Uncle Tom Slocklee and Tony Gilmour have launched a book called “An Aboriginal Voice in Housing” at a talk hosted by the Friends of the Library on Saturday 2 December 2023.

The guest speakers were introduced by Sue Eggins, President of the Kiama Historical Society.

Tom is a respected local elder who has helped pioneer and guide the movement for secure and affordable housing for Aboriginal people across six decades. He founded and remains chairperson of SEARMS (South Eastern Aboriginal Regional Management Services), and was runner up at the 2023 NAIDOC award for Male Elder. 

On their 20th anniversary, Uncle Tom asked Kiama-based Housing consultant Tony Gilmour to write the history of their movement. 

“This is the history of the very successful SEARMS where Aboriginal controlled housing for Aboriginal residents has shown to be a great success, and a model for both growth in similar social housing but possibly a model for future social and affordable housing projects as Australia faces a growing affordable housing crisis. When the government looks towards ambitious social housing projects through NSW and Australia, including building to rent, it can look towards the successes of such projects as SEARMS.”

SEARMS has gone from starting with five or six houses to now managing well over 600 homes through southern NSW.

Tom said: “In the 70s and 80s Aboriginal Leaders took the lead and founded community-based local housing organisations run by Aboriginal people for Aboriginal people respecting culture, country, and family ties.”

Uncle Tom in his remarks paid tribute in particular to the strong female leadership within SEARMS throughout its history. He also referenced how Aboriginal people were living at the time of the 1967 referendum.

“I asked Tony Gilmour to write a book so we could record and respect the wisdom of elders, pass knowledge to the next generation of both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, and learn from the successes and failures of the past.” he said.

Tony was Founder and President of The Housing Action Network in 2012. The Housing Network helped clients deliver high quality affordable housing to disadvantaged communities through contracting for providing short term employees for up to three months on a project or general consultancy to industry leaders providing affordable housing. While their clients have been mainly in Australia, they have also had partnerships in New Zealand and Britain. 

Tony Gilmour

He is also Treasurer of the Kiama Historical Society.

Tony said: “There are very different definitions for social housing, community housing and build to rent. Build to rent is still part of the private sector, still driven by seeking the top market prices, where the successes for housing have been in the not-for-profit sector.”

“We need a chorus of Aboriginal voices - local, regional, state-wide and national if we are to better address seemingly intractable Aboriginal housing issues dating back to colonisation.”  

SEARMS is mostly based in Batemans Bay and started with five Aboriginal Housing owners in Batemans Bay, Bugawant, Cobowra, Mogo, and Ulladulla. It became an Aboriginal Corporation in 2011 and now extends its services to Yass, Nowra, Goulburn, and Queanbeyan.

Uncle Tom was the first speaker and outlined the discrimination he received after leaving the army seeking his own home and being refused to either rent to buy because of his heritage. He introduced the writer of the book Tony Gilmour and the SEARMS CEO Kim Sinclair. 

Sinclair made references to the differences between the way Maori housing is done in New Zealand compared to the way Aboriginal housing is managed in Australia.

President of the Friends of the Kiama Library Perrie Croshaw conducted a lively and interesting Q&A panel with the speakers and then allowed one question from the public. Though The Bugle attended in-person, general questions from the media attending were not allowed. 

All proceeds from book sales will go to the Aboriginal organisation, SEARMS and you can buy a copy via the link below. Four events have been held, in Brisbane, Canberra, Kiama and Batemans Bay.