Dear Loudmouth,

Oh come on mate. Even a cursory look at indigenous suicide rates must tell everyone but the most jaundiced that we are failing large swathes of the indigenous population and the implications for the future survival of these people and their culture is constantly imperiled. Genocide comes in many forms and neglect is one of them.

Dear Steele,

One of my favourite poems by Banjo is of course -
"Clancy of the Overflow." And Dorothea Mackellar's
"I love a sunburnt counry" still manages to put a lump
in my throat.

I'll be spending Australia Day with my mum and the residents
in the dementia wing of her nursing home. There'll be losts
of music, singing, and laughter.

If you look at the proposed Treaty, you will note that they are asking occupiers for rent for being on their land. It is obvious the Muslims are among them feeding the Arab hate of the Bowfour disposition of Palestine so suggest equivalent of a Jizz tax for not being Black on their land. This will go on until a civil war is accomplished. This is the agenda of the Muslim influence. Those that cannot move on over the atrocities committed 200 years ago will continue to use the invasion theory of their land. And invasion theorists will continue to feed this view.

However I thought we were already paying royalties to aboriginal land holders, and welfare, education and health services to persons in remote communities, well beyond the percentage to other Australians on welfare, except maybe for the Muslim population.

Note what the banners say in the March in Melbourne on Friday.

I can predict that Australia is headed for a civil conflict as in other Muslim growth areas as Europe and Africa.

Steelie: Genocide comes in many forms and neglect is one of them.

With all the money the Government has spent on Aboriginals since 1976. Most of the money only goes as far as the Organization setup to administer that money. The money gets skimmed of by the CEO's of those organizations. Whitefellas at first now the highly educated Blackfella CEO's. What schemes there were set up to help the aboriginals have all failed. Machinery never maintained & left to rot where it stopped in the bush, etc. This is not an unusual happenstance with AID. The CEO & Organization gets the Cream & the remainder is just Photo Opportunity to solicit more Funds & the CEO's can point the finger & say "You're not helping us."

It sounds good Steelie, but it's not quite correct.

Josephus: Those that cannot move on over the atrocities committed 200 years ago will continue to use the invasion theory of their land. And invasion theorists will continue to feed this view.

I agree. The Romans invaded Britain 2000 years ago & the French invaded Britain 1000 years ago. Should we go on about the atrocities committed. No, Who are we going to demand reparation from. For Gawd Struth it was all 100 years ago. let it go.

Let's keep Australia Day at the 26th & have a Native Day sometime later, so we can all dress down naked & cover ourselves in White Acrylic Paint stripes & dance around a fake fire all day. That 'id be nice.

Hi Steele,

Yes, indeed, suicide is a terrible scourge in remote and rural communities: Indigenous deaths from suicide OUTSIDE OF custody is vastly higher, proportionally, than it is for Indigenous people IN custody, where the rate is no higher than fo non-Indigenous people in custody.

Why ? I've come to suspect that any young person, say around fourteen or younger, who suicides, has been sexually abused, and by people in the community, which has done absolutely nothing about it. To people, especially young people, in a small community, that community is their world, it provides the boundaries of their existence, and when people there do nothing about some dreadful hurt, it's as if the whole world couldn't give a sh!t about them: they are worthless, whatever happens to them doesn't matter a damn.

My wife had a very dear friend living in the community who hanged herself, I suspect quite gruesomely, after she had been raped by at least one community 'member' from a powerful family. Nothing whatsoever was done by the community. That followed the suicide of a mutual friend, who also had been raped, but in a different community, and again, it seems, nothing was done - no outrage, no repercussions. Perhaps not so much because of the internal politics of the communities, but simply because nobody cared - except, of course, the girls' own politically-powerless families.

I can't imagine what outsiders, even though they may seem all-powerful, are supposed to do about that: it's a terrible problem arising from within the community, and an outcome of either (or both) a complete lack of caring or the delicate balancing of intra-political forces, deals made between families, plus utter boredom and opportunity. Like so many other issues, this is something only Indigenous communities can fix - although indirect means, such as training and employment schemes, getting kids to go to school, etc. etc. may, in an ideal world, work.

Cheers,

Joe

Here's a poem that I'd like to share prior to
Australia Day tomorrow:

"They loved this sunburnt country with its dreaded
flooding rain,
They'd fought the wild bush fires, battled drought out
on the plains,
They weathered the recessions and all the ills that
brought them pain,
They'd say The Spirit of Australia is the getting up again.

Daylight brought the message I watched it on TV,
With a thousand other people in the same boat just like me,
The Premier was speaking on that awful, awful day
And she used the same old phrases that my oldies used to say.

And they never cursed the country no matter how far down
There's always someone else worse off on the other side of town
A hug, a smile, a cuppa will help ease the pain
The Spirit of Australia is the getting up again

In the drought of fourty seven they were farming on the Downs
They shot the weak and the dying stock and moved on into town
Dad got a house Mum made it home they raised a family
They lost two kids but raised two more and one of them was me.

And they never cursed the country no matter how far down
There's always somone else worse off on the other side of town
A hug, a smile, a cuppa will help ease the pain
The Spirit of Australia is the getting up again
The Spirit they instilled in me - the getting up again."

(Keneth Moses).