In remote communities, the same repair is slowed by distance and lack of services, often taking weeks or months to fix. When families can’t easily wash themselves or their clothes, the risk of infections, including skin infections, rises.
Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people are 2.3 times more likely to be hospitalised and 1.7 times more likely to die from illnesses linked to poor environmental conditions.
There’s been plenty of public discussion about remote housing but the voices of people living with these conditions is usually missing.
To inform this discussion, more than 200 people over 4 years were asked about housing, infrastructure and the services they rely on to stay healthy across nine communities in the Kimberley region of Western Australia.
People told researchers they had no choice but to live in homes too small for their families. This pushed plumbing, hot water, and laundries past breaking point.
Once broken, they were unable to be repaired until the next service trip, often months later. Many said they relied on relatives or neighbours while their own taps, showers or washers sat waiting for repair.
One local woman taught herself to fix a broken industrial washing machine...so Elders and mums could wash their clothes and linen. When asked why, she said:
"It was for the old ladies. I wanted to help make sure they felt clean."