Impact of Socio-Cultural Factors on the Amata Community's Development

This essay provides a detailed analysis of the Amata community, an Aboriginal community in South Australia, focusing on the impact of its socio-cultural attributes, geographical remoteness, and political stability on its development. The community's strong intrinsic values, while fostering a tightly-knit social structure, have inadvertently led to developmental challenges, including limited economic progress and technological access. The essay highlights the community's unique response to external influences, such as the tearing down of street signs, and their tendency to remain aloof from government-organized events. Furthermore, it discusses how the remote geographical location exacerbates economic backwardness, with the community heavily reliant on expensive modes of communication for basic supplies. Despite political stability due to community-based leadership, the lack of resources and limited access to education, exemplified by the outdated community school, hinder overall development. The essay concludes that while the Amata community's strong socio-cultural values are a strength, they also contribute to the developmental issues compounded by its geographical isolation and resource scarcity.

Running head: THE AMATA COMMUNITY
THE AMATA COMMUNITY
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1THE AMATA COMMUNITY
THE AMATA COMMUNITY
The Amata community is an aboriginal community located in South Australia, and
comprises the AYP Lands. It is located very remotely, 40 km south to the Northern Territory
border, and 250 km to the west of Stuart Highway (Indigenous.gov.au 2019). Socio-
culturally, the community is tightly knit, and although they do not tend to socialize much
with the other communities around them, they share their core intrinsic values with their
fellow community members. The community has been politically stable, with no significant
turmoil in the political sphere of this remote community. However, economically, the
community has been struggling. this is specifically because of the remoteness of the
community, and also because they are one of those aboriginal communities who have not
found the benefits of development elsewhere in the country.
Their socio-cultural attributes have had a range of implications in the recent past
alone. One of them includes tearing down street signs in the locality. The south Australian
administration thought that it would be beneficial to the tourists if street signs were placed in
the region to guide them. However, Australia has a typical format of naming roads, which
does not comply with the Amata community who have only been accustomed to their
Amangu (local language of the community) conventions. Even the officials of the community
have reported that they believe that the community took offence to the English language
being implanted in their land. The people of Amata, due to their strong intrinsic values have
regularly held protests against the rest of the country by choosing not to participate in the
events organized by the government, and rather chose to organize their own events (ABC
News 2019). This practice of staying aloof from the rest of the world has impacted the
community. It is one of the reasons why the community has not developed too much in terms
of social and economic progress.

2THE AMATA COMMUNITY
The remote geographical location of the community also plays a part in the economic
backwardness of the community. The community is so much remotely located that they have
to heavily rely on a weekly truck for supplies, and two weekly air services for mail. This
indicates that not only is the region devoid of resources, but their geographical location
makes the little resources deplete even faster as a result of the expensive mode of
communication which the community has to pursue due to their geographical location.
The economic conditions of the community have slowed down the developmental
processes of the community. Development in a community requires the basic resources,
which the community does not have in abundance. Technological development for the
community has been a very far cry since only about one in twenty people in the community
have access to computers, amongst a total population of under 500 (Altman, Larsen and
Buchanan 2018). This has led to lack of information and has further impacted the
community’s growth in terms of development. The economic conditions in the region can
also be reflected from the fact that the only community school in the region could be last
upgraded in the year 2007 (Grant 2019). Hence, lack of education has also slowed down the
economic development of the region.
However, politically the community has been stable since the policy formulations of
the authorities are always in the best interests of the community. This pertains to the fact the
authority figures themselves belong to the community and hence, share the same common
values of the community.
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the Amata community is a
community which is tightly knit by the indigenous socio-cultural values, which is a strength
that unfortunately leads to the developmental issues in the community. the community has
also faced issues related to development pertaining to the geographical location of the Amata

3THE AMATA COMMUNITY
region. The community lacks resources and coupled with the geographical location, it
worsens the economic condition of the community even more.

4THE AMATA COMMUNITY
References
ABC News. (2019). Street signs torn down in remote APY Lands. [online] Available at:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-31/street-signs-in-remote-community-taken-down/
10396922 [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].
Altman, J., Larsen, L. and Buchanan, G.J., 2018. The environmental significance of the
Indigenous estate: natural resource management as economic development in remote
Australia.
Grant, E., 2019. Recent work in rural and remote Australia. Architecture Australia, 108(1),
p.64.
Indigenous.gov.au. (2019). Amata. [online] Available at:
https://www.indigenous.gov.au/community/amata [Accessed 9 Mar. 2019].