Joe
Once again. I said the opposite - that Indigenous academics assist mainstream and cultural Aboriginal students. Nowhere did I disparage education for Aboriginals .
"We forget that, by the 1930s, ... because they were counted as Aboriginal, they were condemned never to get schooling, etc., and to stay on the station; and in turn, girls would ....."
That is justifying removal from family . You seem to want forced education in the bush and pressure on universities to drive Indigenous students forward. I'm not asserting anything except that you are continuing in your own way to impose subjective control.

We should all be pleased that most of us on this forum
do not believe that there is only one point of view
and that we choose to engage in discussions most of
the time in a civil manner.
Most of us choose to do so partly because its
in our nature to try and understand why people think the
way they do and partly because we hope that in understanding
we'll figure out a way to make changes as well as broaden
our perspectives.

I'll confess though this discussion has made me rather
weary. And whenever I'm weary I find it useful to remember why
I came onto this forum in the first place (so many years ago)
and why I'm still here.

Historians (Henry Reynolds, Brian Atwood, and many others,
including people like Stan Grant, Helen Razer, and others)
have pointed out that it is now possible to
explore the past by means of a large number of books, articles,
films, novels, songs, and paintings to capture the past of
this country. We can know a great deal about the history of
indigenous-settler relations.

But as Reynolds has stated - 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.

As Reynolds says it will continue to perplex us for many years
to come.

Dear Paul,

Wishing you a great time in New Zealand and
look forward to hearing all about it on your
return.

You'll be missed.

Of course it wouldn't suit some to know that at the time of the fictitious happenings of 'The Rabbit Proof Fence', many Australian families were living in makeshift shelters and tents in the bush. There are photos and newspaper reports to go by.

Yeah, it doesn't suit the narrative of political activists, opportunist politicians and the gravy train.

Nick,

You suggest:

"Once again. I said the opposite - that Indigenous academics assist mainstream and cultural Aboriginal students.... "

[What do you mean, 'cultural Aboriginal students' ?]

Not really. In my experience, those academics are usually too busy with their incredibly important and elusive 'research' to bother themselves with lowly students; they usually leave that to some junior-grade beginning-academic, who drops them ASAP and moves into - 'research'.

And from this perfectly reasonable observation:

"We forget that, by the 1930s, ... because they were counted as Aboriginal, they were condemned never to get schooling, etc., and to stay on the station; and in turn, girls would ....." [I'm implying that, in their turn, the girls would get rooted and produce another generation of paler kids, including daughters, who in their turn ..... ]

you jump to this:

"That is justifying removal from family. You seem to want forced education in the bush ..... "

Not in the slightest. I don't even know what that means. 'Removsl' rarely if ever happened. Obviously, [well, to a reasonably sensible person] I'm suggesting that those brilliant and dedicated Indigenous academics at universities, in an ideal world, would develop pathways for rural and remote people to be able to eventually access education to the highest levels. Otherwise the Gap will never be Closed. Is that what you want ?

So the upshot is that you do indeed

" ..... disparage education for Aboriginals..... "

since you can't seem to imagine that it might be voluntary.

So, in your world, Aboriginal people shouldn't get educated ? Have you heard of a philosophy called 'Apartheid' by chance ?

Joe

Dearest Foxy,

Primary sources beat secondary or tertiary sources any day, if they are available. I've typed up around fifteen to eighteen thousand pages, i.e. 15,000 to 18,000 pages - of primary documents. There they are, on my web-site: www.firstsources.info.

Certainly, researchers and writers can piece things together and write valuable books on various topics, but they have to rely on primary sources one way or the other. If they don't, then they're not really worth their salaries. In fact, they have a duty, if they expect anybody to take their work as authoritative, to do so.

Anyway, there it is, at least for SA.

Love,

Joe