Spikey

'What a sad lot of posts. Where is compassion and where is the helping hand for the downtrodden? Not much in evidence here. Just selfishness and denial. Sad!'

Please suggest how you would go about helping the aboriginals instead of criticizing those you know nothing about. The helping hand has been their for many years by successive Governments and many white Australians. What has been your contribution that makes you so self righteous?

The author points at all and claims "ignorance". Idiot.

"Aborigines" are not aborigines for starters They are a huge collection of tribes various in nature and background. They are not one race.

Urban and rural aborigines are vastly different.

She says this moron wishes he had aboriginal friends. Why doesn't he do something? Pop down to Redfern with a carton under his arm. He'll have all the friends he wants in 5 minutes. Do it every day and they are mates for life. Serious suggestion.

But no, he wants aboriginal friends who are his peers. Sorry, they reject you mate as they too are extremely racist, towards each other as well. Those many tribes generally hate each other and fight at the drop of a stubby.

Moronic comments too. Shaz. Same proble for whites stupid.

Leigh. Screwed up statements mate. First inhabitants are still first. And they're not alive today? Really? Are you sure? No 60,000 year old Aussies? What on earth does this drivel mean?

RPG. Irritated are you? Not invaded? What do you call a country with one group of residents being replaced by shis full of people with guns and intent to kill and wipe out those first residents? Harmony? Of course it was invasion to them. To us? Discovery, exploring. Moron.

Don't you all love this "I don't know if my friends are aborigine" garbage? If you can't tell then they are not aborigines stupid. How many of you have ever seen or met a full blood aboriginal? By far the gentlest and nicest of people, untainted by white blood and the horrors that in between status holds. What was that? None? Right.

Urban aboriginals huddle in ghettos in exactly the same way that all immigrants do. We are not multi racial at all. We are a country with lots of small gatherings of many races. More and more the twain do not meet.

Why do Chinese and Vietnamese create suburbs where English is a foreign language?

For the same reason whites would rather move than have neighbours of a different race. We are all racists.

Growing up in the bush it was perfectly normal to have Aboriginal friends and we all thought of ourselves as simply mates with very little thought about whether we were Aboriginal or non Aboriginal. My mother’s best friend from the time she was widowed until the time she died was an Aboriginal woman. However since my time as a child there has been a concentrated effort to separate Aboriginal Australians from other Australians on the basis of race. This has been done through government policies that single out Aboriginal people for special financial consideration and special conditions. What follows from that is that Aboriginal people are perceived as different and separate and either viewed with sympathy or resentment. Neither attitude paves the way for equality.

Aboriginal people must also accept responsibility for their relationships with other Australians. Some Aboriginal people meet their fellow Australians with a baggage of resentment and deliberately keep their distance. I believe that resentment has developed because ‘sympathetic’ white Australians perpetuate the idea that Aboriginal people should hold white Australians responsible for the wrongs of the past. That sort of sympathy is short sighted and detrimental.

While there was definitely a need for change in Australian society regarding Aboriginal people it is ironic that the changes implemented to assist Aboriginal people has brought about separation

Sorry to say I have to join the negative here.
It is a two way street and keeping the focus on racial difference is helping no one.
When I lived in Darwin I actively approached the Local aboriginal locals: Asking directions, polite smiles, etc. I wanted to learn from a friendly local...
Mostly I would be ignored, often abused and sometimes threatened. The local mob would be sleeping under a tree every morning, and in the evenings they would accumulate their stash and begin drinking. Occasionally they would be joined by a white "long grasser".
I offered one a lift one day: He immediately called over his hidden brothers and started demanding I drive him all over town. He wound down the window and started abusing pedestrians. This is normal behaviour I later learned from the locals. I had to drop them off at the police station to avoid being kicked out of my own car.
The very few aboriginies who are moving forward in life often have to disown their relatives so they can reside in a civilised manner without exploitation.
As a previous post mentioned: there are over 250 different tribes and cultures. The issue now is the modern aboriginal culture of drinking, hatred, disrespect for all non-blacks and surly "we deserve better" attitude for all. This has nothing to do with traditional culture, and everything to do with spoilt human beings.
(Probably the last time I'll agree with Leigh and runner!)

Ozandy:

"there are over 250 different tribes and cultures. The issue now is the modern aboriginal culture of drinking, hatred, disrespect for all non-blacks and surly "we deserve better" attitude for all."

Please forgive me, but I'm now confused. Which is it - over 250 different tribes and cultures? or one culture through which you damn them all?

As one of your mob once said, 'Please explain'.

RobbyH - I expected abuse and got it for actually stating what a lot of people feel about our sorry little industry, and you're right up there trying to hold up the noble savage image - well good on you, and good luck with it - it's good to have dreams.

So I'm a moron for stating the obvious RobbyH, that there was no invasion and Great Britain sent out a settlement expedition of CONVICTS, not an invasion force. Do you know nothing about Australian history, there were some soldiers, to keep the convicts under control.

They didn't need an invasion force to take over Australia from wandering groups of hunter gatherers. Sorry if the truth offends you, get over it sunshine.

In fact when did this business of an "invasion" start, well just before the bicentennial of Australian SETTLEMENT, and why did it take so long (200 years) for anyone to realise Australia had been "invaded", because it wasn't.

Spikey - here you go, an explanation, I'm surprised you need it - but OK - there might have been 250 tribes, what culture they had is debatable but the current obvious culture presented to the rest of Australia - is drunken violence and domestic abuse. Hardly the noble "culture" you're alluding to - some sort of dreamland, spiritual, one with the land rubbish that only exists when tourists are around. Your image of beautiful, caring, graceful custodians of the land is a myth, living in harmony with the earth and each other is a myth.