This is the sort of article we've come to expect from social workers, university lectures and journalists. Unfortunately, these people often don't have a lot of experience living in remote communities and don't really understand the complexities on the ground. I may be wrong in Harry's case, but people who have spent any significant amount of time in communities tend to lose their idealism and start looking at reality, or return to the city.

I've been teaching in remote communities for over 4 years now and some observations might help:

* All teachers who come out here always do healthy eating units of work. Children and the community in gneeral know what healthy and unhealthy food is. You just need to ask them and you'll get the right answer. But I have children bringing 1.25L bottles of coke into class for breakfast and have seen children buying 4 packets of bubble gum at the shop for dinner. Aboriginals know what healthy food is, it is cheaper than junk food in most communities (subsidised) yet choose not to eat it. What more can government do? Should they take a paternal attitude and tell Aboriginals what to eat? The simple fact is, if I (a white person) ate the same diet as Aboriginals I would die 20 years earlier too.

* There is also this myth about Aboriginal health care. Almost all communities have a clinic. The clinics are all free; the last bastion of bulk billing. If you speak to any remote area nurse you'll find that Aboriginals are the most prodded, tested and over serviced segment of the population in the country. There are numerous stories of nurses being woken up in the middle of the night because someone wanted a panadol. Government goes to enormous lengths to provide quality health care in some of the most remote places on Earth. Can they always overcome the large distances involved? No, but they certainly do all they can.

cont..

So why do Aboriginals still die younger? Most Aboriginal health issues are related to lifestyle choices - diabetes and kidney disease are two that come to mind. Premature death due to alcohol related issues is also a huge one; whether that be drink driving without a seatbelt, alcohol induced violence or just the long term affects of alcohol abuse.

If we're going to improve the lot of Aboriginals we need to get past the stage of running to some international organisation for statistics and then blaming white people. We need to treat Aboriginals like adults and expect them to take responsibility for their own actions. Importantly, we have to recognise that even though the communities may be small, their problems are very complex and difficult to solve; and we need to recognise that governments of both persuasions have acted in good faith to try and solve these problems.

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You do have to ask yourself then, why do aborigines choose one life style over another, especially if they have been educated about the health impact. This is a problem relating to mental states and emotional abuse, rather than one of pure education and material provisions. Or perhaps we are educating the wrong people. I have heard some horrific stories of abuse by white people of aborigines in the country areas...present day stories, not stories about the past. If we treat people as though they do not matter, we hold them in low regard and we mock them at every opportunity, this will have an effect on their desire to live!

...

Well..

You are absolutaly right, that the situation is terrible and that it is a disgrace to all Australians.

Although we all know it (though possibly not to that extent as the author) it needs to be reminded; otherwise we will be to comfortable in not looking at difficult issues.

But what we, perhaps need even more, are *action research projects* that will show what and how can be done.

What realy counts, is what we can do.

So far, we are good at desribing problems, not so good at solving them.

Buth there is hope: new weave of 'action rearch projects' developed within the universities' 'community engagement' strategies can help to find solutions.

I would be more than happy to share what I have learned about some succesful overseas projects
(see www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/download/Siera.doc
and
present and idea of a project that could contribute to solving of the aboriginal problem.

See: www.creativewinwin.com

How are other cultural populations supposed to tell the Aboriginal culture to stop how they are destroying their own?

Now with even more stringent human rights laws, no professional is willing to risk their reputation in putting forth, drastic solutions, fear they may be labelled racist.

Up to now the Aboriginal populations have been pretty much allowed to do what they wanted to do, according to tribal ways and those wishing to be in the cities.

Not even tribal law and Aboriginal Elders are able to lead the way to a better existence for their people.

It isn't a matter of Australian citizens putting pressure on their government to take away the booze and police their communities to solve domestic violence and wayward children.

You have to actually want to change yourself. There is more than a wealth of assistance and priority leg ups for the Aboriginal people.

There is more than a wealth of assistance and leg ups for all Australian, except not as much as Aboriginals.

If I had someone spoon feeding me and pandering to my nomadic wandering, I soon would have seen the right way to go.

Left wing and centre professional, academics and the gravy train riders have only kept the Aboriginal culture, stuck in a timezone they should have long surpassed, only to maintain their own perverse status.

Whether the Aboriginal community want to except it, they need to grab what extra opportunities they have over the rest of us and become competitive cultural leaders and beacons for their cultural survival because some other culture besides your own Australians may not be so generous to whom was a first settler or not.