Hi Alan,

Ah yes, I remember now: I was responding to your anecdote about an outback class of Indigenous kids. Back in the 1870s, in Victoria, at a Mission called Ramahyuck, every kid in the school got 100 % for every subject. You can check this out on my web-site: www.firstsources.info - Victoria Page, 1882 Royal Commission into the Aborigines: Appendix. The Ed. Dept sent out an Inspector who rigorously checked the kids and got the same result. The Ed. Dept. then sent out two more inspectors who checked the kids and got the same result. Indigenous people themselves have smashed the myth that they are less intelligent than other people, time and again.

I think too that many people, with good intentions, 'love' Blackfellas precisely because they think they are helpless, easily cowed and herded here and there, at the whim of brutal racist policy-makers - when the truth is that, from the word go, Aboriginal people have done, within limits, whatever the hell they liked. In Rev. Taplin's Journal, you can see people at the Mission coming and going, going and coming, as they wish, working or not, as they wish, taking medicine or not as they wish, trying every trick in the book (usually only once) to get more rations, or more blankets, or grog.

Taplin's 600-page Journal really should be made into a TV series, although some single pages would take up an entire episode. I'm re-Indexing it at the moment and sometimes I laugh out loud at some of the amazing things, crazy things, that people do.

In other words, people had - and have - 'agency', and exercise it as freely as possible. They're not sheep, never have been, never will be. They can no more be herded than cats, although that myth might fit the narrative conveniently. They obviously didn't and don't always win, but by Christ they give it a good shot.

Cheers,

Joe

yep its obvious that the Indigeneous by and large did much better under the missionaries than the secularist religion which has done more destruction than good.

Linking issues of Education to notions of Improving Indigenous development

Morale is low among many living inside Aborigine Communities across the country. The burden is high, meaning for many families... they are emotionally exhausted. Their self-confidence is low, their life-quality is low, their sense of team spirit at ground level in many areas within community is low and their sense of enthusiasm heavy-hearted. Additionally, when you feel betrayed, you tend to be on your guard, generally distrusting others making learning or being open to wider experiences including innovation through education, more difficult.

Systemically you are right Joe Lane. The ‘… wheel is half-heartedly re-invented, only to be abandoned again’. After innumerable reports, economic and political promises not to forget the recent crushing funding cuts to Australia’s First Nations Peoples, a recurrent trauma felt came from messages on “Close Communities” (Lifestyle Choices) threats from Western Australian and the PM Abbott political quagmire. The saga being yet more perceptive proof of Australia’s continued disregard of inclusive policies that are historically adding to a disenfranchisement taking its toll on Australia’s First Nations people. Unaddressed in this context is Australia own cyclic psychohistorical story (political, military, social and economic) that reflects the impact of Australia’s repeated collective behavior neglectful of events through its historical, political-economic and cultural development across most rural areas for First Nations people.

With persistent ad-hoc political and economic ignorance and neglect over past decades, the statistics mirror today’s outcomes through elevated suicide rates, incarceration rates and other telling social and emotional indices among our First Nations people.

See Below:

a) The Insult:

We all need to seriously ponder on the expectations we place on our First Nations people and the value of the relationship we offer them in return. As Warren Mundine (whom I rarely agree with on many political issues) expressed on Saturday Extra; ‘it is not about the complexities but rather the simple things’. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/improving-indigenous-development/7474050,

For Aborigine Peoples, what does Australia’s relationship mean as a whole when their world in most life-style aspects is managed and impacted by a lack of basic representation through politics, corporations and charity. Where is the trust for the informal, the marginalized and disenfranchised? Why put the cart before the horse?

b) Treaties

First? Politically, this is the most important socio-political and economic issue for our First Nations people. For them, ‘how the hell can we discuss a Constitution or true “Recognition” before the honest and proper readdress of Treaties’? The whole notion is all back-to-front.

Aside from the discussion about education (as put fourth in this article), or the quality of emotional intelligence about who needs the education most, there is the economic cost in the long-term of investing millions in a Constitution Recognition only to find it does not and can not take into account the pinnacle number of principle issues required in a official documented process of reforms needed in Constitutional avocation through points omitted in the criteria of historical past-present and future (soundness) which must address the overdue consideration of ‘forms and formalities’, as steps through an affirmative and honorable process for “Reconciliation”.

http://www.miacat.com

Hi Miacat,

I got lost in your last paragraph :)

As for a Treaty, two questions immediately arise:

* What would be in it ? What issues, what clauses, who decides what ?

* Who would have the authority to sign it ?

We've heard of this idea, yet another silver bullet, for forty years now, but nobody seems to have ever teased out the answers to these questions. I suppose the problem is that usually treaties are worked out and signed BEFORE their consequences, not long after - unless I've misunderstood what magic this one is expected to bring.

So perhaps you could suggest one thing, just one thing, Miacat, which should be in a Treaty which the Australian voter can agree to, and which will make any observable improvement in the Indigenous position. The floor is yours :)

Cheers,

Joe

It's all here Loudy,

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/selfdetermination/would-a-treaty-help-aboriginal-self-determination#axzz4AfQRUxkS

The history of the world in as sentence: "You only ever own that which you have the power to defend". Full stop.

That truism applies to Australia over the millenia, just as it has elsewhere. That Australia was some completely isolated, peaceful arcadia with a common respect for the rights of all groups is too unbelievable. It is at the basis of Aboriginal demands while a history war goes on over it.

All aborigines are invited to join 21st century Australia and to take up special opportunities given to them towards the western education needed to achieve it. There will be no treaty reached that returns the aboriginal situation to what it was before european arrival.