Another IPA type clone---though more sophisticated in her use of language.
The real question is do ANY of us make any real sense or even begin to understand this TV created "world" described in this essay.
Perhaps we should all re-read and study the work of Marshall McLuhan and his famous phrase THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE.

And do any of us (let alone the CIS/IPA clones) really understand what its consequences are for our individual and collective health, and for the future of life on this planet. And how imperial wars of conquest against Iraq, and the inevitable trashing of the entire planet, are an inevitable "necessity" to keep the whole shebang functioning
Michael Leunig's cartoon in the Age today sums it up very well.

This is a shocking indictment of the continuing insistence by some people to keep a group of Australians sick, poor and ignorant in isolated communities.

The people responsible for the traversty are white dogooders, gutless governments and high profile aboriginal 'leaders'.

I think the girls should read Marshall McLuhan for themselves and make up their own minds about society.

I was literally speechless after reading this article. Do we have any schooling oversight? If we do have oversight the people overseeing these schools in our outback should be sacked. How many children in Australia are being disenfranchised like these children? I need some facts and would like to be pointed in the right direction. Thankyou.

Thank you for this concrete example of how difficult the educational task is. And this girl was lucky! She had parents who had some appreciation of the importance of education and wider experience. It would be very useful to hear more about what motivated them to seek education for their child. If all parents were clamouring for better education for their kids it would help the abysmal situation. So how were these parents different?

Your description of the socio/cultural issues that stand inbetween these girls and their aspirations to be teachers and clerks is very clear. Similarly, many Australians are blocked by the failure of their class or experience to prepare them better to achieve their ambitions - often the blocks are not perceived so clearly as the ones you have outlined.

For thirty five years, a range of experimental policies have been tested against Aboriginal people in remote settlements, and it appears that none of them have worked. Too bad, but what the heck, those people are remote and dispensable anyway, so the policy makers seem to think.

But no, they are human beings with full human rights, to opportunity, prosperity and security. It's not just a few educational authorities who should be put up against a wall, but a whole (now propserous and no doubt urban-based) policy makers who should be.

But meanwhile, down in southern cities, the urban Indigenous population has been seizing opportunities and conquering the heights of 'Western' ecucation: more than twenty two thousand Indigenous people have now graduated from universities around Australia, with another eleven hundred new graduates each year. By 2020, it is possible that there could be more than fifty thousand Indigenous university graduates. There's a phrase that you don't see often.

We desperately need courageous and committed researchers like Professor Hughes to blow the lid on the catastrophe that has been developing in remote northern settlements. It is to the shame of the so-called Left (of which I count myself), and people such as HoHum, and Nugget Coombs, that they have tried to sweep the legacy of their brilliant policies under the carpet, rather than contemplate admitting that they were disastrously wrong, admitting to the damage that has been done to human beings in their search for the Noble Savage and the idyllic hunter-gatherer life, and getting out of the way. The unholy alliance of smug Left, careerist academics and corrupt organisations has almost destroyed a proud people.

Ho Hum says "Perhaps we should all re-read and study the work of Marshall McLuhan" and is skewered by d'Helm "I think the girls should read Marshall McLuhan for themselves and make up their own minds". I don't think On Line Opinion has witnessed a better example than this of a contributor being hoist on their own petard. Well said d'Helm.

Further problems of course ensue even if these girls do become practised in our English, when they learn standard English history.

We found this in earlier days in the Dalwallinu district, when we copped it properly from a certain full-blood Aboriginal parent who like Yagan before him learnt to understand our language and history somewhat better than some of us whites.

As my young wife mentioned at the time, why are these Aboriginal children given only the white view of Westralian history, especially when we find one full blood parent intelligent enough to become so hateful over it?

Cheers BB, WA.

Bushbred thinks if young Aboriginals learn to read there is a problem because they may not conform to Bushbred's preconceived notion of what they should learn from their reading. It's hard to think of a better example of the patronizing "lets keep the Indians on the reservation" mindset.

Perhaps if the girls didn't have Helen Hughes studying them like her own lab rats, taking notes, staring at them endlessly like an old deranged carpet snake, they may have felt more relaxed, enjoyed the moments, and understood the contexts?

It reminds me of my own childhood where I became an anthropological oddity and project of well intentioned, but stupid white people (like Hughes).

None of them whom I eventually learnt to speak and write English.

Just a thought...

Can't quite make out what you are getting at, Sillstone? What I related was a part of history, an Aboriginal father giving white families the rounds of the kitchen about his kids having to accept a whitey's account of a history which surely belongs to the Aboriginals as well us whites.

Have you ever lived in a district like early Dalwallinu which took in Paynes Find where both Yamadgees and Wongis existed.

Many of these married in with white families, one good looking Lubra married a Carlhausen, great grandson of a German family who worked for Gutstav Liebe, the former German architect and builder, said at the time to be also the biggest single wheatgrower in the world.

I only hope your argument is not taking possibly a superior racist point of view. So please rather than accusations, explain yourself clearly.

Perhaps if the girls didn't have Helen Hughes studying them like her own lab rats, taking notes, staring at them endlessly like an old deranged carpet snake, they may have felt more relaxed, enjoyed the moments, and understood the contexts?
Rainier,
well stated fact.

A far more interesting article would entail Prof Hughes being removed from her cultural familiars and describing her experiences in being thrust into an Aboriginal community - particularly one like her subjects are from, which isn't subject yet to the stereotypical dysfunctions that are grist for the mass media and CIS mill.

Clearly there is gross under-resourcing of education in the community about which she writes so disdainfully. However, she doesn't propose any real solutions, but rather relies upon her readers to infer that assimilation is the only future for residents of even relatively successful Aboriginal communities.

I heard Hughes talking about this on RN during the week, and I couldn't help but notice the 'missionary' tone in what she said. Notably, she avoids any consideration of actually providing reasonable services to these communities, but instead implies that they should be vacated.

That would be very convenient to the mining companies and other pastoral and business interests upon whom the CIS depends for patronage and funding, wouldn't it? Incidentally, if real social researchers wanted to conduct the kind of study upon which Hughes' article is based, they would have been subject to the scrutiny of a properly established research ethics committee.

Was this the case in the erstwhile professor's "research" that is presented here?

My sentiments exactly CJ,

Helen Hughes who completed a BA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne in 1949 and an MA (Hons) in 1951.

Her scholarship focused on the history of the Australian steel industry from which she published as her first book.

Her most recent publication "Lands of Shame' was simply pathetic.

Besides reading like something from a 1960's Readers Digest, it was so poorly researched I wondered how the publishers thought it was anywhere near the quality of scholarship one usually expects -especially when discussing Indigenous people and affairs. But then I discovered the publishers were the CIS. (Centre for Idiotic Scholarship)

It’s not at all difficult to make a link between her call (in this publication) to privatise Aboriginal lands and her STEAL industry interests

Bushbred writes they "Can't quite make out what you are getting at" in relation to my post about Bushbred's "lets keep the Indians on the reservation" mindset.
Parents from Arnhem Land send their illiterate daughter down south for an education. A women helps in this education process. Bushbred and others attack the women who is helping without knowing the parents or the child or the womens effectiveness as a helper. Not only is there a clear case of "lets keep the Indians on the reservation" mindset, but a quite bold presumption that the parents know less about whats good for their own daughter than does Bushbred and like minded souls on the Internet.

Still can't understand your mindset, Sillstone. In fact, it seems as if you are twisting an actual fact of Aboriginal parents and families battling to fit into standard white bush schools just after WW2 into a conundrum.

All I said was that my wife and I were concerned when a black father complained about his children forced to learn the white version of Australian history since the First Landing?

If you are trying to argue that your woman teachers had or have a truer history for the young natives to ingest, well okay, then, my wife and I would fully agree with you.

Just wonder whether you have had personal experience of mixed bush schools just after WW2. Or are you too young to fully understand?

Rainier >”Perhaps if the girls didn't have Hughes studying them like her own lab rats, taking notes, staring at them endlessly like an old deranged carpet snake, they may have felt more relaxed, enjoyed the moments, and understood the contexts?”

What a monumental pile of S_H_I_T. Typical of the bleeding hearts. Shoot the messenger. Of course aborigines in remote communities aren’t having problems with literacy and numeracy. The real problem is our shock and indignation that after thirty odd years of throwing money at the problem we are actually going backwards. After all who are we to expect that these children should be able to read and write?

Many of these communities have been brought undone by the very people who proclaim to be acting in their best interests.Rainier if you can’t stand hearing the truth from a whitey how about listening to what Noel Pearson has to say. Someone with the guts to cut through the PC nonsense.

Pearson > “There is an ahistorical tendency in contemporary policy discussions about indigenous communities. As if the problems of these communities are not themselves the product of earlier "in the best interests" policies devised by bureaucrats and politicians."

Almost entirely made up of the "helping professions" liberal progressive types

Pearson >“A significant minority of students from these areas [Cape York and NT] leave school without having acquired ANY literacy or numeracy skills, and are therefore unlikely to participate in the real economy. This is the most critical disaster in Australian education.In Cape York, Year 2 diagnostic tests reveal that 60-80per cent of indigenous students have below benchmark literacy and numeracy skills. Nearly all indigenous students in Cape York are two to four years behind the mainstream standard.”

Pearson >“real self-determination is about Indigenous people taking responsibility for the results, and I can tell you the results that are out there at the moment are very, very miserable and shameful. And, you know, it is a measure of our performance that - it's a measure of our performance in fulfilment of what we have called self-determination, that the results are so miserable.”

HoHum >”The real question is do ANY of us make any real sense or even begin to understand this TV created "world" described in this essay.”

OMG. Did you just compare your pathetic PC Gen Y angst with the massive misfortune that is the failure of education in remote aboriginal communities? It is people like you who are responsible for the continuing failures to help aboriginal communities and their people attain even basic standards that we in the wider community take for granted.

The recent decision by Judge Bradley to grant a pedophile time to prepare a defence based upon the foundation that he was, by molesting the boys, introducing them to Islander “mens business” cultural practices is typical of a soft-left gone barking mad with cultural relativism.

Your specious attempts to explain away an obvious and disgraceful situation that afflicts a great many children in remote communities is only hurting the people you are supposed to be helping. Ignoring the elephant in the room seems to be an occupational specialty of the current soft-left.

Bushbred > “Just wonder whether you have had personal experience of mixed bush schools just after WW2?”

Bushbred again goes off on a tangent only marginally related to the topic. It would be alright if it was ever going to return to the topic but it never does. I challenge you to TRY and relate your ramblings to the existing problems under discussion.

The simple fact is that before these children can decide which side of the fence they want to be on the history wars they need to be able to “READ” and perhaps “WRITE". Until then its all pie in the sky self indulgence for the lefts cultural warriors. Unfortunately, like the islamo fascists, these cultural warriors don't seem to care what collateral damage they wreak in their qausi-religous quest for political correctness.

Susanai. Noel Pearsons writings on the subject are solid gold for anyone interested in actual analysis and problem solving as opposed to political correctness and the appearance of doing something.

Paul, I can speak from 25 years experience as an educator/teacher.
What’s your claim to fame other than parroting / cutting and pasting the words of Mr Pearson (a lawyer who has never fronted the Bar and newspaper columnist in the Right wing Australian)?

Paull, as usual you regard historical facts as rambling.
The true facts very much related to the title of the topic -Strangers in their own Land, is that whitey education just after WW2, especially regarding WA history was still mainly related to the benefits that the Brits had brought to a country where still lived only primitive humans needing the presence of a so-called superior peoples.

I might add, Paull, that I found instances in my years in the bush that I preferred the simplicity and friendliness of certain fullblood Aborigines to a few white persons I have known.

Do you well to read a few good history books, Paull, including about Western injustice and intrusion in the Middle East

Bushbred,

What i regard as rambling is your presentation of historical fact without any effort to link it to current experience. If you can't explain how the history affects the present then it is merely rambling. I'm well aware of the history, I spent years learning to parrot the grievance industries' academic champions. Thats what passed for learning in University level history and politics.

There is little doubt that the parlous situation that many Aborigines find themselves in can be linked to past injustices. But there is far more fault to be found with those "helping profession" do gooders (soft lefters) that have meddled in Aboriginal policy over the last thirty years. They have had a far more pronounced, and unfortunately more damaging, effect on Aboriginal people and their communities. The scourge of passive welfarism is at the centre of the decline of Aboriginal communities. This disaster can be sheeted home directly to the morons of the soft-left.

You would do well to note that the only kind of fascism you, and those like you, seem able to comprehend is white fascism. It seems muslim groups like hamas are immune to criticism from fascism's old enemy, the left, because of their religion and perhaps skin colour. "A (putrid) rose by any other name?"

From your retorts, Paull, sounds like you believe there's a lot of others like me.

From experience of the very few others like you, thank goodness, reckon it's safer to stay the way I am.

As I have intimated, though I have spent a lot of my bush life in farm and station country, never needed to argue with Aboriginals.

More than I can say about our younger generation.

Trying to find it hard where you fit in, especially remembering your apparent attitudes concerning today's Middle East?

Gawd! We're certainly not short of nutters here on OLO! Must be a disgruntled Liberal still coming to terms with defeat last year. Poor buggers. Someone should start a support group for them.

Rainier,

It just goes to show how wrong you are. I voted for labour, as I have all my life. Again I note you have no response to the ideas, prefering to play the man rather than the ball.

What astounds me is the number of people who come online looking for like minded souls to preach to. How can you ever expect to develop as a person when you surround yourself with ideas you already hold looking for reinforcement from other equally "brave" individuals?

Part One

Aborigine Academia?
Aboriginals thankfully are gradually gaining the benefits of a standard white Western education, but which unfortunately is still leaving the majority of our Aboriginals behind, including part-coloureds who mostly have done poorly at primary school level.

As regards our OLO discussion on the above subject, there seems to be ridiculous rivalry between left and right, the so-called left opinions regarded by certain members of our OLO’s as only fit for the trash-can.

Furthermore one’s experience as a farmer and grazier in Dalwallinu district when it took in a large pastoral area as well as farmlands now seems also to be placed in the looney left category by some who admittedly appear to have a sound argument but could be said to be picking out naturally bright Aborigines who have done so well in academia.

It seems also that these naturally learned Aborigines, apart from the odd one who has become an academic type stirrer, have mostly tended to have developed a Western white existence as if possibly ashamed of their dusky inheritance?

BB Part Two

It is interesting that the above topic has not been at a loss as far as most bush white families are concerned especially in earlier times, more modern young farm families having far less to do with the
countryside’s previous occupiers.

But earlier in our district some Aboriginals became as successful as whites, especially the females who married whites.

Aborigines have also proven themselves in sport as well as in music and acting, both men and women proving inspirational to the more faint-hearted.

But what was sometimes talked about by more serious white families, was that white educators should be encouraged to develop themes based on the nicer natural aspects of the Aborigines, especially concerning Aboriginal history, and about that extra-pleasing and special look fullbloods can get in their eyes when given adequate and genuine praise.

With a proven 60,000 years of existence this alone should give them special favour to us Western whites, even allowing permanent seats in our Senate, as with the Maories in New Zealand.

Finally, we Western whites must lose some of our ridiculous pride by somehow admitting the truth about white settlement not being always a pleasant existence
for the original dark-skinned owners.

Regards, BB, WA

Paul, your ideas were floated around 20 years ago and i have no interest in debating them with you here.

And you vote Labor! Even worse!

What is the the point of this thread anyway ? Of course the girls would feel like strangers. Anyone would at 4 or 5000 km from home.
Any living breathing creature feels that when away from it's comfort zone.
It's this kind of pointless "studying" by those academics who can't get through life without some idiotic bureaucrat wasting public funding on them which I object to.

A much more fascinating study would be to place Helen Hughes in a community in remote Australia, without a mobile phone or credit cards with her objective being to
1. Learning the local language(s)
2. Finding a job and housing
3. Earning the respect of locals.

I would gladly VOLUNTEER TO observe and take notes.

A much more fascinating study would be to place Helen Hughes in a community in remote Australia, without a mobile phone or credit cards with her objective being to
1. Learning the local language(s)
2. Find a job and housing
3. Earning the respect of locals.

I would gladly VOLUNTEER TO observe and take notes.

Its so pathetic to hear the apologists blame the messenger . The two girls were a perfect example of the failure of leftist policy in remote and rural aboriginal communities. Most of the soft-lefters are from communities where they don’t EVER have any interaction with aboriginal people and certainly not aborigines from remote communities.

Throughout my school years I lived in a town where we had the largest aboriginal population in Australia. During this time I had many friends who identified as aboriginal. I had dinner in their homes and they at mine. When I moved to Melbourne I noted that much more lip-service was paid to the idea of countering racism than in the North. But none of these people actually had friends who were aboriginal and I am quite sure they would have run a mile before inviting one into their homes.

In Townsville the consequences of the morally corrupt policies of sit-down money were on display every day in the town centre. The cities parks were no-go areas where 24hr drinking, fighting and f#cking took place publicly and without shame. The new laws which prevented drunk aboriginal people from being jailed for a wide variety of offences including violent behaviour, made this an intractable problem. Palm Island, just off Townsville earned the notoriety of being one of the most violent places on the planet.

Rainier is deliberately missing the point, 80% of remote aboriginal kids don’t meet the lowest standards expected from year 3 students. The girls failure to be able to read the handbook for their mobile isn’t a cultural clash. They use the phone itself without problems. If you’re looking for animal analogies Rainier, you are an emu sticking its head in the sand in the vain hope that if you can’t see it, there isn’t a problem. Helen Hughes is not the problem causing aboriginal disadvantage today.

Individual - funnily enough I function quite well both in Perth and Melbourne as do most others who can read, write and speak English. 5000km from home is not the problem. Lack of literacy and numeracy is.

Paul.L,
Your post is factual & indisputable. Yes, I too perceive Rainier as refusing to pull his/her/it's head out of the sand when evidence is brought up. However, there's no hesitation when it comes to pointing the finger. I remember Rainier stating on a thread as being in education. So, if there is a problem in that field Rainier would be the appropriate person to tell how to remedy the lack of literacy in both indigenous & non-indigenous children.
re being 5000km from home & you say you function quite well in another City. By going to another city you don't leave your comfort zone. By going from the bush to a city or vice versa you leave your comfort zone. There is a difference.

Recasting the problems as if just discovered is easy, working, committing, persevering to get results is another matter altogether.

Both of you obviously have no engagement in Indigenous education, and its clear to me that this forum is as close as you have ever been to discussing education is a real context.

Stop deluding yourselves chaps!

Let me know when you'd like to get your hands dirty, I can arrange voluntary work for you both.

Until then, S.T.F.U!.

Rainier says “Recasting the problems as if just discovered is easy, working, committing, persevering to get results is another matter altogether.”

Likewise doing the same old thing and pretending that there isn’t a problem won’t make it go away. Your attempt to blame the messenger for pointing out that a problem exists is typical emu stuff and the left has been getting away with it for too long. The sad and tired attacks on Noel Pearson, who is actually prepared to expose the problem in order to get something done about it, expose the left and their lack of any real solution to this problem they have created.

We’ve all heard of that old saying rainier, “those who can, do, those who can’t, teach.” The problems afflicting aboriginal communities are not merely educational, they are societal and as such are not the exclusive domain of educators.

In any case I have grown up with teaching, both my parents taught for over 30 years, with many aboriginal students in their classes. At my high school, aborigines made up 30% of the student body. I have tutored in mathematics and physics at both University and high school level and I had many aboriginal students.

So unless you have some useful contribution to the debate beyond abusing anyone who dares to mention that a problem might exist, I would suggest that it is you who ought to sit down & S.T.F.U

Paul,

I'm Aboriginal, university graduate, from a remote community, working in education.

Walk a mile in my shoes lad.

Rainier,
I am a worker in remote communities. walk in my shoes for a week. As an academic you more likely than not wouldn't last an hour in the work I did today in the heat with 3 indigenous workers.

I've read the Hughes article in "Quadrant", the extract published in "the Australian" , and here.
Only the Quadrant essay goes to the issue of kava use/abuse. This was also the topic Hughes considered in "Issue Analysis" published by the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) in October 2007:

http://www.cis.org.au/issue_analysis/IA88/ia88.pdf

The "Australian" article and the extract published here neglect any mention of it. Perhaps because it is of no immediate interest in the case of the girls' trip to Sydney.
What does trouble me is a suspicion that in seeking to protect the girl's identities, Hughes has conflated two unrelated communities into the one, which she calls Wangupeni.
The girls pictured in the "Australian" article are said to be from Owairtilla NT.
Only Helen Hughes can dispel my doubts.

Individual, ok, which community

Rainier,
I just got back this arvo after slogging away on a machine with an indigenous co-worker. We worked like crap in the heat & grease & dust & oil.
You asked which community. I travel to many communities every week for 2-4 days at a time.
I won't tell you which ones just yet as you haven't displayed sufficient integrity yet for me to disclose this info. Experience has taught me that people with a chip on their shoulder are more trouble than it's worth & (from experience) I already know how you would try to de-stabilise my good relationship with the people in these communities.
Prove that you have some integrity & I will tell you where I am. Deal ?

Btw Rainier,
When I say integrity I mean having the morals to also see & accept my own mistakes no just those of others. I have never claimed to be "right" on any subject here. What I do claim is my experience in the subjects I comment about. I would like you accept that despite whatever you may think, I do not invent stories nor do I comment to create discontent. I comment with the hope that those who are not enlightened & comment purely out of idealism may think outside their normal daily comfort zone & actually consider that my comments do have merit. Dispute my views by all means but do not dispute my experience no matter how much it goes against your grain. To call me racist etc is not only insulting to me but also an insult to yourself as it gives the impression that you hold only europeans responsible for problems in Australia. There are millions of non-european descendence who also contribute to the daily affairs of this country & also make wise & unwise decisions.

i already know !

get ready for some fun..LOL

get ready for some fun..LOL

fine, does that mean you'll actually make an attempt to answer the questions put to you rather than just coming back with snide remarks ?

I hold individual as well as institutional racism accountable; that these acts (both overt and covert) are usually enacted through people like you is not new to me. I just call it as I see it.

Indeed some the most virulent' individual' racists I have encountered are people who like to think they are fair minded, liberal and Christian. And they always use the ‘ I’m colour blind’ “we re all human beings” argument to defend themselves.

To set aside the institutional and historical agency of white racism as you have indicates how blind you are to your own agency,

Missionary; Mercenary; or Misfit? Which one / or combination of these are you ??

Rainier,
I'm sure there is professional help available for the likes of you. you are utterly unbelieveable in your obsession with racism. If you have had some bad experiences that's too bad but for crying out loud stop accusing other people as having the mentality you are cursed with. whenever I am confronted with that disgusting affliction I just walk away. You in turn desperately seek every opportunity to practice your hatred. Well I have news for you. Either you sit back & take a good look at yourself & ask yourself how all your hatred is perpetuated or what I'd rather see, look around & hopefully realise that others really don't share your sad mentality. How do you propose we can ever achieve any harmony when you are so consumed with non-stop blaming others. Yes many mistakes have been & still & always will be made. That's all it is, mistakes. You however, thrive on causing disharmony & you call yourself an educator ? Wake up.

Rainier,

Some the most virulent' individual' racists I have encountered are people who aren’t white. The aboriginal community is not immune from this affliction. I have no doubt that many minority groups suffer and have suffered from racism. I have no doubt that institutionalised racism was an absolute fact. I have no doubt that this racism lingers on in individuals who make up the many arms of gov’t. However those who continue to suggest that the major problems in remote communities are the result of ongoing racism are ignoring the realities on the ground. Your implication that Helen Hughes was in some way racist was ugly, ill considered and without basis.

Moreover your veiled threats against individual bring to light your own darker side. Missionary; Mercenary; or Misfit? Which one / or combination of these are you ??