Hi Joe,

"You can mock this, but in my view, it is the one bright light in Indigenous affairs."

Not at all, it is a great stand alone achievement by our Indigenous brothers and sisters. The ones who mock, are those who throw such an achievement up as a counter to past failures. You have a tendency to do that, as if this success today negates failures of the past.

There is so much negativity on this forum, and else where, about Aboriginal people. Some have such a mind set against them that every thing they post is negative. Foxy called out Big Nana for continually posting negative comment, and you know what, Foxy was right, a huge bias of negativity is posted by some. Yet Big Nana came back to say that there are good people known to her in the Aboriginal community.

You may want the 'real' Indigenous people to stay down, poor, helpless, in need of white saviours
Loudmouth,
Wrong, so utterly & terribly wrong ! Such totally unnecessary deliberate bad choice of words to incite bad feelings.
What & I'm sure of that, most non-indigenous would like to see is the indigenous Australians to be like everyone else. Members of a Nation where equality is actually practised, not just preached. I know of quite a number of indigenous whose efforts are constantly thwarted by utterly useless bureaucrats & idiotic policies. The communities are swamped with such bureaudroids in order to alleviate unemployment in the South, not to help the communities.
I wonder how many Australians are aware of how much funding for indigenous communities actually ends up in the pockets of bureaudroids, lawyers & other "professionals".
It's a truly sickening show running to a script written by academic social engineers. For their own benefit of course !

Dear Paul,

Well said. That's why the Uluru Statement from
the Heart asks that truth in the telling of their
history be done. And after so many decades - it
needs to be. You and I acknowledge that - which
in no way demeans any future achievements. On
the contrary.

Paul,

What 'failures' have there been in Indigenous higher education ?

Well, one that I can think of: the idiotic push to try to make aspiring Indigenous students confine their studies to Indigenous-oriented awards, a strategy which bombed out between 1998 and 2005 - after which, the vast, vast majority of Indigenous students have enrolled in standard, award-level courses, and tripled in numbers.

Why did the elites try to push that line ? Clearly, because power and control were more important to the Indigenous elites, not just in higher education but across the board of Indigenous affairs, than mass advancement and the seizing of opportunities. Indigenous-studies course-writers thought they would have lifelong careers with a captive student population. Boy,did they get that wrong.

So, yes, that was one 'failure' - a 'failure' which liberated Indigenous people. And they'll never go back to being overly-shackled by careerists.

In the meantime, on the other hand (perhaps another 'failure'), since 1998, Indigenous student recruitment, preparation and support programs at universities have, in many cases, withered. But all that this has meant is that Indigenous students are doing it on their own, sometimes oblivious of whatever 'Indigenous Centre for Excellence' may be on their campuses while they get on with their studies. Wonderful !

And another dreadful 'failure': what are left of Indigenous programs at universities have, on the whole, abandoned any attempt to extend university opportunities to rural and remote areas, with non-performing staff doing their endless and pointless research and living off the low-hanging fruit of well-qualified, urban students - turnstile programs.

Any other whinges, Paul ? He toe-toe koe.

Joe

Hi Individual,

Yes, that's what I was trying to get at, in my clumsy way (and I'm sure Big Nana too) :)

Cheers,

Joe

Joe,

That's why the Indigenous are asking for a voice
in policies that affect them. A voice - only
a voice.