I thought Robin Williams' quote was quite funny; I didn't take offence at all.

I also liked: "We Americans, we're a simple people . . . but piss us off, and we'll bomb your cities."

And, "My God. We've had cloning in the South for years. It's called cousins."

Or, "And you can't bomb the Afghanis back to the stone age because they'll think, 'Upgrade. Fun.' "

"Canada's like a loft apartment over a really great party."

About the Swiss: "Ya. The nice Germans. Or, as they call themselves, 'the other white race.' "

On soccer: "America made it, we made it to the 16 baby, WHOOEEE! We're no longer in the Special Olympics category!"

See? He likes to take the piss out of people, and he's pretty good at it.

Dear Dr Walter,
If there are any other high-paying jobs at the University of Tasmania
where one can waffle on endlessly without saying anything meaningful
or productive, can you please contact me.
I'm looking for a cosy little sinecure to see me out until retirement.
A nice fat pension plan would be a bonus.
Yours sincerely,
Proxy

Proxy,

There are currently around 25,000 Indigenous university graduates, a thousand of whom work in universities, almost all in segregated and cloistered units apart from the mainstream of their institutions, sort of ebony towers if you like. Apart from some wonderful people busting a gut to support Indigenous students, most of the rest depend entirely on the teaching (or the farming out of teaching) non-Indigenous students a garbled version of Indigenous Studies. Many non-Indigenous staff have also been dependent on this income stream, and appear to imagine that there are lifelong careers in Indigenous Studies for them as well, of one sort or another.

By 2020, compulsory Indigenous Studies will have been around for a decade or more. By that time, there could easily be 50,000 Indigenous university graduates, and close to 20,000 enrolled students. Between now and then, almost no Indigenous students will be studying Indigenous Studies - say, under 5 %. Frankly I expect that Indigenous Studies will have such a bad name by then (if not far earlier) for its myths and outright lies and bone-ignorance, that it will have been relegated to a small component of something like 'Studies of Australian society', and possibly as an optional component too.

In other words, don't fret: there may not be lifelong careers for any staff in Indigenous Studies, as it is currently pitched - Indigenous or otherwise. Unless it gets more genuine; the truth will indeed set you free.

Meanwhile, Indigenous professionals will be working across the entire economy, perhaps even in mining and rural-oriented professions. They will be 90 % urban, inter-marrying at extraordinary rates with people they work and socialise with, and keeping the hell away from Indigenous Studies. And more power to their arm !

Joe Lane
Adelaide

Proxy, I wouldn't bother: it seems to be a pretty closed shop, for those who know the secret code of Academia-speak.

I recently expressed an interest in a position I saw there, which seemed to be pretty straightforward, and that I figured I was eminently qualified and experienced for.

Lo and behold, on downloading the PD, the selection criteria were written in the sort of obtuse, impenetrable academic-speak that would give Don Watson an attack of the vapours. It also repeatedly referred to UTAS' internal systems and methodologies. The intent was clear: no outsiders need apply.

Don't give up hope, though - just get one of your relatives elected as a state Labor politician, then it's jobs for all the family!

An interesting notion, Dr. Walter,

“To be Australian is to understand and practice in everyday life the concept that you belong to the land; not vice a versa. You respect and acknowledge the place of the Indigenous and the non-Indigenous. We are both, and it is this that makes us uniquely Australian.”

My first thought, a very alien concept for European people to adopt and if at all possible, would take many generations to realise. For Europeans land ownership and privileges originated from their feudalistic system, where the prime landowner was the King, he rewarded his loyal supporters, followers, or subjects with land within his kingdom in exchange for military or other services. These privileged few were known as Knights of the Realm (the aristocrats), and their estates were large enough for the Knight to sub-let land to peasants (lower classes), whom would work the land and pay the Knight and thus the King, in produce. Soon villages would spring up with the infrastructure in support of the farmer peasants such as bakers, tailors, tool suppliers (middle classes), etc. Villages grew into towns with the ever growing prosperity of the Kingdom eventuating in the structure of the consumerist societies of today. Completely alien system to indigenous Aboralian society which is communistic in essence.

The “White Man’s Burden” as Kipling wrote is another factor that has been bred indelibly into the European psyche and may prove an insurmountable hurdle in your re-imaging of what it means to be an Aboralian. Many Euralians will openly volunteer an abhorrence of colour or racial prejudices but seething just under the skin it lives in all its glory, inebriation will always unmask it.

Although we like to think of ourselves as an egalitarian progressive society, deep down we know that we are still locked in class and racial structures as handed down by our majority British forebears.
So here we are, Sydney leaning to the USA......Perth leaning towards the UK.....stuck in a loop not being Arthur or Martha with an “under siege” mentality of a lonely European outpost surrounded by heathens allegedly waiting to pounce.