Individual,

Surely it depends on how and by whom you're raised ? If your mother is Aboriginal, then chances are you'll assume you are too. That's reinforced by your siblings and uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents. And by non-Aboriginal neighbours.

In fact, once the label is attached, colour isn't all that important. I recall, up on one settlement, the adolescent boys went through a phase of distinguishing between 'black holes' and 'red holes'. Being rather obnoxious, I was called a 'red hole' for a short time, to which, of course, I would answer 'black hole'. Then I realised that some of the kids were as pale as I was - and no-one seemed to notice. Their mothers were Aboriginal; end of.

Down this way (and I suppose I'm talking about over the last fifty years), children in a family might be all colours, and simply not notice it. Of course, this was before the days of well-funded organisations, which have attracted all manner of frauds and power-seekers - of all colours. In fact, down this way, if you look real, real Aborigine, you're pretty much guaranteed of getting a good position, with few duties, even if you have no qualifications. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations need Jackies for their PR.

Joe

One of Cook's reasons for sailing to the southern hemisphere was to observe the transit of Venus, a very rare event, or events that "....occur in a pattern that generally repeats every 243 years, with pairs of transits eight years apart separated by long gaps of 121.5 years and 105.5 years".

An important task. What most people probably don't realise is - he stuffed it up; got wrong.

Lighten up folks. Cook was an ordinary man doing he was told to do, not always perfectly. He and his kind were the equivalents of modern astronauts. He is part of our history, and he will be celebrated.

Somebody was always going to discover and claim the continent for a European power. The aboriginal industry and it's noisy activists should be thankful that was Cook and not a Frenchman, Spaniard or Portuguese, the other big explorers of the day. Some historians say that the China was sniffing around much earlier. I'm sure the moaners and groaners wouldn't have liked them settling here. Would they even have survived to be complaining into the 21st Century?

As for you pale-faced Lefties, don't blame Cook: blame your own families who weren't forced to come here. Very few of you descend from the convicts who had no choice. Most of us are products of deliberate colonisation by ordinary people.

Stan Grant, the Indigenous Affairs editor for the
ABC and Chair of Indigenous Affairs at Charles
Sturt University and winner of the Walkley Award
in 2015 sums things up so beutifully when he writes:

" A nation is a story:
a never-ending story of us. It is the story of a land
steeped in time, awaiting people from many other lands,
who in time will call themselves Australians. It begins with
the first footsteps taken tens of millennia ago, and
continues in the newest-born child of this land. It will
live on in those still to come. The bones of our ancestors are
buried in this land. They are the bones of black and
white. They are dust, the very land itself. When the
political debates of our age are past, there will always be
our country. Our challenge - all of us - is to live here
and call it home."

" The first people touched this land as
our continent was being formed.
They came in boats when humanity had yet to cross an
open sea. Here they formed a civilisation that continues to
this day. Their birthright has never been ceded."

"Those people live still in their descendants. We enter into
their heritage and respect their traditions. We honour too
those who have come from other lands and carry with them their
cultures and faiths. Though our bonds may strain, we seek to
live together in harmony. Though we may disagree, we find no
enemy among us. We cherish the foundations of our nation, and
our rule of law and democracy."

"We are all equal in dignity. Opportunity is for all. Worth
should be measured not in privilege. By our efforts we
prosper. In a land of plenty, we care for those without. From
the first footsteps to the most recent arrival, this land is
our home."

"Here, together, we form a new people bound not by the chains
of history but committed to a future forged together."

Hear, Hear!

Cook was a man of his times, & today's petals have no right to judge him.

However wouldn't it be great if we could reincarnate him, make him a magistrate, & sit him on the bench in judgement of these extinction rebellion clowns.

Twelve of the best, with the cat o nine tails just might bring them back to earth, & respecting their betters.

From Lowitja's speech, "....it pains me to know that the Constitution still contains a potentially discriminatory power, which can be used by the Commonwealth against our people or, indeed any other race"

Yep, let's get rid of the power from the constitution so all races share the same rights. Furthermore let's have no inclusions added to the constitution regarding race.

Stan says, ".."Those people live still in their descendants. We enter into their heritage..." Couch it as he might, his words have teeth. Any notion of heritage comes from all Australians that came before us, not a select few.

No treaty, no sovereignty, no special voice. As time passes the wisdom of holding ground on this will become ever more apparent. We'd be inviting a lawyers' picnic lasting centuries.

Hypothetically, how would accepting these demands appear 40,000 years from now?

Dear Hasbeen,

According to journalist Paul Daley - Captain
Cook's legacy is complex but whether white Australia
likes it or not he is emblematic of violence and
oppression. The following link explains:

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/postcolonial-blog/2019/oct/03/captain-cooks-legacy-is-complex-but-whether-white-australia-likes-it-or-not-he-is-emblematic-of-violence-and-oppression