It is such a familiar story to some, isn't it Col.

>>Australia today is Australia today, the "invaders", like the Romans, Saxons, Angles and Normans did in the UK<<

The Saxons continued their resistance to the Norman invasion right up to the Hundred Years War and the early fifteenth century. After all, the Normans had brought with them an new language, as well as a new ruling class, and confiscated land left right and centre. Hardly surprising that non-Normans were miffed.

There are, I am sure, many other examples of the slow assimilation of the locals into the new way of life introduced by the invaders. As ever, it will happen eventually, and some folk will resent it longer than others.

Hi Pericles,

More than that: around eighty percent of Indigenous people have non-Indigenous partners, an expression of being able to associate with and fall in love with and live with whoever one likes in a relatively free society. I know one family of about ten people, all but one of whom married or is living with a non-Indigenous partner, and most of their kids are too.

After all, if a group forms only 2-3 % of a population, then 97-98 % of their work-mates, colleagues, social friends may come from other groups, so that shouldn't be any surprise. One interesting fact though is that a high proportion of the partners of Indigenous people are not white Anglo or white either - Maltese, Fijian (Indian and Indigenous), Greek, 'Afghan', Swedish, Vietnamese, German, Thai, Italian, Chinese, Indonesian, you name it. And they have very beautiful kids too.

People shouldn't forget history (of course, they have to learn and re-learn it first, that's the hard part) but they shouldn't let it hold them back. Scottish Australians shouldn't forget the Clearances, or Irish Australians the prolongation of the 1840s Famine by the English, but they also are getting on with living, taking care of business :)

Joe

Bloody hell ! This still going !?
Yes, John Pilger is an "Arm-Chair Expert", he certainly is !
But Joe, re. “around 'eighty percent' of Indigenous people have non-Indigenous partners” ?
My estimation is 18% "max".
With most liaisons being “very temporary” and with “very few” marriages.
Plenty of kids. But Mum and Dad "didn't marry".
Though most ( married ) high profile and successful Aboriginal are married to non-indig ( mainly Anglo-Aussies )
Most of these marriages eventually fail.
Joe, I've covered all this stuff on www.whitc.info

Arthur Bell.

Hi Arthur,

Good to hear from you :) I'll stick by my statement that up to 80 % of Indigenous people are marrying, or partnering, non-Indigenous people, but modify it by saying that it would apply to urban people on the one hand, and working people on the other. For Indigenous people who are working, and especially if they have trade and/or professional qualifications, the inter-marriage rate would be closer to 90 % or even 95 %.

Amongst my in-laws, for example, only 20 % would have selected Indigenous partners. Amongst their cousins, off the top of my head, the inter-marriage rate would be similar, except for the cousins who stayed on the mission - even then, some have chosen non-Indigenous partners. In a relatively free society, that's how it works - people choose from amongst those who they work or associate with. Even the lifelong-unemployed seem to choose a high proportion of non-Indigenous drop-kicks as partners - to their detriment, but there you go.

Actually, this has been going on for much longer than people would think - inter-marriage, I mean, not just the odd fling or liaison. Marriages between Aboriginal men and non-Aboriginal women were not unknown back in the nineteenth century, and certainly liaisons the other way have been very common. And I think there would have been many liaisons which involved deep love and affection, they weren't all predatory. Our forty three years were certainly marked from beginning to end by passionate love and attachment, a sense of common cause, so I wouldn't begrudge anybody else a similar experience.

Joe Lane