Employment trends for Indigenous women working in the Northern Territory's large-scale mining industry: Real employment opportunities or empty corporate promises?

In Australia, most large-scale mining takes place on Indigenous lands near remote Indigenous communities, with many of the destructive impacts disproportionately felt by Indigenous women from these communities. Although there have been various employment policies aimed at increasing the employment rates of both Indigenous peoples and women as distinct groups in the Australian mining industry, Indigenous women have been—and continue to be—significantly underrepresented in the sector. To provide insights on what, if any, progress has been made toward better representation in the workforce in large-scale mines (LSMs) in the Northern Territory of Australia, we examined available census data to profile the workforce at six mines and determine whether local Indigenous workforce participation has increased since 2011. The aim was to improve the understanding about the opportunities and challenges facing Indigenous women working in LSMs or living local to these mines, and evaluate the progress that has been made to achieve greater inclusion and representation. In identifying the place of residence of workers, we discuss some of the issues our findings might raise for Indigenous people living locally to the mine, particularly Indigenous women.