Keith, Id love to 'enlighten' you...

My "font" of information comes from living and breathing with the result of past government stuff ups everyday - living in a small regional town is the best education anyone can receive when understanding aboriginal issues. I have been involved in various government programs where I have taught art in 'mission' preschools and primary schools. I have recently finished a term at the local high school as an aid for a girl who had behavioural problems - the teachers refused to have the girl in their classes however she was to young for the school to legally expel.

Your questioning of my statement about ownership simply highlights the problem that exists amoungst previous governments and welfare agencies. It is because we didnt understand how their culture operated that we thought that throwing money and land would be the answer. The aboriginal people simply didnt have the skills to manage these assets - ATSIC is a very good example. Money and land was the whitemans answer not the aboriginal. Isnt it better that there are guidelines and infrastructure so that they can be used in a positive manner enabling aboriginal people access to education, healthcare etc etc. If the management of these assets is by a white person because they are better qualified than a aboriginal person than so be it.

Im sure if you asked every australian they would say they want a job, designer clothes, plasma teles etc however, we shouldnt think that people are entitled to these things because we stuffed up years ago. These people are entitled education, healthcare etc etc like everyone else, but, because we failed to understand their concepts we forced upon them our values...a value system completely foreign to their own and one that failed to meet their needs for coping with the demands of modern Australia.

Could you please enlighten me on what your qualifications are which enables you to write about everyday issues affecting the majority of aboriginal people?

hello izzo,

Your experiences are based on functions in non-indigenous organisations and non-indigenous arranged assistance programs all helping Indigenous people?

You have formed an opinion of how Indigenous culture works from you own observations in these programs?

Just to show I do understand a little ... I am at a loss as to where we have thrown land at Indigenous. That was the reason I raised Eddie Mabo. He didn't have land ownership benevolently thrown at him. I don't know of any Indigenous who has been such beneficiary. But maybe living and breathing in non-indigenous Australia I might have missed that.

You are slightly wrong in saying we forced our values onto the Indigenous. We did destroy their value system but replaced it with one that is at odds with our own philosophical traditions and practises.

Yep ADSIC was a mistake. Obviously it was flawed as a non-indigenous style of Government and I believe didn't adequately involve sufficient appropriate Indigenous input in its inception. That's often been the case in the past and if it was such with ADSIC then that's hardly the 'fault' of Indigenous people.

I think you will find, especially in studies in Canada and NZ, land ownership and self government are among six important factors in producing an identity of belonging among Indigenous people. That importantly seems to raise self-esteem and overcome hopelessness. Surprise surprise ... eh? We in the west from Hobbes and Locke through to Jefferson and Mill have all come to similar conclusions and organised ourselves accordingly... and our thoughts precluded a system of soul-destroying benevolent handouts.

The differences you allude to, but don't specifically state, apart from saying Indigenous don’t have the skills to manage land and the patently wrong ‘Ownership of land or material objects is not considered a priority’, are merely and probably a generalised non-indigenous assessment of Indigenous culture, aspirations and relationships. I found Shakespeare's masterpiece 'The Tempest' quite reflective of many of today’s Non-Indigenous attitudes toward Indigenous. These regarding skill and ownership are two examples.

That play was written a few centuries ago and I wonder why, given our now greater knowledge, attitudes haven't changed since that time.

I read quite extensively of the writings of Indigenous leadership people and absorb their messages. Currently, as a brief outline only, my understanding from what I have read, it seems to me there is an acceptance of change, including of values, but that Aboriginality can be retained during and after that change. It strikes me Indigenous leaders are tending to adopt very similar ideas we have followed for centuries but are intent on retaining the essences of their Aboriginality... oh and that includes land ownership, some form of self government and an intent to see their affairs managed by Indigenous experts rather than well meaning benevolent and from past experiences, transitory non-Indigenous... Modern studies of First Nations people across the Tasman, in the Pacific and notably Canada seem to lend great support to these ideas.

I have no tertiary training ... thank god and my mother. She, as was her God, a liberal who never voted, and both oversaw and guided my reading for many years. Most of the books I've read and which adorn my personal library, don't figure in the 'normal' Australian Education System. They do however appear in the Traditional Classical Education and the English Liberal Education.

As for the topic of Aboriginality ... well it's simple really. Despite cultural differences Indigenous are people and throughout eons all people in functioning societies have had similar expectations of security. Ownership and rules pertaining to ownership may be culturally different but they exist and no matter what the culture they are a huge part of a common security.

On colonisation we changed many things including Land Tenure and lately we’ve savagely and with the very best of intentions destroyed the culture of sharing, which was on demand and not, as most Non-Indigenous think, out of benevolence.

As a consequence ... well we're still doing those silly sorts of things and today’s dysfunction is basically the result.

Kind regards Keith

The Child Protection Services in all states have serious issues, but in Indiana, children and women are in the greatest danger and are ignored. I hope your government can do better than ours.

Governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, who campaigned to have an open door policy, fails and ignores to do so, regarding the crimes and negligence of Child Protection Services, now called Dept of Children, of which is a large money making business of human trafficking and literally defaming parents without regards for the Constitutional, Civil, or Human Rights.

Be cautious of what any Child Protection Agency says in any state, as what the Child Protections Agency, DCS of Indiana says and does, it not what is really happening, as they function in secrecy and conspire with each other to hide the truth. The compaign promise of Mitch Daniels, "I will have an open door policy regarding Child Protection Services". That is a laugh. When an agency of the government is given full reign without over sight, human trafficking, child laundrying business, and money laudrying, will become the only factor of the focus, not to protect. Mitch Daniels has failed to respond to many Indiana Citizens with his 'open door'. We, the citizens of Indiana and the United States know the truth of corruption, violation of Civil, Constitutional, and Human Rights, as we have be terrorized and victimized by the largest terrorist group in the world, The U.S. Child Protection Services, government agency

In the US, more children are abused, raped, and murdered, under state care, than the total of children harmed by parents. We, the tax payers get to pay for this government agency, that is not accountable for their negligence.

Perpetrators of Maltreatment IN the USA is:
Child Protection "Predator" Services CPS commits un-punished crimes against innocent parents and children and destroy families for Federal $$$Funds

Physical Abuse – 59 by parents 160 by CPS
Sexual Abuse – 13 by parents 112 by CPS
Neglect – 241 by parents 410 by CPS
Medical Neglect – 12 by parents 14 by CPS
Fatalities – 1.5 by parents 6.4 by CPS
FACT: Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the United States . These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) in Washington .

One in four children, under state care WILL die.

This is an issue all over the nation in the US.

However, there is one very important value that all races hold as a prority and that is the safety of our children. The aboriginal people are in crisis and their children are in danger. We all know(?) why the aboriginal people have allowed this to happen but we now need to start implimenting strong leadership to help rehabilitate the aboriginal culture.
IZZO would you care to enlighten us on what we all know? Also while you're at it, what is, implementing strong leadership?