Hi Aidan,

It has varied from one Census to another, that's been one of the problems.

There has also been the problem of under-counting, of the Census forms not actually getting to people, or, for whatever reason, people not being counted. So for every Census, there is an 'adjustment' which has tended to inflate the numbers in more remote areas. I'm not sure that that is really valid, if only because paradoxically, people in remote areas are more likely to be counted already - after all, they would be well-known to welfare providers, Centrelink, health workers, etc.

It may be the odd family here and there, perhaps in farming areas or out in the scrub, who are perhaps not counted at all, and people who don't tick the box. Which brings us back to identification as a movable feast, from one time to another: people ticking the box in on Census, but not in the next, which, of course, is their right.

So maybe it makes no sense to get too particular about Indigenous statistics, e.g., 24.07% in this or that category, an increase of 13.56789% in the growth in one dimension or other - but perhaps just ball-park figures are far more useful - university commencements have doubled since 2006, graduations are up around forty thousand, women in remote areas are eighty to a hundred times more likely to be victims of domestic violence than the Australian average - that sort of imprecision might be the best we can expect.

Cheers,

Joe

Many Australian natives have wanted apartheid from the motherland from birth. A few freed convicts returned and some governors applied Tory suppression but the new colonial personality led to political reality. After 2 centuries the adult stage of the species was reached.
In recognition, the forebears of British bloodlines saw the separation of different cultures and not an extension of native British stock.
In British tradition of the wars between Saxon kingdoms and Scot-English wars, the Melbourne-Sydney rivalry came close to warfare and would have added a layer of tradition . It's not too late for some colourful growth of the country's identity.

Hi Nick,

I don't really agree with that first statement: Apartheid implies not just 'separatism', but 'dependent separatism', a vile process by which one population is kept dependent on the power of another while its best resources, including its able-bodied workers, are super-exploited.

There are crucial differences between 'separatism' and 'independence', not least that independence means that one population or nation can make its own decisions, but also of course, make its own mistakes - and on its own money.

Clearly on those imperfect definitions, remote Aboriginal Australia is not quite in a state of Apartheid (there's not a lot of super-exploitation of the able-bodied going on), but most certainly it isn't in a state of independence either - nor can it ever be while it remains on the public teat. Perhaps remote populations have inherited the worst of both Apartheid AND dependence - Apartheid in an environment of affluence, sugar-coated Apartheid. Maybe that's a worse situation than straight-out Apartheid ?

And policies since the days of the well-meaning Dr. Coombs have driven remote populations further down that road, perhaps to the point of no return.

Meanwhile, in the cities, many Indigenous people just get on with making a living as honestly and fully as they can. But a handful put on the mantle of Aboriginality and get themselves into well-paying positions on good salaries. Maybe, down the track, a fourth definition (self-identification, community recognition, etc.) of 'Aboriginality' can be added, a quick and cheap method - DNA testing. That might separate the chooks from the foxes.

Joe

Chooks and foxes here subsist on marginal agricultural land while poms stuff themselves obese on mad-cows. It's been apartheit since the first Fleet natives starved while Aboriginals laughed on the river bank. English aboriginals saw their green valleys taken to New South Wales because the hills looked similar, and did they not come out of coal mine with face black , look you ?

Hi Nick,

I suppose that's clever, in its own way. What are you talking about ? Do you understand what Apartheid meant when it was in force in South Africa ? Sorry, what obese poms and what mad-cows ?

Joe

I dreaded having to explain the joke.
explain the..
can't