Members of the community board, local business owners, service providers and community members met last week to discuss an idea which would see the two communities share skills, services, and facilitate sporting and cultural exchange.

Roxby Downs Community Board member Jamie Love said the proposal would have dual benefits for the communities.

“There’s certain things that Mimili has that Roxby doesn’t have, and the relationships can benefit both communities across the board in regards to environment, arts, culture and sport,” he said.

Mimili is an isolated Aboriginal community with a population of 200 – 300 people, including about 70 children.

It is one of 29 indigenous communities in Australia who are part of “Closing the Gap”, a Federal Government initiative which aims to improve education, housing, health and governance in remote communities.

According to Mr Love, this unique proposal has the potential to establish a best practice model to be followed by other mining towns.

Mr Love says early discussions have yielded a variety of ideas about how the two communities could interact.

This includes involvement of Mimili artists in next year’s arts and culture festival, inclusion of a Mimili community football team in the Roxby Downs round robin event in April 2011, Mimili community expertise supporting Roxby Downs’ Arid Recovery and environment projects, and partnerships associated with youth programs in both communities.

For full details see this week's edition of the Roxby Sun