At the Census last year, 48,700 Indigenous people were recorded as university graduates across Australia. With last year's and this year's graduates, at about 2,500-2,700 each, that total is now around 54,000. At the next Census in 2021, the total may be close to sixty five thousand.

The great majority of graduates are in urban areas: participation from remote and rural areas seems to have been declining over the last ten years, while it has doubled in urban areas. Currently, perhaps one in less than four urban Indigenous women is a university graduate, one in seven men. The great majority, it would appear, graduated in mainstream study areas.

This year, perhaps eighteen thousand Indigenous students were enrolled around the country. Since 1990, around 140,000 Indigenous people have been enrolled at some time at a university. That's about one in four of all adults.

Urban people are very likely to stay in the cities. In the census, one can discern that some graduates may choose to work in remote communities but, from one Census to the next, it's clear that they may not stay out there. Nicolas Rothwell reviews a brilliant book in this weekend's Australian (pp. 18-20) which may explain why: that horrifically dysfunctional 'community' life quickly disillusions any outsiders, Black and White, about any contribution they can make - that, so it seems, 'community' has no real interest in improvement, just so long as the money keeps flowing, and to hell with all the pathological effects which arise from lives of deliberate futility. Yes, deliberate futility.

[TBC]

White Australia ended in 1970s and Indigenous from that era who live in bush communities may actually choose to be on country . They're adults. An uneducated living in cities for people with memories of part-bush life is not ideal and social security would probably still be needed. So the next generation is comfortable with education, which is a positive. That may be as good as it gets.

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Nick, Where to start ? I'll repeat slowly: currently 54,000 graduates; around 140,000 who have at some time been to university. No, not some aberration. Not flea-bites. No, it's not yet as good as it gets, it will get a lot better. By 2030, there will be more than 100,000 graduates, graduated in mainstream, degree- and PG-level awards, and working mostly in the cities. One in three adults.

And you brush that off with " .... an uneducated living in cities for people with memories of part-bush life... " It's 50-100 years since those days for many people, Nick. But I suppose there'll always be people who slag any Indigenous achievement in that sly, back-hand way.

Last year, I put up an OLO thread: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=7532&page=0

It mainly dealt with the possible proposals for a Referendum, and makes interesting reading now: it does seem as if the entire 'Recognition' push has exhausted itself, with nobody seriously doing anything in relation to connecting urban and remote populations, the cornerstone of much of the proposals of a year ago which dealt with treaties, a separate state, or a separate country.

Clearly, urban populations are going to remain urban: the Indigenous population may have risen by 20 % between Censuses (mainly due to re-identification), while remote populations declined, but the flow to the cities - and away from remote areas - is undeniable. So what do urban people really want, apart from the assertions of their 'leaders' ? My bet is that they are happy to continue working and living in urban centres, where most of them would have been born and raised. They’re certainly not interested in going out to remote or rural communities, and why should they be ?

Meanwhile, the remote populations sink further into morass of pointlessness, no-work, and rent-seeking. The two populations are far more apart than they were just ten years ago when my late dear wife wrote a key article on the subject of 'Two Indigenous Populations'.

[TBC]

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What can be done ? Who has to make the moves ? Presumably, if anything is to happen, it has to be the remote and rural populations who make the changes. Urban people have similar profiles to other Australians and are permanently embedded in the cities; not so rural and remote people. Is it too late for the welfare-dependent remote and rural populations to make any move ?

Of course, there is a welfare-dependent urban population as well, which tends to get overlooked. Either way, it seems as if there is one population which seeks its fortunes through education and work; and another population which seeks its fortunes through rent-seeking, demanding some form of payments just for being Indigenous (as I've heard of people declaring).

Rent-seeking ? It takes a few forms:

*. life-long welfare, with relaxed qualifying conditions for indigenous people;

*. Native Title, seen as a pathway to mineral development by non-Indigenous firms, and therefore to royalties - as everybody knows, all land has minerals under it;

*. constant payments for all of the pathological conditions of welfare-based living, funding for tens of thousands of non-productive positions for both Blacks and Whites - rent-seeking can be quite a gravy train;

*. constant funding for new projects which 'communities' are constantly trying to develop; pity there's not a single vegetable garden or orchard in Australia, but plenty of photo opps of such projects being initiated;

*. and of course, the big one: compensation for all of the incredibly evil and dreadful things which have been down by all Whites to all Blacks over the past 230 years.

Yeah, that should keep the 'rent' flowing. No need for education or, worse still, work.

Joe

Yes people who remember a part-bush life are 50+ years . Yes they won't get Distinction in Space Engineering . For them , community life is an adult choice . 1 in 4 graduates is good for today. The oldies can live their accustomed half-way cultures which in reality is reasonable in their sad history. Are you going to truck them to cities and compel orchard or vegie digging to earn their keep? And bus the kids to uni and push for more Indigenous role models in the faculties?
Yo is one hard boss man, massa .

Nick,

Can you bring yourself to write, that, all in all, 54,000 university graduates for an adult population of around 350-400,000 isn't too bad, and yes, there's a lot more to come, with annual growth at 8-10 %. Can you write that ?

So why do you go off talking about old people having to work on gardens ? Where on earth do you get that ? I can't imagine what your picture of current Aboriginal life might be; backward, and ignorant, yes, but take heart,Nick, from the fact that that's a very common attitude, even on the 'Left':

I was talking to a very nice lady, very virtuous and compassionate about the totally helpless condition of all Aboriginal people, and mentioned university graduates. A look of shock-horror came over her and I asked her how many graduates did she think there might be, rough ball-park figure. She obviously had never even imagined the possibility, and after a lot of hard thought, said, "Oh, maybe a few hundred." I told her and she has kept a strange distance ever since. The virtuous, after all, need helplessness in their victims. Sometimes people like that mention Charley Perkins. I usually say, yes, imagine fifty thousand Charley Perkinses.

My point about vegetable gardens was that, with around a million square miles at their disposal, much of it quite potentially productive, the small minority in remote settlements (which usually have sewage ponds, ergo, running water, ergo water for gardens) must, one would imagine, contain some able-bodied young people who could lift a shovel or fork, or move sprinklers, maybe just one a day each, and thereby grow vegetables, and eventually fruit orchards too, rather than whinge about how expensive they are. Yes, I know, in a small settlement, any bunny who actually does any work like that will quickly find his produce stripped by the non-workers. But let's not blame traditional culture or ethics.

Different notions of where people want to be in the future: work or welfare. I'm backing the workers (as a good ex-Marxist should). Who are you backing ?

Joe