Corporation back to helping Pilbara

An Aboriginal corporation hit hard by the resources downturn has announced a return to funding community projects for 2016-17.

Gumala Aboriginal Corporation will provide about $5.6 million for initiatives in areas such as education and training, business development, community development, culture and health and wellbeing.

The corporation’s bottom line was cut by more than $10 million, or 60 percent, in the 2014-15 financial year because of a fall in compensation, attributed to less surface disturbance at Rio Tinto’s Yandicoogina mine.

It led to an announcement programs operated under the Gumala Foundation would be reassessed for the sustainability and importance for traditional owners.

Gumala Trust chairwoman Colleen Hayward said a lot of hard work had gone into enabling the Gumala Foundation to get back to delivering for beneficiaries.

“The directors and staff at both the Gumala Trust and the Gumala Aboriginal Corporation have worked hard to identify new ways of working together, sharing costs and reducing administrative overheads within the Foundation,” she said.

“Because of this work, and some strong decisions by the directors, we are now in a position to recommence community projects, for the benefit of the Gumala peoples.

“I am very hopeful that, if the Gumala Trust and Gumala Aboriginal Corporation continue to work together and build on the reforms of the last year, the Gumala Foundation will go from strength to strength and we will be able to continue to fund community projects well into the future.”

A list of proposed projects will be considered by the Gumala Trust.

The Gumala Trust plans to make decisions on the recommendations of the Gumala Aboriginal Corporation by the end of June, with announcements on the successful projects to be made in the months that follow.