Russell Coker wrote:

----- Original Message -----
> On Fri, 22 Feb 2013, Andrew McGlashan
> <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au>
> wrote:
>> There may be areas where Aboriginals need extra support, but that
>> is > also true of every other group of Australians whom make up our
>> > population today.
>
> I really don't think that straight white men need extra support.

I read Andrew as:

People with drug problems need support.
People with alcohol problems need support.
People with violence problems need support.
Unemployed people need support.

I find it interesting that most migrants from all backgrounds find
their feet in the Australian society over time.

To the credit of Australians, there is a lot of goodwill and support
to make it happen. Compared to many other societies Australia is a
very open tolerating place.

People want to live here. Yes, they want to celebrate their own
culture - and are able to do so - but they want to live an Australian
life of freedom in their daily life, tolerated, with less stress than
where they come from, most of them better off than where they come
from, and other attributes they enjoy to have here.

There is some pressure to accept Australian values (e.g. to respect
the law system and not resorting to violence in disputes, as some will
have experienced in their place of origin) but that is widely accepted.

Until now we have not been able to integrate the Aboriginals that
well, and there is still some dispute about how to achieve it.

Until now, we do not think it is a good idea of having a Sharia based
system for Muslims in our country even if some Muslims may claim it
would suit them. And there will be Muslims who would not like that at
all. They are happy to be escaped a society that punishes them like
that.

We are very uncertain how far autonomy for Aboriginals should go.
Should we tolerate spearing to settle disputes, as it is still
practised?

And, what about an Aboriginal who does not want to live that way?

It is not that the Aboriginals where noble savages in paradise before
"white men came". Their was violence, the average life expectation far
below our "white society" standards, many kids did not survive their
childhood etc.

Coming back to the people who need support.. it is complex without
"cultural problems". Everybody who had experienced a friend with
alcohol problems will say that - and I have a close friend who is just
"lost". His very supporting wife left him after 14 years because she
and her daughter could not cope with it any longer.

And what to do with a group, a place where many of them are drinking,
as I remember the outskirts of Alice Springs, e.g. There will be many
families where mother drinks, father drinks, uncle drinks. How do you
help here?

And will be a constitutional recognition help them in any meaningful ways?

I do not have an answer but I don't think anybody knows.

Goodwill is there, I believe. "What to do?" is another question.

There is struggle between thoughts of assimilation and thoughts of
giving them wide cultural autonomy.

There are three reasons to support the first one:

- It works for most migrants
- They still value their own culture
- Even some older Aboriginal seem to look back at mission times as
better for them, as today's life.

A note about the last one: I don't support missions in the way they
worked 50 years ago. But our "Western society" evolved since too. E.g.
a lot of children born out of wedlock were subject of forced adoption
then.

And, at the moment there is a lot of uncertainty about the "how to"
leading to a mess and lack of continuity in dealing with this issue.

Regards
Peter

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