Rob,

Thank you for the clarification. I agree with you, but I doubt that treating individuals fairly and courteously is going to cut any ice with the professional Aboriginals and their white enablers who control this debate.

For example, in another article on this forum, by Stephen Hagan, he actually claimed that Aborigines have psychic powers that non-Aboriginals do not. If you think I am kidding, read the article. When I expressed skepticism of this alleged power, I was shouted down and called a racist. (Take a look.) And he teaches at a university! (Not the most prestigious, but still...)

How do you communicate with people who claim they have psychic powers (presumably genetically endowed), and you do not? How do you communicate with their white enablers? How do you fight the orthodoxy that has grown up around this kind of nonsense?

On a more mundane level, since the very problem is that Aborigines aren't part of the mainstream, how does this one-to-one kindness and courtesy happen?

lizz,

Fair points. It's true that you can often "lead a horse to water but not make it drink". And that goes for people on both sides. The best anyone can do is to stay vigilant and watch for any opportunities that open up for reconciliation. I'm fairly confident that this will eventually happen as people's awareness of the issue continues to build.

bushbred: "Reckon our Aborigines would certainly be far happier if us newer Aussies broke all ties to the still imperialist Brits and gave our deepest apologies to the more dinkum owners of the Great Southland..."

"Newer Aussies"? There was no such thing as 'Australia' until the British colonised this continent and developed it into a nation. And as much as the self-appointed leaders of the Aboriginal grievance industry would hate to admit it, they are as much a product of European civilisation as the rest of us. Indeed, the arrival of Europeans allowed the disparate Aboriginal tribes to form a common identity, forged by the 'shared' history of opposition to European settlement.

To Liz the Yank ,

As if we haven't imported enough problems !

Please take your shallow racist superiority with you and head back to

Mississippi to make excuses to the blacks there, who are battling to

survive and living in depression and poverty due to Republican neglect and apathy .

To the Doctor's wife ,

Perhaps you can talk the hubby into going up north to do a bit for our Aboriginal Brothers and Sisters. Now that would be positive .

Desipis

"Please tell me how I have managed to wrong an entire race of people" Firstly they aren't a race of people... the human race?

Is Australia at war in Iraq? Does that implicate you... Yes! Well the same when some of our brothers and sisters are living in poverty. It is our fault... and we need to work together to correct it.

Today at the shops I paid the end part of the grocery bill for a guy who was doing it tough... I didn't cause his plight but I saw that he was doing it tough and so I helped him. That is what Australians haven't done... we haven't helped them enough!

How many aborigines has the government slaughtered, enslaved or stolen land from in the past decade?

Is the premature death of aborigines, the fact that they live in intense poverty and we continue to hold their lands from the original theft a problem for you? Well premature death is like slaughter, poverty is enslavement and the loss of their land and title is still theft.

Have you ever done it tough or been alcoholic? How did you take responsibility when you didn't have a cent to your name? How did you take responsibilty when drunk? You insist on them taking responsibility when we other Australians won't... double standard? Yep!

I agree we have to move past the blame game by taking responsibility for our part in the problems, apologising and working with them to solve it.

Again I ask did the police raid all the churches in a hunt for the creeps hidden within their communities?

Why do you have such double standards?

If you offer the hand of friendship, love, hope and apologise you will achieve results much faster than the methods we have tried. People seem to call compassion a leftist notion... what does that say about the people?

Why do you twist my words? I never said give them money because they are aboriginal... Help them because they're poor, because they're uneducated, because they're sick ... I agree with you...BUT help them!

Opinionated2: "Well the same when some of our brothers and sisters are living in poverty."

If you want to apologise to all those who are unfairly poor and destitute, all those who failed to get health care, then I'm sure you'll get much more support. Apologising to a race (aboriginals) of people unfairly leaves out all the other people who are disadvantaged. Why are some people more deserving of an apology than others, simply based on the colour of their skin?

"I agree we have to move past the blame game by taking responsibility for our part in the problems, apologising..."

Insisting people apologise IS the blame game.

"Why do you have such double standards?"

I don't. I'm suggesting that aboriginals be treated equally with all other Australians.

"Help them because they're poor, because they're uneducated, because they're sick ... I agree with you...BUT help them!"

I'm all for helping them. But apologising will only reinforce their victim mentality and keep the attitude they have of wanting everything served up on a silver platter. If they chose to maintain their ancestral way of life, then they need to accept the realities of that choice; the realities of limited education, limited health care, limited policing, limited housing, etc. If they want to claim the right to have the benefits of modern society then they need to accept the responsibilities too.

Some problems with helping the remote aboriginal communities:

Poverty - There is an on going culture of vandalism and destruction, they burn a house, or trash a car till it breaks and then complain they have inadequate housing or no transport.

Education - The above applies to the schools built for them, in addition many teachers have been driven out of the communities through violence.

Health - Both the above apply to medical centres and staff, in addition many are skeptical of doctors and will refuse treatment or examination.

There are no easy fixes for these problems. Attempts to enact the one thing that needs to happen, change in their way of life, will seen as attempting to destroy their culture.