So obvious "Only when we make considered, multi-faceted long-term social community investment in the lives of Indigenous young people will there be change. Is it really that hard?"

Oh wait, isn't that what has been done for the last 20 or 30 years, with little or no effect?

A much as people wring their hands and bemoan the decline of aboriginal culture, the bleeding obvious is that the culture is fragile, and unable to cope with change.

We are constantly told that for 50,000 years this that and the other about wonderful forest people who nurtured the land, and it's a great story.

Clearly the culture though, has not survived the collision with western culture, whether is was the Brits or anyone else, the outcome would have been the same .. destruction.

So instead of the constantly failing attempts to bridge two cultures, maybe it's time to just suck it up, admit defeat and move on.

If you can save little bits and still move into the present, without the terrible destruction of people's lives, great.

Otherwise, abandon what does not work, assimilate and be done with it.

If not, I expect the same articles, the same hand wringing and the same cries of "racist" will go one until realization it reached.

Our native people are not native Americans, Maoris they are culturally primitive, so comparing them is useless.

As the Borg might say, "you need to be assimilated"

Helen Liondos is dancing with the fairies if she thinks that providing “commitment” and education will make one iota of difference to aboriginal dysfunction. I would love to think that aboriginal people are just as intelligent as whites and Asians, but everything that I see and hear convinces me that most of them are not.

Previous Australian government administrations enacted paternalistic racist legislation designed to recognize this inconvenient truth, and their policies were far more successful in combating aboriginal dysfunction. Foremost was making it illegal for full blood aboriginals to drink alcohol, the removal of neglected and abused aboriginal children, and the training of aboriginal children to find gainful employment which enhanced self esteem.

The “rights” based approach on the other hand, which took it for granted that all races were equal, has been a catastrophe. This has resulted in aboriginal people living within their own tribal areas and re-embracing a stone age culture, which are returning these areas to levels of barbarism exceeding those endemic among aborigines before white settlement.

Unable to ever admit that they were wrong, or that anything could be wrong with their sacred humanitarian ideology, left wingers today simply dream up tales of white oppression (like the monstrous “stolen generations” fable) in order to explain away the failure of aboriginal people to achieve something approaching white and Asian economic success.

This can also be used as an emotional lever to shame white Australians into releasing more rivers of gold into the sticky hands of aboriginal leaders, ostensibly to alleviate aboriginal poverty, but which seems to do little except to fund the lifestyles of aboriginal leaders, like the infamous five star, Cable Beach Resort talkfest.

The two posts put up here so far are ignorant rubbish. Aboriginal culture, at least some parts of it, have survived the massive shock of European occupation and the 150 years of frontier warfare. To state otherwise is pure fantasy and displays a complete lack of knowledge about Aboriginal people and culture in Australia. The Aborignal people of Australia were not primitive compared to native Americans or Maori's either. In some areas, such as Lake Condah, their technical genius far outstripped anything those people achieved. Resource management was also something the Aboriginal people excelled at and they established nation wide trade routes.

To claim Aboriginal people are less intelligent than white people is just racist claptrap harking back to white Australia days. I've met 'dumb' people of all races and no study in the world has shown any 'race' to be superior or inferior to another. And as a person studying and teaching Aboriginal studies it is obvious that government (primarily state based) legislation has contributed greatly to the dysfunction we have today. To state otherwise just exposes your ignorance of the issues affecting Aboriginal people today.

The author of the article was correct in stating that education is the way forward. Aboriginal children need to be taken out of dysfunctional communities and placed in dedicated boarding schools. Those schools need to be close to communities so family ties can be maintained and the kids also get taught their history and culture. A child who cannot read, write or speak fluent English cannot engage with the modern world or expect to gain anything from it. A child who doesn't know about their history and culture will not appreciate a modern world and be able to take pride in their heritage.

Those who believe that Aborigines are primitive or stupid need to take off the white blinkers and engage with our indigenous people rather than sit back in a white populated inner city suburb and offer ignorant comments.

"The two posts put up here so far are ignorant rubbish."

Yep, that's why nothing changes, rather than face the facts and change .. you deride anyone who suggests change, ignore what they say, call them racist, and then you can go back to doing what you've always done .. bugger all, and surprise surprise, nothing changes

That's the system, lament the fact that you don't get enough attention, attack anyone who tries to help, and eventually they just walk away as you're just too hard to please and too stuck in your ways to change.

let's face it, you don't want to change, the behavior of attacking everyone and having your hands out for whatever you can get is now your "tradition"

BTW - you've also entered the old european behavior pattern as well, harking back to the old days when you ruled the world, had inventions equal to any modern times, and on and on, the memories that convince you that everyone else is wrong and you don't need to change.

"A child who doesn't know about their history and culture will not appreciate a modern world and be able to take pride in their heritage." Sentimental claptrap that you can sell to tourists, emotional mirages. If you go around sprouting rubbish like that, is it any wonder you remain where you are.

Hey, hey do you know I'm white? I am offended by your assumption that anyone who disagrees with you must be white.

Talk about racist stereotypes eh ..

The incoherent and illogical rant by 'rpg' is typical of those with no substance and/or knowledge who resort to attacking the messenger as it can distract from their ignorance. However, that tactic fails in this case. The reply does say a lot about the author though and none of it is positive.

It is little wonder Aboriginal people believe many non-indigenous Australians are racist when there are those about who propogate such rubbish.

Go and research some facts before posting such utter cow manure.

minotaur "typical of those with no substance and/or knowledge who resort to attacking the messenger as it can distract from their ignorance."

minotaur "The two posts put up here so far are ignorant rubbish"

Huh, are you channeling yourself ..? You attack the first two posters, then claim it is a tactic that doesn't work.

Your post is just personal abuse .. I guess it's what we should expect, no substance and attack the messenger.

BTW .. I am indigenous, go and up the word indigenous.

You certainly reinforce the first post I made, the "industry" is all about abusing and blaming everyone else and doing nothing substantive, and guess what .. nothing changes, go figure.

Abusing me or anyone else won't help aboriginal Australians, it's a cop out an is always used as a proxy to substance.

It's exactly the reason Australians just nod when these things come up and as soon as they can, go back to ignoring it, no good comes from trying to help, all you get is abuse.