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The Forum > Article Comments > Without prejudice > Comments

Without prejudice : Comments

By Bill Calcutt, published 29/6/2020

The global resurgence of the Black Lives Matter campaign reminds Australians of the ongoing disproportionate rate of incarceration of indigenous people in this country.

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Cont'd:
In another segment Miriam went with some female and male elders who maintained an evening 'patrol' in their area, collecting youths out after dark and taking them in the patrol bus back to their individual homes/camps. The housing in this area was pretty poor to atrocious.

Contrasts all over the place.

An acquaintance has two sons who have done quite a lot of work on stations 'up north - NT and Qld - and he told me there are some communities (camps?) where outsiders, including the police, daren't go for fear of your life. True or false, I cannot say. However, in Taree NSW, about 100 Ks from me, there is a 'suburb' called Purfleet, which has an Aboriginal Council, and where police are not permitted without express permission - as I understand it. Now, once I gave a lift to one fellow for about 2 ks towards Purfleet. Now, he wasn't 'hitching', I just stopped and offered him a lift. Did he show any thanks, any gratitude for saving him quite a bit of a walk. No way. He wouldn't even look at me - except when getting into the vehicle. So?

Anyhow, I've tried not to judge and also not to get carried away with these issues, and with rights and wrongs, and what might be best. But, I see promise on one hand, including some of the education activities - language, culture, materials - in some locations. Genuine effort.

Other areas are terribly disappointing, to say the least.

Foxy,

I wouldn't hold up the plight of the 'Native Canadians' as any 'glowing example'. Many of the women 'disappearing', much prostitution and very little hope. What is going on there appears atrocious. (From a TV doco.)
Posted by Saltpetre, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 2:15:18 AM
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Saltpetre, IF, as you say, debates are going on all over the place, it would be because those with a vested interest are pushing the debate and NOT because it is of any interest to the majority of people.
The usual suspects are the social media and the few who would choose to empathise, naively.
I stand convinced that this exercise has nothing to do with trying to get some form of recognition.
I'm pretty sure Australia recognises this push for what it really is, and we do not care for it.
As I have said all along, the blacks have made their position patently clear, but a constitution is not the medium to seek any form of recognition from, or with or through.
The constitution is a document acknowledging ALL Australians, and not to be used as a political tool to attempt some form of advantage over the rest of the population.
I don't know where Foxy copied all that drivel from in her previous post but, it's just words, meaningless words, attempting to make a superfluous, irrelevant and unjustified case.
If anyone wants whatever the heck recognition and for doing what, (just for getting up in the morning and going to sleep at night) then they have already forced themselves into and are extremely well entrenched and represented, in the annals and curriculum of the education system.
That is as far as any recognition should go, as it is already way beyond any reasonable level of unnecessary exposure in what is meant to be a place of education in preparation for a productive life of employment.
Like sports, there is no point or useful benefit, delving too deeply into a subject of no practical use, or forms part of the already abundant superfluous subjects in the financially, and generally, useless category, in a later working life and the purpose of which is to earn a living.
Posted by ALTRAV, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 8:33:42 AM
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Joe,I didn't mean to imply that all the mixed race people were up to those sort of tricks but unfortunately that is where the group who work the system come from.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 9:02:44 AM
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David,

Before you slag entire groups of people, perhaps you could make that differentiation a bit clearer. And, of course, clean up your racist language: Surely you wouldn't use that sort of insult in the case of Jacinta Price or accuse her of corruption or incompetence ? If anything, the only grey people around would be whitefellas on a winter's morning in Melbourne.

There is a very interesting article in today's Australian by an 'Aboriginal elder' on these subjects, which would ring all too true for most people with some basic experience of Indigenous organisations.

And also a very perceptive Letter to the Editor from Anthony Dillon, on self-determination and its limitations. And another article in today's paper, by chance uses the term 'Mafia' in relation to another Indigenous controversy.

Just coincidental :)

Joe
Posted by loudmouth2, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 12:00:24 PM
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Jacinta Price would be the last one who I would poke a finger of scorn at.It is a pity that the ABC doesn't give her a better go when she is allowed to appear on one of their discussions. I wish there were a few more like her and her mother Bess. It is a pity that they meets with so much opposition from the people they are trying to educate.

Racism seems to be a misused term. If I say something criticizing a non white person then I am deemed to be a racist. On the other hand if an non white person complains about something I may have done or said, then that is OK, no one complains.

David
Posted by VK3AUU, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 1:17:26 PM
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Dear Saltpetre, Joe, and David,

The Turnbull government appointed a Referendum Council, which
held dialogue meetings around the country, led by
Pat Anderson and Megan Davis. The result was the Uluru
Statement from the Heart, which called for a Voice "to"
(not "in") parliament. A "Voice" not a Veto.

The Voice was to be a body to represent all Aborigines and
Torres Strait Islander people and advise the parliament on
legislation that affected them. But the details were not
included in the Statement, and this remains a problem.

Prof. Marcia Langton remains hopeful that there will be
constitutional reform. "I was disappointed when Turnbull
dismissed the motion out of hand but Scott Morrison and
Ken Wyatt are still considering it", she says.

The group Prof Langton chairs with Tom Calma is working with
national and regional bodies towards a blueprint for a "Voice"
to Government, and will report to the minister.

Prof Langton believes "it's highly likely he will be able to
take a workable model to Cabinet. A referendum to change the
Constitution is being considered as a separate matter but Minister
Wyatt has said it won't occur in this term of government ".

Prof. Langton remains emphatic that the Voice must be enshrined
in the Constitution.

"We don't have a choice," she says. "If it is not enshrined in
the Constitution, another government will come along and say,
"I don't like the look of those Aborigines, let's get rid
of that. What we need in the Constitution is a simple, elegant
clause that recognises the First Peoples and guarantees that
there will be a mechanism for Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people to have a say in the legislation that affects
their lives".

We all know that before 1967 Indigenous Australians were
excluded from being counted in the census for the purpose of
voting. We all know that the Constitution also empowered laws
and policies that denied Indigenous voting rights, property
rights, equal wages, and asserted protectionist controls.

What is being asked is not impossible to do. It's a simple
request for equal rights. And well overdue.
Posted by Foxy, Wednesday, 8 July 2020 2:12:51 PM
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