I watched a TV show last night in which people go back in time & live for a few days running a Corner store. As the story came to Sugar, a South Sea islander woman explained that the Qld Sugar industry was built on the labour of Kanakas, a term she said was derogatory & that some 40, Labourers were forcefully taken to work on the Qld Cane fields. That is a huge number & I was wondering if anyone has information if this number is either correct, lower or higher.
The woman said that many of these forcefully removed never returned to their islands. That would make a big number of descendants who would now be deemed indigenous.
The forced Labour trade is a horrific part of Qld history & must be included in history teaching. It was shocking to hear the Australian participants say that they had never heard of the forced labour on the Cane fields.
There were also many thousands of South Pacific Islanders who weren't forced & who actually made applications to work on the Qld cane fields in the later years. This fact was not included in the Woman's explanation or perhaps I missed it !

my apologies, that should be 40,000 not 40, !

Indyvidual,

Whilst setting up a race based electoral system has its challenges, I don't think it impossible. Perhaps the advocates for the system could contact the Republic of South Africa and see whether they could access information on how the Apartheid system functioned. It might save them a few teething problems.

I cannot understand why extremists hate each other so much as after a time they tend to want the same things. Maybe the secret is in the timing?

Fester.
On a related issue, when apartheid ended in South Africa, Mandela created the Truth and Justice Commission to enquire into all violence - black against white, white against black and black against black. The Greens and Aboriginal activists keep talking about 'truth-telling' but it's only 'their' truth of white against blacks that they want told, a long way from being the whole or real truth.

The Voice is not meant to be race-based as such, it is meant to be indigenous-based. I support that. What I don't support is people from all sides hijacking the proposal.
Because of this inevitability, all the people involved in this should support establishing an Aboriginal proof system via DNA.
Whichever racial heritage is the more prominent is the group of people they then belong to.
Indigenous Australians (not Islanders) have been forced off their traditional roaming grounds & for this they have been, are & will be compensated by common services & welfare.
Great areas of land have been handed back to indigenous groups yet their benefits remain & the people are not required to make a living from or with this land. Those indigenous who already hold good Public Service positions are no longer in need of special consideration & are equal to non-indigenous in every aspect.

26 January is the anniversary of the 1808 Rum Rebellion where treasonous troops overthrew their government because of ... Grog and Gambling interests. Those interests still wield a lot of control as news coming from NSW Libs show.

Colonialist Australia has a problem with grog and gambling, at one stage Aboriginal people were even enslaved using opium addictio - getting people addicted to a substance, control the substance, and control the addicts. Look at where the profits go, its not to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders.