Thanks, Stephen. Your writings are a great source of refelection and inspiration for this white Australian with a keen interest in the welfare of my Indigenous brothers and sisters. Unfortunately, like many white Australians, probably, I can suffer from the paralysis that comes from trying to analyse the various arguments around Indigenous affairs. I think your views are insightful and generally well balanced, so keep it up!

Stephen; I have spoken to you personally by phone & posted comments before if we are to fix this country & its people then we first must create an equality for all. I was told by an elder in Cairns many years ago three things are required for justice equality,morality & logistics if one of these is missing then no matter what you do you will never achieve justice. He also told me if nature looks good you will feel good with it & if you get along with animals you should be able to get along with people they at least speek your language my son has been removed now for 11years & hasn't even been given an education. David Grayson graysond49@yahoo.com

Time to stop talking, put down the tinnie and pick up the pen (or the spanner)

David

David VK3AUU
what tinnie are you refering to? Is that what you are doing, holding a tinne?
Amd what exactly are you going to do with the spanner?
Perhaps it is time you stick to tinnies of softdrink because you really arent making a lot of sense.

Stephen,
Clearly previous approaches have failed and it is time for a more pragmatic one devoid of pejorative political labelling.
I wonder if the problem is a bit more fundamental.
Remote centralized control by a minority for efficiency sake is a Eurocentric concept and is simply inappropriate to indigenous nations (plural).

Common attitudes are that aborigines are an amorphous group and are treated administratively and bureaucratically as such. In fact this is not so.

An added complication is the unique nature of indigenous cultures that depend on every member’s a specific place and function indivisible from their world order. Strip any pillar away without a comparable replacement and you have dislocation, entire groups without purpose. (Cultural genocide)

Consider how the UN with some 180+ nation member each with their own ‘national identities’ find it difficult to co-operate let alone agree. So why then do/did we expect a similar number of indigenous nations to be any different?

Reality dictates that where cultures are dominated by a more ‘powerful’ one Darwin’s principles hold true (i.e. adapt or perish).
Yet common sense dictates that they both have their place and both are mutually important.

I would suggest that this POLICY creating body needs to be truly representative of their constituents and not dominated by personalities and/or l ideologies.
Therefore all members of peak body including the chair should be bound by decisions and only the Chair can make public statements (similar to members of the RBA board) and be limited by decided issues or board agreed topics. This would reduce misinformation, the media’s divide and sensationalizing of issues, personal profile building or petty politics. This is to ensure that the indigenous needs takes precedence over petty politics etc.

The policies’ regs and implementation should be flexibility to deal with in different regional needs. Nor should actions in one area necessarily be regarded as absolute precedents elsewhere. The over arching principle should be to each community according to their NEEDS. Emphasis should be that in a Democracy all people should have equal opportunities that doesn’t mean equal expenditure