cont'

There is no longer any scope for sitting on the fence of modern and ancestral lifestyles. Aboriginal Australians must embrace modernity. It is a fact that in the modern world people need work in order to live meaningful and prosperous lives. Unfortunately for many aborigines who have been moved to remote mission stations, there is no work. Everything else (alcoholism, abuse, neglect, poor health and low life expectance) is a direct result of this fact. I don’t suggest that work will immediately fix all problems merely that the lack of such was a determining factor in the current outcomes.

Unfortunately I can’t see any way around having people move to locations where the possibility of work exists. Likewise, it seems to me that living in a remote community of 200 people you can’t expect to have a local heart surgeon or ENT specialist. I am not for a second suggesting that aboriginal people give up ownership of their land, merely that it is no longer possible to live in an isolated community and expect all the services and lifestyle advantages that city dwellers receive.

I don't deny that aboriginal people suffer from racism but they face far larger problems that are not as simply pigeonholed. For too long the left has hid behind its PC attitudes, refusing to do anything without correct form and therefore only extending the suffering of many remote communities.

Colinsett the wowser. Shifting attention away from alcoholism in remote communities by trying to equate the weekend revery of mostly employed and healthy people is obnoxious relativism and helps no-one. Are you one of those nimbys who move into a nightlife area for its lower than average property prices and then want to have those venues closed down because they annoy you? If you want to hear possums f#ck go somewhere you can, rather than reorganizing the world for your own benefit. Leave the rest of us alone.

>I think it is overstating the case to suggest that cheap aboriginal labour built this country.<
I am in the process of researching historical aspects of this country's British settlements and during this process have come across many unrecognised stories of how Aboriginals helped white settlement for no payment. For example, many isolated white women were befriended and helped by black women during both good and bad times, helping with food sources etc. There is good reason to suggest that without this help the white women and their children may not have survived. White men were often helped as well in immeasurable but unrecognised ways. I don't think it is overstating the case to say that without black help the country may not have achieved what it has. What I believe is that it so far is hugely unrecognised and it is overdue that this help be recognised. But the point of the article was extreme racism and how it is so blatantly being practiced with apparently too little being done to redress this. The actions of the perpetrators were reprehensible and even now, when we recognise racism for what it is, yet still it is being practiced, and too often condoned by those who should know better. The point here is that now it has been highlighted, what do we do about it? The Aboriginals are owed better than this and it shames me as a descendent of the early white settlers that we have not done more to allow these people to make better use of what we have to offer. Certainly it is a source of shame that their children are dying from preventable illnesses at a greater rate than white children, and life expectency is so hugely disparate. These happen because of racism, xenophobia, or whatever else one cares to call it.

Racism is objectionable whether as a means of deprivation, or as an accusation to inhibit debate.
The former was used to prevent Aboriginal children, of my own early primary school days, attending my local school. That, in John Howard’s lexicon, was Black Armband history. It was within our own lifetimes, but in the time since passed we are now long-distanced from legislated racism. Currently an impartial indifference exists across the continent as to people’s genetic mix – while there are small objectionable pockets, Australia as a nation is now far from being racist.
On the other hand, the racism flag continues to gag deeper debate on the fundamentals of many issues. It is also used to excuse the resurgence of cultural practices and restraints that societies have worked hard to have removed from the civilized world.
If communities, or pockets within them, are dysfunctional anywhere - from Redfern through Burke, Cunnamulla, Alice Springs, to Kalumburu or places in between, the basic causes rather than symptoms need to be addressed; without relevance to colour of skin or genetic origins. To do otherwise is divisive. This would not inhibit further resources being directed towards predominantly Aboriginal communities desperately in need.
Lifting a community out of dysfunction is seldom straight forward. Descent into despair is counterproductive, but hard to avoid, and escape from reality is part and parcel of it.
A break from the mundane with a bit of whoopee is harmless enough. But not when it becomes a continuous opiate for escaping reality of the world we live in. An odd corroboree, song and dance perhaps followed by a stoush, whether in central Australia or at the old Barn Dance, has been superseded. The industries of competitive consumerism have led us towards continuous estrangement from direct connection with reality. Overindulgence in Ice at Kings Cross, petrol sniffing in remote communities, permanently sloshed to the eyeballs here and there – the cause, or the result of social dysfunction? Quick, facile answers are not helpful, and please don’t complicate the issue by overplaying the ugly racism card

"Second, what merit does a subjective view give to the question of the aesthetic beauty of one person over another?"
Excuse me but those subjective judgements are being made all of the time. And what is wrong with it? From personally experience i know that aborigines are often loud, crass, like swearing and abusing each other, and seem to enjoy the subsequent intimidatory effect. If people behave badly and get ejected that is common sense and a duty to the other guests, if the people identify as aborigines then it is racism. One question, why didn't the people in Cunnamulla take the $50,000 and leave town? Sounds like a good deal to me.

Stephen Hagan and Aboriginals need to stop blaming the world for their ills. Australia has had wave after wave of immigrants since the 1940s. Each wave arrived with nothing, often encountered resentment and outright racism, but worked hard to build their future. The Vietnamese are a classic example. Fraser changed the white Australia policy to let Asians into Australia. These people encountered a lot of resistance and racism. They had absolutely nothing. But with a culture that values education and hard work above all else, I've now often gone to Vietnamese doctors. They didn't receive the same handouts as Aboriginals, they didn't receive preferential treatment and they didn't blame everyone else for their failures. They are now an integral part of the wider Australian community.

As for moving to find jobs or housing - get over it. I just moved a hundred kilometres to buy a unit because I couldn't afford the $500,000 price tag of units where I grew up (probably never will be able to). I'm just one of thousands of Australians who have been forced to move from friends or face a lifetime of renting.

It's time Aboriginal leaders stopped whining about racism and actually did something for themselves. There are many prominent Aboriginals who are well respected by the wider community. They are respected because they earned respect by their actions. That is how our society works: merit. You may think because you have black skin you're entitled to be respected no matter how badly you act, but in that case you'll be crying racism and waiting a long time.

More than twenty thousand Indigenous people have graduated from university across Australia (and another nine thousand are currently enrolled) so they have more than amply demonstrated their right to live and work anywhere they damn-well like in what was their country entirely for sixty thousand years. For most of the past two hundred years, they helped to build this country, the best shearers, the best cattleworkers. They can succeed in whatever they put their minds to. Get used to it.

Joe