Holy Moly,
Immigrants with Immigrant laws have imprisoned a huge percentage of the original Australians; they have become the 1st Fleet Convicts .

Immigrants have contributed by ruining huge areas of Australia and continue to do so in our thoughtless quest for "gold " in many forms and we stupidly think we need more immigrants to survive .

My family ancestor came out on the third Fleet as a convict and then prospered by ruining the environment and selling grog to his mates and Co.

Now with Aboriginal blood in my family I feel less of immigrant/convict stock and more "Australian".

Hopefully my family in the future will be more responsible with what we want and we have acquired and become less obsessed with Economic Growth .

For me native are ONLY THE ABORIGINES, the rest Australians are migrants, 1st, 2nd, 3d etc generation migrants. All we are Australians but NATIVE are ONLY THE ABORIGINES. I can not tell that my grant children are native because they born here and they have the same rights, with aborigines. We must separate and protect aborigines rights, history, civilization and not try with various tricks to give similar rights to migrants. We will never have the same rights as Aborigines. If I come in your house, kill you and take your house it does not mean that your house belong to me or to my ancestors because your children or ancestors do not have the power to claim it. I understand that the guns, the power creates the right but this kind of rights is the shame from human history, of human brutality. I hope in the future Aborigines could claim their rights in high degree. Until then we must keep separate the migrants from the native (Aborigines)Australians.
Antonios Symeonakis
Adelaide

Hi Ginx,

Yes, you are right. I think we are in a mutual state of flummox! Perhaps it is as a result of the limitations of written communication.

You wrote: “You started this thread; any responses you have received are based on your initial statements. If we are not understanding each other, then it has emanated other, then it has emanated from that point!” Actually it does not necessarily follow that confusion arises only from the beginning of a discussion, it can occur at any time during the discussion.

Thank you for your contribution to the discussion. I enjoyed our exchange.

And ASymeonakis your post saddens me. In the past in Australia others have taken the attitude (as you say you do) that ‘we must separate and protect aborigines rights’ and it is that condescending and paternal attitude that has resulted in cruel injustices to be endured by Aboriginal people.

I think your philosophy of separation (‘we must keep separate’) would do the Australian Aboriginal people a great disservice. Keeping people separate on the basis of race is bound to create resentment and animosity from other races in the community. How would that benefit the Aboriginal people in the long term?

Also, if you understand the history of the country you will know, as my Aboriginal relatives often remind me, that many native Australians whose descendants were either convicts or early settlers are highly likely to have Aboriginal ancestry. So as time goes by and more and more Australians research their family histories we will find more Australians who can legitimately be moved into your separate group. Such a large group, separated on the basis of race, is bound to be divisive.

Isn't the term 'immigrant nation' just an intended diversionary substitution for the now widely discredited and rejected description of Australia as a 'multi-cultural society'? 'Multi-cultural' is now an epithet.

Isn't its apparent applicability at some point to every Australian's ancestry intended to distract from its real purpose, that of excusing the both open and covert desire on the part of the by now significant majority of the politician class to set aside the 100% British legal and constitutional heritage all Australians have enjoyed?

That legal and constitutional heritage, including its accepted mechanism for constitutional change, the one that every single Federal politician that has ever been, and every non-native born applicant for citizenship past and present, has voluntarily sworn loyalty to, irrespective of their migrant status, be it recent or distant, is the real target of the promoters of such labels as 'immigrant nation' or 'multi-cultural society'. Those promoters seek, by creating the inference that since all can in some way be labeled as migrants, to justify the betrayal in particular of the cultural heritage of those of predominantly British origin (the vast majority), and the CONSTITUTIONAL heritage of ALL, irrespective of origins, in the Australian population.

Under that British legal and constitutional heritage, the politician class in Australia are equal in status under the Crown to all the rest of us Australians. That status isn't good enough for a lot of those politicians and politician-wannabes. They want to be above the rest of us, as masters. Let them denigrate and abandon the Constitution enough, and they quick as lightning will be.

What is the opposite of master? Slave.

If you feel you already are little better than a slave in this country, then look to evasion of the requirements of the Constitution as its likely cause.

It is a pity to see so many well-intentioned posters making so many good points with respect as to how such terms impact upon individuals, yet seemingly remaining at cross-purposes. Just thought I'd illuminate the real target of this misleading terminology.

"It is a pity to see so many well-intentioned posters making so many good points with respect as to how such terms impact upon individuals, yet seemingly remaining at cross-purposes. Just thought I'd illuminate the real target of this misleading terminology."
Posted by Forrest Gumpp, Tuesday, 15 April 2008 1:08:34 PM

How very sweet of you, Forrest!!

Dear Ginx,

Love your reference to Forrest and Sweets ... onya!

However, I think his obvious objections to "Multiculturalism" and his
"Rule Britannia" stance says it all ...

He's suffering from a very bad case of -

mistaken nonentity!