Quayle,

I’m not sure which part of remote Australia you’ve passed through, but I lived in Arnhem land for three years and remain in the Top End. Most community stores in Arnhem Land are run by ALPA (Arnhem Land Progress Association). They provide subsidised fruit and vegetables and often healthy sandwiches too. I’m now in a different region, but things work similarly: 10% mark up for fruit, vegs and basics, 20% for other foodstuffs and 30% for non-foodstuffs. Although, I suppose some fool will accuse me of making it up…

‘white problem’

In Arnhem Land I was adopted and given a tribal and skin name. The children in my class knew how I was related to them in the kinship system. It was a bit funny when I had 10 year old girls who I could call grandmother. I also had the privilege of attending lots of ceremonies. My first dhäpi ceremony will stay with me forever. We sat and watched the singing and dancing for hours. Late in the night the men started the fire dance. They tied bushes to their legs and set them on fire. It was a test to see who could keep dancing the longest. They did this for hours.
I’ve also been sung into huts to pay last respects to the dead. Seeing the body and feeling the thump as the women throw themselves to the ground while wailing is another profound experience. The funerals can go for up to a week, sometimes longer.
In Arnhem Land the culture is living; they don’t dance for tourists. At dawn on the day of the dhäpi ceremony we (the men) watched the boys being circumcised. At the end of the funeral we watched the body go into the ground.

I like the Aboriginals out here and have many good friends. They have their land; their language and their culture. They have no reason to have a chip on their shoulder. I know a teacher who showed her secondary girls Rabbit Proof Fence. She asked them why the girl was having so many problems

cont...

They replied, she lost her colour; she got no culture. These people aren’t stupid. And there’s no politically correct movement here either; a calf-cast is called a half-cast, not by whites but by blacks.

Sometimes being here is fantastic, and sometimes it’s just hard. I teach a nine year old girl whose parents live in the long grass in Darwin. She stays with one family for a while before being moved on to the next. However, not having a strong guardian has left her vulnerable; she’s been raped (police were involved) and now has social and behavioural problems. I’ve also attended the funeral of an 11 y/o boy who hanged himself. His mother asked if my class could do something for the funeral, so I drew up some hearts and photocopied them onto red card. We had a lesson about what messages we could write him (I have a Year 4 to 7 class) and later put them on his coffin at the funeral. Not the lessons we learn about at uni.

As for the atheistic comments about missionaries. Well, Aboriginals are spiritual people. They had no problem with the missionaries. I’ve had an assistant teacher who said to me “they were hard, but at least we learnt”. The missions were successful because they provided a safe refuge from the often hard and dangerous life in the bush. They certainly weren’t perfect but when they went they often left viable cattle and transport businesses. These are all gone now.

But in the eyes of FrankGol and Aka I must be lying; just making it all up. Well I’m sorry if the International Socialist and Green Left Weekly hasn’t kept you well informed, and if my experience doesn’t fit your world view. Mindless ideologues like you usually have never left the city and never met an Aboriginal. You know it all from your Aboriginal Studies courses and an ‘aboriginal experience’ you might have once had. You are nothing but fakes. Windbags full of false rage and misplaced anger.

Eet

It good to see someone with genuine concern and willing to relay the truth. I am in contact with many aborigines and people who work with them on a regular basis. What you portay is accurate. Kids are often seen with rotten teeth at 6 or 7 years old despite excellent medical facilities being available. I doubt whether many of your detractors on this post have any first hand experience with indigneous communties. If they have they are in denial because their white blaming doctrine is destroyed. If things are ever going to change these kids needs rescuing from abusive situations where parents (when available) are unable or unwilling to see do anything to help. We have had children show up at church who have not had a nutricous food for days.

A miracle - people like eet can 'know' all about my experience with Indigenous people without knowing a single thing about me. I'm a 'mindless ideologue', who has 'never left the city and never met an Aboriginal'. eet himself has an exclusive grip on the truth, and those who argue with him are 'fakes and windbags full of false rage and misplaced anger'.

Now Aka can speak for himself, but I have some credentials. I grew up in an orphanage with 20 Indigenous children and maintain contact with some of them, and their children, today. I saw how white 'carers' mistreated them, lying to their parents to keep them from paying visits.

I have taught Indigenous students in the NT and Victoria. In my first placement I was disgusted to find teachers wouldn't teach until the children showered and got into white fellers' clothes. Then they were expected to learn to read through books about Dick and Dora and idealised white families. When they mucked up, the fault was always with the kids and never in the teaching or curriculum.

My grandfather was on the Western Front with an Aboriginal soldier who, when he got home, was told he was not eligible for the soldier settlement schemes - the land for which he'd fought was only available to white Australians. In NSW he was not allowed to travel on trains with white people without a special permit.

In the past 20 years I have worked closely with brilliant Indigenous educators who are achieving outstanding results; and I have a personal relationship with a lovely Yorta Yorta woman. My experience has enabled me to acquire insights that at the very least match eet's four years teaching.

But we 'mindless ideologues' can't win against omniscients like eet and Runner. eet asserts we have no first-hand experience; Runner says that even if we have, we are 'in denial'.

Who are the ideologues? It's 2007 and Runner is still trumpeting the tragic philosophy of paternalism and taking kids away from their families. Has he learnt nothing from history?

FrankGol
I'm with you. Good on ya!

It's such a shame this has turned into the familiar cultural left/right brawl we see every time these issues are raised. Why is it that such intelligent, eloquent and experienced people insist on marking differences rather than what they have in common? Why do we always have to establish blame before anything else?

There are so many issues of concern here - land, children, violence, health, alcohol - it's endless. But instead of beginning with the common humanity and land that we all share we begin with the same old ideological approaches that have failed us in the past.

There's no denying that black and white Australia are culturally different, and white Australia is currently and historically responsible for some awful stuff, but those are side issues of the main game which, in my view, should be care and respect for all of us and how we live on our particular patch of dirt.