Joe,

Beaut article mate. What you are highlighting is how indigenous culture has survived 40,000 years. It and it's people have been smart enough to adapt to changing environments and conditions throughout that period. That is simply continuing.

I think we are, as Australians, in future generations more likely to embrace the Indigenous culture that develops out of the current sharing of the two dominant Australian cultures.

Great eh?

Dear Keith,
I have an indigenous brother in Christ and I sometimes attend their family service . The message he preaches is that the culture of the cross leads to an abundent life. the culture of ancestry is witchcraft and leads to death. Another one of his favourites is that aboriginal boys don't brop their balls till mid 40's so do not act responcibly. The words of wisdom from a true gentle, man of God respected by "all" in our local comunity. Education is a step in the right direction but unless truth is taught heart ache and disapointment will follow

>>For a generation now, tertiary education has been the quiet success story for Indigenous people. Back in 1980, there were only about 400 Indigenous tertiary graduates across the whole of Australia, but by the end of this year, the total will be more than 25,000: that’s one in every nine or ten Indigenous adults.Currently, enrolments and graduations are at record levels. Women especially are doing well - in fact, Indigenous women (aged 18 to 59) are commencing tertiary study at a better rate (2.45 per cent) than non-Indigenous Australian men (2.26 per cent). With a boom in the birth-rate since the 80s, it is possible that a total of 50,000 Indigenous people could be university graduates by 2020. One hundred thousand Indigenous people could be university graduates by 2034 - this is certainly possible, and this could be one of the targets for the 25-year Indigenous Education Plan.<<

Joe, On these stats, there is obviously nothing wrong with the education system in this Country. As for the emerging Aboriginal academics? Well, we will definitely need more uni's and TAFEs to create more and larger indigenous units to accommodate them. As they are virtually, Unemployable, anywhere else. As per my website whitc.info (if active)or on Crickey with Bob Gosford. Arthur Bell.

Thank you for your comments but, as a grumpy old man, I have to disagree:

Keith:

* culture is learned, it is not innate, culture is not biology: to equate the two is to start down the slippery slope of racism;

* Indigenous people are as intelligent, and able to learn, as anybody else;

* there actually has been a complete disjuncture between traditional and modern culture and Indigenous people are as able as anybody else to live and interact in a modern world, and have been since the earliest days of the Invasion;

Richie, your informant is an idiot. Find someone with more sense.

Bully,

That's exactly what I was NOT saying - the primary and secondary sectors are still under-performing terribly, and the tertiary sector would still be too, if it were not for interventionist programs such as the publicity, recruitment, preparation and support programs, which some wonderful people are trying to keep going, in the face of vicious opposition from Indigenous Studies staff, in collusion with opportunist university administrations.

Yes, there is still racism in employmentI I do know of unemployed graduates, ironically highly qualified but not fitting into the apartheid system which so many other Indigenous people, graduates and otherwise, are comfortable with, and which universities, government departments and unions are happy to maintain i.e. yes, there are graduates who are not content to be shunted into Indigenous units but - wonders ! - want to be treated as graduates, as employees, as PEOPLE.

And many Indigenous academics run a mile from working with their own people, they're too busy building their careers prattling rubbish to non-Indigenous students - the best staff working in Indigenous student support programs have often been, and still are, non-Indigenous. Yes, there certainly could be 50,000 graduates by 2020, and 100,000 by 2034, but most of them will not owe anything to Indigenous academics.

Joe Lane

<Indigenous women (aged 18 to 59) are commencing tertiary study at a better rate (2.45 per cent) than non-indigenous Australian men (2.26 per cent).>
If the reverse were true it would be damning evidence of indigenous and female disadvantage.
If equity is really the goal then clearly something must be done to redress this imbalance.
What makes young non-indigenous men less deserving than young indigenous women?
Need I ask?
They belong to the favoured class and they are therefore advantaged,
even if they aren't.
Perhaps non-indigenous Australian men should be eligible for all the extra lurks and perks that Abstudy recipients enjoy over Austudy recipients.
Maybe non-Indigenous Australian men should also be exempt from HECS fees until parity is achieved.
That would probably be racist and sexist.
How "indigenous" are all these people anyway?
6.25%?
3.125%?
Having had to interview an indigenous student in a group household,
I was unable to differentiate the "indigenous" student from his non-indigenous house-mates.
They all looked the same.
The only differences between them was that he wouldn't be graduating with a HECS debt and they would;
he received rent allowance and they didn't.
He'd won the lottery.
His great, great, great grandma was an Aboriginal.
In another time and place it would be called apartheid.
It is, in fact, racism.

Hi Herman,

Thanks for your entertaining comments.

No, Indigenous students are not exempt from HECS.

Rent allowance ? This is the first I ever heard of such a thing, but thanks, I'll look into it.

Yes, over the past two hundred years, authorities have had trouble defining what was to be meant by 'Aboriginal': in those few times when their labour was sought after, the definition was very strict, so that 'half-castes' and 'quarter-castes' were exempt and freer to move and work and live where they liked; while in more common times when their labour was not needed, the definition became very broad, so that anybody with Aboriginal ancestry was 'caught' by the definition and restricted accordingly. But usually, until the sixties, anybody with Aboriginal ancestry was barred from voting and drinking, usually barred from living in towns, not entitled to many government benefits and required to submit to random health examinations. Until 1962, here in SA (and other times in other states), Aboriginal women were not allowed to associate with non-Aboriginal men.

But of course, that's all decades ago !

Joe Lane

Yo Joe,
Always pleased to provide entertainment for my smug superiors.
And thanks for correcting me on HEC's and also, possibly, rent assistance.
When I interviewed my indigenous student circa 2004/5 it was a bone of contention between him and his house-mates that he received rental assistance and had his HECS paid for him due to his "indigenous" status, whereas they didn't.
Perhaps his was one of the indigenous cadetships that paid his HECS and which appear not to have a non-indigenous equivalent?
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/careers/cicp.htm
I don't think he was doing his masters or doctorate, otherwise his indigenous status would have qualified him for HECS exemption as well as a healthy $20,427 pa, not available to the non-indigenous.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/payments/abstudy_addition.htm#maximum
I further note the exclusive availability to indigenous students of incidentals allowance plus additional incidentals allowance of up to $4,200 pa, which in themselves approach HEC values.
http://www.centrelink.gov.au/internet/internet.nsf/filestores/co029_0909/$file/co029_0909en.rtf
The Centrelink Austudy and Youth Allowance booklet (Ci004.0609) from my filing cabinet refers to Youth Allowance and Rent Assistance but not Austudy and Rent Assistance, reinforcing my memory on that point. This leads me to think that Rental Assistance for Austudy recipients must be a recent, and welcome, innovation.
Please correct me again if I’m wrong.
You seem to view this from a reparations point of view.
At what point should reparations stop?
When equity has been achieved?
But surely we’re beyond equity when there are more indigenous-women than non-indigenous men in tertiary education.
Race-based welfare will always be racist, by definition.
Welfare should be needs-based not race-based.
Otherwise you get the ludicrous, unjust and racist system we have now,
where somebody in a similar situation to other people gets special treatment because one of their ancestors happened to be indigenous.

Hi Herman,

No, I don't think I'm smug at all. AuStudy is available to Australian domestic students, Abstudy is available to Indigenous students, and I wasn't aware that there was all that much difference between the two.

Yes, some students, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, may be studying on cadetships. Rent allowance, I don't know about: none of the students I worked with ever received it, as far as I was aware.

I don't see any of this being relevant to reparations: if there are any extra payments available to Indigenous students, they could be called 'catch-up' for the generations of exclusion from the education system, and I presume they will be levelled out in the near future. As it happens, I believe that all students in need, Black or White, should receive supplementary assistance. I don't believe that any students who are well-off, Black or White, should.

To get back to the topic, Indigenous women are commencing tertiary study at a slightly better rate than non-Indigenous males. They are not commencing at anywhere near the rate of non-Indigenous women. That's how it is. What do you propose from now on, that if any struggle for equity is over, Indigenous women can now be barred from tertiary study ?

Indigenous students have been a permanent feature of Australian tertiary education for a generation now, and they will be participating at increasing rates in the future. That was the gist of my article. Please try to get used to the idea.

Joe Lan

Herman,

1. One of the things that concerns me about people adopting the position of 'reverse racism' is the mistaken notion that everyone begins from the same starting position. Despite various difficulties for any student undertaking tertiary study (such as having to live on a pittance; travel distances and find accommodation to complete placement requirements; costs of books and all that), mainstream society has been advantaged for a very long time compared to Aboriginal students. For example, it's well known that children of professional people tend to gravitate towards higher education and to follow similar career paths to their parents. At least if they reject that path; they have had an opportunity to exercise some choice.

2. Education is a protective factor against a lot of health and community problems.

3. There are a huge range of scholarships and entitlements for which the majority of students and some international students are eligible to apply. For example:

http://www.deakin.edu.au/future-students/scholarships/access-equity.php

http://www.goingtouni.gov.au/Main/FeesLoansAndScholarships/Postgraduate/Scholarships/UniversityScholarships/ScholarshipsAtAustralianUniversities.htm

http://www.csu.edu.au/student/scholarships/

http://www.rcna.org.au/scholarships/government_scholarships

http://www.csu.edu.au/student/scholarships/other-bodies.htm

http://www.griffith.edu.au/research-higher-degrees/scholarships/externally-funded

http://studyinaustralia.gov.au/Sia/en/StudyCosts/Scholarships

http://www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar/

http://education.qld.gov.au/marketing/service/higher-education/university/courses-other-info.html

http://www.studentcentre.utas.edu.au/scholarships/AwardDetails.aspx?AwardId=188

Dear Joe
What degrees or higher degrees are they achieving and at what Universities?

Hi Blairbar,

In the latest data, that for 2008, more than ninety per cent of Indigenous graduations were at degree- and post-graduate level. Check out
http://www.deewr.gov.au/HigherEducation/Publications/HEStatistics/Publications/Pages/Students.aspx

for the latest summaries, and

http://www.dest.gov.au/sectors/higher_education/publications_resources/statistics/publications_higher_education_statistics_collections.htm

for older data. By definition, by the way, bridging course 'graduates' are not counted in the total of AWARD-LEVEL graduates. Fair enough too.

Joe