Fine, thoughtful & intelligent article, great way to start debate on Indigenous issues for the New Year. Good to see OLO circulating articles that have substance and strategic value!

Overall a well written and researched article, with my only critism being that the use of so called cross cultural communication in the work place.

It has been my experience as an employer to say that I totally disagree with cross cultural communication in the workforce, because I believe that it creates barriers between staff rather than its intended use to bring workers together.

So I have taken the view that all employees including myself and my management team will all attend staff related team building programs. These programs will hopefully create closer ties between workers for the benefit of our custommers, and has so far been very sucessfull.

As an employer I believe that it would have been irresponsible to introduce cross cultural Awarness training in the workforce based on one culture, unless it properly addresses the cultures of my other staff.

As an Indigenous person I believe that this cross cultural nonsence is a load of rubbish, created by southern blacks to give themselves jobs and has no place in the modern Australian workforce.

This article goes straight to the heart of the problem - the need for education and employment.
The powers that be in the bureaucracies of education at the State/Territory level must acknowldege that they have failed in the past and support different ways of achieving the objectives of sound literacy and numeracy levels that will only come when children are attending school.
As the writer points out the Aboriginal child is "without the basic knowledge and values that many non-Aboriginal children will have learned from their parents even before attending school."
There is too much which we persons of the dominant culture take for granted as our children start on the learning process from the day they are born towards that first day at school.
The Aboriginal child, especially the one from a remote community, has to be made "school ready" and understand the reasons why an education is important. We have to bridge that gap between the Aboriginal cultural upbringing in the home with the white mans way so they can sit alongside their peers and be proud of where they have come from rather than slinking in a corner fearing they are inferior.
Let some new ways be tried and them show the way to a better method than has been tried in the past and stop tinkering at the edges of a failed education system.
I support everything the writer says.
Rollo Manning

YINDIN... you have no idea how my heart warmed to what you wrote in your last post.

The point about implementing cross cultural communication is exactly as you said.. "creates barriers" and emphasizes 'Us/Them' as I've always said.

ONE CULTURE does not have to mean the dissappearance of all other sub cultures, but it DOES mean their willing participation in the predominant culture as recognized by all (or should be).

I absolutely believe that the focus of government should be on promoting the UNITY aspect of an Australian way of life, and not pandering to minorities who eventually end up acting like the Sikhs, and wanting to get exceptions from laws about deadly weapons so they can fulfil their supposed religious obligations.

I'm having a running convo about that with a sikh girl at the servo where I get petrol. My cultural blood BOILS at the thought of one group of kids being allowed to carry daggers to school....based purely on religion.

Boazy, this ‘us/them’ attitude is a divergent system and can only exacerbate tensions both here and in the rest of the world. So, finally the message (that we must converge)has soaked in?

But, your hypocrisy again comes to the fore in your last two paragraphs.

Yet again you want to high-jack a thread (this one on indigenous issues) for your own perverted agenda - typical Boaz-david

Yindin/BOAZ_David,

It's my experience that there's two different types of barriers between people of different cultures. Firstly there's a more 'active' case of someone thinking: "I don't like that person because they're a <insert difference here>" which requires a much more direct approach to address. Secondly there's the case of "I don't understand that person's culture, I shouldn't interact in case I offend/look like a fool." and this is the type of barrier that education can address.

The article is specifically talking about training for people who are dedicated to serving aboriginals, and it is important for them to understand the people they are supposed to be helping. Of course, there is no such thing as a homogeneous 'aboriginal culture' so it is questionable how much a centralized training scheme would help, and how much it would impose a false understanding.

Of course I still maintain my general premise: that the 'issues' we see with Australia's aboriginals are because we are seeking to impose western rights and standards, without requiring western responsibilities and lifestyles. You can't have one without the other. You can't live in remote tribal communities and have high levels of education and health. You can't have tribal cultures and justice systems and expect western civilities and crime rates. I'm not trying to be negative about aboriginal culture, just merely pointing out that a different culture will have significant material impact on life.