Ah Graham,

You said "Just some 'line and length' stuff about Indigenous disadvantage and the pressing need to make amends."

To make amends implies that a wrongful act occured. It should be obvious that for over 40 years, the Aboriginal "Industry" has been pushing the "look what you did to us" line and playing the guilt trip. Is it any wonder that some punters actually do feel a "collective" guilt based upon racial lines.

Indeed, you are absolutely correct in that Indigenous (actually anyone born here is indegenous!) Australians are full Australian citizens and have been from 1967. As Australians they have rights and entitlements (and I dare say responsibilities) of any other Australian.

The problem, as I see it, is that a stone age culture came into contact with an industrialised culture. The "do-gooders" of the industrial culture have inflicted an imposible ideal on the stone-agers by insisting that they maintain their incapatible culture instead of selecting those components that could be incorporated into the industrialised culture, and discarding those that won't.

The reality for the Stone-Age culture is that the 20 million Industrial-Agers aren't just going to significantly change or walk back into the sea.

The unfinished business will be finished only when indigenous people let it go and realise that this is now, not many years ago. There are many that are in this country against their will and many that have had their country of origin invaded and forced here. The ancestors of most in this country have suffered injustice, slaughter and invasion, thats why their here.

The problem some indigenous face is their lack of self respect, which comes from being told they are owed something. When the facts are, they aren't owed anything, they owe their culture, country and future to what this country is now. Until they develop their own pride and go about life as many others have, the sooner means can be provided to address the social and lifestyle problems they face.

If you live in the mainstream then you accept mainstream culture and approach,. If you live cultural, then you should accept a cultural approach and get in with it. You can't take a culture from a subsistence lifestyle, thrust it into a survival lifestyle and except it to adapt straight away, it takes many generations of integration to do that.

A way must be established so that those having trouble with fitting into both worlds, can find it easier to cope with.

Well said Graham. I always find it amusing that the "usual suspects" against the arguements you make on this topic are never surprising nor original in their replies. Likewise can never offer a decent plan to move forward.

No New World country has come up with the solution to the problem of its indigenous people. I suspect that there is no solution at all. Many people believed that 'Land rights' would address the issue, but this pre-supposes that indigenous people wish to live tribal lives. Why should we suppose that native peoples wish to live in anthropological zoos?

Australian aboriginals now own 13% of the land mass - currently, 43% of the Northern Territory and most of its coastline is in Aboriginal hands. The courts have determined that native title extends across the Alice Springs town area. Most of the rest of Australia is under claim from taxpayer funded groups of Aboriginals and Caucasian Aboriginals. 10% of Western Australian has been handed over in the form of inalienable freehold title to aboriginal claimants.

Are aboriginals better off? I dont think so. I live close to the aboriginal suburb of Redfern in Sydney which is rife with crime, drug addiction, alcoholism and the mistreatement of women and children - what do 'land rights' offer to urban aboriginals? Trying to force aboriginals back into a tribal fantasy world, to a way of life that is no longer viable for anyone, is ridiculous.

The only way forward for aboriginals is to join the rest of Australia - get an education, find a job, and train the children to do the same. A lifetime of accepting 'sit-down' money is the road to nowhere. It does not promote self-respect and leads in the end to aboriginals being viewed with contempt by non-aboriginals.

Aboriginals are probably still suffering physchologically from the clash of cultures that took place 200 odd years ago. It takes more than a few generations to recover from such trauma.

Well Graham, I mainly agree with you and perhaps tactically you are on the right track but i personally do feel guilt. I also feel a direct responsibility as a white australian currently benefitting from the dispossession and massacre (come on lets be brave and say genocide) of Australia's first people.

As decendants of the people who committed the crimes against Aboriginal people all over the world (anyone descended from the British Empire at the very least) we do need to atone for the damage done and fix the problems which created a system that unfairly advantages white people.

We also need to hold people to account and there are people still alive that were part of the regime that continued to brutalise black people. And this is not even entering into a debate about current politics and continued violence, symbolic and physical. There has been no compensation paid for damages and even the stolen wages (which weren't even fair at the time) have not been returned. White Australian's should feel guilty, we are guilty, and will remain so until we admit the past wrongs and make amends. I don't think that pandering to the right on this one by appeasing the racist white folk is the way to go...but who knows.

Australians have been flayed with the cat nine tails guilt whip for the past three decades . Political correctness has been the greatest hindrance to indigenous advancement ever.
It has bred the notorious Aboriginal Industry which has been the reason why Aboriginal children have never been able to keep up with their white counterparts. Education has been a matter of whimsy instead of being a compulsory part of life.
All the political correctness has done is to assure the Indigenous society goes backward at a fast pace.
It is a total waste of people.