The Australian Museum discusses the topic of who
are the "true" or "authentic" Indigenous Australians.

As we've seen in this discussion some have even expressed
the view that if Aborigines are not full-blood they have no
authority to speak, create, live or identify as
Indigenous people.

That is not true.

Considering Aboriginality in that way is highly
offensive to Indigenous Australians who identify as
such.

It is one-dimensional and does not take into
account significant social and historical factors
which impacted on the Indigenous people of Australia
including assimilation policies which aimed to breed
them out of existence and destroy their connections
to culture.

How on earth can you quantify or calculate how
Aboriginal someone is, or for that matter -
Australian Chinese, or New Zealanders.

If they are not full-bloods - what part of them is
Aboriginal? It just doesn't work like that.
Their Aboriginality makes up their whole being.
It courses through their veins, all throughout their
bodies. It's wired in their psyche.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples do not
define their Aboriginality by skin colour or percentage
of blood. Their identities are complex and diverse
across Australia and encompass many aspects and contexts
that ultimately make up who they are.

This may include connections to place, country, language
groups, family relationships, cultural beliefs, value
systems and Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Indigenous Australians developed a working definition which
was adopted by the Australian Government to define an
Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person as:

1) A person who has Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
descent: who also -

2) Identifies as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
person and -

3) Is accepted as such by the Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait
Islander community in which they live (or come from).

[continued]

Batchelor now has either no students or single-figure students, and no graduates each year. That's where Indigenous-focussed courses seem to end up. Yet the 'leaders' would probably still advocate for them. Thankfully, the people are going around their 'leaders'.

Around 1999 or 2000, another university tried another stunt - enrolling huge numbers from all over Australia in a one-year preparation course, EXTERNALLY, which is guaranteed not to work. They were probably pulling in three or four million dollars from Canberra for this lurk, before they were belted around the ears for it. Their annual numbers have shrivelled up since then, and my bet is that the students that they do have enrolled are mostly mainstream-course students. No names. But apart from Notre Dame, UWA and Murdoch, WA has a very poor record in terms of Indigenous university participation.

Love,

Joe

Not unexpectedly, Joe has not answered my questions on what it is he thought I should say outright, or what I am hiding, or what I am too gutless to say; which of course proves my comments on his inability to deal with criticism of his emotional views without resorting to demonising critics, which does nothing to back up his argument at all. I really can't be bothered with people who accuse others of doing something, but then chicken out when they are asked to explain what they mean.

One of the marine TAFE course lecturers told me several years ago that they weren't allowed to fail indigenous course participants.
Instead they were simply deemed competent on the day of their test.

The same thing has been said about foreign students at universities. I don't know whether or not it is true, but given the Left crazies running the show these days, it's quite possible. Just imagine foreign students going back home without a degree. The big bucks that the universities rely on would soon dry up. As for the students still wanting connections to the Stone Age, the Left is not really interested in them getting jobs and leading normal lives. That would affect one of their pet dividing society projects, and threaten handouts to the 'industry' and its hangers-on. If people with traces of aboriginality started living like everyone else, there would be thousands of Left-wing bludgers left out in the cold.

Ttbn,

You're proving my suspicions - what have international students got to do with Indigenous students ? That's what I was getting at - that you obliquely attack Indigenous students' presence and performance at universities by attacking the quality of education for international students (a non sequitur ?) and by attacking higher education generally.

And that's gutless.

Joe