example of "kicking blacks".

"A lot of these communities were set up to protect us," Mr Clark said. "We were rounded up and hidden from the Sunday shoot, and now they are trying to kick us off the little bit of country we have once again."

Mr Clark said Framlingham may have a population of around 100 but it was the "mother ship" of thousands of Aborigines around Australia who still called it home.

In a major speech this week to the Australian and New Zealand School of Government, she said "Aboriginal communities" should be called "towns" so each local council could take over responsibility for water, rubbish and sewerage.

"Aboriginal kids aren't dumb. They're as smart as anybody else," Senator Vanstone said yesterday.

"But they should have the choice to say: 'No, I want to go on and be a doctor or a lawyer."'

Cape York Institute head Noel Pearson was partly sympathetic to the Vanstone plan.

Mr Pearson's spokesman said he did not believe in forcibly shutting communities, but believed Aboriginal towns had to be economically viable.

"A critical precondition of economic viability is that people must be mobile, and that they must enhance their capabilities especially through education," he said.

Opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Chris Evans said the "cultural museums" tag was highly insulting to Aborigines.

"It fails to recognise their independent abilities to decide where they want to live, and it's a real slap in the face for any recognition of their culture."

50,000 Aborigines face eviction