Country Gal,
Australian Explorers generally found in reasonably watered areas, mostly well proportioned ,strong and healthy people.There were some very old people amongst them-their elders .
Phillip and those that arrived on Invasion Day were in much poorer health.
Aboriginal life spans were quickly cut short by the musket ball and many diseases; then came the bullet and the flour full of plaster of Paris and that great old sheepman's stand-by arsenic etc.
Judging by the deaths of young children in my own white family in the 1800's life for many Australian's was tough in the early days.
One example of white racist thinking [I will call it Racism with a little genocidal tinge to it] occurred in the late 1800's in WA . A fund was started by the WA Government taking a small levy from all land sold to aid the missions and Aboriginals' health and welfare as they were under severe pressure from diseases and settlers' expansion carried out with ruthless effeciency.
After a short period the fund had accumulated a large amount of money.However the fund was short lived and unpopular as the pastoralists and settlers complained and as they had the "whip hand", the government closed it down .
Nothing much has changed for our Indigenous brothers and sisters and our Governments' attitudes .
Were Australia's last big wave of immigrants Racist ? If our Democratic majority vote Government is the yardstick ,we sure are!

Jim

Were Australia's last big wave of immigrants Racist? Yes we WERE (past tense).

I am horrified when I see what we have done to the Aborigines. My late grandfather (who was born in the 1890's) once told me he didn't think there was a black person on earth who had the mental age of any more than a ten year old child. That is the sort of thinking we have had to overcome.

However, I believe we are making headway. If you're Aboriginal you can receive assistance with housing, education, legal aid and so-on. That same assistance is not available to non aboriginals.

With all this assistance why don't we see more Aboriginal people rising up. I am aware of instances where Aboriginal people have been given housing only to see that housing neglected.

We have tried to assist Aboriginal people with money when that is not what they need. The greatest injustice was to take away the dignity and self respect of the Aboriginal people. They have 200 years of being told they are no better than a ten year old. An Aboriginal man told a friend of mine they they are ashamed that white men raped Aboriginal womenit because they see it as a reflection of their failure to protect their women.

When you have been stripped of your self worth and confidence in your ability to be what ever you want to be then of course you are going to have problems and money wont fix that

I believe we will only see a change in the plight of the Aboriginal people when we as a race take responsibility for our PAST actions and apologise for stealing their children, dignity, self worth and purity.

As a white man I am ashamed of what has happened in the past. I am ashamed of my Grandfathers attitude but most of all I am ashamed that my people were responsible for breaking the will and destroying the heart of an entire race. I only hope and pray that we can restore the dignity and soul of the Aboriginal people.

Proverbs, you are right in saying that no amount of money can fix a problem that money is not the cause of. This is where education comes in, and not just education of the classic sense. My late grandfather (born in the 1880's) had a slightly different attitude - more paternalistic. In the early days, he employed aboriginal stockmen (as well as white stockmen). The aboriginies in those days were normally not paid a wage, they were given premises to live in, food, clothing and anything else they needed. It was considered that they were not advanced enough to handle money. In a way, they werent - but not from a mental poitn of view, but a cultural one. It has been discussed elsewhere that white culture and all the things that go with it are learnt from our parents. These generations of aborigines, didnt have anyone to learn money handling from. I am not denying for a moment that there are not some white farmers (and perhaps many) that abused this. My grandfathers take on it was that if you treated your black workers badly or didnt give them their due, they simply went walkabout, and you were left high and dry. If you were in a more remote area, as he was, where labour was hard to come by, it then made sense to look after your workers properly.

Proverbs I'd love to get your email but I can understand if you wouldn't want to publish it here.

Mjpb
Go to www.renapur.com.au

Proverbs, Too true.

My guess it will take a long time to heal all those broken hearts.
I bet the Federal Government would not be game to calculate the real cost of repairing those broken spirits.
Unresolved War and Dispossesion Trauma in Aboriginal People should be a University Psychology Course ,compulsory for politicians and particularly for Prime Ministers and Premiers .