It would be great to protect people from all the "good intentions", but that in itself is paternalistic I guess.

The way things are going, the outback aborigines will end up as zoo exhibits, while the urban aborigines, whose identity is becoming quite different to outback aborigines may as well be white fellas.

Many howl that assimilation is abhorrent, but never seem to say why, but love to scream all the usual insults to anyone who mentions it.

It is self evident that the status quo is unworkable, and is never going anywhere.

Do them all a favor, even if it means wiping out their so called "culture" and help them become part of mainstream Australia, it is racist and completely unfair to keep these people segregated, poor and at the mercy of the aboriginal industry, who all seem to be urban academics these days.

I'll draw the usual crowd of haters who squeal anytime anyone mentions the obvious, though none of them ever have solutions or recommendations.

We have to be paternalistic and ignore all the regular people who benefit from the misery, the ones who cry about the "culture", ignore the UN who only have their own careers to protect, and do something positive for the people, not for all the parasites.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't Sara ....

Aboriginals and their advocates are largely responsible for the situations and outcomes the author describes.

As for 'culture' - it's a long way removed from the forefathers in too many of those communities. The real culture is idolence, filth, substance abuse, violence, child abuse and neglect, family dysfunction and blatant waste.

Despite the almost 'bottomless pit' funding and all the self determination these communities cannot get it right. Then when the truth about some of the conditions finally reaches daylight and Governments intervene to protect the most vulnerable, the screaming of 'paternalistic interference' begins.

I guess evolution or devolution will eventually sort things out. Those that assimilate will survive and thrive and those that don't will almost certainly 'die out'. Certainly if the children were removed from these communities, fostered and educated in 'white mans world' there would be howls of 'stolen generation' all over again. I believe that in 10 - 20 years we may well be experiencing another 'aboriginal scandal' - this time the 'children' who were left in appalling conditions and deprived of opportunity - simply because they were aboriginal. Political correctness at it's most stupid and destructive level and so it goes ....

I don't know how many outback aboriginies we have, but it seems to me that it would be cheaper and infinitly more cost effective, if we rounded up all the kids and put them and their mothers in some boarding schools somewhere for a few years. As an example, there are some good facilities at Woomera going to waste and probably Batchelor in the N.T. could be turned into something useful instead of what it seems to be at present It had a good school once, but I see it is no longer there.

The first thing of course, would be to educate them into how they should behave whilst living a proper town. For example, they need to be shown that maintenance of their surroundings is necessary, toilets should be kept clean, windows and doors should not be broken. Noel Pearson seems to know what he is doing, so perhaps some advice from him would be helpful. There certainly isn't a shortage of money. it is just that what there is, is being wasted, particularly when you see that at least ninety percent of the patrons in the Alice Springs casino are blacks.

Now that the government is going to be sending refugees to other countries for processing, there should be a surplus of immigration detention centres which could be converted in more user friendly places fo educating aboriginies closer to their own communities. The facility at Port Augusta springs to mind, Broome also.

I'm sure that most of the kids from the so called "stolen generation" look back with some thankfullness that they were given the opportunities that the current batch of outback ones are so sadly lacking.

David

Sara, You seem like a a nice person and I have have no doubt you “mean well”

but this continuous “Aboriginal Victim Industry” ( AVI ) rhetoric ?

CRAP !

You bring “Nothing New” to the debate.

And for the sake of the rest of us "Black and White Aussies"

“Have ( give us ) a Break” for a “few years” !!

Arthur Bell. aka bully.

One element that was noticeably absent from the article was any suggestion as to how to do it better. And a quick glance at the long list of "reports" against the author's name shows a consistent pattern - long on complaint, extremely short on proposals of how to achieve a better "outcome".

In fact, it is difficult to determine what sort of "outcome" Ms Hudson favours. Does she want the aboriginal population to be educated in the same way as the rest of the country? Or would she prefer they retain their own culture?

If I were the CIS I would look for a little more discipline and rigour in the work of research fellows. But maybe that's just me.

Amicus
“Do them all a favor, even if it means wiping out their so called "culture" and help them become part of mainstream Australia, it is racist and completely unfair to keep these people segregated, poor and at the mercy of the aboriginal industry, who all seem to be urban academics these days”.

Amicus, we pay the salaries of the urban academics, the providers of ‘words’; the sharks who take advantage of the present conditions are to be found among the entrepreneurs who set up shadowy Charities with the sole aim of cashing on government’s grants and tax exemptions.

The number of charities I have been able to count, to the end of last financial year was six hundred and thirty three and, helped by lawyers’ expert in trust laws, this number is growing every day.

In May 2011 Americans, set another shop here. It goes under the name of Yalari. You can find them at www.yalari.org

Amicus, there is no other way for the Aborigine but the worship of their culture while embracing ‘modernity’, as you clearly suggest.

The problem of what you or I intend with modernity though, unfortunately remains