maracas - the cultures of aboriginal inhabitants before white settlement differed markedly depending on location. Tribes varied in size, some had enormous territories, others lived within (sometimes uneasy) close proximity. There were nearly 200 separate languages and while spiritual beliefs revolved around a Creation Legend, these also varied.

All shared the following factors:
They lived by hunting and gathering. Trade existed between many groups as well as friendship and warfare.

No written language existed. Non-verbal communication such as painting, dance, and message cues were widely used.

There was no agricultural system - neither plant or livestock.

Permanent dwellings or settlements were non-existant. People followed a nomadic lifestyle.

In good seasons, people would be healthy. If the season was bad, or worse, several in a row, people would struggle and die.

This subsistance lifestyle and lack of cohesion undoubtedly explains why the Aboriginal population after many thousands of years was nowhere near that of the Invaders after about 100 years or why they, in contests for territory and resources, proved no competition for whitey.

The vast majority of "Aboriginals" today are genetically mixed. Most live, work, play and contribute to the diverse social makeup of this land and have good lives. Some like to uphold positive aspects of their culture, eg. hunting traditional foods, instruction of children and youth in tribal beliefs and family responsibilities. Others live "Aussie" lifestyles.

If there are people who wish to live traditionally - as nomadic hunter gatherers I wish them well. However it doesn't work that way, does it? No - they need concrete houses in permanent settlements with flushing toilets, water on tap and electricity, white fella tucker, clothes, 4WDs, rifles, knives, axes etc etc and God spare the innocents, alcohol. Well if they haven't been able to manage a fairly good existence over past decades where there has been a lot of "self-determination" what is the answer? Personally I believe assimilation is both inevitable and desirable and will evolve over the next generation or two. Otherwise we could just uphold the status quo and wait for extinction?

Divine I am sure you are a good person , but your Formula was trialled before at Wilcannia and at Elizabeth in SA . The Concrete house I thought was a good idea (at Elizabeth) but was executed badly .
The Aboriginals I have stayed with had no concept of modesty , if its as hot as hell no cloths and an open plan very big single room is all thats required . The concrete house at Elizabeth was empirically flawed both types of Aussies were repulsed by it's execution however the idea was good ; I am sure if the effort had been an Igloo about 40 foot round with a constant ceiling rise to the center terminating to a hole maybe 4 foot diameter with a conical cast concrete lid maybe 7 ft or more for aesthetics perhaps , we need to progress the Uluru look and end up with a ventilation vent permanently open ToBeContinued

Onya Maracas. Am sickened by the primitive tribalistic racialism revealed in many of these postings also.
It's largely about turning aboriginal land over to so-called "developers", after the Noel Pearson/ ALP Right/ Brough model and really is a continuation of the efforts of vested interests to role back Wik and Mabo.
And of course, the ignorance.
The fact that many indigines find themselves in such a bad state, it is forgotten, relates to the last brutal and trauma-inducing two hundred years of history and fails to even consider the need of a little tolerance and worse still tax payer compensation,to even theplaying field, if only thru adequate public services, owed "our" victims.

Onya Maracas.
Am sickened by the primitive tribalistic racialism revealed in many of these postings also.
It's largely about turning aboriginal land over to so-called "developers", after the Noel Pearson/ ALP Right/ Brough model and really is a continuation of the efforts of vested interests to role back Wik and Mabo.
And of course, the ignorance.
The fact that many indigines find themselves in such a bad state, it is forgotten, relates to the last brutal and trauma-inducing two hundred years of history and fails to even consider the need of a little tolerance and worse still tax payer compensation, to even the playing field, if only thru adequate public services, owed "our" victims.

Shazbaz - I confess to being facetious referring to 'concrete' houses. Engineers of aboriginal housing turned to concrete as a building material after millions of dollars worth of wooden construction went up in smoke. Tenants lit fires on floorboards or ripped houses apart for firewood. Agree that better ideas might be tried - perhaps large buildings designed for extended families with huge open living areas for family/community activity and lots of small rooms where particularly children could retreat for rest/refuge. Trouble with communal sleeping arrangements is that it makes too easy for the deviate factor to prey on kids.

Aah Maracas - while European settlement certainly devastated Aboriginal ways of life - which BTW were most primitive of all cultures encountered by 17th and 18th centuary explorers and 'invaders' that followed, today it is the Aboriginal himself that is his own worst enemy. No-one wants a "traditional" lifestyle without whitey comforts and I'm sure even you with your best rose-tinted specs would find some tribal practices completely unacceptable. So the answer is ..... Education, training, real opportunities for jobs and industries particularly those that incorporate existing skills and knowledge and build confidence and self-esteem. Tourism, Art, pastoral industry are areas where successes have been achieved.

Barriers to positive outcomes include community culture (not all communities are 'led' by wise benelovent old gentlemen) substance abuse, lack of self-discipline, poor infrastructure and resources, poor levels of education, sub-average intelligence (before you scream "racist" consider what decades of alcohol abuse with foetal alcohol syndrome and neglected children with little white or black education has done for the communal IQ) and location.

Fortunately most "aboriginals" (and by that I include those who may be no more than 1/16 and look completely European but claim to be indigenous) I know well are integrated into Australian society and doing well. Some still enjoy some of the best of their cultural traditions, others live 'white'. Whatever - as long as they can have good lives, rear healthy kids, move forward. That is the future. For those who can't or won't there is only eventual extinction.

Last year, I spend 12 days on a drilling rig east of Kalgoorlie. I camped near the rig but my two field assistants stayed at the nearby Aboriginal community in houses left over from the mission days. I visited the community once.
What I found were friendly welcoming people who were bored witless, lacking in motivation, grossly overweight, living in a community that seemed to me (and to the two field assistants) to have no future. Most of the men had left the community and I assume were working in the mining industry.
This community was a large outstation and it was failing. The people who remained gave the impression that they saw no future for themselves other than an early death.
Dr Anthony needs to put aside her comfortable life in Sydney and visit the outstations whose continuation she so strongly supports. She might then understand why people like Noel Pearson are the only hope for most Aborigines who live remote from services and infrastructure. Noel is a pro-development person because, after 200 years of colonisation, no other solution has been shown to have even the smallest chance of success.