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The Forum > Article Comments > Let the market unchain indigenous communities > Comments

Let the market unchain indigenous communities : Comments

By Vladimir Vinokurov, published 8/9/2016

Warburton, for example, has received a $266,000 grant to open a hairdressing salon. A hairdresser opening their own shop or working door to door could achieve more with much less.

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Bazz...as far as I know, educational institutions will not question the bona fides of applicants.
Closing the gap applicants do, in my experience!
My conclusion is from personal observation, so I may be proved wrong; but I'm confident!
Membership of Land Councils are hotly contested, also in my experience. I've observed the light skinned Aboriginals resisted, and put through some tough hoops proving linage. Especially so, if entering an area from another clan.
Posted by diver dan, Sunday, 11 September 2016 9:21:44 PM
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Hi Dan,

When I was working in Indigenous student support, I certainly checked people out if possible, it often wasn't that difficult. Of course, sometimes it certainly was.

This is back in the days when there were few Indigenous people finishing Year 12, so special entry procedures were in place. As you may know of applicants, a simple question, something like "Where was your mum from ?", usually brought an answer within seconds, placing that person in relationships that were well-known to at least one staff member.

One bloke was eager to enrol until I asked him that, and he hedged a bit, choosing a town where my wife's auntie had lived for fifty years. No, she wouldn't know anybody there, she was a 'Stolen Generation'. But of course, that meant he couldn't name anybody or any place, very convenient. So I asked him to fill out a family tree, and never saw him again. He got into a much slacker Indigenous program and was their Aboriginal Scholar of the Year, moving on after graduation to a high position in policy in Canberra.

Sometimes applicants claimed to come from a long way elsewhere, usually Tasmania or WA, but if I had been in doubt, a few phone calls to local organisations would have cleared that up.

I'm sure others got through the net. My wife, in another support program, was suspicious about one woman and asked her about her Indigenous status; she told my wife that if she ever asked that again, she would take her to court. My wife was told to back off by her boss, eager to pad the figures, and that person now is in a high position.

So it happens. The 'Stolen Generation' story has opened up many opportunities, probably all over the country, and boosted the careers of many people. Enough said.

Cheers,

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Monday, 12 September 2016 8:53:32 AM
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Joe (loudmouth)...

I do understand why the system is rorted. In the educational context, if Aboriginal programmes are run specifically focused at Aboriginals, then imposters are less likely to attempt to hitch-hike the course!

Enrolling in educational courses fraudulently, demonstrates one aspect of corruption; but for the educational institution to turn a blind eye to a corrupt practice, simply to gain funding for their campus, then corruption is implicitly condoned.

Isn't this what people are objecting to. Layers on layers of corruption, which brings the whole endeavour of Aboriginal advancement under a cloud of suspicion.

I mean to say, it is easy to stop this. Turnbull with wisdom, needs to unhitch the whole kaboodle of Government assistance programmes and inspect its entirety in fine detail.
There will be huge savings to taxpayers for starters, but secondly, it's most important to legitimise tax payer investment into Aboriginal disadvantage, in a way that keeps the community onside with the worthwhile cause it is intended to be!

When Aboriginal organisations such as the land Councils, which refuse permission, for example, to allow infrastructure projects such as electricity grid lines to pass through their land, without payment of a less than subtle bribe of multiple thousands of dollars, to inspect for artefacts which may or may not be present,is a standing joke among the broader community in regional Australia.

A sensitive approach will do, not a John Howard full frontal attack, inclusive of the AIF. That is overt demonstration of unfairness and racism of the worst kind IMO.
Posted by diver dan, Monday, 12 September 2016 10:21:43 PM
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Dan,

I have to point out that, at least at the multi-campus uni I worked at, all of Indigenous students were enrolled in 3- and 4-year straight, mainstream courses. Nationally, at a maximum in the mid-nineties, a quarter of all Indigenous students, many enrolled externally, were doing Indigenous-oriented courses. Support staff were on each campus and at off-campus Study Centres, but we were all dragooned into an Indigenous Faculty with an implicit instruction to channel students towards Indigenous-focussed courses. But that was impossible out on my campus: so I was 'let go' ASAP.

Happily, since then, the arse has dropped out of Indigenous-focussed courses: perhaps only five per cent (perhaps only two or three per cent) of Indigenous students across the country are enrolled in such courses. Wonderful. Of course, those changes, around 2000-2005, wiped out the external Study Centres, so rural students now have far fewer educational options. The vast majority of Indigenous students currently enrolled have been born and raised in the cities. Half are women. So a typical Indigenous university student is female, urban-born, in a degree-level mainstream course, who intends to work in an urban environment.

Strange, the Indigenous education elites have no interest in under-graduate, or mass, enrolments, but fuss over Ph.D. students, those who are few enough in number to be eventually sucked into the elite, fussed over, 'mentored', advised, cosseted, while they learn how the elite works. Sixty-odd years ago, Ralph Turner wrote about what he called 'sponsored mobility', meaning mainly the British system of reproducing an elite: in Britain, the 11-plus, the exam for all 11-year-olds, separated the promising would-be elite kids from the dross and set them on the road to elite membership.

No: twenty-odd years ago, I wrote an article on 'Mass Indigenous Higher Education' (MITE), full of optimism about future growth in Indigenous university numbers. And how right I was: last year, participation grew by 8 %, and has doubled in ten years. Indigenous women now participate at a higher rate than non-Indigenous men. NON-Indigenous men.

If they could read spreadsheets, the elites should be sh!tting themselves.

Cheers,

Joe
Posted by Loudmouth, Tuesday, 13 September 2016 8:48:03 AM
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It's a tough one isn't it Steel!
Posted by rehctub, Wednesday, 14 September 2016 10:47:33 AM
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