

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott addresses a news conference in Melbourne on Sept. 12 in this still image taken from handout video. (Australia Broadcasting Corporation via Reuters TV)

Australia's prime minister Tony Abbott is living in a tent this week. He has a secure laptop and a satellite phone and has been conducting meetings with national security aides using a "Skype-type" program, according to Australian news reports. He adopted this lifestyle on the same day that he announced his decision to deploy 600 military personnel to Iraq, as well as a number of fighter aircraft, to assist the Obama administration's war effort against the extremists of the Islamic State.

All the while, he was fulfilling an earlier promise: to spend one week a year among Australia's long-marginalized indigenous communities. This year, Abbott chose a remote town in Arnhem Land in Australia's vast Northern Territory, among the local Yolngu people.

Great to be in Arnhem Land - looking forward to the days ahead. pic.twitter.com/IozhB0zSTk — Tony Abbott (@TonyAbbottMHR) September 14, 2014

Like an ancient king on the march, his tent is pitched among those of aides and military staff near a town called Nhulunbuy, on Australia's far northern tip and near a supposedly sacred site where the iconic didgeridoo, an Aboriginal musical instrument, was first created. The prime minister's tent is without air conditioning; he is sleeping on a metal frame bed, shrouded in a mosquito net. The closest major city is Darwin, which is more than 600 miles to the east.

Abbott was greeted upon arrival by traditional dancers, and later visited an old bauxite mine and a timber mill, which have a few Aboriginal employees.

The temporary office of @TonyAbbottMHR at Gulkula in Arnhem Land pic.twitter.com/LBq8aTdMSU — Amos Aikman (@amosaikman) September 15, 2014

Despite being the descendants of Australia's oldest inhabitants, the country's indigenous peoples now make up only 2 percent of the country's population. They remain the most marginalized community in Australia, with high rates of unemployment, alcoholism and infant mortality.

For decades, Australian policy toward its indigenous communities was governed by neglect. In 2008, then-Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued an apology to "the indigenous peoples of this land" who have endured "the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss." Rudd made special reference to the history of the Stolen Generations, the thousands of indigenous children forcibly taken from their families by government and church authorities to be raised in orphanages or by foster families.

Some prominent Aboriginal leaders want to see a national referendum to amend the constitution, which still does not recognize Australia's indigenous peoples. Abbott believes it is too soon to hold such a vote: "It's more important that we get it right than we rush it, because the last thing anyone ought to want is to put a proposal of this nature to the people and have it fail," he said.

Abbott has styled himself as a "prime minister for Aboriginal affairs" and is keen to help uplift their communities, particularly by providing more jobs. But critics say he has done much to hurt Australia's indigenous citizens. The federal budget, released in May, cut some half a billion dollars from indigenous programs administered by the government, according to ABC News. Abbott was also criticized this year after making comments in which he suggested that the continent was "unsettled" prior to European arrival.