There are thousands of Indigenous organisations across Australia, in communities, localities, regions, state and territories, and nationally - in fact, internationally these days.

How easy would it be to initiate a weekly newspaper (in print, on-line and spoken form), free for Indigenous people, and free for them to contribute to ?

It could be paid for by donations from virtuous non-Indigenous people such as Greens, and by advertising, and by a top-up from federal and state governments. Any Indigenous person could have their say, completely free of censorship of any kind, on any issue.

Yes, there are already Indigenous newspapers, the National Indigenous Times, the Koori Mail, etc., as well as more local and state-oriented newspapers, often on-line. Yes, there are Indigenous-oriented and -run television stations and other forms of media, not to mention Facebook, of course. But perhaps content in those media is relatively controlled, or at least, non-elite Indigenous people assume that it is.

A free weekly news and opinion outlet (in any form) would enable Indigenous people to put their viewpoints, argue against viewpoints that they disagree with, and reach an audience rapidly, every week. Even if the federal government fully funded it, it may cost a tiny fraction of the annual allocations for Indigenous organisations.

Prominent Indigenous spokespeople could be encouraged to contribute, perhaps some even having, say, a weekly column, stimulating unrestricted discussion and debate.

The ordinary Indigenous people need voices. This could provide the answer

Are not Ken Wyatt, Ben Wyatt, Patrick Dodson, Jackie Lambie incapable of representing Indigeneous views in Parliament?

I have two questions about this:

1) how do you decide who is indigenous?

2) why do you think it should receive funding from the government?

By-the-way: there is nothing stopping you or anyone else from starting such a project as a normal publishing venture if you use your own money. But you would have to be very careful that it doesn't fall foul of the discrimination laws nor the defamation laws. At first brush it sounds *extremely* discriminatory since it freely available to indigenous people but not others. Also the fact that you propose to not censor it but instead allow any and every aboriginal to say anything whatever means that it is highly unlikely that the publication wouldn't find itself facing defamation lawsuits or be in breach of the anti-racism criminal laws or other laws (such as obscenity, sedition, etc) at some point.

Thinkabit why change? we have a working method in exist and it is well known
Yes a white [any color in fact any race, can be if accepted by the community be called Aboriginal
Thinking about that no bad idea there
Now racists need things too low IQ the ability to dislike those other than them selves
They exist some racists even come from the small groups claiming to be racist victims, far too many in fact
I think Loudmouth has a point, too it could well be a start to both sides understanding how the other side thinks, exists, and lives day to day in their world

Hi Thinkabit,

You're right, it should be free to everybody who wishes to read it, as wel as making it available electronically. I reluctantly agree that whatever is published should be screened to avoid defamation and incitement, but there should be some leeway for Indigenous people to express their honest opinions.

As for funding, whatever such a venture might cost could surely be squeezed into the thirty billion annual allocation.

It could be overseen by the new advisory committee ?

Joe

Dear Joe,

There already exists "The Voice of Indigenous
Australians."

It's called the "Koori Mail."

It is owned and operated by our Aboriginal people
and is distributed Australia-wide. It provides
news, views, ads, and other material of interest
to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians
and non-Indigenous Australians interested in Indigenous
affairs.

The Koori Mail is not just a successful national
publication - it's also a true Aboriginal success story.

You can read more at:

http://www.koorimail.com

cont'd ...

Dear Joe,

There's more at the following link:

http://www.koorimail.com/about-koori-mail/

Maybe it could be run as an adjunct to the "Australian ".

More likely the Guardian though.

Dan

Umm yeah ok, righto

1/ So long as there is a genuine need for it and it is of genuine benefit to indigenous Australians;

I'll support:

2/ A one-off payment of a million to get started, and;
3/ A million in funding per year.
And:
4/ Don't bother asking for any more because you're not getting it
And:
5/ The idea must be practical, relevant and of benefit to everyday indigenous people, as well as Australia as a whole.

Oh yeah hang on, one simple clause:

6/ The newspaper can't be used to promote divisive bs like organising civil unrest on Australia Day;
- Or promoting not respecting the national anthem etc;

However;

- It's perfectly fine to discuss these topics or for individuals to voice their own opinions on the issues, just the newspaper itself can't promote divisive actions or activities or funding is removed.

Now take the money and go away and make it happen;
And it better be bloody good.

Dear Foxy,

Well, yes, and the National Indigenous Times as well:

http://nit.com.au/

and of course, NITV and Imparja. But are they enough ? Do 'ordinary' Indigenous people feel able to contribute their opinions or news that otherwise wouldn't reach any media. I sometimes get the feeling that 'ordinary' Indigenous people are a bit alienated from existing media, yet have a lot that they could throw into the ring.

Perhaps you're right, another newspaper might not make much difference to the opportunities already available for people's voices to be heard. But surely it can't hurt ?

Love,

Joe

Loudmouth just a thought me, bad spelling and all, started a two page newsletter for the states road workers [once 8 thousand, then near two]
It gave the coverage you are thinking of in this state at least
I put it out in my office on a Sunday, unpaid but cleared to use the computer and fax
Every one of the 32 arrival points was asked to re print and hand it on
After becoming an official, others took over, sadly its distribution would now be for far less than two hundred
The method would work
Worth knowing we had a great Aboriginal rep she wrote for me about once every two months and it went out via fax to every one
Grants exist to buy computers

Dear Joe,

You asked me - are they enough? Of the current
publishing outlets for our Indigenous People?
My answer is - YEs! I feel there are enough
current outlets that are successful and adding
even more will stretch the money amongst a
small population trying to garner support. Resources
are limited as it is. I'd rather that publishers
like Magabala Books for example, and Koori Mail be
supported instead.

But having said that, I don't want to knock your idea
entirely. You tell me - it can't hurt? Well, actually it
can. dividing resources as I explained from an already
small group is not wise. But, what the heck. It might be
worth a try. With the proviso that - the new venture is
Aboriginal owned and led, and the talent and diversity of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices is nurtured
and celebrated.

Billions have been thrown at the descendants of aborigines, and they still can't cut the mustard. The unbridgeable gap between black, barely black and white is currently being played out via the hysteria surrounding the NT police shooting. It's not about right or wrong, not about justice. It's about the police officer being white, and the dead person black. None of the black people making all the fuss have any more idea of what lead to the shooting than the the rest of us do.

Dear Joe,

A lot has changed today in technology, in the
publishing industry and of course in national reception.
But as long as there exists an outstanding vision to
ensure that our Indigenous People control their own
news and that the benefits flow back to the right people -
that this will still stand (it's important now as ever),
then I guess it's worth a try.

The Alice Springs issue is baying for blood, it is pay back time! Western justice is white man law. Someone must die to make it even, that is justice in their eyes. Learn how they think. Any true aboriginal thought put to the public arena would be based in that way of thinking.

Those that have European ancestry might have logical conflict with aboriginal law. The same law applies in New Guinea. You accidently kill someone and you or one of your family must also be killed to make it even.

I don’t think print media is the way to go. I don’t know any aboriginal people who read actual newspapers. All of their information comes from digital sources, mainly social media. There is a multitude of indigenous run FB groups and quite frankly I cannot stomach reading the comments there because they are sewers of hatred towards white people.
And the amount of misinformation on these pages appals me. They constantly re enforce myths from the past and wrong facts from the present. One glaring example is the extreme focus on black deaths in custody, giving everyone the impression that it’s mostly black people dying in prison when the reality is, per capita, more white people die in prison, including violent deaths, although the most common cause of death for both races is natural causes.
The level of hate filled comments against white people on these pages shows how great the divide is between a very vocal black demographic and the rest of the community.
So no, I don’t think we need a print forum. What we need is more social media groups that print actual facts and delete all racist comments so interactions can be kept civil and hopefully, the people who have been fed all this misinformation can learn the real facts about past and present treatment of aboriginal people.

It is not just aboriginals Big Nana who become rabid ratbags, when their dislike of another group is reinforced by others with the same attitude on the net.

I have blundered into a few on occasions, usually inhabited by lefties who never believe they have been given enough of other peoples money, no matter how much.

I found one large one specialising in oldies, retirees both pensioners & self funded, & their hatred for those who fund their lives was shocking.

Any where discontent can feed on that of others does appear to go that way.

Hasbeen, given that over 70% of aboriginal adults have non aboriginal partners I am concerned that all this identity politics is not only influencing individual behaviour but destroying family unity. I am lucky in that my multiracial marriage happened in an area and at a time when such unions were becoming common and were very accepted. And the mixed marriages are still occurring which makes all this division very destructive.
How are children of these marriages going to feel about their parents who are constantly being denigrated and hated by two distinct groups? My kids and grandkids have often spoken to me about how some sections of the community feel about them. Some blacks think they are too white to be black. Some whites think they are too black to be white. No one is promoting pride in having mixed heritage which leaves all these kids without a sense of belonging and very vulnerable to being swept up into radical groups who give them acceptance. To me, this is the real problem.
We need to stop the identity politics, give mixed race people a sense of pride in all their heritages and we might just reduce some of the hatred these mixed race people feel towards whites.

Thinkabit; No need to worry about DNA testing, tribal recognition etc
anyone can identify as an aborigine, even a man as an aboriginal woman
I wonder if "she" could attend woman's secret business ?
Another one or two hundred years and it will no longer be a question.
Oh well this line might allow posting in the right place.

So very easy to become a racist
Too to overlook the deliberate failure we whites have had in lifting the standard of living and yes education for these people
Think we have failed them and that it maybe on purpose
A generation will come, hopefully, that takes on the task of truly lifting them out of the poor education and living standards they are stuck in
Charlie Perkins should by drafted [given power] as Minister for Aboriginal affairs right hand man

"There is an inherent contradiction in any attempt to unite Australians by treating people differently ….",says Peta Credlin. And we already have aboriginal politicians in Parliament who have arrived there through the system available to everyone now.

Belly, how on earth are any Australians responsible the low educational levels of some aboriginal people?
Schools were set up almost immediately after first settlement to specifically teach aboriginal kids and they were included into mainstream schools decades ago.
Abstudy money is paid to aboriginal parents at least 10 years earlier than any Austudy money is paid to non aboriginal students, most schools provide breakfast and lunch for kids in more remote areas, schools are provided extra money for every aboriginal child on the roll so they can employ extra teaching assistants to work with kids who are behind. In some communities the teachers even drive their own cars around the community trying to collect kids for school.
And as Joe will tell you, aboriginal kids in major towns and cities are completing year 12 at an unprecedented rate and thousands have already graduated with uni degrees and many thousand more already at uni.
How much more do you think should be done?

Hi Big Nana,

I'm a bit concerned that many well-intentioned whitefellas seem to have a sort of innocent soft racist attitude to Indigenous people, the soft racism of low expectations, that Indigenous people can't be expected to do anything for themselves but must wait for whitefellas to do everything for them, including looking after their kids and getting them to school. I hope I'm wrong :)

And yes, meanwhile, in the cities, Indigenous people are participating in tertiary education at probably higher rates than non-Indigenous working-class people. Certainly, Indigenous women are participating across the country at higher rates, for their population, than non-Indigenous men are.

And it's working - maybe four thousand Indigenous people will graduate from universities this year, adjusting for the low figures used by the federal Education Department, kicking up the total to around sixty thousand.

Cheers,

Joe

Big Nana Loudmouth let me tell you why country first nation kids do not get an education
Is it racist to tell the truth? SOME LIVE IN DREADFUL HOUSEHOLDS, SOME do not go to school some parents can not make them welfare is not doing its job

Dear Joe,

No. You're not wrong. But if you really are so
concerned about whitefellas having low expectations
of our Indigenous People , then I assume you'd be
all for giving them a voice in the Constitution so
that they could have a voice in their affairs.
That blackfellas should have a say when parliament
makes changes affecting their distinct rights and
interests.

Glad you agree.

listening to ABC today on an aboriginal forum, and they were discussing that there are differences between Western education and Western expectations and aboriginal education, law and link to country. That they are part of country, and not an owner of a fenced block as it were. Ownership of land is part of White culture, which stems around a large part of Western law.

Josephus, what you are listening to is white skinned people who identify as indigenous spouting dogma they think fits the situation.
If at all possible you should talk to full blood traditional people or even part aboriginal people who live in remote areas. You would soon learn that they totally believe in land ownership and in fact multiple families up here are fighting viciously over who owns what land. Why do you think so many tribes want to break away from the Land Councils and manage their own land?
And the days of wanting to revert to traditional ways has long gone. Even the most remote tribes and communities have smart phone, iPads, NBN or satellite coverage. They have 4 wd vehicles with GPS and expensive boats with large outboard motors to help with hunting turtles and dugong. They insist on split system air conditioners in very remote housing. To project an image of being ruled by traditional cultural values is disingenuous.
As far as education goes, there are many white children living in very dysfunctional homes with drug addicted parents. At best they are removed and given to good foster carers.. Aboriginal children need the same protections.

Foxy,

For the life of me, I can't join the dots between some hotshots having input into policy in Canberra, and parents in Wadeye or Yuendumu making sure their kids go to school, that they understand the value of education for their future employment, in trades or otherwise, and that they prepare themselves for better lives than their parents have had.

That's up to the parents, the people, the 'communities', and all I would expect of those Canberra-bound hotshots is, ideally but not likely, to exhort those parents and communities to get off their arses and do the right thing by their kids.

But when one is on a lifelong pension, from school unto death, then what's the point, the need, for any education at all for your kids, they'll be alright ? How to break that deceptively-attractive but ghastly cycle ? Can people be persuaded, as Noel Pearson points out, to get down off the comparatively well-paying (at least for effort expended) pedestal, and down onto the ground of real life ? You know, like most whitefellas do ?

The point of my dopey weekly publication idea was to facilitate the elicitation of opinions from 'ordinary', non-elite Indigenous people in relation to the issues in their daily lives. i.e. a voice FOR the people TO the people.

Joe

Loudmouth not sure your recent highlighting some are racist was not aimed at me
However this much is true, I have been offered the right to call myself Aboriginal
And ashamed to say, have seen fraudulent claims from within my family to gain the benefits by false, total lies claims they are
I know of the very high standard of education some reach in our city's
TRUTH is many/most in country ex missions would not be able to read your paper
Too children with lumps of hair missing, victims of nits and yes sexual abuse are normal in some such places
Afraid if forcing education, health care, food not grog is racist, then that is me
We fail by never ever truly trying to fix these issues

Belly I have lived north of Alice among them for 13 weeks and most do not want to change their lifestyle. Just wandering and gathering is their primary enjoyment.

Belly,

No, I was merely suggesting that the rock-solid belief on the part of many whitefellas that Indigenous people can't do much, or anything, for themselves but must wait for outsiders to do it for them, is an example of what Noel Pearson has called "the soft racism of low expectation". I'll stick by that. Christ, I've done that myself over many years. One principle in community development is not to actually do for people what they can (and should) do for themselves (otherwise that's called 'social work').

As for my suggestion of another news-and-views medium, I did suggest up-front that it be on-line and, if possible, accompanied by spoken versions for people who were illiterate. Okay, that might be helped along by an Indigenous news-and-views TV channel, in order to give voice to otherwise excluded people.

So can I please amend my suggestion, to include a TV channel ?

Joe

Loudmouth ok mate but still think you maybe be onto something
Right now saying such a properly edited paper could be of help, would even be one link in what could be a very long chain, seeing it is read or that someone reads it to groups
Sorry but see far too much of the pain some kids go through it hurts
Watched a family [it happens far too often] of whites fake evidence so they could PROFIT BY FOSTERING the kids
Heard kids being screamed at by a woman in that family we, us, must make welfare work not just be a bribe to keep them down
Mates of mine all land council, tell me constantly we must return to a work system that works not sit down money
Know about the high educated far brighter than me but see the can not reads here out number them ten fold it hurts

Belly,

Not just a paper in print, but something on-line, and perhaps televised as well, so that news can get out via the spoken word, and if possible, in as many languages as possible.

In an ideal world, where freedom of opinion and freedom of speech are respected, there could be a 'page' or segment of a TV broadcast where counter-opinions could be aired and discussed in a civil manner. Although getting people with varying views in the same studio does risk the casting about of chairs. Ah, the good old days :)

Okay, I'd concede that there are already many outlets, federally, in states, and regionally, in print, on-line and in radio and TV outlets as well. If people want a Voice, there are indeed many outlets already, and perhaps yet another newspaper/on-line outlet or radio or TV station are not really necessary.

So you and Foxy etc. are asserting that there would be no point in putting such a news and views outlet in the Constitution then ?

Cheers,

Joe

Belly,

Not just a paper in print, but something on-line, and perhaps televised as well, so that news can get out via the spoken word, and if possible, in as many languages as possible.

In an ideal world, where freedom of opinion and freedom of speech are respected, there could be a 'page' or segment of a TV broadcast where counter-opinions could be aired and discussed in a civil manner. Although getting people with varying views in the same studio does risk the casting about of chairs. Ah, the good old days :)

Okay, I'd concede that there are already many outlets, federally, in states, and regionally, in print, on-line and in radio and TV outlets as well. If people want a Voice, there are indeed many outlets already, and perhaps yet another newspaper/on-line outlet or radio or TV station are not really necessary.

So there would be no point in putting such a news and views outlet in the Constitution then ?

Cheers,

Joe

Got that [twice] no never said or think that in fact still think it would be worth trying
Think with me on this say you got a spot on the TV owned or aimed at these folk ran a questions answer next week type news thing, expand the idea with your own views but at least it could could help

Why kill the Goose that keeps laying the golden eggs ?

Indy you highlight the reason we need to do things differently
Too many whites included make money from leaving it like it is

Belly,
That's vote-buying in bulk & I doubt if any politician has the gonads to challenge that ! The bureaudroids would crucify them as per standard protocol !

Foxy,

I fail to see how a racially based 3rd chamber in parliament would resolve any of these issues.

I would only support a constitutional amendment along these lines if a non constitutional system had been trialled effectively.

Shadow Minister,

I beg to differ from your point of view.

A First Nations voice in the Constitution would
not divide us by "race." There are already race
clauses as you must be aware in the Constitution that
divide Australians. Ensuring First Nations have a
voice in their affairs (a voice not a veto) would
create a fairer relationship. It would help prevent
discrimination. It would unify, not divide.

Constitutional recognition is not about the out-dated,
pseudo-scientific concept of "race."

It is about recognising the rightful place of the
First Nations of Australia - the Wik, the Yolongu, the
Yorta Yorta and the Anangu.

It is about acknowledging that there are peoples in
Australia whose pre-colonial heritage gives rise to
distinct rights and interests in their descendants
(these are already recognised in common law and legislations,
such as the Native Title Act) and those people should
have say when parliament makes changes affecting their
distinct rights and interests.

Recognition of Indigenous rights is a reality the world
over, and it has nothing to do with "race".

The Constitution empowered laws and policies that
denied Indigenous voting rights, property rights, equal
wages, and asserted unequal protectionist controls.

A constitutional amendment ensuring Indigenous people a
voice in their affairs would not be a "3rd chamber"of
parliament. It would not divide, it would unify. The
supremacy of parliament would remain. It is simply a way to
address inequality without empowering the High Court.

Hi Foxy,

As you point out, there are already Indigenous-oriented newspapers nationally, and in each state and territory; and already Indigenous-oriented TV and radio stations - in other words, that there are plenty of outlets for Indigenous people to express themselves, locally in each state and territory and federally. I can see that now.

Presumably the highest of the Indigenous elite have ready access to those media, not to mention interview access to various ABC and SBS programs. So they have adequate 'voice'.

So ..... what are we talking about when we go on about a 'Voice' to parliament ? Just like all news media, aren't all those Indigenous-oriented media adequate 'Voices' ? Multitudes of them ?

Any reasonable person would be forced to ask: what's the hidden agenda ?

Joe

Dear Joe,

There is no hidden agenda. Merely a wish to
have a say when parliament makes decisions
about them and things that will impact on
them.

It's that simple. Talking through newspapers and
media outlets is not the same as being able to have
a voice in parliament - and the laws that it makes
concerning the Indigenous People.

Foxy

A Voice TO Parliament ? Or A Voice IN Parliament ? i.e. as a third chamber ? In addition to the various Indigenous members of Parliaments who have Voices ?

Joe

Dear Joe,

They ask only to be heard in decisions made about them.
A practical reform. Not a veto, but a voice.

You point out that there are already Indigenous MPs in
Parliament - as though this is a substitute for empowering
First Nations with a voice in their affairs.

These MPs, like any MPs, must represent their constituents
their electorates and their political parties - in all
their ethnic diversity. Those MPs are not representative
of the First Nations of Australia, they are representative
of all Australians who voted for them - like a Greek-Australian,
or an Indian-Australian or a white Australian MP.

The difference is that parliament makes specific laws and policies
about Indigenous people. There is no native title act for
Indian-Australians or Lithuanian-Australians like myself, because
my ancestors were not dispossessed of land in Australia. Nor has
there been an Indian-Australian intervention.

Anyway - you get the picture.

You can guarantee that Jacinta Price won't get a guernsey on any 'voice to Parliament'. She might just go against the activist narrative.

Foxy,

I'm sorry, but I cannot see how a 3rd chamber of parliament that is restricted to one race is going to be anything other than divisive. The indigenous already have the same voice in parliament that any other citizen has.

Considering the collapse of the last indigenous representative body due to infighting and corruption, enshrining this in the constitution seems like a very bad idea.

Foxy,

Given that your notion of a third chamber will 'elect' only the same bunch of incompetent and corrupt hacks (apart from a few honorable exceptions) who have so totally mismanaged thirty billion dollars year after year, for no significant improvements (did someone mention Einstein and his definition of insanity ?), how will that differ from the dreadful days of ATSIC except by giving a similar body much more power to vet - implicitly, frowns and regretful shakes of the head against disapproved legislation, smiles for approved legislation - any proposed legislation ?

The Indigenous elite live in power-trip bubbles; the ordinary Indigenous people need voices, media which engages them and their concerns for real issues. So, if another media outlet is not needed, I can only hope that the current media serving Indigenous people and gauging their opinions and views can be more courageous.

Joe

Academics have concocted a totally false image of aboriginal culture that has come to dominate all discourse and seen millions of dollars being put into indigenous studies centres, research, courses, colleges and propping up living museums in totally uneconomic, isolated camps misnamed 'communities'. The elites of the aboriginal industry have assumed for themselves a pseudo culture that carries with it all the pomp and circumstance of a nation - one that never existed.

A common culture of all aboriginal people has been invented, as has an unreal society of liberty and fraternity among the nomadic tribes and family groups of the original inhabitants. The truth is regular warfare, raiding, porous borders, brutality and the abandonment of the unwanted.

These historical facts have not prevented the fabrication of an ancient Utopia, the aim of which is not to reflect past truths, but to set up for apartheid in the future

One of the latest fabricators to rise to infamy is a person by the name of Bruce Pascoe with a book titled Dark Emu, in which he claims that Australian aborigines were not hunter/gatherers, but part of one of the "most technologically and politically advanced societies of all time" ! They actually lived in villages of stone houses and developed extensive and sustainable agriculture, along with sophisticated politics before "the rise of Athens".

How in tarnation did the early British settlers miss all that? Pascoe claims that all this sophistication and advanced living ended with the "invasion" of 1788. All part of a conspiracy to suppress the information for political reasons, Pascoe claims.

Another of Pascoe's claims is that he has an aboriginal background. However, a professional and thorough genealogical investigation of his background found no indication of that, either. He is pure British.

The bizarre 'Dark Emu' was published in 2014, but since then, Pascoe has been embraced by the Left lovers of historical revision. His book has received a NSW Premier's Award for fiction - sorry, literature; best seller status in 2016 as well as being named Book of the Year, and the Indigenous Writers award. I Suppose a non-indigenous person can get the award if an illegal entrant and non-citizen can get a prize meant for Australian citizens only. The Left doesn't care much for rules.

And, Dark Emu is being adopted as a high school text, with their ABC televising the nonsense next year.

Social commentator and author, Peter O'Brien, has labelled Dark Emu as book of "egregious deception". But, since when did truth mean anything to the Australian Leftist elites?

Seems like this Pascoe character has as much aboriginal ancestry as Elizabet Warren has Indian. The abc luv people who make up stories about their heritage. Oh well he will continue to fleece the tax payer with his lies. It fits the regressive narrative.

"The abc luv people who make up stories about their heritage".

They do, runner, if their own sort do it. Anyone else they accuse of cultural appropriation, or is it cultural misappropriation? All hypocrites lurch to the Left.

It gets worse! Federal government minister, Ken Wyatt, thinks that Pascoe's rubbish SHOULD be taught in schools. Wyatt also believes that
Pascoe is aboriginal because Pascoe SAYS SO.

We don't have to look outside for forces trying to bring Australia down; our own politicians are doing the most damage to our country.

It seems that Pascoe has English ancestry, ONLY English ancestry. And perhaps not one convict amongst them, which must be unique for eastern-state Australians of Anglo ancestry, suggesting he came from relatively comfortable stock.

With my eight convict ancestors (at last count) I'm envious :)

Joe

How about just one voice for all dinky die Ozzies, & no voice for anyone else.

Perhaps we could get the place back on an even keel.

Perhaps we could get the place back on an even keel.
Hasbeen,
You mean disband the guilt industry ? Deny all these bureaucrats their heinous satisfaction of perpetuating disharmony ? Hmh !

“They [the Australian Aborigines] are, of course, nomads — hunters and foragers who grow nothing, build nothing, and stay nowhere long. They make almost no physical mark on the environment…They move about, carrying their scant possessions, in small bands of anything from ten to sixty persons…Their tools and crafts, meagre — pitiably meagre — though they are, have nonetheless been good enough to let them win the battle for survival, and to win it comfortably at that. With no pottery, no knowledge of metals, no wheel, no domestication of animals, no agriculture, they have still been able to people the entire continent…”

- W.E.H. Stanner, Australian anthropologist who worked extensively with aborigines.

Reminds me when our local indigenous tour operator plucked a handful of leaves from a bush & told the tourists "this is what the Aboriginals used for tea".
When one of the tourists asked what they boiled the water in, the tour operator was left speechless.

Thanks, Individual ! A beauty !

But there is so much bullsh!t like that:

* young men not allowed to take fish from traps except in a blue moon (i.e. Aboriginal people had 30- and 31-day months in a 12-month annual cycle);

* the 'stolen generation' with its lonely single example (Bruce Trevorrow from Meningie here in SA);

* 'deaths in custody', with lower incidence of deaths in custody for Indigenous prisoners than for non-Indigenous prisoners - the real scandal is why are Indigenous people so disproportionately in custody in the first place ?

* and now, farming: no conclusive evidence whatsoever, and none of the artifacts or evidence that one would expect to find IF there had been farming here in Australia before 1788, except perhaps for Dutch influences from ship-wrecked crews in WA and perhaps western Victoria, and on Cape York, as well as influences from Torres Strait Islanders on Cape York. But farming, as asserted by someone who claims to be Indigenous but has no evidence for that either, who claims that Aboriginal farmers were superior to 'mere' hunters and gatherers.

* and so on and on.

After fifty years, one does grow tired of lies and misrepresentation. I'm all for the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so I can't wait for some government to set up a Truth-Telling Commission to blow some of this rubbish out of the water.

Joe

My question would be, in regard to a published 'voice' for Australians with Aboriginal ancestry, is how much common ground could there be?

Is someone living in a remote community in WA, whose ancestry is fully Aboriginal, sharing any interests or common ground with someone living in Sydney who had a part Aboriginal parent, grandparent or great-grandparent?

I would think not. Are the issues facing someone living remotely in WA identical to those living remotely in NT or FNQ, enough to create common ground, regardless of different tribal ancestries?

Are there any issues which are particular to those with Aboriginal ancestry, regardless of tribal ancestry and how much Aboriginal ancestry they might have? I would have thought not. The only common language can be English, not that that is a bad thing.

We already have Indigenous television etc., and I wonder how widely watched that is by the target audience.

how widely watched that is by the target audience.
rhoss,
NITV is watched very widely & I watch it quite often as it is generally better programming than the Commercial rubbish. They have some great historical footage. As I said, good viewing !
Of course there are times when the racial overtones get heavily exploited by the odd white Indigenous but hey, that's the way things are. I like watching the real Aborigines who don't bleat racism when there isn't any !

Have any of you actually watched NITV lately ?

Individual, none of my aboriginal family ever watch it. In fact I don’t think I have ever spoken to anyone who watches it. Occasionally there will be a post on our local community FB page reminding people of a program that is related to to our community but even then I don’t know how many people would actually watch it.

If Indigenous people could choose representatives for a 'Voice' to or in Parliament, on a state basis like for the Senate where there are currently three Indigenous representatives, and if Bruce Pascoe stood for election, would he have to stand in NSW (as a Yuin man, in Victoria (as a Burrungong man) or in Tasmania ?

Or none of these, simply going on his assertion that he is Indigenous ?

Would candidates for election to the 'Voice' have to present Family Trees or some other explicit and concrete evidence of Indigeneity, or would Minister Wyatt accept every candidate as Indigenous on their word ?

Joe