Re: The Indigenous Australians

Wonder when they started 'greeters'? I never experienced them, though not been to either country for about 8 years now. I do have some relatives in New Zealand, and when we last met they horrified me by their derisive attitude to Maoris and 'Islanders'.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

The Maoris have not been subjugated in quite the same way It would seem
I have a friend who is half Marori half Scottish - a very fiery combination !
However I did see a negative attitude to the 'Islanders 'when I was there .
I assume these are Pacific Islanders who come to NZ.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

How much more time ?
Australia has been colonised for 200 years .
I see from your profile that you are a migrant to Australia .
The aboriginal land act was only passed in 1976 two years after your own arrival in the country .

Re: The Indigenous Australians

Mr Ploppy - if you feel strongly that people in the UK do not know enough about aboriginal/australian problems and politics - why don't you enlighten us/discuss it with us in a rational manner. Hurling insults at Julie achieves nothing.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

This is a huge and heart-breaking issue for which there is no simplistic solution.

Thinking people of the world - prepared to do just a little genuine research -
will realize that Australian governments (left and right) have been doing their best for many decades to address the problems.
Billions upon billions of dollars have failed to resolve the lower life expectancy, unemployment levels, imprisonment rates, housing, educational and medical matters.

Many of our indigenous people choose to live in very small communities in remote areas - their traditional lands - and rightly so.
Although, that does create enormous problems in the provision of jobs and services which is reflected in the other statistics.



But I honestly believe we are getting there.
Look at some of the positives.

Thousands are now graduating from our universities.
There have been many world champions in sport - and others achieving international fame and fortune in art and music and theatre.

We have had aboriginal judges and magistrates, a state Governor, a cabinet minister, thirty-three members of state, territory or federal parliaments and a president of the Australian Labor Party.

Yep, there have been horrible mistakes and injustices and all will not be resolved in one generation.
But vast resources and sincere efforts and dedication are being devoted to the cause.


Perfectly happy to continue in future posts but too much at one time is probably unlikely to be read.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

Pummie is spot on - there are also many Indigenous, teachers, psychologists, doctors, lawyers etc etc.

In remote areas of OZ we have communities with their own health clinics run by both whitefellas and blackfellas harmoniously. Indigenous persons can be trained as Aboriginal Health Workers anywhere in OZ and provided that cultural support and comfort to sick Indigenous persons.

the young Indigenous persons are getting better educated - are in the main healthier than their grandparents - so we are seeing change but you have to be here on the ground to see it. It is not dramatic overnight change but exponential.

Incidentally and as a related side story [to see what we are up against at times] our recently ousted PM designated himself as Minister for Indigenous Affairs among other things.

He also suggested in one of his public speeches that the funding of remote Aboriginal communities may not be continued as they were considered a life style choice rather than a necessity. At the same time we have white people living in remote communities in the hills of Victoria and South Australia who like living 'in the mountain woods' and often run tourists lodgings - who when fire breaks out they call upon the state fire service and other state fire services to save them. Nothing about withdrawing funding from this 'life style choice'

the ousted PM incidentally was seen by many as a racist - an old school loyalist [yes we have many poor souls here in OZ] who told people what he was going to do about their lives not sit down and discuss it with them.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

At the same token, Julie has also not achieved anything positive by having a go at Australians without knowing anything about the problem.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

well by the same token Mr P don't we often have ago at what is happening in UK without knowing the 'on ground' facts and experiences?

You don't want me to come down from the Kimberley and fix ya up do ya??

Re: The Indigenous Australians

It would be more appropriate to try fixing things in one's own backyard, than complaining about what happens in the opposite hemisphere.
There is a proverb about something with stones and glass houses.

Re: The Indigenous Australians

Gumbud and pumicestone are both correct. It's a much more complex problem than saying - oh gosh all aborigines are treated badly why don't you do something about it. It can be about racism but racism is everywhere and I've certainly seen plenty of that in the UK but it's also about it being an almost unsurmountable problem to provide them with what they want/need, when it's not always in their own best interests.

English settlers treated them as inferior human beings in the same way they treated black slaves in America. You can't change that entrenched attitude quickly, especially among the more ignorant white population, just as in America.

When the English arrived here aborigines were living in the same stone age, nomadic culture they had lived in for 40,000 years. You can't change that in 200 years. Often aborigines want what they see of western culture but can't always cope with it. For instance they can react badly to alcohol but can you ban them from drinking it? They often don't value education to the same extent and getting full blooded aboriginal children to stay at school is a huge problem in some states.

Aborigines believe that the English invaded and conquered them, and deprived them of their land and rights and way of life which is true. It's probably only this century that Australians (descended from those original conquerors) fully realise the need to treat them as equals. That's not a long time to make a huge change.

You simply can't put two cultures together - so completely different from each other - and expect it all to work out with no problems. We are now trying to do it but it takes time. And it seems there will always be people everywhere who think being another colour is inferior.