Aboriginals
It will be a shameful day for Australia if it does not change its Constitution to both prohibit racial discrimination and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The proposed changes are, individually, both worthy and overdue. But together they become complex enough to threaten the success of any referendum.
The recommendations are to remove the “race power” section, prohibit racial discrimination, but allow positive discrimination “for the purpose of overcoming disadvantage, ameliorating the effects of past discrimination or protecting the cultures, languages or heritage of any group”, to recognise indigenous Australians in the Constitution itself (rather than in a preamble), and to acknowledge indigenous languages.
Continue reading "We need a strong constitution to tackle racism" »
It was only Day 13 of the New Year, 2012. And on this day, I attended the funeral of the eighth South Australian Aboriginal person to die – the eighth death in our small community this year. And it was only Day 13.
These eight deaths are not of Aboriginal people who have lived to a ripe old age. The funerals were not celebrations of long and productive lives. No, they were all premature deaths, some of them violent, all premature and preventable.
Aboriginal people are always at funerals. We attend out of respect for our people and community. We give our condolences and cry for our loved ones.
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shep says:
@Emel What an ignorant and uneducated rant. Nasty bloody sheep farmers and neglected small business. A hell of a lot of shit pour from the pens of the completely self-absorbed. Do you really feel that you’re capable of contributing a lucid and throughful response to such a fraught issue so… Read more »
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shep says:
I’m sorry, but I get frustrated by comments like “the lack of work”. “Work” is a construct of our modern society and has almost no comparison in traditional aboriginal society. Its foriegn to the older generation. This is not too suggest laziness, but that traditional aboriginals are not defined by… Read more »
You don’t often hear people challenging someone’s claim to be Italian. Or Swedish, or American. Generally you accept what they say even if they don’t have an accent, or a funny surname, or blond hair.
Aboriginality, on the other hand, apparently remains a contested field.
The Federal Court last week decided that high-profile and controversial columnist Andrew Bolt had breached the Racial Discrimination Act in his columns ‘It’s so hip to be black’, and ‘White fellas in the black’, which questioned why nine prominent ‘fair-skinned Aborigines’ identified as Aboriginal.
Continue reading "The politics of race go beyond black and white" »
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Nicholas Steel says:
It’s odd that the progressive community are quick to accuse all and sundry of racism. However they are silent on the 40 million deaths from malaria that have occured due to the environmental movement banning the use of DDT as an insecticide in the early 1970’s. If you examine census… Read more »
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PG says:
“They think people who have been sideswiped by colonisation, sent into a tailspin of poverty, ill health and despair, people who suffer appalling health outcomes, shorter lifespans and intergenerational unemployment, are somehow better off than they are” I agree with the point you are making here, however if you have… Read more »
Self-identity - who you are, what your values are and what you believe - is critical to success in any society, whether it is cultural, sporting, professional or political.
Without a firm understanding of who you are, it is very difficult to present a point of view or know where you stand on a particular topic.
Not knowing or recognising your cultural heritage will suppress your purpose throughout life.
Continue reading "Constitutional recognition is about all our identities" »
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Sam says:
Strait out of the quadRANT hand book, no wonder those loons feel a need to pump out their crap, their fan base seem unable to present a genuine argument without repeating the same crap for years, warrigal creek massacre was a revenge attack against the local tribe, whose only crime… Read more »
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Sam says:
@sean + phill Its only a theory, science is flawed, 30 years ago by your science we were 10,000 years old, 20 ago it was 25, 10 years ago it was 40 thou and now your science is not accurate aboved 50 thou, anyway we were modern humans first, first… Read more »
The Prime Minister has announced that she will establish an expert panel to investigate the best way for indigenous people to be recognised in the Australian Constitution.
Julia Gillard’s announcement is no surprise in of itself. It merely makes good on an election promise and, at least among major political parties, has bipartisan support.
But as Kevin Rudd has showed us, the road from announcing an “expert panel” to something actually getting done is a long one, and there are a lot few issues to be teased out between now and seeing this in the Constitution.
Continue reading "Aboriginal recognition: getting from talk to action" »
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The Badger says:
Simple solutions for simple minds Read more »
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Rocket says:
a poor attempt to promote some contrived left wing sentiment and placate the Greens… also a poor attempt to try and demonstrate political gravitas of the Kevin Rudd SORRY variety. Read more »
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