Why are the Aborigines still whinging - it was 230 years ago?

If you don't know why, I'd recommend the film 'Lousy Little Sixpence' to be shown on NITV tonight at 8 o'clock. This is about what happened in the 20th century, not 230 years ago, and in NSW, not somewhere in remote Australia. (It was much the same in Victoria, SA and Queensland).

//a culture that had “no written language or literature, permanent architecture, horticulture or animal husbandry.... no wheel, no pottery or ceramics, no use of metals, and only the most basic wooden or stone hand-tools”. There was no calendar, no writing system. No science and no numbering above five. Graphic art still only “demonstrates a level of technical and artistic sophistication not elevated above the stone-age art of other world cultures.”//

Yeah, there is no denying that their technology was extremely primitive by the standards of the European settlers. It's not really surprising, given how isolated they were. I fail to see how that makes them worse people, though. Or better people, for that matter: the idea of the 'noble savage' is just as bunk as the idea that idea of the 'wicked savage'. It just means they were people with worse technology, and the level of technology a given society enjoys at a given point in time is largely an accident of history. The Aborigines kind of drew the short straw in that regard by settling a country that was so geographically isolated.

//Hence the inventions, some of which are 'corroborees' and the 'smoking ceremony', supposedly traditional, performed for gullible tourists; and 'welcome to country', which can be traced “all the way back” to the first one performed by actor, Ernie Dingo, in 1976.//

I'm pretty sure our culture has changed in the last 200 years. I see no reason why Aboriginal culture should have to remain stagnant and unchanged for 200 years to be considered authentic. I guess some people are just a bit too attached to romanticised ideals of what they think Aboriginal culture should and should not be. But I'm not really sure it's up to them to decide.

Cossomby,

1. No WRITTEN language. Not reading what you want to criticise is not a good way to start.
2. Technology or the lack of it has nothing to do with 'goodness'. And you are obviously completely ignorant of the cruelty and savagery the original inhabitants of this continent indulged in, particularly against women and children. They also spent a good part of their time fighting inter-tribal wars.
3. “Too many (cases) to cover”; it's more likely that don't know of any cases, and you think a nasty old white man will just accept your bluff. You provide no references to your claims at all. In contrast, everything Anthony Morris writes is patently obvious and evident to all but the ideologically blinkered. Your “you and your barrister have it exactly the wrong way around” is not much of an argument.

I note that you have nothing say about the comments of Bess and Jacinta Price. I suppose you regard them as the female equivalent of Uncle Toms. Ernie Dingo also thought that the ceremony he and a mate performed was a bit of a joke, by the way.

60,000 years, and absolutely nothing to show for it, compared with the advanced societies the natives of other continents had achieved up to 1778 when Britain brought civilisation. Facts outweigh ideology.

Ttbn. True no written language, but written language has only been around for a very short time in the human story.
As for your sneer about my knowledge, well, mate, you asked for it. Starting tomorrow, I'll provide a crash course in Aboriginal history, in small snippets. I did't pick up all your points earlier, so as to keep the posts short.

I can see that in a country one of the driest on earth maybe they were
too busy food gathering to put someone aside to invent things.
You need excess energy to produce inventions and improve knowledge of
materials such as metal ores.
The one thing that is surprising is that they never invented pottery.
They had stacks of clay and fire the two ingredients needed for pottery.
Virtually every other society on earth developed pottery.
What were their marriage rules ?

Were any Indonesian artifacts ever traded from the north ?
Someone could do a doctorate on that.

CONT
Did they develop any form of agriculture ?
All societies seem to have started agriculture and they certainly
had the time.
In the north did the Macassens teach NT aborigines any agriculture.

Excess food and energy is need to develop any technology.