There will be reconciliation when all Australians are treated equally and special provisions for some groups are done away with.

Just treat all according to their needs and do away with divisions based on race.

We're told that the process of Reconciliation began
as a result of the Report of the Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991:

http://www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/people/what-you-need-to-know-about-reconciliation#tocO

We're also told that "supporting Reconciliation means working
to overcome the division (often called "the gap") and inequality
between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people...It isn't something
one decides to "do". It is a process at the end of which there
may be Reconciliation - but this can never be guarenteed."

"Differences are biggest in health, income, living standards
and life expectancy..." Much more needs to be done to
address these issues. Also the question of -

"How can you have Reconciliation - if you don't know
the other person's culture?"
this needs to be addressed. The more we
learn about Aboriginal People and Torres Strait Islanders -
the more we will understand their problems.

'Reconciliation' is one of those value-laden mantras that serial activists and moral BS artists - many of whom earn their daily bread from the victim industry - use as a hammer to threaten and belt mainstream Australia into allowing them to continue to swing from the taxpayers teat.

As in the case of 'The Apology' by Kevin707, there will NEVER, EVER, be reconciliation as far as those lobbyists and trouble makers are concerned. Not while they have a ticket to ride the gravy train and there are $billions available from that bucket of money being extracted from exasperated taxpayers.

The federal government needs to come to terms with the very obvious split in aboriginal society, where thousands have moved on and left behind those choosing to be dependent on sit-down money. Either way there are self-fulfilling prophecies at work, with one direction bringing independence through informed choice and skills development, with pay-offs being promise, success and happiness. While the other, dependency, is a downward slide to learned helplessness, violence, drugs, poverty and squalor regardless of how much money is allocated.

As well, where 'reconciliation' is involved, there is too much intervention required of and by government resulting in a continuation of the conga line of fleas on fleas on fleas - the quick-witted opportunists who siphon off the moneys allocated.

The leftists and indigenous activists know that there never will be any, let alone lasting agreement by them on what 'reconciliation' means and entails. It is subjective. It will always be shifting sand with leftists trying to prove their superior morality (never their principles and ethics though!).

The feds need to fight against being suckered into making politician's promises and concentrate more on those simple, practical, possible, low cost, effective and measurable steps to assist and rapidly multiply the numbers of willing and able.

I would very much prefer the feds to think in terms of life transitions (with broad possibilities resulting from choice) and not 'reconciliation'.

I have observed for decades how aboriginal families are at war with each other. Family brawls are quite common involving machettes, knives, flagons and fists. How on earth can their be reconcilation until they stop fighting each other. Something that never enters the progressives heads. Just maybe some of the 'cultural'practices of older men taking young girls and payback contibutes to these brawls.

I watched with great interest "Q and A," on Monday
evening and found Jack Charles or Uncle Jack as he's
afectionately known to be quite an unusual panelist.
I didn't know much about him so after the program
I did a bit of research. It turns out that Jack Charles
is an Aboriginal elder, actor, gay man, member of the
Stolen generation, ex heroin addict, ex-thief, and
Australia's National Treasure. He has common sense, mixed
with charm, and unbelievable life experience - without
a political agenda or a personal brand to sell. He's
somewhat different from the usual "chattering masses," on
Aboriginal issues - becaue most people talk the talk but
Jack Charles walks the walk.

Jack Charles confronted Asst. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg
with the truth behind the government's accault on
Aboriginal Australia. Uncle Jack conceded that there was
"Mobs of good will by lots of Australians
all around the country."

However, "But the policies that are making our lives worse
than poor white people of Australia ...to remove us from
lands, the people of the top end, to remove them from
their lands, to take away funding strikes me as peculiar,"
he said and continued - "strange and I'm trying to look for
another word."

Uncle Jack spoke of the personal cost that government cuts
to funding could have. Amy McQuire confirms
that - The Abbott government slashed the
black's budget in its first year and combined 500 programmes
into the broad streams under the chaotic Indigenous
Advancement Strategy that has resulted in the de-funding of
many Aboriginal Community controlled organisations and
services.

Uncle Jack said that keeping funding for housing and drug and
alcohol services was important. Life experience was also
important for policy making and dealing with the
crippling problem of Aboriginal incarceration, Jack later said,
responding to a question on the over representation of Aboriginal youth in juvenile detention.

As one reader commented - we do need people with lived
experience in both creating and implementing policy.

Hi there LOUDMOUTH...

Nothing you could say would particularly shock me my friend ! If it was me you described as being engaged in some 'triumphalist racism' you're not the first nor the last I expect. Other than to say you've got no idea what you're talking about ?

My observations concerning the unfortunate plight of our indigenous blacks who live in or near the environs of some of our small far western NSW towns, was something I saw for myself. Their hopelessness, especially the younger people, was palpable, and very sad. Trying to put them in the back of our secured F150, was shameful. Rather than locking them up, they should be hospitalised, weened of their need for alcohol. And the bastards who sell them the liquor, locked up in their stead ! Still as a raciest, what would I know, eh Joe ?