"In time, this population intermarried with other working people, overwhelmingly non-Indigenous, leading to a massive upsurge in the Indigenous birth-rate from the late 80s onwards: birth-group numbers rose from about 7,000 to 11,000."

Perhaps the time has come to redefine what you mean by "indigenous". Under the present system, the progeny of a union between an indigenous person and a non-indigenous person can make a claim to be one or the other, but the financial advantages of being indigenous makes this the best choice when it comes to paying for ones education. At the present rate of increase in the numbers of people claiming to be indigenous, all Australians will be indigenous by the end of this century.

David

I certainly appreciate the article by Joe Lane as it can be enlightening to those who care to become enlightened. However I must respond to the comments by VK3AUU who chose another path. I work in the ITAS (Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme) as a Learning Advisor/Tutor and my students are certainly FROM Indigenous backgrounds, APPEAR Indigenous who are also intelligent and capable people. I work with students who often feel as if they don't belong at a university percieved by them to be populated solely by non-indigenous students. My primary task is to assist these students to become independent learners (thus putting myself out of work) who are confident and who study very effectively as both internal and external learners. My work is enormously rewarding as I am not used in any way as a crutch. Indeed, my role is one of empowerment; to assist the student in recognising that they really are doing the work themselves and to slowly take a back seat then ultimately watch briefly from a distance as they undertake their learning journey on what they have come to see as a level playing field.

VK3AUU, what makes you think Indigenous Australians need to justify themselves to you?

It is clear in the current definitions that there are strict guidllines who is Indigenous - and that they must be recognised by Indigenous Australians, etc. Even this disenfranchises some people who are Indigenous.

VK3AUU, I suggest that perhaps rather than Indigenous Australians having to justify who they are, the other mob - non-Indigenous people - should have to justify who they are and why they expect the handouts they get.

Your comments are just another manifestation of the underlying racist attitudes expressed by so many non-Indigenous Australians.

That is assuming that you are an Australian citizen.

It is good to see a positive article on Indigenous Affairs. Education is a commonly overlooked solution to many social problems.

I'd like to share my own experience of the last 5 years of study at universities in Perth and Melbourne. As I came from a low income family living outside of a major city, I looked into getting a scholarship as my tertiary entrance score was quite high. I found that while there were many 'niche' scholarships for various minority groups, but as a Caucasian male Australian, I was not eligible for the majority of them. At the time I felt a bit hard done by, almost like I had been subjected to a form of discrimination. I should also be noted that at Universities such at Monash Uni, the non-indigenous classification the author uses describes Asians, Indians and Caucasians in order of student population. We are all minorities in some sense.

It was also quite interesting (and amusing) when I saw how many scholarship offers and invitations to support programs, that my girlfriend received after accidentally ticking a box saying she was Aboriginal at some point in her application to uni. (It was amusing as due to her 'scottish' completion she often got weird looks from uni administration staff.)

If programs that the author discusses appear to be effective, then it seems that a system of inequality is being used to solve a problem caused by another inequality. In this sense this is what the NT intervention is doing with quarantine rather than scholarships.

"In time, this population intermarried with other working people, overwhelmingly non-Indigenous, leading to a massive upsurge in the Indigenous birth-rate"
I thought I could take this article seriously until I read that. The offspring from non-indigenous and indigenous parents are indigenous?
My wife is a Torres Strait Islander. I am of English/Irish/Scot/German descent. Our two adult children are Australians with indigenous and non-indigenous ancestors. So our children are classified as Indigenous? Why?

Blairbar. That is exactly my point. If you have any indigenous ancestry, you may also be classified as indigenous according to our laws. Actually, all our ancestors came from Africa, so no one can truly claim to be indigenous.

I get the impression from the article that some of the degree courses being offered may have also been dumbed down a bit as well. If this is the case, employers looking for well qualified graduates may be disappointed in the outcomes. Can someone tell us whether this is so? Having said that, it appears that in many courses undertaken by the wider community, the bar has also been lowered so that a pass is obtained by all but a few of the really poor students. I hope this doesn't apply to engineering students, otherwise our bridges and buildings may not be up to it.

David