Aboriginal Australia

[Nicole]

What are your views on Aboriginal Australia? Government policies? Are “we” doing enough? Too much? What’s your understanding of the history?

Have at it.

[brian ross]

Indigenous Australians have been, for most of the history of White Settlement, an embarrassment to the majority of White Australians. They have preferred that they were kept out of sight and out of mind for the most part. They have had their lands stolen, their tribes destroyed, their religious beliefs banned, their children stolen and their culture ignored. Indigenous Australians were massacred, poisoned and starved. They were consigned to reservations and missions. They were declared to be a "dying race" which required their "pillowed smoothed" as they died away. Geneocide was committed against them in Tasmania and parts of mainland Australia.

Thankfully that is now in the past. Governments have been forced to accept them as human beings, rather than Fauna. They are now full citizens. However, they are not accorded the same services and respect as White Anglo-Saxon/Celtic descended settler and immigrant folk. Their views are dismissed, their religion disrespected and they are largely ignored.

The health gap is large, the school gap is slowly closing. Their lot is slowly improving. We as a society have largely faced up to the injustices of the past and are attempting to right them. Now, we just need the noisy minority of White Anglo-Saxon/Celtic descended settlers and Immigrant folk to recognise the great injustices done to the Indigenous folk in the past and to stop describing realistic descriptions of their suffering as "Black Armband History".

We are still only spending a fraction of the money required to fix the problems facing Indigenous Australians. We need less bureaucracy and more action. We need more housing and more services to be provided to them. We owe them. We have taken their land from them and destroyed their society. We have addicted them to drugs and alcohol. We have destroyed their families and stolen their children. Time we stopped carping about them and accepted what they say about what happened to them.

[Nicole]

I agree with the majority of that Brian.

Fall off your chair?

[brian ross]

I agree with the majority of that Brian.

Fall off your chair?

No but I am perched on the edge, "Nicole".

I don't think we necessarily disagree about what happened to the Indigenous Australians. We tend to disagree, I think, about what should be done to right their problems. I believe we should foster their unique viewpoints and abilities and use them to enrich our society. We are a Multicultural society and Multiculturalism is what fosters Indigenous culture. We have seen the damage that assimilation brought about. Do we want to repeat that?

[Nicole]

I agree with the majority of that Brian.

Fall off your chair?

No but I am perched on the edge, "Nicole".

I don't think we necessarily disagree about what happened to the Indigenous Australians. We tend to disagree, I think, about what should be done to right their problems. I believe we should foster their unique viewpoints and abilities and use them to enrich our society. We are a Multicultural society and Multiculturalism is what fosters Indigenous culture. We have seen the damage that assimilation brought about. Do we want to repeat that?

Yeah i think you’re right. We’re agreed on the history. We’re probably less agreed on how we fix the problems. As you know, I thought Howard/Broughs Shared Responsibility Agreements were awesome.

Maybe others have an opinion?

[brian ross]

I agree with the majority of that Brian.

Fall off your chair?

No but I am perched on the edge, "Nicole".

I don't think we necessarily disagree about what happened to the Indigenous Australians. We tend to disagree, I think, about what should be done to right their problems. I believe we should foster their unique viewpoints and abilities and use them to enrich our society. We are a Multicultural society and Multiculturalism is what fosters Indigenous culture. We have seen the damage that assimilation brought about. Do we want to repeat that?

Yeah i think you’re right. We’re agreed on the history. We’re probably less agreed on how we fix the problems. As you know, I thought Howard/Broughs Shared Responsibility Agreements were awesome.

Maybe others have an opinion?

Perhaps they do. Will it be worth listening to the usual howls of the Politics of Jealousy? I don't think so.

It is a shame that the fissures of poverty and "race" coincide so much in Australia. When poverty is being addressed, invariably someone will scream that it is all about "race", rather than poverty.

[Nicole]

What do you mean, exactly, by “the politics of jealousy”

Signed,
Suspicious

[Neferti]

I saw a headline somewhere online recently that asked the question - "Will Australia ever have its first Black Prime Minister?" They meant Black Aboriginals, I gather. Anybody else see that?

[brian ross]

What do you mean, exactly, by “the politics of jealousy”

Signed,
Suspicious

It was a comment from Little Johnny Howard many years ago against what the Hansonites were moaning about. They are jealous of other people getting something they cannot, despite them not needing the benefit whereas the recipients do...

[brian ross]

I saw a headline somewhere online recently that asked the question - "Will Australia ever have its first Black Prime Minister?" They meant Black Aboriginals, I gather. Anybody else see that?

Nope. However, it might not be a bad idea. I think first though, we need more Indigenous Australian MPs - from all parties.