I entirely dispute that assertion!
The other voices (too many chiefs and not enough Indians) including yours I suspect, are drowning him out!?
Were we ever to become a republic, and were he available/nominated.
Mr Pearson, one of the most powerful, inspiring and persuasive orators I've ever heard, would get my almost automatic vote for President!
Rhrosty.

Wow, watch out Noel.

It looks like you might be having a detrimental effect on some long term teat suckers.

They are going to fight for continued access to the public quid, tooth & nail.

What the Author is not telling us about himself is that he is a card carrying member of the LNP. Moreover I suspect he has done very little in his own community to deserve appointment and representational status on a Qld LNP government CY committee. If Noel Pearson does not enjoy a widespread support based in Cape York Aboriginal communities at least he is known, his deeds and ideas are there to be scrutinized, supported and discussed. Even if you do not agree with Pearson’s theories, he has managed to raise the calibre of debate away from the days when land rights and economic develop were taboo topics within the political narratives of sucessive governments. When Pearson speaks on these topics it is clear now that he will not be ignored. Ask community leaders in Aboriginal communities in Cape York if they know who Jack Wilkie-Jans is and especially his contribution to the preceding discussion and you will likely get the response " Jack who?"

Aboriginal 'leaders'. Yeah, right. If 'leading' signifies in any way, coming up with new ideas, instead of vomiting up the same old whinges, there aren't many genuine leaders besides Noel Pearson. Personally, I think he has too much faith in 'community', and what wonders they can achieve, but I'm miserable, bitter and twisted old b@stard.

I used to say to my late wife, to her indignation, "Now, there's a REAL research project: somebody goes around, interviewing 'leaders' and listing - succinctly - their actual achievements, their innovations, their initiatives, their brilliant new ideas - and publishing it all later, unabridged, in a slim, ten-page pamphlet."

[TBC]

[continued]

My wife Maria worked in Indigenous student support programs for more than twenty years, after being one of the first Indigenous students herself at her particular campus. In student support, she quickly brought in what she called a "home-group system" whereby, instead of letting ALL Indigenous students go to any staff member, each staff member was directly responsible for a particular cohort of students. And didn't it piss off her 'colleagues', some of whom 'worked at home' (in student support) ? She herself took over the first-year group, the largest and most needful group, and left the handful of other students to her colleagues. Graduate numbers went up from one and two, to six and seven amongst her groups. Staff turnover was high, once she actually took over the leadership of the 'Program'.

Later, as manager of all that university's Indigenous support programs, on six campuses and at six off-campus Study Centres (now all defunct, I believe), comprising around 350 students, she initiated twice-yearly visits to all off-campus Centres, and annual week-long intensive staff development workshops, as well as various other systems to link her Unit, campus by campus, with major 'link-persons' in major department on each campus, as well as close liaison at country Centres with local secondary schools and TAFEs.

Before she was rolled by Indigenous Studies in 2005, she had managed all the chaos caused by the winding-down of sub-degree and other Indigenous Studies programs, successfully defended an on-campus focus, and maintained numbers, as students moved into degree-level and post-grad studies and away from Indigenous Studies in droves.

After she was rolled, support staff numbers were halved, then halved again, as student support funds were moved over to the teaching of Indigenous Studies to non-Indigenous students. The 'leaders' subsequently produced, as far as I can tell, not a single new idea, but retired with Professorships and AOs.

'Leaders'. God save us, and the Indigenous people.

Joe