Individual,

In Peter Bellwood's magnificent book, 'First Farmers: ... ', he notes that the Out-of-Africa experience was fifty or sixty thousand years of DE-globalisation, of human fragmentation and differentiation - and I would suggest, of hyper-parochialism, 100,000 languages each spoken by a few hundred or a few thousand people, each group against its neighbours, each group seeing itself as the only human beings and all others as progressively more sub-human the further away they were from themselves and only good for the mutual exchange of women.

So it would be wonderful to be alive in a hundred years, with such a beautiful mixture of people right across Australia: as Darwin pointed out, the mixture of groups usually produced more healthy, more beautiful and more intelligent children. Most of our great-grandchildren and GGGchildren will have Indigenous, Mediterranean, Central Asian, East Asian, Polynesian and African ancestries and they will be the most beautiful people in the world. I can't wait !

Joe Lane

Aboriginals, other Australians born here and recent immigrants all receive the leagacy of the Australian occupation.

Before, the whites there were waves of black folks about every 15,000 years owing to land bridges. The fourth or fifth occupation was by the English, who themselves were invaded on many occasions by the Romans and Vikings. The Normans who invaded England in 1066, we lead by the descendants for King Rollo who invaded Normandy (Norse-Man-Day) in 911.

So, the Australians believed to have occupied Australia c. 60,000 BP were invaded other black peoples three or four times before the whites in 1788 (forgetting the explorers). Whites also with a history of being invaded over-and-over again. Behaps more so the aborigines.

What followed the 1788, occupations was genecide, often by farmers and squatters. In the US there was a similar situation where the earlier Christian groups killed of the American clans with smallpox laced blackets given as gifts.

I see the Crown and colonisation to the key perpetrator. Exploitation by the British is significant here. Soon (1601) after the defeat Spainish Armada (1588), Elizabeth I can trading companies "monopolies" of territories (other pwers followed.

What modern aboriginals do realise is that white "on the street" could have been press-ganged, England would not educate the Irish. that is, the State (and the Church) was allowing white to die in hulks on the Themes at the same time as squatters shooting aboriginals for stealing a sheep. Early aboriginals closer to events pittied the treatments of the white convicts, whom could be beaten senseless for looking-up when they were not meant to do so.

Should we be treating the Aboriginals as separate special group apart from the rest of Australians anyway? This policy is making them more alienated from the rest of society and not feeling part of it.

Aborigines have to rise above victim status and be more responsible for their own destinies.Sit down money has destroyed them.

Pilger is like some mascot for those who want to delude themselves, or live in a world of illusion, about Australian Indigenous realities. Primarily, Pilger is an economic determinist who imagines a mining company poised behind every bush on Aboriginal land in the NT.

"An undeclared agenda is straight from Australia’s colonial past: a land grab" he bleats endlessly. "... Jenny Macklin, has decreed that unless certain communities hand over their precious freehold leases they will be denied basic services."

In fact, Macklin is asking for leases, not freehold, over tiny portions of Aboriginal inalienable freehold land so that the government can invest hundreds of millions of dollars on developing adequate infrastructure to meet Aboriginal aspirations for their children in the towns and villages sprinkled round their lands.

The Aboriginal traditional owners will still own 99% plus of their country - all the land surrounding the town centres will still be theirs, to permit or with-hold from mining prospecting and exploration as they determine.

But according to the prophet Pilger, "The Northern Territory contains abundant mineral wealth, such as uranium, and has long been eyed by multinationals as a lucrative radioactive waste dump. The blacks are in the way, yet again: so it is time for the usual feigned innocence."

Deluding yourself, John: the efforts to secure leases over town areas, and thus develop reasonable living standards for the population will help, not hinder, Aboriginal health and self-determination and control of land. It will enable the growth of a healthy, educated Aboriginal society, whose members will be more able to manage their own affairs and judge their own best interests, without your sage advice.

Well say something truthful and constructive about the methods issued to solve the aboriginal Australian issues and outcome the bigots.
That s the bigots that don’t know there bigots of course because there safe ad snug in tier wasp homes deliberating on what’s best for the AA.
The ones that stereotype and categorize and stereotype their answers into tidy little put on a shelf and forget boxes.
Where would the AA be if whites hadn’t arrived? A lot better off than now that’s for sure. The problem here is with bigots are bigot are against whites also which basically means you’re a bunch of w888kers.
If Pete wasn’t such an ignorant burke finishing his reply with a?
“What’s pilger suggesting “. Well Duh he brought your pig ignorance to the fore didn’t he!
As for this famous constitution I would challenge any of you bigots to find it. Then you could allow me to read it.
From a country thatis NOT a signatory to the international bill of rights (I wonder why) to the country that doesn’t have bill of rights and went to the polls to see I f it NEEDED a democracy. What a joke.
Your all hypocrites and don’t know it.
Just remember the whole world is hissing them on that one. Do we need a democracy geese Louise.
I’m roflmao on that one.

thomasfromtacoma,
we all make the occasional spelling mistake but please, can you pull up your socks ? :-)