Joe,

Lay off the Vegemite!

Good to hear from a sensible, practical woman with actual experience of the problem , like Big Nana, as opposed to the ideological chunterings of one who is too daft to know she is making a fool of herself.

The fact that someone is dark-skinned imparts to him no special virtue, just as the fact that someone is Caucasian saddles him with no special liability.

Dear Big Nana,

There are two aspects to Indigenous disadvantage and
disempowerment.

One aspect as you correctly identify, is personal
and communal responsibility. All individuals must
take responsibility for their circumstances and
behaviour. Nobody is denying that. They must send their
kids to school, abide by the law and contribute to a safe
and productive society. There is no disputing the
importance of personal responsibility in addressing
disadvantage - Indigenous or otherwise.

The other aspect as mentioned earlier to Indigenous
disadvantage is structural - which many objectors to the
Uluru Statement deny. No person or community can truly
take responsibility unless they have power.

If government calls the shots through top-down policy,
uninformed by local views and preferences, then people
are disempowered. There is a structural and constitutional
dimension to persistent Indigenous disadvantage. Until
we address this dimension, the gap will not close.

Australia has come to expect abysmal Closing the Gap
reports. The current system is not working. It does not
produce good results. The systematic and structural
failure of policy-making is perpetuating disadvantage.

If you agree that the system is not working, you should
want it reformed.

You are correct that the solution is responsibility. But
responsibility requires two things: that people are
willing to take charge of their problems, and that
governance structure ALLOW and empower them to take charge.

The Uluru Statement speaks to structural disempowerment
because it is a document about constitutional reform. The
Constitution distributes power. It can empower First Nations
to take responsibility, or it can disempower them, as it has
in the past. A First Nations voice in the Constitution
would enable Indigenous people to take greater responsibility
for and leadership of their affairs.

You appear to prefer to keep the system as it is - despite your
own admissio0n that it is failing. Perhaps you believe that
continuous lecturing of Indigenous people to " take
personal responsibility" might produce better outcomes.

I doubt it will. To ensure change, the system must be
reformed to encourage and, indeed, mandate responsibility.

cont'd ...

The arrogance is mind-boggling.

More comebacks than Nellie Melba and Johnny Farnam combined.