Stephan,
It is up to Aboriginal Leadership to get together ,work out their differences and not waste time and intellectual effort in sniping at each other over emphasis with symbols and "practical reconciliation ".

Howard and the National Partyencouraged dissension anywhere he could gain political advantage.

Other Australians who have something to lose if Indigenous Australians get a fairer share of our social and economic cake will encourage division .Others ,enjoying watching Aboriginal Leadership stumble will continue say I told you so .

Aboriginal women must demand more from their men for their familys' sake but at the same time ensure they support them fully in their quest for full political recognisation and respect as Australia's original illegally dispossesed owners .

If this means the formation of a new representative body then the sooner the better it's formed and hopefully fully supported by the Government and the Opposition .

While Gordon, Mundine and Pearson are sick of seeing the worst of Aboriginal life in their favourite papers, they will fail to do their duty as Indigenous leaders with a big public profile, if they don't use their power to help unify Aboriginal thought and action to make positive progress in symbolic and social aspects of their lives .

It is hoped that the best of Aboriginal leadership will see that sections of white society don't want them to work out their problems and refuse to be baited by media releases that exploit different but not irreconcialable positions on the important policy priorities ahead .

Thank you for giving all Australians some important insight on the Conference.

I'll buy into this with my usual 'rant'

ONE Nation, ONE race, ONE culture.

No..I don't mean 'white' for each of those 'ONEs'

I mean a blended Australia with ETHNICITY DOES NOT MATTER!

and ethnicity consciousness is a virtual synonym for "RACISM".

The ONLY reason one would refer to one's self as a 'ENGLISH' Australian, or a CHINESE Australian or LEBANESE Australian or an ABORIGINAL Australian is.. because we are 'proud' of our ethnicity, if we are proud of it.. it means by default that we are NOT proud of others,or.. that we regard ourselves as 'superior' to them....
which of course is...

*RACISM*

The ONLY thing we should be conisering is 'HUMAN-ness' and once we realize we are all just human with varying differences of no great significance, we can then work toward a better and unified Australia.

Perhaps the first step toward this is for our population to embrace Christ en-masse.. who inspired Paul to say:

<<28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.>>

So, clearly, Christ is the answer to 'racism' and intolerance based on racial differences.

Sorry Stephen.... but "Aboriginal" representation is the same to me as 'CHINESE' representation, 'LEBANESE' representation, 'TURKISH' representation, 'IRISH' represtentation and any other ethnic tag anyone wishes to attach to it.

Why can you blokes not just say 'We are AUSSIES' ? Hmmmmm? The shock of having no racism or intolerance might to too much for those who define their lives and careers on it :)

BOAZ,

I agree that that a representative body for Indigenous persons is racist when there's no representative bodies for other ethnic groups and minorities.

This article really was a laugh, because it was so illogical. This guy claims his views were silenced, simply because others voiced their disagreement at the Summit and in the newspapers. In other words, he believed his rights to expression were denied, simply because others chose to exercise theirs.

This is a typical left-wing error: the language of the need for consensus is a fundamentally dangerous one, because it implies that everyone has to agree with each other. Usually, the people using this rhetoric want others to agree with them. Problem is that others should always have the right to disagree, and Stephen Hagan appears to struggle grasping this idea.

Hagan claims that the Summit "was about big ticket items", but he doesn't provide any evidence for this assertion. If that was his interpretation, it obviously wasn't shared by Warren Mundine, who obviously got very bored of the same old talk about another body to fly Aborigines business class to 5-star hotels giving lectures in universities. As Wesley Aird said:

"We need to stop people getting pissed and beating each other up. How is that going to happen in Canberra?". "If I was sleeping in the park tonight or in a party house in Aurukun or Yuendumu, I couldn't give a stuff (about a new body)."

Too true. If we really care about indigenous disadvantage, we don't focus on spending money on the Indigenous elite and dream about treaties when life expectancy is so low and physical and sexual abuse
so rampant in many remote communities.

Stephen,

I am sure you are genuine in your beliefs and I also hope indigenous peoples receive a better deal. That said, if you care so much about human rights why not write a paper on street kids or living in Housing Commission society? Why this one track?

My understanding is you have a business studies background and are not an anthropoligist. I am of Scotish descent but would feel myself in anyway presenting Celtic Folk Lore to the Public Domain. My university certainly would not.

I have studied a little on treaties and still maintain, as in earlier posts, if one were to go back to 1600, the "trational" treaty would have a life-line running through totem animals, the Land and the reconciling people. They, the parties to the treaty, would not seek money for the Land, because, to them, humans would have been the Land.

The above said, every-help should be given "all" people in need, as we are a wealthly country, and it is the right thing to do. But social welfare apartied is unjust.

insightfull but unimaginative
'the-debate-that-raged between-media-savvy-Indigenous-leaders '

it is well known the media favours a few who support the adjenda of the news paper owners [read elite landed gentry],those former at-sic or current lands council 'members' are the case in point ,the failed colonisation adgenda of past govt policy that favours a select few family groupings ,who are allowed to speak on behalf of all the others [who get the treatment , while their empowerd coconut masters live like landed gentry

'who-continue-to-spitefully-attack' ,to gain controle over the crumbs doled out by their exploiters [take the murry basin that rakes in 80 billion a year in wealth ,with less than 2 billion [actually less than 500 million]doled out mainly to the elites coconuts.

Take matildahouse ,nu-gun-on-a-wall and her outcast mob from the waraderie nation ,out cast in the pre-histry yet the face favoured as the representative in welcoming to country ,
who has done her best in shutting out all the other 520 nations from the embassy forum ,in serving the neo con master howard [she was offered two million to rebuild the embassy [if she could shut it down]

WHICH 'one-since-then-is-the-urgent need-to-reinstate-a-national-representative body.[what so you can lose your claim to country?]
so govt can at whim shut it down to steal the at-sic silver [read research and resources yet again]

Sovereignity is the only thing that will work, working via comunity voting by the whole tribe [not some sold out figure head ,coconut] we have this lie [the elephant in the room of colonisation ,the indigenous didnt go anywhere [pay the rent]

Each local austrailian council makes its peace with its sovereign nation [who become like an attourny general, figure head] but each council is charged with protecting soverein AB-origonal heritage and culture [taught in schools if need be.

Sovereignity cant be 'granted' by the white colonisers it is inherant
it has been stolen and subverted ,lets face up to the truth , greed has ssstuffed up much of the best of this sovereign land

What the invaders couldnt do with poisen and isolation it did by medical malfeasance [we have old people who are afreaid to go to hospitals because everyone whop went there dies[its no coincidence that only 22 AB-origonal men out of every 100 will die pre retirment [ie reach age of 65] [plus only 33 per every 100 for woman]

That one in five dies before the age of 5 years of age [which when narrowed down further means out back closer to one in 8]the favouring of paternalistic leadership has made brutes and bullies out of the favoured sex [thus the problems we all have been told]

That 2/3 rds of the prison population in jails for drug offeses and petty crime is also family selective ,that they havnt been able top sort out their own problem's is by govt favouritism ,empoweing the wrong type [coconuts]that work on the might is right for the colonising master ,
Tribal loyalty is everything ,you elect one family their family gets it all, first ,you cant put white rules over this black and white issue ,the same thinking cant bring new solutions, we can have adopt an elder [or adopt a tribe, where a nation has been made extinct we can yet make things fair ,by offereing real help [not dependance] but first we must help them help each other
you cant set a person free , but you can allow it to occur naturally, stop destroying that you cant con-trol or fear