Joe,

Many Aboriginal communities and families fracture
and break down because they can't deal with their
current situations but also because many governments
have neglected basic services and infrastructure for
decades. There is such a mix of issues - going from
lack of services, little education, lack of medical
care, high unemployment, staff exhaustion, decaying
infrastructure, broken families, high crime rates,
ineffective government programs, clash of families.

The list goes on.

Trauma and disrespect for older generations, anger and loss,
younger generations with emotional or behavioural
difficulties, boredom. Dysfunction becomes normal.

The fact is its easy to expect community members to
overcome these challenges, to "change their tack".

The reality is that sometimes people can't and need help.

I wish that we could shift the shame - that they could
be taught that understanding what the problems are - is not
shameful but that hiding them is. I wish that they could be
educated in what is normal and what is not.

That they could be taught to clean their
communities - by restricting access to alcohol
and pornography. That there
could be a provision of law and order. That parenthood could
be taught.

Educate the kids to read and write. If need be put children
into functional families during school terms.

And lastly set up art and cultural centres which could be
the most powerful medicine - getting back to culture.

And give them emotional and social support.

Foxy,
I'll make it easier for you, just tell us how many non-Leftist uneducated Judges you know of !

Individual,

Lefties are in great demand - but there's a limited supply.

Also Lefties are far more likely to have IQs over 140.

Foxy,

It's a pity you didn't visit or work on an Indigenous community just a few years ago (perhaps still, in some cases) when they were chock-a-block with resources and services, far more than non-Indigenous villages of the same population.

One service I've never really experienced on an Indigenous community though: police stations. On my wife's community, set up as a Mission in 1859, there never was a police station: the nearest was set up at the nearby non-Indigenous town in 1953 - nearly a hundred years after the Mission was established. For all of that period, the nearest police station was thirty miles away.

From memory, on her community, apart from the new dairy, the farm had a number of tractors, a combine harvester, silos, about thirty miles of fencing, and actually three or four empty houses which had been inherited when various government agencies funded new land purchases. And a Pivot system, I forgot. And unlimited water licence. And of course, workshops, offices, a hall; a church (the one on the $ 50 note); a TAFE Centre, vehicles, etc., etc.

Plenty, plenty resources. Probably rusting, out in a remote paddock these days.

Joe

The Howard appointed, and mate of Abbott's, a flunky of the LNP, Dyson Heydon
Paul1405,
There's proof of my point ! Uni educated, no common sense.
btw, what Pauline Hanson policy has negatively impacted on our lives ?

Joe,

I may not have lived in an Aboriginal community back
then - but I do have a copy of "Growing up Aboriginal
in Australia" edited by Anita Heiss. An anthology of
stories from people who did.

Talking about books, there's another interesting one out -
"Living on Stolen Land" by Ambelin Kwaymullina.

It's a prose-styled look at our colonial-settler "present".

This book is the first of its kind to address and educate
a broad audience about the colonial contextual history
of Australia, in a highly original way.

It pulls apart the myths at the heart of our nationhood
and challenges Australia to come to terms with its
own past and its place within and on "Indigenous countries".

The title speaks to many First Nations truths; stolen lands,
sovereignties, time, decolonisation, First Nations
perspectives, systemic bias and other constructs that inform
our present discussions and ever expanding understanding.
This title is a timely, thought provoking and accessible
read.

There is no part of this place that was not
is not
cared for
loved
by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander nation
There are no trees
rivers
hills
stars
that were not
are not
someone's kin