Which is of course to say that "God" is a white man, and preferably an English man too.

How patronizing to suggest that "aboriginal" children should listen to the words of Jane Austen, Keats, the Bronte sisters, Dickens and Queen Elizabeth.
What has listening to the words of Queen Elizabeth got to do with being "educated"?

Or to listen to the music of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart.

How many of the hundreds of millions of ordinary white-skinned human beings both here in Australia and world-wide too, listen too or read the works of the above authors. Or intentionally listen to Bach, Beethoven, Mozart or any classical music.
Is this what they watch and listen to on their broad screen plasma TV's in their living rooms or in their private multi-media home entertainment rooms/dens/theatres.

You know all of the people who eagerly (faithfully) watch Big Brother and "Reality" TV, and all of the rest of the junk that is the common fare on TV, especially commercial TV.

Is the kind of stuff that many of our politicians and leaders even read or listen too? John Howard was famous for his disdain for "high" culture - literary, musical and visual. And as far as I can make Julia Gillard does not have much time for it too.

And what about Gina Rinehart? A supposedly "successful" person who now wishes to exert some kind of influence on the future of Australia.
Which is of course her perfect right to do so.

Without education our aboriginal population can only continue to rely on welfare. It is not necessary to take this advice from white Australia, Noel Pearson has been advocating and promoting it for years. The difficulty lies in getting this message widely accepted, by aboriginal communities, and providing them with an educational environment they are anxious to return to each day. The involvement of community elders in the educational system may help.
O'Shea Launceston.

Dear Babette,
you'll excuse me if I don't get caught up in the romance you've imagined for yourself, as well as OLO, pseudo-Australians, aboriginals and English literature. It's hard to conceive of a more offensively twee article than this no doubt fondly-recounted but deluded offering. And I'm sorry but if this is an example, you're not even a good writer; the way you belabour the migratory bird simile for instance. And if the OLO compendium goes into a time-capsule I'm afraid it'll be a skewed and infamous document for future generations to ponder. I migrated to OZ at the age of 10, for 10 quid in 1970, no strings attached (I'm a proud radical atheist btw), and am bemused at your downplaying of the white Australia policy (still alive in spirit), and your ignorance, or feigned ignorance, of the treatment meted out to Indians in Australia in recent years--especially when you're a member of the commonwealth!
But this pales into insignificance compared to your advice that pale skinned aboriginals should ditch aboriginal culture for the "the glories of Shakespeare, the music of Bach and Beethoven and the art of Leonardo da Vinci". Worse still you say, "I believe it is lack of language skills" that prevents aboriginals from prospering. So it has nothing to do inequality? with generational racism, disadvantage, revulsion and ridicule? Personally, I think I'd have an attitude too, and a persecution complex at least, if I knew I was considered by many, past and present, to be the missing link, and was reviled and hated, or suspiciously tolerated at best!
But no, aboriginals just need elocution lessons and some Shakespeare! And if they don't take to it, "make them"!
Of course it's always been "the white man's burden" to civilise the primitive breeds, hasn't it? Indeed English lit's how we tamed India, and our own working classes.
You're a perfect example of post-postcolonialism.
Despicable!

Without education
O'Shea,
Don't overestimate education. The most basic factor is the will to move on. Education is only the vehicle.
Just today they were talking on the radio that there are thousands of jobs which will end up going to backpackers because our own people don't want to work their way up. They expect to start at the top. That's the mentality.
I see so many schemes fall by the wayside year after year. Hundreds of thousands of Dollars & barrow loads of good will down the drain. All because no one wants to learn. Then, ten years on the discrimination bandwagon starts rolling again dead on time.
Indigenous Australians are not alone there, plenty of homegrown & imported folk that fit that category.
Bring on National Service.

Babette,

It seems that you see little value emanating from indigenous culture when it comes to education and integration in the greater milieu that is modern Australia. You suggest that embracing the language and expression of high European culture is "liberating".

"In northern areas of Australia, Australian Aborigines, like tribes in southern Africa, had no written language - their learning problems are different from Jewish immigrants from Europe, or Vietnamese boat people..."

All languages possess a similar sophistication and power of expression.

In his book "The Language Instinct:, Steven Pinker writes:
".....There are stone-age tribes, but there is no such thing as a stone-age language. Earlier this century, Edward Sapir wrote "When it comes to linguistic form, Plato walks with the Macedonian swineherd, Confucius with the head-hunting savage of Assam.""

What we have in Australia is one dominant culture swamping another. Apparently it's up to the Aborigines to jettison their cultural building blocks in favour of the dominant paradigm. That Australian Aborigines seek to hold on to their indigenous roots amid the dysfunction that accompanies European colonisation should be reason for applause. I'm always puzzled by the arrogance of European culture in its capacity to devalue the intelligence and learning ability of cultures "it" perceives as backward.

Make no mistake, all languages have their equivalent to Shakespeare in the lessons handed down through the generations

Babette, some would argue that your article is very naive and purports a simplistic view.

>> Racist insults melt away if you can respond with a quote from Shakespeare <<

Bollocks!

.

Poirot, just quietly ... well said ; )