" National Sorry Day", Sunday 26th. May, was bound to bring the virtue-signallers scurrying about. The SMH reiterated the same old same old about how we must "do our best for the most forgotten and disadvantaged people in our midst", completely ignoring the fact that we are constantly beaten about the head with these "forgotten" people. How could we ever forget!

They have been there, non-stop, since the days of Whitlam and 'Nugget' Coombes. When I say 'they' I am referring to people who are no better off than they were in the 70's despite the truckloads of money and benefits that have been showered on them ever since. The majority of people claiming indigenous heritage have knuckled down to life just like everyone else. They are not looking for special treatment, a 'voice' or a special kind of apartheid wall to cower behind while they do nothing.

The divisive aboriginal flag flying over most government and council buildings and state schools constantly reminds us of a deliberately divided society.

And despite the outstanding ability of aboriginal football players in national teams, some racist decided that an 'Aboriginal round' was needed.

It seems that we will never be free of this divisive, institutional racism

Dear Paul,

Thank You for this discussion.

It's a subject worth debating.

Very few of us know all that much about our
First Nation's people. Most of us learned
what we were taught at school and accepted it.
Few of us ever come in contact with Aboriginal
people and today we absorb what's in the media.

However, today, there is material available
where we can read and learn and try to understand
things that were not available to us previously.

There are two books that I would highly recommend.

One is - "A Rightful Place: A Road Map to Recognition"
edited by Shireen Morris. It contains essays by people
like - Noel Pearson, Pat Dodson, Rachel Perkins, Stan
Grant, Rod Little, Jackie Higgins.

It tells us that this nation has unfinished business.
And asks whether after more than 2 centuries, can a
rightful place be found for Australia's original
people?

The editor - Shireen Morris is a lawyer and constitutional
reform fellow at the Cape York Institute and a researcher
at Monash University.

The other book worth mentioning is - "Dark Emu"
by author Bruce Pascoe. This book argues for a
re-consideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for
pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to
rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify
dispossession.

Both books should be available at your regional libraries
or for purchase at all good book-shops.

Both are worth a read.

Dear Foxy,

Welcome back !

So there would be Dreaming stories about farming ? cultivating, fencing, tool-making, harvesting, storing, perhaps exchanging ? Sorry, I don't know enough Dreaming stories to have ever come across a farming story. Perhaps someone can find one ?

I wonder why some people are so anxious to assert that Aboriginal people here were NOT foragers, hunter-gatherers, that they cultivated to earth and grew crops. Which crops ? Please don't say bloody kangaroo grass. So, why the reluctance to admit that people were foragers, like everybody was a few thousand years ago ?

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe,

Thank You for the welcome back.

However my operation was re-scheduled to
late August. I was sent home due to high
blood pressure - (214-217). The surgeon
waited for it to go down. It didn't.
He said he couldn't perform the eye surgery
because of the risks involved.

So, here I am.

I'm due to see my cardiologist soon.

Back to the topic.

I watched Q&A last night. Jennifer Knox asked
for practical guidance as to how can a community
group from an overwhelmingly non-indigenous
community support the movement to have an
indigenous voice guaranteed in our constitution.
Professor Marcia Langton recommended contacting
various groups and leaders to come, speak, and
explain.

The more that we can learn, the more we will be able
to understand the issues involved. That's part of the
reason I recommended the two books earlier. We need
to hear from the voices of indigenous leaders.

Rebecca Jones on the program pointed out that -
Ken Wyatt, an indigenous Australian has been appointed
as Minister of Indigenous Australians. She asked -
does this mean that Scott Morrison is more open to
holding a referendum to implement an enshrined
indigenous voice to parliament within this term - or is he
going to hold on to the referendum as a bargaining
chip for another re-election in 2022?

Paul,

"The image of the true native was of a near naked savage living an existence of a hunter-gather somewhere in the wild interior of the continent

That's exactly what the tribal people that I spent time with in my late teens were like.
Unfortunately for the academics, but fortunately for them, they eventually adopted European ways and consequently had better food and, for the younger ones, a whole new world opened up.

Funnily, they didn't have any of the traditional red cloth for clothing and headbands.
They were not of a weaving tribe, the loom had never loomed.

Paul, "The fact is, instead of being a simple, primitive childlike people before European settlement Aboriginal society had a high degree of sophistication and the people lived a rather complex existence. The false and sometimes racists narratives of the past are untrue, and we should understand what a remarkable people we now share this continent with"

Come on now Paul. Do you really think wandering around the bush throwing rocks & sticks at things in an attempt to catch something to eat is a sophisticated way of life. Yes we do realise this is what you wish for the general population, if Greens can ever get into power.

Why don't you try it some time, & let us know how sophisticated it is, & how much you like it