Loudmouth, life for aboriginal people was always pretty dreadful. But the best thing that ever happened to them was the coming of the white man.

In tribal aboriginal society, power was held exclusively by the Old Men. All of the breeding women were their exclusive property, and the young men were not much more than slaves. This power structure was maintained through the terror of a sequence of painful and degrading "initiations" where young men were mutilated and scarred for life.

Young boys were "stolen" at aged 10 to be made "hunters" and were never allowed to speak to their mothers or sisters again. Those that did not die of sepicemia advanced through initiations from "hunter", to "warrior" to "men".

Girls were handed over to the Old Men to at puberty, underwent an "initiation" ceremony where a "fertility object" was thrust up her vagina to make her a "woman". Unborn female children from girls were then promised as wifes to men already in their forties.

Women were very badly treated, while old aboriginal people were simply abandoned. To aboriginals, people did not just "die". if a person died, someone was responsible for "singing" them to death. The witch doctor devined the guilty party, and that person was then murdered. Second born twins were always kiled, because the aboriginal people considered the second born twin as an "evil spirit."

The reason why Australia did not suffer from the same degree of warfare by their indiginous people against the settlers was because the young aborigines, both male and female, saw in the coming of the white man a chance of a better life.

They walked away from the tribal system in droves. On the frontier they were needed. Many became exceptional stockmen and women. Many aboriginal women became wifes for lonely pioneering settlers. Today, many remote towns have local whites who obviously have aboriginal ancesters.

[contd.]

Lego [above],

So, no, people certainly faced dreadful discrimination and destitution, but I don't think any government ever had any intention of taking kids away forcibly to raise them as little white kids. That's a paranoid fantasy.

I don't think governments on the whole gave a toss about Aboriginal people, and if anything thought they were all still dying out - to which they 'tut-tutted' and turned to other, more important things.

And isn't the essence of a racist system to ensure that outsiders DON'T somehow get to share the benefits of the system, that in this case, inter-marriage is made MORE difficult, or even illegal ?

Think about it for more than a few seconds: if any government had ever meant to merge the Aboriginal population into the general population, why did they allow local government ordinances against people living in towns or urban areas ? Why ban inter-mixing ? Why oppose kids coming to towns for secondary schooling ?

And what did Aboriginal people do, once they could seize opportunities after the war ? They came to towns and cities, where the jobs and schooling were, where the opportunities were.

Jewely,

Thanks, but none of what you cite is actually evidence of anything, only of wishes and intentions, and legal provisions: what were the actual numbers, and what were the causes of removal in each case ? Was the demand of some MP in the WA Parliament ever translated into action ? And isn't a complaint about 'a community of mongrels' a vile attack on mixed marriages ?

And, as you write, the situation today is appalling - why is it that 24 % of children in care are Aboriginal ? Is a single one of them 'taken', for no reason ? And if this is the case nowadays, then in the past, when people were far more likely to be destitute, isn't it logical that the discriminatory policies against Aboriginal people had even more devastating effects ?

[TBC]

No.Sorry isnt ever enough. I'll tell you what is....GIVE ME THE MONEY

socratease

Lego - re your last posting,

I was trying to find something there to disagree with, but point by point, I have to admit, I couldn't find it. But you could have mentioned:

* the policies of exclusion from towns after about 1870, i.e. policies of segregation.

* the dreadful destitution that people were plunged into, between about 1905 and 1960, when schooling was modified to provide only a dumbed-down primary curriculum, so that the new secondary education would not have to be provided for Aboriginal people, since after all they would have to come into towns and cities to access it, and that was not allowed, i.e. policies of blatant discrimination and what they called 'culturally adapted curriculum' - racism, in other words;

* the consequent forcing of Aboriginal men to look for work only in rural areas, and only semi-skilled and shearing jobs - it's documented that rural labour is actually the most dangerous occupation, with the most injuries. How could families expect to cope if their bread-winner was injured ?

People are still recovering from these catastrophes alone. One does not have to posit any policy to take kids away forcibly, for no other reason but to raise them as white kids.

You know, if I had met my wife three years earlier, in 1962, I would not have been able to associate with her. I would have been fined or jailed for trying, and she would have been sent back to the settlement. Those were the realities, not some fantasy of forcible mixing.

But still, jail or whatever, it would have been worth it ;)

Joe

great to read posts from people who care and aren't afraid to face the truth of the past rather than repeat leftist mantra.

Loudmouth, Australia was once a poor country and even white people were destitute. Your assertion that governments “did not give a toss” about aboriginals” is refuted by the fact that so many aboriginal children were taken into care. But there are academics who really do have a problem with capitalism, and these people will do anything to rupture the young Australians natural inclination to be proud of their own people.

The “Stolen Generation(s) is a perfect example of where a humanitarian obligation performed by Australian governments can be twisted by evil people to resemble “genocide”. These academics rely upon the fact that well meaning people such as you, are completely ignorant of their own people’s history, in order to push their Socialist agenda.

The reason why successive state and federal governments forbade white men to have sex with aboriginal girls, was to protect aboriginal girls from the sexual depredations of white men. Girls could be purchased from the Old Men for a handful of tobacco. If the successive Australian governments had wanted to get rid of the aboriginal people, all they had to do was to allow white men to continue buying aboriginal girls.

Half caste children born from these unions were either killed by the tribes, or if allowed to live, were called “yeller fellers” by the tribesmen and treated extremely badly. You only have to read “Rabbit Proof Fence” to learn that. That is why every half caste aboriginal child was taken into care.

The governments knew that there was almost nothing that they could do to integrate Stone Age people into modern society, but they could at least try and save the kids. They could educate them, teach them job skills and hygiene, and impart a bit of western morality.

I am not asking you to believe me. I am asking you to do some research yourself and learn the truth. When you realise that the people that you so admire are lying to you, and treating you like an easily led fool, then you might start thinking for yourself instead of accepting everything they say.