Dear Josephus,

Perhaps it's not Kath Walker who needs to be
persuaded on the lessons found in the Bible
but the Missionaries and the approaches that
they offered. We know what's best for you!
Regarding them as inferior.

Dearest Foxy,

I'm not sure that poetry is superior to reality.

Kath Walker grew up long after the times that Big Nana is talking about, i.e. during the time of fable and fantasy-making since, say, 1920. I've been amazed at the humanity and hard work, often for decades, of so many missionaries: Threlkeld, Meyer, Schurmann, the Albrechts, the Gribbles, Love, Bill Edwards, not to mention my favourite, George Taplin. Many of them worked themselves in early graves - not something that one could say of any of the current bunch of Indigenous elites, or of anybody on any of the Lefts.

Yes, of course they were Bible-bashers: they probably wouldn't have been there if they weren't, they would have stayed in the cities, done nothing and joined the 'Left'. Sorry, that's cruel. But so true.

Let's be honest: no Mission ever had a fence around it, not for the humans at least. People came and went, as they pleased. Nobody ever got herded onto a Mission, quite apart from the demeaning implications of that, since people have never been sheep. People 'came in' to Missions for the rations, yes, just as many of us will be 'coming in' to K-Mart or Aldi this week for what they have to offer - that doesn't suggest that K-Mart or Aldi have 'herded' us anywhere. And then locked us in.

To believe without evidence is no more than sheer, vicious prejudice. Such a believer is a bigot. It's a pity we don't realise this much, much earlier in our lives:) After all, why do we believe with not a shred of evidence ? Why are we inclined that way ? Do we all have paranoid tendencies ?

I'm not suggesting that it should, or could, be illegal to be a bigot: one aspect of the freedom of belief is that the most outrageous notions can be entertained privately inside one's head, and our freedom of expression allows such believers, if they are incautious enough, to express themselves openly. And to take the consequences in terms of rebuttal, ridicule and derision.

Joe

I'm not ignoring the evidence at all Foxy... you are. You are being selective like some scientists about what you are willing to accept. I told you you need to do more research.
Remember when the scientists on the Genome project said there was no such thing as RACE... that was a very PC thing to say. It wasn't correct and still isn't.
The theories about "Man's" origins are still being debated and the OUT OF AFRICA Theory is now on the backfoot. Only time will tell where that debate will end up.
Like I said you need to stop/think/research/learn and not accept something as yet unproven.

Dear Joe,

I do not doubt that there have always been
individual whites who cared for the Aborigines,
but even amongst those with the best intentions
according to the evidence available there have
been many sad mistakes made in the treatment of
Aborigines. For example, in the 1920s, Daisy
Bates went to live with the Aboriginal people
and with the love and understanding she gave, tried
to bridge the gap between blacks and whites.
But even with her good intentions, it was always
a pitying sort of approach that she offered to
the "poor, dying race" of Aborigines.

As you well know some protectors were dishonest, and
it has been claimed that they stole from the
Aboriginal workers whose interests they were supposed to
protect. Some people even go so far as to claim that in
some parts of Australia, Aboriginal workers were paid not
in money but in methylated spirits, which they drank.

In the 1960s, Aborigines demanded fairer laws and they
gained some benefits. They were finally allowed to
join trade unions and were given the freedom to remain
on reserves, or leave. They were given more freedom
from their bosses (their families no longer had to work
for the white bosses for nothing). Then, in 1967, a
referendum was held, and the whites of Australia decided
to give the blacks what had long been the natural right
of any white Australian citizen, the right to vote.

Although the government has tried to improve the
standard of living of the Aborigines, there are still
some pretty shocking facts to be learned about the way that
Aboriginal people are treated.

Historian Henry Reynolds stated in his book, "Why Weren't We Told?"

"Knowing brings burdens which can be shirked by those
living in ignorance. With knowledge the question is
no longer what we know but what we are now to do, and
that is a much harder matter to deal with. It will
continue to perplex us for many years to come."

Dear T800,

If you can provide any evidence to disprove
the recent DNA technological findings in the
link I gave earlier -
by all means provide the links.

As for doing my research?
I always do. It's an occupational habit.

T800,

Race within homo sapiens is a myth, all humans of opposite sex can breed with each other, although some shouldn't; therefore they all belong to the same race.
It's just basic biology.