SR and Paul If you read my comments, you will see I have never called aboriginals unintelligent. I have never condoned criminal behaviour by settlers. These acts are criminals not cultural in our society.

Christmas 1960 a mate and I shot a couple of kangaroos for the crowd gathered at 9 mile bore out of Alice that had come in from the Stations and they were short on food on Christmas day. We lived on an aboriginal settlement just north of Alice for 12 weeks during college break while building a childrens home and school for the local children to prevent them being taken from parents.

Dear Josephus,

You avoided the question and dived for a personal antidote instead.

I will ask it again, how does Dawson's account fit with the narrative you have repeatedly tried to run on this forum?

Keeping in mind the White culture at the time of settlement was utterly brutal. There are numerous accounts of Aborigines being absolutely horrified about the treatment of convicts for instance. This was all from a fully Christian nation Britain.

SR, What part of Dawsons reports are not how aboriginals lived before settlement?

See watkyn Tench for probably the first writing on Aboriginal women being beaten.

Poor ol' Paul wrote:" how about you look at whites who best fit the same broad socio-economic grouping as most disadvantaged aboriginal people fall into, a much higher proportion than in white society, and you will find they also have a very high rate of family violence."

Well I was going to ask for evidence of that claim. You know, evidence that if you look at just poor whites and compare them with poor aboriginals you'll find roughly equal numbers of domestic violence. Evidence that if you look at just urban whites and compare them with urban aboriginals you'll find roughly equal numbers of domestic violence.

But then I realised two things....(1) no such evidence exists and Poor ol' Paul had just made it up to try to reconcile the real world with his fantasies and (2) Poor ol' Paul doesn't know what the word 'evidence' means.

Poor ol' Paul wrote: "ever thought family violence might be due to environmental factors more so that "culture"."

Well yes it did. And then I looked at the evidence and realised that wasn't the case. I looked at the evidence from archaeologists who have found that over 30% of aboriginal female bones from all ancient periods show signs of head and limb injuries - a much higher percentage than male bones. And then I looked at evidence from early settlers who witnessed the massive misogyny against aboriginal women that was just part of their culture. And then I looked at evidence that aboriginal women were treated as mere property that could be gifted or sold. (and stories of gifted women refusing to return to their aboriginal owners but wanting to remain with their white 'husbands'). And then I looked at the actual statistics.

And from ALL the evidence (rather than the fantasies) I determined that it was cultural going back millennia.

And I wonder why some people can find oral history going back thousands of years reliable but can’t believe video footage a couple of years old?