Morgan,

What do you mean by indigenous perspective. There is no one indigenous perspective that I know about. I suppose I am being unaboriginal by not demanding an apology from the Government.

If the aboriginals in so much need you are talking about need an apology to get on with life - then that is their problem.

But maybe they should also demand apologies from the elders in tribes which turned their backs on half castes.

And many of the aboriginals I know (outside my family) should also demand an apology from their parents and grandparents for not providing a stable loving home life.

I see myself as an individual with opinions, feelings based on my life experience.

I may be indigenous, but I also have Maori, Danish and English heritage as well.

Like I said before, people will make do with what they have on an individual basis.

I don't need an apology to make my life better, I just do my job, look after my kids and contribute to society as anyone else would. My indigenous background does not make me any better or worse than anybody else, my actions and life is what counts.

t.u.s.

BTW,

Is there anything else you want to know about me which may help you prejudge what I am going to say or judge whether that is an appropriate attitude given by demographic and background?

I am 24, married with 2 children, I have a mortgage, I have an arts degree majoring in politics and geography, I have 12 months to complete a science degree in environmental science, I live in regional Australia, I am a journalist, I am heterosexual, I am an athiest, I have four sisters and one brother, I have voted Labor, Liberal, National in the elections I have been eligble for, I voted yes to the republic, I drive a station wagon and I spend too much time reading and responding to opinions on OLO.

happy profiling

t.u.s.

Thanks, 't.u.s.' - certainly from your last post you'd have to be an unusually well-assimilated Aborigine. Congratulations are in order, I suppose. While I agree that there is no coherent Indigenous perspective at the moment - and there is hardly likely to be one while our Federal government continues its program of 'practical recolonization' - yours would have to be the antithesis of one.

Of course that's the answer: assimilate them, breed them out, remove any form of organized representation, get them to realise that they are responsible for the racist attitudes of the dominant culture towards them, bulldoze the Block, revert Palm Island back to its concentration camp origins...

I don't suppose that you heard this morning's 'Background Briefing', which vividly demonstrated the differences in outcomes between Australia's and Canada's Indigenous peoples over the past couple of decades - it's certainly worth a listen if you're interested in alternative approach that has apparently achieved much better results than ours has, in a structurally comparable ex-colony.

Morgan

if the ususal suspect thinks that Indigenous people have equal rights to health and housing services, perhaps a visit to some of the Indigenous settlements would provide a more realistic perspective.

If they have equal rights then why are they not using them to their best advantage?

Hi t.u.s

I certainly admire the position you have reached if in fact you grew up in an Aboriginal community. You may well belong to the class of 0.1% or 0.001% of indigenous people in Australia.

All the same I am a bit saddened by your apparent attitiude towards the less fortunate amongst the indigenous people. I sense a certain lack of any empathy.

Amongst oppressed minorities it is not uncommon for the small number who make it with the 'mainstream' to look down upon those they left behind. Perhaps unconsciously to distance themselves from the background they come from; perhaps to make themselves more identifiable with the mainstream.

Amongst Chinese Australians in the 20th century, it is not uncommon for parents to do their upmost to prevent their children from knowing that they were Chinese. They would deliberately not pass on any Chinese culture to thier children. For they knew from their own growing up in Australia that to be Chinese is to be discrimanated against.

We all know how much worse off the indigenous people are compared with the Chinese who are descended from those who came before Federation.

Chek Ling

Mollydukes –“If they have equal rights then why are they not using them to their best advantage?”

That is a question I ask of many people most days – regardless of their ethnicity.

The thing even less creative than an “indolent” individual is

the most creative bureaucracy of the state ever inspired which demands individuals conform to the edicts of the state and denies all individuals, equally, the right of self determination.

To quote another poster here on this thread -

TUS “Like I said before, people will make do with what they have on an individual basis.”

And thus, some will fall behind whilst others will rise to achieve for themselves and lead by example.
I have the feeling TUS and I are reading from the same book (of life).