[cont.]

Bess Price has said that she wants for her children what the Larissa Behrendts (and most of the other 26,000 Indigenous university graduates) of the world might have for theirs, and she is right. Who stands in the way of that ? Who defends the system which perpetuates and deepens that entrapment ? Each of those four agents - government agencies, Aboriginal organisations, academics, many Aboriginal men at settlements - has their own particular set of reasons, mostly predicated on keeping the money rolling in and boosting careers.

If I've got it wrong, please set me straight. What we all have to be doing in this crisis is showing a willingness to learn, to understand the situation as it is, warts and all, no romanticised culling of what is inconvenient, no rose-coloured glasses - but always, with the conviction that the most difficult problems may have solutions, no matter how complex and tortuous.

For those who think that some problems are too hard, I would have to ask: do you want to abandon people, perhaps your own people, to short and desperate lives ? Would you deny them the same rights, responsibilities, opportunities and choices that you take for granted ? Are they entitled to live good lives like you might be living, with the comforts that you assume are your right, or not ?

And if you think they aren't, for whatever mealy-mouthed reason, then who are the racists ?

Thanks again for your question, Individual. All the best.

Joe Lane

Bess Price has said that she wants for her children what the Larissa Behrendts (and most of the other 26,000 Indigenous university graduates) of the world might have for theirs, and she is right. Who stands in the way of that ? Who defends the system which perpetuates and deepens that entrapment ?
Each of those four agents - “government agencies, Aboriginal organisations, academics”
Dead Right there Joe !!
But, many Aboriginal men at settlements ?
You've probably never had much to do with settlements !?
Also, haven't read all your stuff, don't get paid to, and you do get a bit long-winded sometimes !!
Arthur Bell

Hi Arthur,

You were asking, " ... But, many Aboriginal men at settlements ?
You've probably never had much to do with settlements !?"

Four years on one community back in the seventies, a few months at another in 2003, working as a laborer: I mowed lawns, collected garbage, picked grapes and citrus and cleaned out the sheep yards on one, planted trees and worked in the dairy at the other.

I'm not sure what you meant by the first part of the question: I shouldn't have said anything about men at all ? Or are you suggesting that "many' is an understatement ?

Individual,

I think of you as an authority on northern communities/settlements, so can I please ask you a few questions ?

Is there really poverty in communities, or is it that families actually are in receipt of plent yof funds - standard welfare payments and royalties (as is their right), remote area education allowances, CDEP payments, and so on ? [i.e., carrots]

Are children in your community going to school, and are they getting a full education from properly-trained and dedicated teachers ?

If kids are not going to school, what are schools doing about it ? Are parents being penalised for not sending their kids to school, even though they are getting remote area education allowances ? [i.e. sticks]

Are kids literate after two or three years of schooling ? And numerate as well ?

Are kids actually getting through the full primary school curriculum by the time they are twelve or thirteen, or are they still illiterate ? Who does that benefit ? What are teachers doing about that ?

If the schooling system is genuinely bilingual, do the kids get much English in their schooling, the common language of TV, newspapers, universities, the economy, the society generally ? Are they literate in English at twelve and thirteen ? If not, why not, in your view ?

Or do kids think, thanks to their parents, that they too will be able to live all their [short] lives on welfare ?

[TBC]

[contd.]

Do you envisage kids being able to go on to genuine secondary education, and from there, to trades training or university ? After all, do communities need skilled people and people with professional skills, like other towns and villages of comparable size ?

Are CDEP, or work-for-the-dole, recipients working on vegetable gardens and orchards and chook yards in communities where there is plenty of water ?

Is it too late for communities ? Are they doomed, and the people who live there as well ? Surely not.

Can we contemplate that, or are people able to access a reasonably comfortable future in a democratic society, where all are supposed to have equal opportunity ? Yes, this might be a very difficult process, but is it impossible ?

Can mechanisms be devised to enable people to access a future with comfort and security and long lives, free of violence and insecurity, like other Australians take for granted, more or less ?

Just asking :)

Joe

Loudmouth,
Using my personal experiences as a benchmark I'd say you're absolutely spot-on with your assessment. As to your questions if there is poverty I'd have to say yes but, A BIG BUT, those impoverished are the families of drunkards & violent morons (like in non-indig society) who always get away unpunished. Children are going to school but they can only learn what 25 year old career teachers can repeat. I don't see much general knowledge. One community is presently getting a new school $33 mill (120 kids) with the focus on the footy oval that is incorporated in the design. No-one seems to know what's wrong with the old school.
many will live on welfare but not due to their parents but due to Qld Govt forced amalgamation the opportunity of community-building is drastically handicapped. Secondary education apparently is at a lower level as mainstream. I think it shouldn't be mainstream anyway but it shouldn't be lower either. CEA (CDEP now) are engage in hobby-type activities.
Communities are on the way to doom unless we have a drastic change of policies & we engage competent people unlike the career mongers we have presently. One mechanism to help for a better future would be to curb the non-sensical Environmental agencies to a practical level & force those who stiffle economic development in communities from the comfort in the city, to live in the community until they're satisfied with the standard from their own policies.

God almighty, what sort of school can you build for $33 million ?

Maybe what communities need are competent people with dedication, respect and love for the people there, but also the courage to try to get people to take back responsibility, and their sense of agency, control and obligation. Noel Pearson has a great article today on the proper schooling for kids in Indigenous communities:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/education-guru-teaching-to-the-converted/story-e6frgd0x-1226047199220

and Nicolas Rothwell, probably the best journalist in Australia these days, has a searing article about how bad things can get, in this case in the Kimberley:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/living-hard-dying-young-in-the-kimberley/story-fn59niix-1226046773687

If that doesn't have you in tears of rage, nothing will.

There HAVE TO BE answers, ways of bringing people from where they are to employment (even the crummy jobs, like migrants and some of us have had to do) and further, to trades, and to university. What people may need is what Amy Wax calls (in her "Race, Wrongs and Remedies") the soft skills associated with work -

* learning how to get up in the morning,
* how to tell the time,
* work to a time schedule,
* bring your lunch so you don't go hungry in the middle of the day,
* sufficient English (the comon language in the workplace) to understand what has to be done and how to avoid dangerous practices,
* basic literacy enough to read signs,
* how to read a bus timetable,
* how to get on with work-mates,
* like it or not, how to take orders and keep your head down,
and so on.

Basically, crudely, how to get a job and keep it - not for oneself, but for the future of your kids, so that they don't have to do all of this, they can get a good enough education to get far better jobs.

[TBC]

Joe