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(Continued …)

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It is time to take stock of the situation and initiate a more sensible, open-minded, pragmatic approach.

The 2017 “Uluru Statement From The Heart” issued by the 250 or so Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates to the National Constitutional Convention to advise the Referendum Council (appointed jointly by the Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull and the Leader of the Opposition, Bill Shorten) “what constitutional recognition means to them”, replied :

« We seek constitutional reforms to empower our people and take a rightful place in our own country. When we have power over our destiny our children will flourish. They will walk in two worlds and their culture will be a gift to their country … Makarrata is the culmination of our agenda: "the coming together after a struggle". It captures our aspirations for a fair and truthful relationship with the people of Australia and a better future for our children based on justice and self-determination. We seek a Makarrata Commission to supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations … »

In my view, we should pick up the gauntlet, take them up on their word, put their backs to the wall and … lend our full support to their endeavours !

It has now become perfectly evident that neither we nor they can succeed alone. We must work together.

It is their problem. They must fix it. But, as we, together with the British Crown and government, caused it, we must help them - alone, if necessary.

Unlike our Kiwi cousins, it seems that the very docile and holy reverence in which we hold our British masters is such that we dare not even evoke the problem with them – let alone suggest that they, too, might possibly bear some major part of responsibility in this everlasting saga.

Oh, well, that's our problem.

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//We can lament the passing of traditional cultures 'in all their magnificent richness', etc., but they can't be allowed to over-ride human rights, especially those of children and women. Oh, you forgot to mention that Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised for domestic violence than non-Aboriginal women across Australia (urban, working Aboriginal women have probably similar rates of hospitalisation as non-Aboriginal women).//

I have my doubts that the appalling violence and dysfunction observed in some Aboriginal communities can be so readily attributed to the remaining vestiges of pre-colonisation culture.

I have my own hypothesis that nearly all of it is attributable to something that was never a part of traditional culture because the indigenous people never learnt the ability to manufacture it until after colonisation: alcohol.

Hi Banjo Paterson,

Yes, isn't it amazing how little can be done with 'self-determination', the power to do things for yourself, IF you don't want to do anything for yourself, IF 'living the dream' means that it will all be done for you AND you can always dodge your human responsibilities by demanding more, as an 'oppressed' people ? 'Oppressed' ? I don't believe a word of it.

Actually, that oppositional culture has been around for a very long time, revolving very much around grog, how to get it, how to drink huge amounts of it, how to get up the Whitefellas' noses in public displays of oppositional behaviour. Great fun !

Yes, it's time - it's time for Aboriginal people in remote and rural areas to meet their human obligations in return for their welfare benefits, to take care of their kids properly, no more wandering the streets at three in the morning, no more abuse by 'uncles', making sure the kids will have a better and more fulfilling life by ensuring that they get proper schooling and are prepared for satisfying and meaningful employment, ideally by competent and productive Indigenous organisations. Getting vegetable gardens in remote areas would be a start, given that people usually have running water and plenty of equipment. Just one vegetable garden - I'd like to see that !

Yes, 'we' caused many problems by providing foraging people with shelter, food and all manner of services. And then we expect them to cope with such change ! How can we ever atone for our crimes ?

Perhaps, if foraging people had all services etc., cut and were driven back out into the desert, to forage to their heart's content ? Would that do it ? Do you want to advocate that ?

Joe

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Dear Loudmouth,

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As I have often remarked on this thread, your extensive personal knowledge and experience of our Aboriginal compatriots – their culture, their history, and their evolution – are of tremendous value and unparalleled in my opinion. I feel privileged that you share them so generously with me.

For someone disposing of such a wealth of knowledge and experience, I must confess that for a long time, during these discussions, I had difficulty understanding why you persistently judge our Aboriginal compatriots exactly as you would any other Australian. Until it occurred to me that if I, myself, had married an Aboriginal lady and we had children as you did, my love and affection for them would be exactly the same as if they had been of non-Aboriginal extraction. But then, not every oyster in the ocean contains a precious pearl, unfortunately.

Let me repeat that my sole interest in the matter is to understand to the best of my ability and propose what I consider to be the best solution in the circumstances. I am neither prosecutor nor defence lawyer nor judge. Nor do I pretend to be an expert on anything.

There is little I can add to my previous post. It sums up my thoughts on the matter.

However, you ask :

« Perhaps, if foraging people had all services etc., cut and were driven back out into the desert, to forage to their heart's content ? Would that do it ? Do you want to advocate that ? »

I think we need to adopt a sensible, open-minded, pragmatic approach to the problem. The unilateral – ideologically motivated – political solutions our successive governments have pursued for the past 230 years have proven grossly inefficient.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander delegates to the National Constitutional Convention in 2017 requested constitutional reforms to empower their people to rule their own destiny. In my opinion, we should let them “have a fair go” – and back them up as best we can.

It’s their problem. They must fix it. But we must help them.

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Hi Banjo Paterson,

Clearly nobody wants to go back to the pre-European situation in Australia, to a foraging life. Nobody 'south' of the pastoral line simply because their ancestors abandoned it a very long time ago; and nobody in the 'north' because life would be unimaginably harder compared to the good life they're living now (except perhaps the women and kids; and the elderly). And the bonus is" . you can complain to your heart's content that any problems are the Whitefellas' to fix up.

For example, I've heard it said that, because Whitefellas make the packaging for all the goodies that people in remote communities buy with their standard welfare benefits, then it's the Whitefellas' job to pick up all the rubbish, not theirs. And if people get sick from drinking too much, well, who provided the grog ? Whitefellas ! So it's their job to fix people up. Same with drugs - all Whitefellas' responsibility. THAT is what people mean by 'self-determination.

In 2018, it's surely time, when anybody talks about Aboriginal issues, to differentiate the 'south' from the 'north', people living amongst overwhelmingly non-Indigenous population of all sorts, from people living in isolated shirt-holes with nobody for company but their own relations and maybe those bastards from other country. In one population, the great majority, perhaps 90 % living in cities and large towns, one might find 95 % of the graduates, and people with similar statistics to other urban Australians, while in the other population, one might search in vain for graduates (except good-hearted urbanites wanting 'to serve their people' until they're pissed off) but one would quickly observe very different statistics, far more brutality, sickness and death. In one setting, life expectancy might be well in the seventies or eighties, but in the other, barely forty. In one setting, not out-of-the-ordinary domestic violence, but in the other, Aboriginal men would be putting their 'beloveds' into hospital 32 times as much. Heroes.

Two populations, separated mainly by that pastoral-settlement line, with very different histories and current statistics. And I fear that the Gap is Widening.

Joe

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Dear Loudmouth,

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You wrote :

« Two populations, separated mainly by that pastoral-settlement line, with very different histories and current statistics. And I fear that the Gap is Widening »

Yes, the situation seems pretty desperate. It remains to be seen if it is beyond repair or if there is any hope at all.

We obviously can’t do it. All we have succeeded in doing so far is to wreak havoc in their social structure and the natural ecosystem, with the catastrophic results you describe in their lifestyle. It took us 230 years and a lot of money to do that. Pretty poor performance if you ask me.

It would be a miracle if they could somehow manage to succeed in reconciling Aboriginal and Western civilisations after our having done everything we could for the past 230 years to impose assimilation into Western civilisation as their only possible future.

But, miracles do happen, sometimes, and we owe it to them to let them try. In my opinion, it’s the least we could do. It's their lives and they have the right to live them as they choose. Obviously, there is no way they could possibly succeed without our full support.

And if they failed, we should be by their sides to help pick up the pieces and, together, carry on as best we could.

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