How about a big round of "thanks" for the taxpayers of Australia who make all this possible?

Amicus,

I read this article when GrahamY first put it up on Saturday, before briefly taking it down again. I did not get the idea that it was a taxpayer funded organisation. The article's sixth paragraph, says:

"The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples
has been established as an independent organization
intent on creating a legacy. ..."

Perhaps you know more as to its funding than I do, or than the article says. I had intended to put it up on the index page on Saturday with these lines from Kevin Gilbert that seemed broadly in tune with the article:




"The pen is mightier than the sword
but only when
it sows the seeds of thought
in minds of men
to kindle love and grow
through the burnt page
destroyed by huns and vandals in their rage

The sword in russet hues lies mouldering
its sharp and shiny edge now dulled by peace
and blood-lust sated between customers
like some old time worn harried whore
well past her prime
awaiting some brute hand to wield her hate

The bugler sounds, the drummer sounds his beat
bright swords refurbished tilt to marching feet
gay ribands, uniforms and epaulets
entrap the eye, the soul till madness sway
them to the dance of death the piper plays

The pens in great tragedienne lines extol
the meritorious lie, the grand excuse
justification for this carnivore
called man who can't evolve in his estate
clothed and fed, his universities
and halls of learning yet avail him nought
the jungle beasts enact the same stage plays
one kind, one king, one death the same
differing nought for death wears the same cloak
regardless of technology or sport."




Not being a person with any indigenous heritage, that is about the extent of the contribution I can see myself making to this discussion at this point, other than to observe that to the extent that the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples is not a creature of government, government will be unable to shut it down if it is genuinely supported within the community.

FG who funds it?

My understanding it is yet another taxpayer funded device.

fg .. there you go, government funded, but they "hope" to get private funding as well, sometime.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/02/2887983.htm

"Along with government funding, the body hopes to seek finance from the private sector and aims to be self-funding in the medium term."

My understanding is that the government has given $ 26 million over five years, something like that. If somebody gave me $ 26 million, I could become 'self-funding' in a very short time, say five years - and in fact, I would be prepared to give the whole $ 26 million back after five years ;)

There have been so many of these bodies since 1973, the NACC, the NAC, right up through ATSIC, and it would be fascinating to find out if any of them have ever come up with a really valuable idea. Live in hope !

Meanwhile, twenty five thousand Indigenous people have put in the effort to graduate from universities around the country, almost all since the early seventies. By 2020, the total could easily be close to fifty thousand, one in every seven adults, and (given Michael Dodson's finding that 30 % of all Indigenous people are illiterate) one in every five LITERATE Indigenous person, aged between 20 and 60.

In Indigenous affairs, there always have seemed to be two approaches - either:

* seize opportunities as they constantly arise;

* find excuses for NOT seizing opportunities as they constantly arise.

Clearly, 25,000 graduates have chosen one path, while another 150,000 or so have 'chosen' the other, justified by illiteracy, poverty, history, culture, race and whatever other means can be found to justify doing nothing with one's life.

[TBC]

[cont.]

When I worked in Indigenous student support at the Uni of SA (Kerry's old uni), it used to strike me every year that we could always take in more students - there were always more places than suitable applicants, more opportunities than people taking them up.

When my wife Maria and I tried to go back to her community, we were amazed by the richness of plant and infrastructure, not to mention a brand-new 25-a-side forward-release dairy (a thing of sheer beauty, now demolished after operating for less than four years). And yet people seemed to be doing so little with their assets - in fact, they seemed antagonistic to the notion of possibilities. At their last AGM in 2006, the council members were overjoyed to find that they had maintained the same number of CDEP members through the year - on a community of 12,000 acres of beautiful land, almost drought-proofed.

So I am sure that any grand-titled body worth its salt will have many keen, but very experienced and jaundiced, observers [yes, a lot of grumpy old b@st@ards] who will be struggling to overcome a constant sense of deja vu, all over again.

Joe Lane