Joe,

Problems are:

Many Indigenous Australians have spent years in
some cases their entire lives in mission and
government reserve communities. In those
environments, everything from employment
opportunities to daily supplies and schedules were
managed by external agencies.

Many of these people had been denied the opportunity to
manage their own finances and of course when
they suddenly began receiving regular
payments problems arose. And those who'd long been denied leadership
roles were asked to manage complex administration and
unfamiliar bureaucracy.

Many of these communities didn't have the
capacity, the skills, training, experience, to manage
their own affairs according to government requirements.
In many cases this also resulted in new challenges and
problems.

During the Howard years ATSIC was abolished allegedly due
to mismanagement, causing some people to claim that the
self-determination approach to Indigenous affairs had
failed.

Yet we can also argue that ATSIC was never sufficiently
independent from government interference, concluding that
self determination has never been properly tested in
Australia despite previous governments adopting the term
to describe their TOP-DOWN approach.

However one way or another - the concept of self-
determination as a process whereby Indigenous communities
take full control of their failures and decide how they
will address the issues facing them remains central to
Indigenous rights activism and is fundamental to the
United Nation's International Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.

mhaze,

More women in Australia are going to prison than ever
before. In the past 10 years there's been a 75% increase in
women's ratio of incarceration.

White men make-up the majority of the Australian prison
population. The number of women entering the prison system
is increasing at a much faster rate.

Just over a third of female prisoners in Australia are
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. This is particularly
significant given Indigenous women comprise just 2% of the
general female population in Australia.

Evidence suggests that the majority of women in prison
are victims of domestic violence. Somewhere between 70%
and 90% pf incarcerated women have been physically,
sexually, or emotionally abused at some point in their
lives.

http://www.womensagenda.com.au/latest/more-women-in-australia-are-going-to-prison-than-ever-before-heres-why/

To foxy. Aboriginal dependence was the problem and self determination is the answer? Not according to this letter.

Aboriginal literacy declining Letter to the Editor

The Australian March 16 2010

When I worked at Kununurra about five years ago, it was common to see a group of young men from Wadeye being escorted by an older man in the town centre. The young men needed the old man because the young men could not speak sufficient English to make themselves understood, and could not write well enough to withdraw money from their bank account. The old man, schooled in a mission school, could do both quite well.

The culture of aversion to school at Wadeye is years old. How come we have another generation being schooled in the same dysfunctional manner?

Chris Squelch, Mount Isa, Queensland.

'runner,

It's so heart warming to see you continue to espouse
your concerns for the rights of a foetus.
However I'll ask again - if the foetus you save
turns out to be GAY will you continue to protect
its rights?

BTW - just because I don't agree with you does not make me
a "regressive" or a "hater" it just means you can't deal
with diversity as you claim you can.

Foxy

The baby in the mothers womb will be born with a corruptible nature just like you and me. Growing up he/she will make choices in regards to fornicate, commit adultery or participate in homosexual activity.

I use the word regressive because for the last 50 years Marxist have pretended to be progressive. They see freedom to have sex with whoever , whenever and with whomever or whatever as progessive. Its been tried before and not ended well. They see killing unborn babies as freedom. Its been a practice for numerous cults and tribes over thousands of years. The left has perverted language and are far from progressive. They usually regress to violence when they don't get their own way.

Foxy,

Oh god.

:However one way or another - the concept of self-
determination as a process whereby Indigenous communities
take full control of their failures and decide how they
will address the issues facing them remains central to
Indigenous rights activism and is fundamental to the
United Nation's International Declaration on the Rights
of Indigenous Peoples.:

They've got it. They've had it for nearly fifty years. Please understand that. They've got self-determination. Communities have had it or nearly fifty years. They've got it. Decisions made about Aboriginal communities are made by Aboriginal people. Elders probably. Good and bad decisions, they've had those powers for nearly fifty years. Since you were probably still in school.

Joe

Shadow, you should stick to the subject you excel in, STUPIDITY. You come across as some high-browed, toffee-nosed git, who claims expertise in everything, legal, medical, you name it, you know it. What would you know about Rhodesia other than what you can find with a quick Google. Ding Dong what does "refugee" mean to you. Me thinks " " might indicate something.

Big Nana, do you understand the meaning of per capita? Say per 100,000, 7 in 700,000 is 1 per 100,000, 8 in 24,000,000 is 0.03 per 100,000. Therefore an indigenous person is 30 times more likely to die in police custody than a non-indigenous person. Its nothing to do with simply 8 and 7, 8 being greater than 7. Maybe the mathematical genius Professor Shadow Minister can help you out on this one, but as a far right nutter he might not be willing.

Hi Shadow Minister.

My car battery went flat so I rang the NRA to get a guy over to replace my battery. Turns out he was an ex Rhodesian paratrooper who parachuted into ZANU and ZANLA terrorist camps and got them all running for their lives, straight into another parachuter ambush acting as the anvil to their hammer.

His opinion of shooting black terrorists was "I know they were terrorists but they were still human beings."

When I asked him how the Rhodesian people felt about the western world stabbing them in the back, he stopped and looked right at me and said, "Mon, you have no idea how long I have waited to hear those words."

One amusing thing which happened to the paratropers was when the Rhodesian General Walls visited his paratroopers prior to take off on a mission to drop on a terrorist camp. He spied two paratroopers in their sixties already kitted out and bombed up, and sitting with their L1A1 SLR's in the Dakota, ready to go.

'You can't go because you are too old", said General Walls.

'So is the aeroplane" replied the paratroopers. "Anyway, both of us are experienced paratroopers who have dropped operationally before."

"Where was that?", asked General Walls.

"Arnhem", said the first, "Crete" said the second.