Closing the Gap is a government initiative started 10 years ago to improve the health, education and employment opportunities of Aboriginal people across Australia. Many meetings have been held on Yolŋu communities where government personnel talked to community leaders about looking for ways to “Close the Gap”. Unfortunately, most Yolŋu have not understood what “Closing the Gap” meant.

Many Yolŋu people have not realised that in fact the Government has been concerned about fixing the same issues that Yolŋu parents and leaders have also been concerned about. Consequently, community leaders have been unable to effectively participate with the programs. The problems with low English skills and the lack of English to Yolŋu Matha resources also continues to undermine Government attempts to try and turn things around. Using a conversational method these 6 podcasts work through the meaning of “Closing the Gap” and talks 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