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The Forum > Article Comments > Aboriginal kids a no-go zone for health census > Comments

Aboriginal kids a no-go zone for health census : Comments

By Andrew Laming, published 13/9/2011

Why is the government discriminating against Aborigines in the National Health Survey.

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Thanks Skeptic, you ask: "Where from came the condition of dependency?"

One part of the answer might be: superficially rational calculation. Please let me explain. An old missionary friend of mine was telling me that, on the day that people at his mission discovered that the ycould get welfare payments for being unemployed, they stopped working on the gardens and orchards, and with the chooks and sheep - didn't even turn off the taps.

Perhaps people in very remote areas honestly have no idea of how people 'outside' earn their livings. They may think that 'we' all get money and houses and cars, given to us by Canberra. It's not that it all just drops out of the sky, or off a tree, but that maybe the elders know the magic of how to induce the whitefellas to pay them forever, perhaps in recognition of their land-ownership, I don't know. But the upshot is that people in remote communities may think - quite reasonably, from one point of view - that self-determination means more power, and more power means that they do less, others do more and more for them.

So now it will be, in the APY lands, that the government (or the Red Cross) will feed their kids, while they gamble or sit under a tree. After all, they get paid to send their kids to school (or not) where somebody else looks after them, paid to go to funerals, paid not to work, to have kids, to get old, to get sick - what a strange but wonderful world it must be to have all this done for them.

I remember once on a community where I worked: a nurse was appointed, and the council wanted her to wash old people's feet, as a standard part of her job. When my wife was running the kindergarten there, some women wanted her to look after the kids 24/7. People take advantage when and where they can, Black or White.

To answer your question, maybe people SEEK dependence if it means getting looked after and doing less and less.
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 6:23:19 PM
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Loudmouth et al, the dependence thing doesn't only happen in Aboriginal communities, it also happens to whites as well. I will give an example. The aged mother of a friend of mine lived close to her son. In his "wisdom" he decided that he would do her shopping for her and do all the running around that she had previously done for herself. After a time, she became so dependent on him that she became virtually housebound. It wasn't until her daughter decided to intervene, that Mum started to get out again, which improved her health and general well being.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 8:42:20 PM
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Exactly, David ! As I wrote: "People take advantage when and where they can, Black or White.... To answer your question, maybe people SEEK dependence if it means getting looked after and doing less and less."

Yes, it's a consequence of being put, or being allowed to settle, into a position of dependency. But for Aboriginal people, the tragedy is that it means far shorter lives, far more sickness, more violence as an outcome of sh!t-boring days, day after day, more abuse, and generally a loss of a sense of humanity. Shorter lives ? I'll bet there are 'communities' where the average life expectancy is in the thirties, where very few people live past forty, where violent death is the norm, where many if not most kids have lost at least one parent, and where most of the kids have been abused.

And a decent health survey would pick most of this up - and force authorities to search for answers. So why should they want an incomplete health survey ?

Meanwhile, in the cities, more than twenty six thousand Indigenous people - one in every seven or eight adults - has graduated from university. Most are working. Most are home-owners, living relatively secure, productive and comfortable lives, as a reward for the efforts and faith that they have put into their education and training.

And if they can do it, ......

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 13 September 2011 11:00:17 PM
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Sounds like a classic case of pathological altruism leading to bad outcomes for the "victims".
Posted by Antiseptic, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 6:49:21 AM
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The problem with the health of our Indigenous Australians is that before white man stepped in on our Aboriginal ways of life, our indigenous folk used to (in typical nomadic style) live on Bush Tucker, not once until recently (30 years or so), was cancer an affliction to these people. Unfortunately, the do-gooders stepped in and gave these good people drinking rights, and in my humble view, started the demise of the health of our indigenous people. I spent many years in Kalgoorlie, where there were more than a few different tribal folk. The problem, in my view, is lack of education, not just schooling for the kids (which, by the by doesn't always work), but the lack of hygiene, the petrol and paint sniffing, an awful consumption of alcohol (which is being banned in some areas North West of Western Australia) and a diet of Kentucky and other take-away foods. Unless the Tertiary trained leaders can step in and devise a way to educate, train, and provide regular clinics via the RFDS service, then I fear that there will be an end to some, if not all aboriginal folk.I have quite a few Aboriginal friends, all of whom are well educated, employed in excellent jobs, and doing well for themselves. The government seems to only see the City dwelling folk who have had a good education be way of either being adopted or because their natural parents see the importance of it all. Those who live in settlements often have leaders who are highly educated. Most of the problems stem from Alcohol, drugs, lack of education but more importantly, absolutely nothing to keep them occupied. This may seem like a blanket statement, it is not, but enforce school attendance and let these kids and older folk realise the importance of schooling as well as working.
NSB
Posted by Noisy Scrub Bird, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 1:13:52 PM
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Skeptic - What is an "Aboriginal"?

Short answer: "Impossible to define due to enormous complexity of degrees of cross breeding, cross culturalism and adaption to contempory Australian lifestyles"

If "Aboriginals" were to be awarded the status of "ordinary australians" the situation outlined by the author of the article would cease to occur. While the oft times insane pandering to "culture" over commonsense, decency and law (not confined to the Native peoples I might add) continues, so will discrimination of this type.

This is the way it works now: If truth is likely to be unpalatable then it's best to do nothing and prevent investigation if possible. Does anyone believe conditions which prompted the 'Intervention' were an overnight development quickly acted upon? Or that knowledge of what was going on and worsening over at least a decade was non-existant?

And if any nasty truth does find the light then there are still the 'defenders' to play the PC card and claim that facts attributed to a group based on racial background are inherently RACIST and illegal. As a society we have made our beds and are only now realising how poor some of the choices of material and design as we try to lay in them.

Joe (Loudmouth) for Minister - Aboriginal Affairs (while it lasts)
Posted by divine_msn, Wednesday, 14 September 2011 1:50:59 PM
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