Dear Editor,this is a subject,that I really do not want to comment on,as there are far too many Idiots around Australia,that I have met,when I came to Australia,when talking of the real Australians,it surprised me to hear so much crap,about them the koori people,I decided to find out for myself,in Ballart,Melbourne,Sydney,and other country towns,and found the koori people different to what told about them,to me they are included among the best of humanity that I met in my life.

Justice James Spigelman has said that millions of Australians have an Aboriginal ancestor.Yet Australia still is one of the most racist country in the world

Amel,

Which countries do you think are less racist than Australia?

Regards,
Terje.

P.S. A well written and thought provoking article.

Bugger, I have to agree with Terje,

Good article, but it is noticeable that you reached no conclusion regarding the validity of the JLC's identification of themselves.

Perhaps it is time for Indigenous people in Australia to stop stereotyping themselves and others.

That being said I have many friends, from mainly remote and disadvantaged communities, who I would trust before the majority of the supposedly more trustworthy European derived populations of towns and cities.

However, I did notice a hesitation at the first introduction, to treat 'white' australians the same as they treat other indigenous persons that they are meeting for the first time. I do realise that this is partially attributable to conditioning and experience, but it is somewhat off-putting.

But, the most refreshing aspect of these friendships (once developed) is the ability to treat people how they deserve to be treated, irrespective of whatever colour, race, religion, or whathaveyou they may be. This is the direction to go, I personally do not care if you are black, white or brindle - treat me and mine well and I will do the same.

I once heard David Gulpalil say that “the white mans tucker has spoilt me as a black fella” (or words to that effect). He was lamenting the loss or inclination to live as a true aborigine. Those comments made me think about the issues of what an aborigine is and when does someone start or stop being one?

How many true aborigines are left now? I mean the ones that can live as the pre white fella blacks did. There is a great deal of racial mixing now and this must be having a dilution effect on the aborigine as an identity. When you look at the history of humans races, they have come and gone, blended and evolved, mixed and segregated, but none have survived with the same physical looks and culture over the last 200,000 years. The Australian white is derived from a various blending of races, having developed a culture of adoption, cooption and integration of desirable characteristics and rejection of worthless or undesirable characters. To that end they are found in a perfusion of physical looks and cultural idiosyncrasies. They are spread over many continents globally with a very long history of this happening (some 100,000 years). Are the many nations of Australian aborigines going to eventually vanish through the natural human processes of blending and evolution that comes from the release of cultural and genetic isolation?

Being able to tell an aborigine must inevitably get harder as each generation goes by, as each small part of their particular culture is lost and replaced with something else. As their particular combination of genes is changed and replaced.

How will we know when the Australian aboriginal nations are no longer a race or a distinct culture? It is inevitable that aborigines will loose their culture from what it was some 300 years ago, as white Australian culture is different from what it was that same 300 years ago.

How do we deal with the unstoppable drive of cultural and genetic evolution that will see a time when we won’t be able to see any differences any more?

Which countries do you think are less racist than Australia?

United States,France,Canada.......

How can you even ask a question like that. Remember......the white Australia policy.

anti multiculturalism = Australia

Terje,
To answer your question:
"Which countries do you think are less racist than Australia?"
Antarctica would be one.

I suppose I'm an Australian racist, but if I am, I'm not much good at it. I hade a mate, a Korean war fighter pilot, & when I went to visit his family with him one christmas, he told me his father was a south sea islsnder, just before we arived. He need not have bothered, the old bloke looked like any other 70 year old weather beaten farmer to me.
The most physically beautiful people I have met, were Chinese Melanesiam European mixed race up in the islands. Boy, didn't they have it made. Chinese business sense, Eurpoean confidence, & the islanders sense of fun. Wow, it would have been good to have been one of them. & I always thought "Big Mal" was Italian. I should have known, they can't play football, can they?
We will never be rid of racism while the less successful members of minorities can blame their lack of success on some one else's racism. I refuse to let them lay guilt on me. Hell, I can only go back 2 generations, so I may be one of them, & you know what? I con't care.

Amel,

You obviously don't like Australia.

If you don't come from Australia, then I suggest you pack up and go home.

If you do come from Australia, then you obviously have some serious self confidence/guilt problems. Why don't you try taking a birch branch and giving yourself a good flogging. Hopefully that will expunge the sinful, guilty, self doubting feelings you're having (about something).

Have a nice day.

Funny how Stephen Hagan never mentioned guilt once but it gets trotted out here by those who appear to "think" it was mentioned.
..mmmmm?

You obviously don't like Australia.

If you don't come from Australia, then I suggest you pack up and go home.

If you do come from Australia, then you obviously have some serious self confidence/guilt problems. Why don't you try taking a birch branch and giving yourself a good flogging. Hopefully that will expunge the sinful, guilty, self doubting feelings you're having (about something).

-----

Why don't you leave, I have no serious problems. YOU obviously should think about yourself. If you don't like what I'm saying,then go read a gossip magazine or something.

Woodyblues (et al) please make an effort to refer to Aboriginal people/culture with a capital "A" as you would when making reference to people from other cultures for example Greeks, Italian, Irish, Arabic to name just a few of the many that make up (a collective) Australian culture.

Stephen,
I am not Indigenous if, by that, you mean descended from the original inhabitants. However I love and feel country whenever I travel. Uluru moves me for reasons I cannot understand, the Kimberley makes me feel incredibly lucky and the waves of sand dunes that go on forever make me feel insignificant. But most of all I feel a part of every bit of it. I am aware that it was another peoples home before my ancestors came and I am mindful of that.
I am not Indigenous but it is my home. I am lucky, indeed.

woodyblues, wake up you arrogant ignorant ignoramous! We the Aboriginal Nation did not ask any other nation to enter into this land you invaded it which has been recognised by the international courts of the world.
Our culture is alive and doing well, our languages are still being spoken, we are intermarrying back into our own culture, and if you were to get off your re4ar end occaissionally you will find there are many communities in this land that have been just found around 50yrs ago, it was 217yrs ago cook landed here for the first time, 1880 was when the first fleet arrived, or maybe you werent taught the true history and are one of these ignorant believers that we have all been assimilated.
Good grief wake up Australia we are still here each and everyone of us who are descendent of the original are alive and will live forever and a day.
Go to a library and open up a book on Australias History of the old lies and then go see Rabbit proof Fence at the movies, then open your eyes and read the real history through the eyes of us who have lived the life.
I am 55yrs old and am one of the stolen generation, taken from an Aboriginal mission aged two.
It was 1967 we became recognised as people of this land and counted in the census, we have not disintergrated into thin air or assimilated into a culture we do not recognise as ours we are here forever and always.
My children are Aborigines, My grandchildren are Aborigines, My Great Greatgrandchildren will be Aborigines as this is where we were born where we originated from and where we belong.