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The Forum > Article Comments > Some ideas for closing the gap > Comments

Some ideas for closing the gap : Comments

By Anthony Dillon, published 15/2/2018

We should celebrate those areas where we have seen some gains, but learn from the failures and come up with new strategies.

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Why should we expect aborigines to to want to preserve a caricature of their ancient selves, and why would the rest of Australia want that for them?

Every culture has its history, language and traditions which are not other's responsibility to preserve. Anthropologists on the government payroll may record these for posterity, but they only observers, not preservers.

I like Loudmouth's boarding school suggestion as a staging post towards getting aboriginal kids involved in the 21st century.
Posted by Luciferase, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 10:37:35 AM
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Dear Loudmouth,

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The breakdown of the traditional social organisation of our Aboriginal communities, due to the brutal introduction of Western civilisation in their midst, has been a disaster from which they will probably never fully recover.

The “most dreadful abuses, particularly against women and children” which you deplore, is just one of the more sombre aspects of that disaster. Unfortunately, there are many others, such as the shockingly high Aboriginal prison rates in all States and Territories as well as the alarming statistics on youth suicide, which show Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men between 25 and 29 have the highest suicide rates in the entire world.

I think the loss of cultural bearings, and the breakdown of the traditional social organisation of our Aboriginal communities, has a lot to do with this deplorable state of affairs. I take, as evidence of this, the fact that their culture has lasted, uninterrupted, in Australia, for over 65,000 years. It’s difficult to imagine that it could have outlasted all other cultures in the world, including Western civilisation, if it had always been as bad as it is today.

In the final analysis, traditional Aboriginal culture has passed the test of time with flying colours. It has proved more efficient than all other cultures that exist or have ever existed. Aboriginal peoples are not only highly conservative but, at the same time, capable of creativity and innovation which has allowed them to survive.

That is why I consider that Aboriginal culture is magnificent.

I note, in passing, that domestic violence is a common feature of all countries and all cultures, even the most advanced. Thousands of women die each year, around the world, as a result of blows received from their husbands or domestic partners in an atmosphere of general indifference. In 1999, the United Nations declared 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women in an effort to provoke public awareness of the problem.

According to the latest statistics, in France, 267,000 people – 85 per cent of whom were women ...

(Continued ...)

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Wednesday, 28 February 2018 1:37:20 AM
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(Continued …)

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… were sexually harassed on public transport between 2014 and 2015, including kissing, groping, flashing and rape. A woman dies at the hands of her live-in partner every three days, and one in ten women are raped during their lifetime. The situation is much the same in all other modern democratic countries.

Interestingly, a leading Australian anthropologist of New Zealand origin, Gillian Cowlishaw, indicates :

« In New South Wales country towns there is an Aboriginal culture. There is an ongoing recreation of a distinct cultural heritage which has its own vocabulary, its family form, pattern of interpersonal interaction and even its own economy (Cowlishaw, in press). One source of this culture has been the specific everyday experience of the black population which has given rise to common-sense (in the Gramscian sense) ideas which conflict with the whites' common-sense concerning normality, propriety and the sanctity of private property. One of its manifestations is the highly developed humour which reinterprets events which threaten to engulf Aborigines' lives. Another part of it is the direct attacks on property. It is also manifested in the black power vocabulary which has been adopted by some of the young people, and in defiant public emphasis on values that are known to upset the dominant whites. Willis and Corrigan have discussed such 'oppositional culture' in Britain, and the work of Genovese discusses equivalent cultural creations of the oppressed »

Perhaps you have remarked a similar development in country towns or other urban districts in South Australia.

You ask :

« Should Aboriginal kids from remote settlements have the same opportunities as other Australian kids ? Or should they be, as you imply, Banjo, bound by the 'evolved' cultural practices of their 'elders' ? Should they have 'choice' like your kids and mine ? »

Of course, they should have or, rather, “be offered”, the same opportunities as other Australian kids. But, as we all know, everywhere throughout the world, it’s the parents who decide for their kids. Culture is inherited. Religion is a striking example of that.

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Wednesday, 28 February 2018 1:44:55 AM
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Dear Loudmouth,

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Here are some interesting facts relating to domestic violence in Australia as published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) in its 2018 report, just released :

Worldwide, almost 2 in 5 murdered women were killed by a partner.

In Australia, from 2012–14 about 1 woman a week and 1 man a month were killed as a result of violence from a current or previous partner.

Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 1 in 3 (30%) women who have been in a relationship have experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15.

In Australia, about 1 in 6 (17%, or 1.6 million) women and more than half a million men (6.1%) have experienced violence from a current or previous cohabiting partner since the age of 15.

Compared with non-Indigenous Australians, Indigenous Australians experience:

• 2x the rate of partner homicides

• up to 32x the rate of hospitalisations

• 7x the rate of child abuse/neglect

One in 3 children (35%, or 18,409) on care and protection orders were Indigenous, despite Indigenous children comprising only 5.5% of the Australian population aged 0–17. More than 16,800 Indigenous children were in out-of-home care, a rate almost 10 times that for non-Indigenous children.

Here is the link to the full report :

http://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/d1a8d479-a39a-48c1-bbe2-4b27c7a321e0/aihw-fdv-02.pdf.aspx?inline=true
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Also, the latest Australian Indigenous Health Bulletin reports as follows :

« The current poor nutritional health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is in marked contrast to the situation prior to European settlement in Australia, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples were generally healthy and enjoyed a varied traditional diet low in energy density and rich in nutrient.

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(Continued …)

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Thursday, 1 March 2018 3:57:06 AM
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(Continued …)

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« In remote Australia, many older Aboriginal people retain the knowledge and ability to live as hunter-gatherers. The health benefits of temporary reversion to traditional hunter gatherer life were illustrated by a small group of diabetic people in the West Kimberley in the early 1980s. Among the dramatic health improvements seen, after only seven weeks “living off the land” in their traditional country they lost weight and their metabolic indicators and risk factors for diabetes and cardiovascular disease normalised. People rarely complained of hunger; although their diet was low in energy (1200 kcal/day) it was high in protein (54% energy), with 33% carbohydrate, and 13% fat. While reverting to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle is not a realistic option for the vast majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live in towns and cities today, in some remote communities, people do regularly hunt animal foods and collect plant foods to supplement the foods they buy from the store. The model of the hunter-gatherer diet and lifestyle can be used also as a benchmark, and as a guide to healthier patterns of eating and lifestyle.

After European settlement in 1788, there was decreased access to and availability of traditional foods, and Aboriginal people were increasingly forced to become dependent on introduced foods.

Recent reviews have confirmed that efforts to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nutrition remain fragmented, lack sufficient resources and co-ordination, and hence are largely ineffective in Australia »

Here is the link to the full report :

http://healthbulletin.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Nutrition-Review-Bulletin-2018_Final.pdf

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Posted by Banjo Paterson, Thursday, 1 March 2018 4:02:32 AM
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Banjo Paterson,

Jesus, where to start ? Why bother, when so much of your posts are complete rubbish, and pretty much everybody in Australia knows it. It might go down well in naive Europe, but it won't wash here.

Traditional cultures everywhere are violent and especially repressive of women - in isolation, they have to be, just to keep their political and cultural mechanisms in place. BUT in Australia, Aboriginal people have had equal rights with other Australians for generations now and one of those rights, which they have enthusiastically taken to their hearts, is access to public benefits. In that sense, they have long ago 'taken the Queen's shilling', they have participated in some of the bounty (more than some: mining and national park royalties, for example) and thereby have implicitly agreed to observe the rights and responsibilities of any other Australians.

Of course, parked out in very desolate areas with little prospect of generating genuine employment, people have been free to access standard benefits without having to meet standard responsibilities. I transcribed the half-dozen Conference proceedings of ministers and senior officers through the sixties (on my web-site: www.firstsources.info, on the Conferences Page), and it's clear that this problem had them stymied even then. Bringing people into settlements was one thing, transforming them into centres of employment was quite something else. As it is now.

So Aboriginal children should spend their relatively-short lives condemned to stay in those hell-holes ? Should 'culture', i.e. traditional culture, take precedence over children's rights ? Not that here is much of it these days, the ATMs and fast-food outlets on even remote 'communities' are probably more in people's minds than ceremony and secrets.

We can lament the passing of traditional cultures 'in all their magnificent richness', etc., but they can't be allowed to over-ride human rights, especially those of children and women. Oh, you forgot to mention that Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised for domestic violence than non-Aboriginal women across Australia (urban, working Aboriginal women have probably similar rates of hospitalisation as non-Aboriginal women). Next time ?

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Thursday, 1 March 2018 9:52:01 AM
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