Kartiya Jim, I voted for my local member, who happens to belong to the current government. I dont vote on any one issue, but based on who best represents my wishes overall. I didnt support the govts selling off of Telstra either, but still didnt think that the Labor candidate would have done a better job overall.

10 years is not enough time to fix all of any problem, especially not one that is as difficult and fragmented as the plight of our aboriginies. I dont think I am being pessimistic when I say that I think the problems will be generations in being solved. I am with singlemumof1 - its up to individuals to do the best they can. If I can give hope and meaning to just 1 person, by my efforts in extending a hand of friendship, then by default I help several. The effect will not just be that person, but also those that they in turn help, and those of their children (who presumably will inherit a positive attitude from their parents). This is how everyone can influence the situation. Its not an overnight solution, but no such thing exists.

Well said Country Gal.

Not everyone is going to agree with everything that is done by the government/people they vote in. We vote in the best candidate we're presented with at the time and hope that they can move our communities and our nation one step closer to our ultimate ideal...whatever that may be.

And I also agree with your 'ripple theory' of friendship and help. We are where the solution will start, we are ourselves the solution. And yes, it will take many many generations, but why not start now and make a little progress. So I'm just one person, and Country Gal is one person...still, that's two offers of friendship and help to two people who need it and may be able to make a difference to their own families or a community.

I'm a dreamer, an idealist, but I'm also realistic. I can't make a huge difference on my own, I may never ever know if I ever helped or inspired, or encouraged anyone to make anything better for themselves or others. At least I'm trying though, at least I'm willing to stand here and say 'yes, I'm willing to do it, even if no-one else out there supports me' because I believe that we can help them. I don't believe they want to destroy themselves...all I really see is a large group of people, displaced and trying to maintain a cultural identity and heritage that was torn away, changed, and prohibited decades ago and now they're struggling to find a foothold in a world that they resent because they neither belong here, nor can they regain what they once had because they no longer have access to the knowledge that needed to be passed on.

Country gal and Single Mumof1,
While I am a great believer of the benefits of individual effort to achieve change and this can produce great results the fact remains that only the people with the power can achieve social progress in a fraction of the time, provided they are good leaders and serious about change .
If you vote for your local Howard man or woman on local issues, you are voting for the Federal policies of Howard ,whether you like them or not .
When Howard changes his policies to improve the welfare of Aboriginal,low income earners and the "Bush" I will then vote for his local member .
Until then I refuse to prop him and his divisive policies up.

Kartiya, I think the main reason I'm not relying on the government/s so much is the mere fact that *they won't do anything*.
It's not just Howard, it's all of them. Sure, they have 'plans' but those 'plans' aren't a really high priority for them. It's a 'gee, if we get around to it' type of thing to appease and appeal to the masses.
Everyone focuses on Howard because he's in office. But Keating before him and Hawk before that...there was nothing really great done to help the indigenous people with them either. As I said, it's not a high priority for them. Wars and water are more important than anything right now and unfortunately I'd rather the government focus on *those* two things right now because they're both huge problems that face all of us, rather than a concern of a few people as this tends to be (although I certainly don't agree with or like that fact).

I'd love to be able to sit back and wait for the government in power to do something. Or you know, the next one...and we'll blame them when they fail to do anything as well...and then we'll vote in another government and blame them and continue the cycle until the entire indigenous population is either destroyed or assimilated...neither of which is going to happen any time soon, if ever. They'll fight it, as they should.

Why dont we start with giving back the land that was rightly owned by the aboriginal people.
Dealing with the symptoms that dispossession has caused will get you nowhere.

Returning land won't help them. What would they do with it? Their culture has been destroyed, their customs obliterated.
I think giving them back their land is an 'easy' option. I think that they should definitely have input into how the land is used, and be able to lay claim to anthropologically/archaeologically verified sacred sites.
It's baby steps here really, to get them back to the great cultural systems that they once had, to make them strong again and able to properly defend and support themselves.
Giving them back land won't help them regain anything, other than a sense of 'winning' over a white world. Sure, in the short term that might make a few feel better, but when it comes down to it, it's not the land they miss and crave, it's their cultural heritage and what was taken from them in those terms and in terms of family history and basic human and civil rights.