cont'd ...

Dear Paul,

Stan Grant mentions in the link - Maria Lane.
She was Joe Lane's wife (Loudmouth). It explains
a great deal about Joe.

I miss the bloke very much.

Perhaps it is time to realise that there are always going to be people who fail. There are plenty of white & brindle no hopper failures, drug addicts, alcoholics, & just plain bludgers who suck for ever on the tax payer teat. Why shouldn't there be aboriginal no hopers too?

Then we have spent decades training those in out stations to expect government to do everything for them, expecting no effort from them. We have been much more successful with these lessons, than we have with the 3 Rs, & now we are surprised when they don't want to get off their spreading ass to do something for themselves. What damn stupidity.

The only approach likely to be successful would be to totally withdraw from the settlements, & let those living in them decide to come in to society, or stay with traditional practices. It really is not our decision. If they want healthier educated lives, great. If not that is their decision. Getting them stuck in the middle helps none, but the bureaucrats profiting from their department easy jobs.

It is like what is happening in Afganistan, after trillions of dollars spent and hundreds of lives lost, the locals do not value their freedom enough to fight so they just surrender to the enemy. Those that value a better life rescue them with opportunity, those whose preference is the old way let them be.

Thanks Foxy,

I love reading Stan Grant, he sees an issue with a clarity that many can not. I think Maria Lane got it right, with her notion of Aboriginal people desiring to become part of the 'open society' of Australia. Unfortunately the haters are out there, people who point to specific examples of Aboriginal failure, and there are many, they weaponize those failures to drive Aboriginal people down as underservicing trash. Is there ever a mention from this quarter of the Stan Grants and countless other success stories, no never.

I read the link you gave on Bruce Pascoe and 'Dark Emu', its not whether Aboriginal people were farmers or "mere" hunter/gathers that gets up the noses of the naysayers. Pascoe has the audacity to suggest that colonials viewed Aboriginal Australia in a different light than the one of the "poor darkie" which has been propagated by European Australia for over 200 years, and sits comfortable with the bigots and haters of today.

What heritage does Stan Grant have, he certainly isn't full blood Aborigine.

The racist slur! "he certainly isn't full blood Aborigine" used to bring into question the bona fides of a person who identies as Aboriginal and question their motives as to what they say. Aboriginal people were raped, sexually abused and even loved by white people, that in no way questions the aboriginality of their offspring.