Residents in this small Aussie town were forcibly evicted, and their homes burnt to the ground. But despite all odds, the town remains and has become a symbol of pride. Mapoon has problems, as all remote Indigenous communities do. Its official 2021 unemployment rate of 27 per cent was more than five times the national figure. It’s year 12 or higher qualification rate was less than one third of the rest of the nation. Yet Mapoon avoids the trademark plights of some communities. There is little serious crime here, which explains why Addo’s pleas for a permanent police presence have gone ignored. There’s grog, but it’s limited, in a set-up that locals extol as a solution to the binge-drinking excesses of so-called dry communities. Jobs are available at the nearby mines, which were long a hulking foe to traditional lifestyles. And the primary school attendance rate of about 80 per cent is considered high. The rhetoric for symbolic change (and the pursuit of national abstractions) doesn’t mean much, not when debates about Australia Day or the Voice compete with the need for drinking water storage or the lack of housing. Addo has that oomph common to the leaders around here. At 74, she projects undimmed passion for tourist initiatives and a redevelopment of the old mission site. She seeks to look forwards, not back. #closingthegap #mapoon #oldmapoon #capeyork #indigenous #community