Many Indigenous Australians have no birth certificates. Whether it is due to mothers not wanting the government to know how many children they have, changes in the system of registration or older Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander people who were born before 1967 when they were simply ignored, there are significant numbers of Indigenous people who are systemically discriminiated against through no fault of their own.
With no birth certificate, there is great difficulty in applying for many things necessary for modern life. The Pathfinders scheme helped Indigenous people get their licences, passports, school access and many other things when they could not easily produce a birth certificate. Now the whole program funding is about to end, but there is a great deal of work still to be done. The National Aboriginal Birth Certificate program has proved to be successful as a building block in the greater Closing the Gap program. To help contact -Hilton Naden [email protected] 0427 726 559
Image: Image: Pathfinders
Produced By: Roderick Chambers
Featured In Story: Hilton Naden, Senior Manager Aboriginal Cultural Communication, Pathfinders
First aired on The Wire, Monday 14 February 2022