After having already given an opinion in this forum, I would like to leave a few questions about Aboriginal matters this time as I am not an Australian. And I would like to get to know about this from local people
I have read that Aboriginal language and culture is now taught in Australiian schools, even if still progress ought to be made in order to reach every pupil. Furthermore I have surfed onto a language center's site where they encouraged non-indigenous people to learn a local Aboriginal language .After having read such, I wondered if pupils and others get opportunities to practice their speaking skills.
For Centralians and other residentials around the Western desert area, opportunities to practice one of the more vital languages are certainly given.

But especially in metropolitan and Eastern Australia, few speakers of the local language or local Aboriginal people practicing traditional culture are left. Is it nevertheless possible for interested non-Aboriginal people to get in touch with local Aboriginal culture or/and the local language on a regular base where a revitalization project is underway?
Do contacts between traditionally living Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal citizens commonly exist today because of reconcilialtion efforts?
Are there the same plorable conditions in each of the Aboriginal communities or do communities getting by quite successfully exist?
I have read that some land councils have installed accomodation sites for visitors. Is it possible there to meet Aboriginal people informally beside organized events?
How do members of remote Aboriginal communities get around? I suppose that not everybody has a vehicle there. And public transports at fixed lines and timetables are not possible to operate in very remote areas.
Do all non-Aboriginal Australians who are living in an Aboriginal community consist of employees serving organizations of Aboriginal affairs?
Is there a church or a church service in each Aboriginal community today? Have Aboriginal forms of christian liturgy been developed? Are there heavily convinced Christians today among Aboriginal people who put their traditional stories into biblical context?

Thank you very much in advance.

Alex

I most vehemently object to American “missionaries” blanketing the indigenous world including Aboriginal Australia with their corrupted texts of their version of the ancient religious beliefs of nomadic Semite tribes of Western Asia. Those original texts were the exclusive faiths of the Semitic Western Asian family of nomadic desert dwelling peoples and were not inclusive or intended to address other humans that populated the earth at the same time.

However since “others” have adopted those Semite faiths, they have also corrupted and debauched the faith debasing it well beyond the original belief so that it no longer has any semblance to the original word. This is what happens when one culture adopts another’s culture especially when the adopting culture is totally incompatible with the original for then adaptations of the originating culture have to be instigated so as to make it correspondingly fit into the adopting culture.

In the end what do you get? A whole lot of gobbledygook that is manufactured by men and of no relevance to anyone other than those that peddle it!

Please stop fouling the world of indigenous peoples with your verbal garbage coz they have their very own beliefs and don’t require your manufactured pollutants muddying the waters. Over and out!!

Westralis,
I second that !

Err Westralis....you are a bit confused there.

My wife is ONE of those 'indigenous' tribes, and they DID have their 'own beliefs' and it was what you describe as a multi level 'corrupted' semitic religion which saved them from certain self destruction.

So... 1/ You are wrong. 2/ You are misguided. 3/ You are offensive.

OCCIDENTAL.... learning an aboriginal language might be ok if you plan to work among 'that' particular group.. but has little relevance outside such a field.

In my view, (though I do speak an indigenous language) it would be more beneficial to learn Indonesian (which I also speak) or Mandarin.

Preserving Aboriginal culture by westerners will ultimately cause problems.. the unforseen type. I think the Aboriginals can work out for themselves what is in their best interests.

For some..this has mean't embracing Christ and his Church (whichever form it came to them in)...for others.. traditional beliefs are preferrred.

http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/info/ind/footprints/community/missions/mainland/d-e#doomadgee

http://www.aimpa.com/About.htm
From the very beginning ministry was aimed at establishing Aboriginal Christians to lead and guide their own people.

The indigenous Bornean church (S.I.B.) is today a vibrant independant Church with indigenous leadership 100%

http://www.sibsabah.org.my/bm/

When I called up this page a moment ago..it blew me away.. we used to hang out in an old weatherboard dilapidated building in Kota Kinabalu (SIB headquarters) .. complete with Cockroaches and rats.

The HQ of the Ranau area is built on an old POW camp.. graves everywhere..no one else was brave enough to even go there..(fear of spirits)

cheers

Dear Alex,

You certainly have so many questions
on Aboriginal matters.

The following website may be a good
place to start:

http://www.aboriginalculture.com.au/

They do provide not only information,
but other links.

Good luck!

I love the way ATSI people are treated on this forum, they are regularly portrayed as being "victims" of some scheme, as well as being so "childish" that they could not possibly be asked to help themselves out of the rut they find themselves in.

Yes, they have been cruelly treated, often at the hands of missionaries (the truth, for better or worse, remains the truth). They have been launched from essentially the stone-age (which, given the environment & country, they had no need to move out of), to the industrial age with very little in the way of assistance to adapt.

As an ex-Centralian, I've seen them in shops & pubs where they are preyed on as a source of funds... A large proportion of the shops in Alice Springs exist to separate (a) tourists from their money; and (b) ATSI people from their pictures/artwork/etc. (a) is spent on (b), but the ATSI people might if they are VERY lucky see 5% of the proceeds.

Teaching people the languages of these tribes is pointless at the moment, given the state of play in Central Australia (particularly with petrol), there is a very real chance that these tribal groups will die out.

On top of that, there are far more pressing issues, namely bringing the communities out of their induced condition, and actually get them to work alongside us to build socially, politically and economically viable communities, capable of policing and governing themselves. Until that is done, there is no point (other than an ephemeral one) trying to prop up the communities as they currently exist. They are the closest thing to hell on earth I've ever seen (and I challenge anyone who says otherwise to state which community in that region they have visited that was otherwise).

Propping them up in the current form merely prolongs the agony, either put them out of their misery or make the effort to bring them into the 1st world nation we live in. Stop making noises and half-baked attempts at change that are doomed from the outset