It seems that regardless of what the facts say on the matter, there are an awful lot of Aboriginal people who believe very definitely and strongly, with a runner-like conviction, that they were stolen.

http://www.australianstogether.org.au/stories-v2/

And it seems to me that that belief, and those memories - even if they are false memories nefariously implanted by SJW's as a stratagem in the indefatigable culture wars (sorry, does this sound a bit 'tinfoil hat' to anybody else?) - are more to blame for the dysfunction in some parts of the Aboriginal community than the facts... whatever they may be.

So: how do we deal with that problem? How do you guys think we should deprogram their brainwashing? What if we set up a kickstarter for our mate Keith to travel round Australia, personally explaining to all the people who mistakenly think they've been stolen why they're wrong because he's much cleverer than them, and if they haven't got a bit of paper with an official government stamp saying 'stolen' on it then it must all be in their heads? I can't see how that could possibly fail to work.

mhaze,

Sorry your misinformed. Robert Manne got quite a large number
of historians to contribute with essays to his book - all writing
and sharing their research and findings.

Windschuttle's
research has been criticised by many.

Lets leave it there - to continue to argue the point won't
achieve anything.

if someone has information to the contrary could they please enlighten us on this;
Wasn't it the practice in tribal warfare to knock the blokes on the noggin with a null nulla & then raid the camp & take women & kids ?
Were they stolen differently ? Was this less traumatic for the littlies because there were no do-gooders then to stir them up as being victims ?

Indy,

You might enjoy the following:

'A Song of Hope"
By Oodgeroo (Kath Walker).

"Look up, my people
The dawn is breaking
The world is waking
To a bright new day
When none defame us
No restriction tame us
No colour shame us
Nor sneer dismay

Now brood no more
On the years behind you
The hope assigned you
Shall the past replace
When a juster justice
Grown wise and stronger
Points the bone no longer
At a darker race

So long we waited
Bound and frustrated
Till hate be hated
And caste deposed
Now light shall guide us
No goal denied us
And all doors open
That long were closed

See plain the promise
Dark freedom lover
Night's nearly over
And though long the climb
New rights will greet us
New mateship meet us
And joy complete us
In our new Dream Time

To our fathers' fathers
The pain, the sorrow
To our childrens' children
the glad tomorrow."

Hi Toni,

In the past, Aboriginal people were documented, up, down and bloody sideways. My wife had a file. Her mum had a file. Everybody had/has a file. In the material that I transcribed, the names of around two thousand Aboriginal people come up, sometimes very often, and I put them into an Index for their present-day relatives to check if they wished.

Of course, people are going to assert - and even believe - that they were taken from their loving parents 'for no reason': nobody likes to admit that they were neglected or abused, especially if it' the daily norm. But the lawyers and law firms that they may have taken their plight to, are not mugs either: they do due diligence and look up the files, if people bring them - and of course they have access to them: imagine the lawyer' picnic if it was found that state agencies were refusing to allow Aboriginal people access to their own files.

So let's presume that that happened, that lawyers have perused people's files. Yet no new court cases. Certainly not any successful cases, not since Bruce Trevorrow's around ten years ago. Why's that ? Tens of thousands of SG claims, yet none before any court. Everybody with a file, yet nobody taking theirs to court. Hmmm ....... what's wrong with this picture ?

Dearest Foxy,

Yes, passion and emotion and pity can be used against evidence, that's the basis of the current Indigenous Narrative, after all. Sorry, I've learnt to be wary of such tactics, having wallowed in it for sixty years. As an ex-Communist, and Maoist, who has learnt the hard (and long) way not to have too much faith in lofty declarations of principle - while the execution squads were going full-pelt round the back. The Indigenous Narrative has similarities to (and differences from) that ghastly charade, and transcribing five thousand pages (two million words ?) of primary documents does tend to slant my perceptions away from it somewhat.

[TBC]

[continued]

I think there are some gross misunderstandings about our history on both sides, and the older and grouchier I get, the more I have to ask for some sort of evidence for any assertions: as Christopher Hitchens said, "He [or she] who asserts must prove".

I certainly don't have the answers, but it does seem that - like all of us - Aboriginal people have, since the beginning of the invasion, acted on the basis of their own perception of the world and how works, and on a necessarily faulty grasp of what the hell was going on - after all, they did not miraculously and immediately comprehend fully all the intricacies of the new society thrust in their direction. We all have pre-suppositions and those are what we act on, not 'a full understanding of objective reality'.

For example, after the War, with very high demand for labour, the old Anglo working class, based in the cities, was far more able to seize opportunities there, and to become aware of the possibilities that their kids might get out of the working class through higher education. Aboriginal people also seized work opportunities, but in rural areas - it took another generation fo them and their kids to move to the cities and come to understand the opportunities there, including, eventually, higher education. Hence, Aboriginal HE numbers rose rapidly about a generation after those of kids of the old working class - from, say, 1990, compared to 1960.

But maybe half of the Aboriginal population missed the boat entirely, preferring lifelong welfare to education and work, and being maintained by much of the other half. Now, in 2018, the worry is that young people may not be educated either enough or in the right fields to take advantage of jobs in the near future: so where does that leave Aboriginal people on lifelong welfare ? How many generations behind ? And the more remote, the more behind, especially if they have so many people going into bat for them in refusing to send their kids to school.

Love anyway,

Joe