gundubuldany, its taken two centuries but the White Australians have finally assimilated into Murri culture. The men now treat their women as equals, they've come a long way. The hierachies have been dismantled, the slaves freed, the material culture is becoming sustainable and the guns are silent. All that remains is to update the instruments of governance with equal rights parliaments, courts and corporate governance. Murris have survived the white man's way, patriarchy is defeated, Murris rule! Much has been lost but much more will be forthcoming. Now is the recovery, the knowledge, the languages, the values, the community. Keep asking and the answers will arrive. There is no longer any resistance.

Just reading these few posts tells me that the age-old problem of not having a grasp on reality is still very much the case. This is not so much an issue of taking sides but an issue of perpetuating ignorance & perpetuating racial disharmony. It is a pointless & utterly non-productive, no purpose serving dribble by some who just can't let anything heal. They just keep picking at the scab. The descendants of the original inhabitants would not wish to return to their former life style & neither would the descendants of those who were sent here against their will, want to live & experience the hardship of those early days.
Stop dribbling on about things that can't be changed. Stop pretending that there was some kind of Nirvana. There wasn't. Not for the Aboriginal people nor for the european invaders.
This is 2010 ! If you can't come to grips that the whole planet has changed forever then you better start taking Heroin. If you care what happens then do something positive like not voting for incompetent academics at the next federal election. By the way, before anyone starts to ramble on about racism, take a good look in the mirror, you might just see what one looks like at close range.

Excellent point individual, who wants to revive hierarchies, slavery, unsustainable material culture and warfare anyway? Which is why White Australian patriarchy is vanquished. For the victors, in recent decades Murri law has been recognised, remnant languages recorded, values recognised and communities reassembled, and this is just the start of living together the Murri way. The material culture changes but the tradition of equality which begins with women and men remains the same.

gundubuldany, if you're still reading this thread (and I hope you do because my advice at the bottom might be helpful), I'm sorry to say that this thread has proven to be the answer to your question. The reason all this happens and continues to happen is because, as the attitude of most of the people here show, there are a LOT of Australians who simply refuse to actually acknowledge past atrocities (and present wrong-doings) without getting defensive about it or seeing it the wrong way (when the issue comes up, they act like they're being blamed for it instead of try to empathise).

And some, like Runner, are just confused and loathesome enough individuals that feel anything THEY do is not only justified, but righteous.

Anyway, my advice is that there ARE plenty of Aboriginal NGOS whose purpose is to connect Aboriginal Australians to relatives or re-acquaint people to their individual cultures, including websites- some found via state government servers. If I were you this would be the very first thing I'd look into to try and get in touch with my roots.

Its a very complex issue, as evidenced by some interesting posts. Sure everybody reckons they can fix the problems, next week it will still all be the same. I hope your personal stuff all works out, though maybe the humuor/sarcasm/irony/rhetoric wont translate too well in the written form and look like you're being a bit provocative.

I read posts where people are bending over backwards trying to say the currently trendy things about aborigines. The fact is they are human. Some are good, some are not. Maybe if these people spent a day or so in Cairns or somewhere where there's a lot of aborigines, they would realise just how silly it is. Last week, right near the police station in Cairns, there were a few aboriginal guys walking towards me. As they walked, they hassled everybody for money and smokes. 2 guys in front of me actually crossed the road to avoid them, I walked straight between them. I was fearful of getting bashed by them as I dont smoke or give away money. On the other hand, people usually dont say nasty things about the Lebanese up here.

Ah bloke thanks for the thread.
Thanks too for the memory's the dreadful acts memories of a past not one of us lived in.
What do you want now mate?
Do we move on?
Or wallow in past events long gone, do we then get down on our knees and beg forgiveness for Hitlers victims?
For the poor beggars England exported and even killed here?
Maybe we should think about all those raped in Germany at the end of the last world war.
Mankind is awful isn't it.
Bloke my family is growing, a little girl I raised came back last Christmas.
Great Kori husband, great handful of kids, just maybe I have as many in my family as you have in yours.
Noel Person gets a mention, yet show me a better leader a warrior for his people, MINISTER FOR ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS that should be his title.
Look mate, we cried in shame but joy at the sorry speech, I spend countless hours trying to help but lets move on lets ALL try harder.