any aboriginal person who grows up or interacts within white societal boundaries/conditions as oppossed to growing up on an aboriginal community has to be thick skinned and able to deal with racist rednecks or be in trouble with the law.

plain and simple breakdown of assimilated life in the burbs.

you aint white but u not like them other blacks and u sure got some chip on your shoulder!

on a community you live with other aboriginal people, and aboriginal themes dominate the daily way of life. in the city its different, daily life is spent with a mixture of people who affect daily life. how u deal with them affects every other aboriginal person.

lisamaree,

Irony? How can what I have written be called ironic? Read carefully dear as what I have written is from my personal life experience as an Indigenous person.( Warning: I'm from the bush and live in the urbs now, so this might confuse your geo-political defintions of what is a real 'aborigine', and yes I'm very black skinned, oowee!)

I think it would be universally accepted that first hand experience and is very different from observations made from a safe distance (as my previous post questioned) -that is - observations I suspect that are made through the blinds of your window, gossip, and idle chit chat with others whose only relationship with Indigenous people is more surreal than real.

Irony, ironic?

And English is my second/thirdish language, whats your excuse?

PS. I saw Elvis the other day and he passes on his best wishes to you. (I'm kidding, no really, I'm just joking..)

that attitude of blinding yourselves to the facts that there are aboriginal people out there who live a 'normal' life, most of them are doing and combine their heritage in the mix, others deny it totally.

yeah that might be your reality lisa maree, but its not mine.

its that attitude of ignorance, just because you see it like that dont mean that it is like that.

that ignorance is rampant across australia.

Hi Kalilli, Yes I understand what you're saying - I'm not arguing your point that most if not all minority groups can and do get a rough deal due to the ignorance and attitudes of others. It's a sad fact that poeple get treated differently just because they are a minority (just check out some of the posts in other threads re lebanese, muslims, etc). I'm not saying that any aborigine living in a city isn't able or capable of conducting as normal a life as many australians, so please can we clear that up. OK so you think I have put up barriers - possibly so - but I am more than willing to acknowledge that it's through no fault of the aboriginal community that there are such barriers. How do you reconcile this? Re-reading your posts, I think you've nailed it in one with your comment of a need for "a practical mixture of the two-worlds" and "provide the (aboriginal) community the means to contribute in an economic context back to itself and the wider community." Spot on.

ps...Rainier. Maybe you don't realise your posts are showing you up as someone that has absolutely no positive contribution to make to this discussion except to put down anyone who dares to say they've had limited interaction with the indigenous community? Yes I'm guilty of that. Maybe I, and every other white australian, should live in an aboriginal community for a while before they're allowed to have an opinion. Would I need to conform to aboriginal lore in order to do that? Failing that, I could email you my opinions first before posting so you can vet them and tell me what my opinions should be? You could convert them to several languages for your amusement if you like.

"Observations from a *safe* distance" - well yes they may be from a distance, but you're also implying it's "unsafe" to be at a close distance! Not a very good argument that one :-)

And "...made though blinds of your window gossip idle chat...". Another personal observation - your telepathic skills have failed you on that one too. Face it Rainier, your attitude is exactly what you're (incorrectly) accusing me of, except by some miracle of inversion I should even consider your derogatory remarks.

hey, i just accused you of being ignorant, you provided the evidence, not me.