It'll be interesting in about 2020 what sort of an apology the new invaders will come up with. They'll have to apologise to the indigenous & to the first invaders.

For once we agree Pericles.England was invaded by the Vikings ,Romans and the Spanish.They too should send a letter of apology to us for killing our ancestors.Unlike New Zealand who had 20 warring tribes and some national identity our Aborigines had no concept of nation and also fought amongst themselves.Humans like Chimpanzees are murderous beings.It is probably in the genes.

Yes we murdered them and many tried to exterminate them and it was wrong but we are judging past generations by todays standards.Would the people of Indonesia have been kinder?eg like they treated West Papuans? Nomadic subsistance life is just as brutal if not more so than the early Colonial days of Australia.Let's not guild the lilly.

Admit the wrongs and move on.The plight of Aborigines will not change unless they too become part of mainstream Australia.This means developing a work ethic,discipline and contributing.

SERIOUSLY, why might anybody want to oppose using the word "invasion"!! It is the word that the invaded indigenous minority feel is acceptable, AND, those who still wanted to depose the invaded indigenous minority, tend to fancy themselves to be an invading majority, so ought to claim their victory in that, rather than mud puddling around trying to say they won their undeclared war, without saying so. What a part of the game always was, is in that white racists give their games away to black men, and black men know it, so are more careful about preventing racism among black brethren, since the racist gives the ultimate advantage to who they were hating. The invasion itself is a seperate issue from racially based discrimination . . . although it is difficult to disentagle the two issues. My point of view is as a person with ancestry from Britain, Germany, Greece, and indigenous to Australia, but with white skin, and a mind for black cultural outlooks, the clear winner of any invasion was always whomsoever could depose racism without falling into that pattern of self identification. What are any of us if not long oppressed and long invaded inside our own dreams.

We ought to place the whole question within the context of the whole planet and all the invasions of territory that have happened, and what we understand of why such events ever took place! And we are all capable of that contextualisation without dwelling in racial divisions.

@rpg,

Funny how stating an Indigenous view of land ownership is racist. But I guess you view land rights as racist anyway yes?

There were (and still are) many different 'nation' that your mob collectively label as Aboriginal peoples.

My nations still have culture, language and some land (only the fringes provided by native title).

Therefore, from my perspective (something you think we black mob should not have), this is black land. The Mabo and Wik decision confirm this. My mob (read: specific Nations) never signed a defeat treaty so there was no conciliatory defeat. In accordance with every other invaded nation throughout (including many European nations centuries ago), we will never concede defeat and will continue to resist.

That is only my opinion though.

2deadly makes the salient point that at the time of European colonisation there was not one united Aboriginal nation or people. There were, and still are, many different and diverse nations of people spread out across the continent. Acknowledging that defeats the treaty argument...there was no one united people to sign a treaty with.

Keep resisting 2deadly but it is futile...the war is over mate. What we should be working for is eliminating the entrenched poverty and third world conditions in so many of the remote communities. All Australians must be educated in the ancient history this land has and embrace its importance in overall human history. Australians must also be educated that this country was not settled peaceably and there was a frontier war that lasted for over 150 years. Let's not simplify it as European against Aboriginal though...the Native Police committed atrocities too...and often in the name of tribal revenge.

The diversity of people and nations meant there was often warfare between competing tribes. That division was exploited by Europeans in their relentless march to tame and take the country. So don't offer the treaty scenario without first noting that there was no united nation, and there still isn't, of Aboriginal people. You can't have a treaty with something that doesn't exist.

A minority of Indigenous people still face enormous problems generated mainly by the failed policies of the last forty years. These issues demand urgent remedies.

Yet people like Pilger prefer to dig up dead horses and kick them around the paddock. Yes, of course there was an invasion by any definition, and it's in the past, like so many other tragedies which have afflicted every group of people on earth. What is anybody supposed to do about it, apart from crying walrus-and-carpenter tears ?

Meanwhile, close to eighty thousand Indigenous people have enrolled at some time at university, a quarter of the entire Indigenous adult population - of those, eleven thousand are currently studying, and twenty six thousand have graduated. People are getting on with life, taking care of business.

Leave the sob-stories to hacks like Pilger and their overseas captive audiences: they can always find something else to dig up and sink the boot into.

Time for a new Left, a Left which tries to get involved, which is prepared to do the hard thinking to change the world for the better, instead of glorying in misery and in merely 'interpreting' the world. And certainly it is time for new paradigms in Indigenous affairs.

Joe Lane