[continued]

kids at a mission were from different groups and, although they spoke English from early times, would not have spoken any common Indigenous language. So English it was. At least that saved the missionaries all that effort in translating work-books. But up at the missions east of Lake Eyre, Kopperamanna and Killalpaninna, the German missionaries taught in the one major local language, Diyari, from Day One until they were closed during the First World War.

The ration system would have ensured the lives of the elderly, particularly the women, and of the very young children, who would have died early on in any severe drought. In fact, the ration system may have ensured cultural survival: people would have gathered near rationing points for years on end, waiting for the drought to end. [Discuss]. We may think now that the rations were pretty basic - the same as the unemployed [the 'Destitute'] and prisoners got, but it probably had more nutrients and certainly sugar than traditional diets had, and certainly with less effort expended. [Discuss].

I recall one of my students, in about 1990, complaining during winter how her air-conditioning was playing up. Fair enough.

As we approach Australia Day, should we dig up Phillip's bones and kick them around the paddock ? Or should we reflect that, at last, Indigenous Australians are part of the world family again, after sixty thousand years cut off from human contact ?

Joe

I don't believe that we should kick anybody's
bones around a paddock as we approach Australia
Day.

What I would like to see though is that we bring
the level of health care, education, and other
services for our Indigenous People up to the
level that others receive in this country - which they
still don't have so many years after settlement.
When was it that they were given the right to vote -
1960s?

Foxy,

"When was it that they were given the right to vote -
1960s?"

Indigenous Australians had the right to vote, in some States, in the 19th Century, in 1901 there were modifications under Commonwealth Law but some retained the right to vote.
In a couple of States legislation had to be passed to remove the right of Aboriginals to vote.

It's all rather complex and cannot be covered by generalizations.

Dearest Foxy,

Aboriginal women had the vote in South Australia from 1894, before women had the vote in the US (1918) or, at 21, in the UK (1928).

But that was in State elections: at Federation, the States still had complete control of Indigenous Affairs, and Aboriginal people continued to have the vote - if they had it before 1901 - in State elections. The crime, one of many, was not to extend it, as of right, to anybody reaching voting age after 1901.

Legally, Indigenous people were British subjects from the outset, not that it did people much good in some states. All Indigenous people became citizens in 1948 under the Citizenship Act, along with other Australians.

As for Indigenous people today not having " .... the level of health care, education, and other services for our Indigenous People up to the level that others receive in this country .... ", you can lead a horse to water ....

Providing services to people in tiny settlements, at great distances, is always difficult and incredibly expensive, for Black or White.

To a far greater extent than people realise, Indigenous people have, within constraints, done pretty much what they liked from the earliest days, they have never been puppets or sheep: come into the mission or settlement, leave the mission or settlement, send their kids to school or not, take their nurse or doctor's advice or not, work or not. Trying to push them here or there has always been like trying to herd a mob of very intelligent cats: if people didn't want to do something, they didn't. [Discuss]

Love,

Joe

The following link explains a great deal.
It's from the Australian Electoral Commission:

http://www.gov.au/indigenous/files/history_indigenous_vote.pdf

oops - I'll try again:

http://www.aec.gov.au/indigenous/files/history_indigenous_vote.pdf