[continued]

That may take a realisation that 'culture' may well be, not the solution, in any way, but the problem. The foraging philosophy of tolerating the boom and bust of whatever nature provides, of sitting down and partaking of 'boom' for as long as Nature occurs, and starving and dying when it doesn't - of completely misunderstanding where and how all this new Cargo comes from, that it is PRODUCED, by LABOUR as Marx would declare: it doesn't just drop out of the sky; that they need to carefully look after their kids and make sure they can deal with that outside society on equal terms.

The alternative of returning to a foraging lifestyle is possible even now, across 30 % of Australia (that's about two million square km) but nobody seriously chooses it - as they haven't ever since ration systems were introduced back in the nineteenth century.

That's one of the mistakes that early administrations committed - they may have recognised, from the outset, the rights of Aboriginal people to use the land as they always had done, but a ratio n system sucked people out of the bush everywhere, and they often didn't go back. So in ten, fifteen years the younger people had either forgotten, or never been taught, foraging skills. Let's not bullshirt that they have any more, in 2016. Rationing systems inadvertently killed off the foraging economy.

Culture is not genetic, Rodney, it is learned, or not - and nobody much in the North would bother living a sustained foraging life ever again, or know how to. People have 'learnt' about the bounties of the outside world, and they are never going to give those up, in spite of Rousseau's admiration for the noble savage. On a wage, with a couple of repeaters, and in a Toyota, for a day or so ? Yeah, all right.

Cheers,

Joe

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Dear Joe,

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You wrote :

« Now perhaps we can get back to the key issues in Indigenous affairs, # 1 of which is how to extricate people from the dreadful hell-holes which are remote 'communities', …

The alternative of returning to a foraging lifestyle is possible even now, across 30 % of Australia (that's about two million square km) but nobody seriously chooses it - as they haven't ever since ration systems were introduced back in the nineteenth century …

That's one of the mistakes that early administrations committed - they may have recognised, from the outset, the rights of Aboriginal people to use the land as they always had done, but a ration system sucked people out of the bush everywhere, and they often didn't go back …

Rationing systems inadvertently killed off the foraging economy »
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We’ve already been over this, Joe. I’m afraid we’re beginning to turn in circles.

The answer I thought we agreed upon was “it’s not for us to decide”. If some Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples decide, of their own free will, to perpetuate their traditional culture and life styles, then they should be free to do so.

The only caveat that I, personally, should make to that principle is, as I wrote in my open letter :

« … as Australian citizens, we constitute a single nation even though we come from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds which we are free to continue, to honour and cultivate, provided we do not encroach on the freedom of others »

And it is because we constitute a single nation, that we are all subject to Australian law, indigenous and non-indigenous peoples alike.

That said, it is evident that the administration and application of our state and federal laws should take into account the specificities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures which were not the cultures the legislator had in mind when they were promulgated. No doubt, our retributive or …

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(Continued …)

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(Continued …)

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... punitive justice system should also be revisited so far as it applies to our indigenous peoples. It may be possible to educate and empower some of the tribal elders and other respected community members to administer a form of tribal justice along the lines of restorative or reparative justice, subject to a minimum of external control by the appropriate state and federal authorities.

I understand that this has already been experimented in most, if not, all states and territories with varying degrees of success, but I suspect that it has not received the sort of continued support and backing it merits in order to be effective. For it to really get off the ground and produce positive results it has to be a sustained effort, over a long period, including adequate education and specialised training programs which, of course, require substantial long term financing.
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Quite frankly, Joe, I don’t think I can add much more to this debate. I have exhausted my feeble resources. But my will and determination to contribute to the best of my ability to the elaboration of an equitable solution for my Aboriginal compatriots remain intact.

Thank you for accompanying me over this long journey and sharing your knowledge and experience with me. I have enjoyed working with you.

Allow me, as a farewell gesture, to sign off by expressing a last tribute to the recently departed poet :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y

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Dear Rodney,

The terrible dilemma is that what you suggest has been tried many times, and failed. So the choice still has to be made by people in remote 'communities', whether to 'come in' to the modern world, or pretend that, somehow, they are not already in it, even though they live off it. People are in this world, not in some Rousseauan other-world, and with bitter hindsight, it was inevitable.

Or would be, if people survive the next generation or so without killing each other off.

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that all Indigenous people here are part of this single nation, they are surrounded by it, they live off its produce (and have done for 200 years), and sometimes they contribute to it.

The urban population increases about 0.4 % per year, and is now around 81-82 % of the total Indigenous population. 94 % of Torres Strait Islanders live on the mainland of Australia, not in the islands. They seem to be getting on with business, happily (although not for the Rousseauan model) mixing in with other Australians and contributing to its fortunes. They don't dance to anybody else's tune. So it is with most urban Aboriginal people. And more so each generation.

Unless the Indigenous elites move away from hopeless agendas such as sovereignty and separatism, they will be useless in guiding the Indigenous people to some sort of coherent future within Australia. I think their agenda is bankrupt. Their Narrative is bankrupt. The unity I used to work for (and still would if there were any signs of it) would be much more difficult to achieve now than forty years ago. We thought the Flag might work in this way, and I suppose it did to an extent, and still does: I see an Aboriginal Flag every day somewhere in Adelaide. Such is life.

Yes, we lost a great man with Leonard Cohen's passing. Was that his last song ? To go so soon after Suzanne is fitting. I'm in a singing group and we'll be singing 'Hallelujah' tonight, I'm sure.

Thank you, Rodney,

Joe