Joe,

As for you? - here's another discussion on "evidence":

http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/3506/brantlinger.pdf?sequence=2

Foxy,

'A recent article' ? 2004 ? Yes, it's the truth that matters - and not merely assertions about the truth.

Have the courage, Foxy, to question - to question assertions, even if they are the sort which you would approve of. They're sometimes the most dangerous. Find back-up. I don't mean yet more and more and more and more written works which all assert the same, but something which cites actual evidence, concrete evidence, something which can be checked by anybody.

I had a row with one of my brothers about his assertion of an Aboriginal massacre of four thousand people near Dubbo, suggesting that we needed evidence that it had happened. He exploded, asking would I demand evidence that the eruption of Mt Vesuvius had actually occurred and that Pompeii had actually been buried ? Did I need actual ash in my hands ? I was so non-plussed that I couldn't answer him. Later, of course (a la paroles d'escalier) I found an answer but it was too late. Did Pompeii happen ? Of course. We see videos. Archaeological digs occur. Books (e.g. Lytton) have been written about that eruption. But he caught me on the hop, the bastard. We haven't spoken since.

Still, evidence, at least some checkable reference to actual, physical evidence. Files about kids taken into care, which can be accessed easily and checked. I have the greatest sympathy for those kids, it was never their fault, but I have known plenty of neglectful parents, particularly where grog is in the picture - which often, back in the days, meant good wages. REALLY good wages meant the wife could get on the grog too.

And who dreamed up this stuff about parents and grandparents passing on traditional stories to their kids and grandkids ? No, I don't know anything about that. Neither do my kids. Yes, stories about uncle or auntie so-and-so fighting, or getting on the grog, or in trouble with the coppers, etc. Maybe I mixed with the wrong sort of Blackfellas, Foxy, I should have stuck to committee members and professionals.

Joe

//Haven't you ever heard of quotation marks (" ")?//

Yes, of course I have. I also have my reasons for adopting the style I do, which I have explained in detail previously and I really can't be bothered repeating myself for the sake of people who have definitely seen the explanation before but whose memory isn't so reliable these days: their senility is not my problem.

So you'll just have to be content with the shorter but less accurate explanation that I just do it to wind you up, because that's as much of an explanation as I care to give you when you've been behaving like such a brat lately.

Joe,

What should have done is gone to Canberra for your
research.

It's not too late.

Foxy,

I really don't think LOUDmouth has any formal research training and as such I think he would be totally out of his depth and would get absolutely lost. Google and Wikipedia is available for people like LOUDmouth who have the interest but not the credentials.

Mr O,

We're told that as a result of research that has been
done and is contained in archival records in National
and State Libraries, and Museums that:

"Almost 70% of Australians accept that Aboriginal people
were subject to mass killing, incarceration and
forced removal from land, and that their movement was
restricted". And more.

They all want the truth to be told.