Sorry Cara but I am indigenous and I know how divisive it is to treat people differently based on skin colour or race, dividing people into different groups.

We are all Australians regardless of how long our ancestors have been here.

Hypocritically, you see it as silly to have a team based on every other nationality but OK to single out the indigenous group.

And Kallili, I'll be going for New South Wales on Wednesday - all 17 of them.

Who gives a toss what colour skin they have, each and everyone of them will pull on the Blue jumper and wear it pride for their state, not their race. That is the great thing about sport - it is the colour of the jumper, not the skin which is important.

t.u.s.

Thanks "usual suspect" for making that clear. As a person with mixed genetic makep (like all of us really if you go back far enough) I too am sick of calls for special treatment for indigenous people and "redressing the past". The past is gone, we've only got today. The fact that my great grandmother suffered gross discrimination from people who called themselves "whites" cannot be repaired by their descendents compensating me in some way. Maybe I should compensate myself and give myself a sincere "sorry" (that would be my anglo genes talking to my native genes).

The past is not the issue, the present is the issue. Harmony today is not promoted by claiming special priveleges or by troublemaking, stirring, self-determination, or fighting for what we deserve from white society. The past with its tribal structures and lifestyles has gone forever. Nothing but nothing will bring it back, and we'd better get used to it.

Indigenous "tribal structures and lifestyles" have in fact not gone for many Indigenous communities. The notion of 'Special treatment' of Indigenous people is a fallacy because what we're talking about is receiving the extra resources where needed to ensure that Indigenous living standards, opportunities and quality of life is the same as the "all Australians" Mykah and t.u.s talk about. My point is that it's in fact not 'special' or a privelege but redressing the inequalities that have arisen in our society from years of government policy doing precisely what Mykah and t.u.s despise - favouring one group (Anglo Australians) over another (Indigenous Australians). Why is it a privelege to be equal? Why is it wrong to provide extra resources where needed? And it's pretty futile to think that we can make this a just society and gain equality for all Australians without acknowledging the link between the past and the present.

t.u.s. wrote:

"That is the great thing about sport - it is the colour of the jumper, not the skin which is important."

Yup. Just ask Michael Long, Che Cockatoo-Collins or Nicky Winmar.

for the life of me i cannot get my head around justifying notions that equal opportunity is a form of reverse racism.

if all the players in the 'settlement' of australia were on equal ground in the intial stages then those claims might have some degree of truth, but the fact remains that the settlement of this country was in no way fair to the aboriginal peoples who were here before cook landed on the shores.

it seems to me that notions of reverse racism when in referrence to affirmative action principles for employment, education, health and housing, totally disregards the facts that aboriginal people did not get a fair go at these until the 1970's. so for the past 35 years there have been attempts by some australians and the government to right past wrongs and even up the stakes between the haves and the have-nots.

this picture of white victimhood at the expense of equal opportunity is absolute nonesense, as far as im concerned, and is nothing more than a smoke screen that allows for the abrogation of responsibility for past injustices which still echo in todays world.

as a black woman whose children now experience the very same types of racial taunting and vilification in the school yard as i expereinced some 30 years ago is proof enough for me that nothing has really changed in terms of eliminating racism in australian society. the only significant contribution of eeo and affirmative action laws/legislation is the fact that aboriginal people have a bit more power in dealing with racism then before those structures were created.

my husband in of eastern european extract, so im not making these statements because i have a deep dislike for every other people who are not aboriginal. in fact some of my best mates are white people and through those friendships together we have challenged our own views on race, society and humans in general.

and as for supporting aboriginal sporting heros, if that's racist then so too must be support of lleyton at wimbeldon, the wallabys and the olympic team.

i identify strongly with those people because i share a common theme with them, my aboriginality of which i am very proud. i view them as role models for our younger people, if they can do it then so can others. and i very very certain that at some stage in their lives they would have been on the receiving end of racism and that today they're being held high for their abilities and talents which allows for them to challenge misinformed views of aboriginal people and to break down barriers for other aboriginal people who might choose to follow their lead.

if that makes me tribalistic then so be it, but it also makes 'aussies' as a whole tribalistic as well - and there seems to be some kind of hyprocrisy in that kind of thinking coz if the general aussie population can do it but the aboriginal population cant then it all goes back to that R word again.