The two on the left are smiling because they've not long returned from Harvard. The two on the right are smiling because they're about to depart for Oxford.
These three (excluding of course, the not-for-much-longer PM) are smiling because they're off to Oxford & Cambridge.
And yes, they're all Aboriginal. All helped to achieve their dreams and more success than they imagined by the generous people at the Roberta Sykes Indigenous Education Foundation & The Charlie Perkins Scholarship Trust, with help from the faithful taxpayers of course.
Both organisations make some pretty high aims. Some of them I even agree with, like needing more positive Aboriginal role models and mentors out there, however, I disagree with having an overwhelming majority of white faces cast to play those roles. That is not to say that each of those people in the photo above won't be a great role model due to their achievements and efforts for their own family, or their friends, but a nationwide beacon of hope to all Aboriginal people? You can't even hope to claim such a thing is true.
What these opportunities have done is help these specific people. Not all Aboriginal people . We have no end of Doctors, Lawyers, Academics, Artists and Authors who identify as Aboriginal, however - it seems a smaller and smaller number of those are easily identifiable as Aboriginal - and therein lies the difference. Whilst someone of a similarly fair complexion who identifies as Aboriginal may be able to look up to the group above and see one or more of them as someone whose achievements they can aspire to, that is just not the case for me.
Perhaps, what is most disappointing, is the fact that when we question this lack of black faces among those receiving assistance in the name of Aboriginal Equality, we're called racist, or perpetrators of Lateral Violence. Whilst taking part in the 'Aboriginal or Not' SBS program, Greg Lehmann stressed the point that those of us questioning the motives of those like him were guilty of Lateral Violence and responsible for much of the infighting amongst Aboriginal people.
A pretty comfortable position to take when you're on the blackfella dollar at Oxford, bruz.
Similarly, Kyle Turner, recipient of a scholarship in excess of $50,000 for Aboriginal students, wrote a piece denouncing any questioning of heritage in a piece in The Global Mail in August last year, using the tired line of 'Bolt is a neo-con', rather than address the questions people like Bolt have even raised. It is just easier to keep labelling people I guess, as engaging in a dialogue on the issues may just bring to the surface some uncomfortable truths that cast some of us in an unfavourable light.
But who is that helping to succeed?
Let's look at the local cohort of Indigenous Barristers here in Victoria.
Or have a gander at the Board over at the Australian Indigenous Doctors Association.
What gaps have we closed again?
Backpacks, singlets, seagulls & gravy train riders the lot of them. You're right in that every one of them represents a lost opportunity to promote (if I'm allowed to say it)a full blood indigenous person to something better. Which I believe is supposed to be the intention of these schemes.
ReplyDeleteToby, I don't think these programmes need to be targeted just at full blood Aboriginal people, just Aboriginal people who suffer disadvantage and discrimination. Which would usually exclude well educated pale skinned middle class urban people with some Aboriginal heritage who should be and are already competing with other Australians on an even footing.
DeleteI'd love to see the billions in race based funding redirected to ALL Australians who are living in extremes of poverty, dysfunction and disadvantage. A decent chunk of them will still be traditional/full-blood Aboriginal people, but I don't think anyone these days is denying the suffering in many remote communities. Suffering, dysfunction, grief - all know no blood quotient.
DeleteOne of my favourite quotes is from Ghandi:-
"A society will be judged on the basis of how it treats its weakest members"
Dallas, you missed one vital aspect of this whole farce. None of these so called "black" people are involved in working in areas that could actually help the indigenous people who need it the most. It is white doctors and nurses slogging it out in hot, squalid remote communities. White teachers struggling to educate reluctant kids from dysfunctional homes. White lawyers working in the small towns and outposts in the north. White social workers struggling amid a sea of abuse claims and copping all the agro that comes with this job.
ReplyDeleteI have worked with one so called aboriginal doctor. She came from Melbourne to work in the north, and to be honest, hadn't a clue how to relate to actual black people and had absolutely no understanding of their lifestyle or cultural habits. And little did she suspect that these actually black indigenous people genuinely considered her to be white.
I believe the original purpose of indigenous educational grants was to help those aboriginal people from disadvantaged homes,to gain an education they wouldn't normally have a chance at.I sincerely doubt it was intended for the purpose it is currently being used for.
I am feeling a little more optimistic since Tony Abbott's comments last week about "place, not race" but I'm not holding my breath waiting for dramstic change.
We need far more voices like yours, to point out the rorts in the system and believe me, I've got your back mate.
Big Nana you must have been writing this while I was writing my comment. Couldn't agree more.
DeleteYou're right Big Nana, while one of the scholarship winners is travelling to the UK to study 'racial literacy in education' as part of her Masters in Philosophy, we have people on the ground trying to get kids just to attend school, let alone teach them to read and write the very basics most of us enjoy. We've sent starry eyed people off to University for decades now, but why are we still waiting for advantages to materialise from these endless degrees and 'better help for our people' they all promise will happen as a result of what they are doing - before they jet off into oblivion?
DeleteSome live with their heads in the clouds, others try to actually pitch in and help. Give me a white do-gooder any day over a fauxborigine who talks over people believing they are smarter and know better. THAT is paternalism.
You certainly can't blame any one of the individuals for taking advantage of the system that has been set up the way it is. I would liken it to the very outdated Blind Pension. Unlike any other welfare benefit, the blind pension is payable without an income or asset test. You can be a multi-millionaire and still get a blind pension, but if you area deaf, mute quadriplegic any disability benefit is incomes and asset tested.
ReplyDeleteOver the years the possibility of including Blind Pensions in the same income and asset test regime has been raised but quickly shouted down by a well funded and well organised Blind lobby. And there are no votes in it for any governing party to bring in legislation to means test the blind pension. They would just be considered cruel and heartless.
I think the same has happened with some benefits and awards for Aboriginal people. I ask does any of this taxpayer assistance look at a person's needs rather than simply a box they can tick on Aboriginal heritage regardless of whether or not they suffer any disadvantage or discrimination?
If you are white and you suggest means testing Aboriginal benefits and awards you are branded racist. If you are black, you are branded a traitor or 'coconut'!
Meanwhile we hear complaints there is insufficient funds to run basic literacy programmes in Aboriginal communities. So students who are doing well in society anyway do better, while other Aboriginal children are denied access to society because they lack basic literacy skills.
Yes, you can "blame" those who 'identify' as Aboriginal in order to get these handouts. You can question their self-respect and you can feel contempt for them. Bludgers.
DeleteJames - you hit the nail on the head that those already doing well just end up better off under these sorts of programs. Simply having basic literacy opens up a whole new world to people - the paperwork and requirements to get half of the 'goodies' (i.e the scholarships, awards, grants etc) require an even greater level of literacy. So yes, only available to 'some' Aboriginal people, not all, and the 'some' are the ones who are doing better than the rest anyway.
DeleteThanks Dallas, seems like identity, whether there’s money involved or not, is going to be one of those defining debates in our nation at this time in our history. Surely what we are seeing now is the product of a nation that is still coming to terms with the pains of its birth, the guilt of its now dominant white culture, and the influence of post modern logic on our reasoning.
ReplyDeletePost moderns of course don't question each others take on reality – each to his own. But hey, when the King is running around naked, eventually some kid on the side lines will speak up and state the obvious. Sure it brings offence, but ultimately it brings freedom, when you can actually acknowledge your ‘layered identity’ as Noel Pearson puts it, and as Dallas described in his previous post. It’s not manufactured, it’s the real you, and it shapes how you actually relate to the world.
"You certainly can't blame any one of the individuals for taking advantage of the system that has been set up the way it is."
ReplyDeleteI disagree. These are fully grown, fully competent men and women, and should be judged as such. The whole problem is that we do not hold to individual responsibility/accountability. Each person listed has chosen to take part in what is a farcical system. Some do so full of entitlement, holding those who question their self-claimed victim status as evil. Others, just want the cash. All though ensure that the truly needy continue to languish. They deserve no free pass for this simply because the 'system' encourages their behavior.
I couldn't agree more Vaughan. I find what is most horrific is that many of these people are well educated and well traveled and know just the level of suffering in many communities.
DeleteI also agree that as grown men and women with consciences,we should hold them responsible for their actions.
That's tough, and it would take a highly moral person to say no to the goodies legally available to them. I understand the points made about being more righteous, but I would rather blame the idiots who come up with the schemes, rather than those who simply find themselves in the position to take advantage of the schemes.
DeleteHow many women have suggested that they shouldn't take advantage of affirmative action which means that they are promoted to make up the numbers and not necessarily based on merit?
I would agree with you though that Nova Peris should have told Julia Gillard that she didn't want to be selected to head the NT Labor Senate ticket just because she is a female with indigenous heritage. Rather she should be selected because she was the best candidate for the job. But had she said that, there is no way she would have got the gig. I guess that's the case with many of these people, they don't want to give up the personal opportunity.
James, the whole mess that results from the rorts of collectivism begin with the eschewing of individual responsibility/accountability. Therefore, the road back begins by championing this individual virtue. It is only by holding up this light, that you no longer give a pass to immoral behavior (even if it is legal).
DeleteThose who argue from the collectivist side know this, and have gone to great lengths to ensure one of Australia's most recognized proponents of individual need and responsibility (Andrew Bolt) be legally muzzled. A muzzle that affects us all. Garner too much of an audience when you speak of individual need over collective entitlement, and you will quickly find your freedom to speak removed. Ignore the threats from lawyers, and men with badges and guns will come knocking at your door. That’s how much those who march under the collectivist banner fear individual accountability. They have made talk of it illegal! That, more than anything else should show you why we must champion this first, before we talk of changing the system.
Too, I would add that pensions or affirmative action just aren’t in the same league as those who have self-chosen to represent an ethnic collective, and reaped considerable rewards as a result, while all the while those whom they claim they champion, languish in desperate poverty and depravity.
None of these people are helping the plight of Aborigines as most white Australians understand it. The conviction of Andrew Bolt is one of the most shameful episodes of Australian legal history, and I defy anyone to see anything other than disgust at the rorting of the system, and a heartfelt plea for help to go to the most needy Aboriginals as most Australians understand it, and this should not include those photographed those above - affluent, smiling, urban city people.
DeleteRacism is based on skin colour (in this case), not who you identify as.
ReplyDeleteIt's not much help if society doesn't target what racism really is about.
Let's face it, how much racist discrimination have those people suffered?
A very valid point,if any of these folk were stopped in the street by the Police how would the officer make out his report ...."Caucasion, identifies as Aboriginal ....." Subject reports of being racially abused by other whites..."
DeleteFree money if you call yourself Aboriginal;as there is a good chance that a significant number of white Australians have distant claims to be, it stands that the gravy train will only derail when the numbers become,well,silly. You have very ably pointed out in past blog posts the money is going to the wrong people - the white people. All to satisfy the cultural elite's notion that they are actually doing something to (I hate this phrase) 'close the gap'.What crap. Helping themselves in self-delusion more like.
ReplyDeleteAll my great great grandparents came to Australia in the 1800's from England, Denmark,and Germany. I do not identify with any of these cultures and would not presume to ask them for financial assistance. Do these people embrace the other cultures in their makeup or is it convenient for them to only focus on one. At what stage do you not become an aboriginal identifier. It seems never, no matter how far back it goes. Maybe there should be a prerequisite to this funding that they help disadvantaged aborigines for 12 months and answer detailed questions about the aboriginal culture. I am sure that would weed out few.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I are very fortunate. We have 5 healthy, intelligent children who perform extremely well at school. They are regularly in the top 1% of their year level. We are not aboriginal.
ReplyDeleteUnder the current laws, if I were to discover today that my great, great grandfather had some aboriginal heritage then my children would all be able to identify as indigenous.
As a result, my children's academic results would then be included in the indigenous column and "prove" that the gap was closing. Of course, this would simply hide the fact that, in many cases, the gap is actually growing.
The current system is all about seeming rather than doing. As long as they have statistics that "show" the gap is closing, who gives a stuff about the poor little kids in remote communities with no real future?
Writing about these issues is very important and I admire your courage Dallas.
Under current law; Actually no - you need to be able show connection to your local community that would recognise you as Aboriginal.
DeleteAsk Dallas about the farcical event that had him being questioned by his own mob.
Ask Dallas also about me - I am not black skinned but I identify as Aboriginal because that is what my grandparents (both black) wanted and what my mum & dad (Black & RIP) wanted too.
My respect & thanks & admiration go out to Dallas and all contributors to this blog. I am stunned & impressed by the lucid, honest and sympathetic discussion of race issues, human concepts & social problems that are forbidden in most (all?) Australian media....wow. Just wow.
ReplyDeleteOf course, if private individuals, such as Roberta Sykes or Charles Perkins want to endow foundations to favour Aborigines (or Asian Australian, or - shock, horror! - white people), that is their business. It becomes a concern, however, when the taxpayer has to contribute.
ReplyDeleteBut it leaves open the question: what, exactly, is the point of scholarships for Aborigines to attend prestigious foreign universities? The real problem with Aboriginal education lies in the early stages: the large numbers not attending, and not completing primary school, and not going on to high school. This is where Governments and private foundations should focus their efforts. I would suggest that any Aborigine who manages to complete high school should be perfectly capable to competing with everybody else for tertiary education scholarships.
Rubbish I know alot of Aboriginal people some dark complexion others light complexion who have made it on there own merit with pride. The common thing for them is they take pride in standing on their own - Systematic welfare is very unhealthy both spiritually and economically for anyone Aboriginal or Non- Aboriginal.
ReplyDeleteAlgernon's reply is the only bit of insight into why people like me are even being discussed in this blog.
ReplyDeleteThe saddest thing about all of this blog - and the majority of comments made so far - is that it all seems to be about what we look like. Seriously, if we can't get over idea that our facial appearance or pigment should somehow determine our culture, then we may as well just crawl back into our racist foxholes and (like the mythical Japanese soldier who refused to believe the war was over) keep taking pot shots at anyone who it suits us to believe is the enemy.
I understand really clearly that people who fit the racial stereotype of what an Aborigine 'should' look like suffer huge discrimination - in getting housing, service in shops - in just getting some basic respect. Members of my own family have to walk that road every day. But isn't this the main reason to be trying to do away with that sort of thinking? These attitudes were developed to help justify colonial conquest hundreds of years ago and perpetuating them isn't going to help.
So what is the advice to people who look like me? Should I accept that the "boong has been bred out of ya", or that 'nah, you can't be an Aborigine, 'caus we shot youse out years ago". If this is it, then all I can say is that I've heard it all before. I grew up with this shit since I was a kid. Was I suppose to give in to the assimilation campaign? Dallas, here's the question. When will your grandkids have to give up their identity and culture? If your children each marry a white man, and then their kids do the same, will you tell those great grand kids of yours who come to see their old Grandad that they have no right to your stories because their rights to their culture disappeared along with their skin colour?
My kids are proud of who they are and they fight for their rights (against racist whites and blacks)every day. They loved their old Granny dearly and she loved them; and she took all the time she had to share with them so they could keep our culture strong.
I identify as Aboriginal because I have a responsibility to the generations of my ancestors who made it their business to pass on culture. I don't have the right to cut that off just because of the amount of pigment in my skin! Or because I did OK in high school and uni. Or because of the attacks and criticism from the mob that this blog seems to attract. I also have a responsibility to our future generations, to make sure that our ancestors efforts and suffering weren't wasted. In Tasmania we had to fight our way back from the brink. Calling me 'white' doesn't change anything.
The other thing I want to say is it is shameful how everyone who has 'had a go' on this blog is prepared to make judgements about me, Kyle, and everyone else pictured here. Do any of you know anything about our families or how we grew up? Do you know which of us was born on old mission stations? Which of us has brothers and sisters that we have never seen since they were taken away from our mothers? Or what we have done and how we are regarded in our communities? No, of course not, because that would spoil your arguments.
But even this isn't really the point. The scholarships we have won are not about welfare. They were awarded by assessing each of us on our experience, knowledge and skills - our ability to achieve at the universities we are now attending - and our ability to contribute something positive back to Australia. Am I right in assuming that all of that would be fine as long as we had really dark skin? Come on!
Some of us are working on things like health in remote communities. I'm looking at sources of racism in Australia. This blog reminds me why this is so important.
Tawatja - Thank you for your obviously passionate response.
DeleteYou lost me a bit with your calls of 'racist' repeatedly though.
Personally, I think it is RACIST to provide opportunities to people of a certain race, only to EXCLUDE people of a certain colour. If you are unable to see that in your peer group of people at University who identify as Aboriginal, then I don't know what else to say.
Please, do not use words like 'assimilation program' with me. Honestly, my advice to you would be to stop sprouting back the cliches and open your eyes. You ARE assimilated. You are attending a white institution, wear white people clothes, eat white people food and live in a house with running water and electricity - your lot in life is pretty damned good.
When will my grandkids give up their identity and culture? Assuming that all my future offspring never marry or have children with an Aboriginal person again....I'll bet you thought that was the way I'd answer such a question. The racial purist argument eh? How ridiculous. They will always have access to knowledge of their ancestors - stories always get passed down as long as there is someone with the will to keep them alive - but my kids are not Aboriginal. They are part Aboriginal. It is part of who they are, but, only a small part of who they are. More than their racial identity, they have a familial? identity (I make up words as I go, not having a fancy University education might explain that habit though) and a personal identity. The latter two being more important than the first one, and necessary in the process of becoming a healthy individual with a strong identity.
Let's imagine for a minute you're related to me by blood (plenty of my extended family have willingly married and had children with white folks). I have no problem accepting you as part of my family. No issue with you coming and going as you please from 'home', and would encourage you to participate in cultural practices and learn as much as you can to pass down from our elders. It is not a racial right, or a colour right, it is a family right. It is a birthright.
I would also take you to task in private over your acceptance of your race based privilege by way of prestigious scholarship. I would ask you why, when your cousins are being shunted through school unable to read, when your elders are ignored when they are sick, when they are spoken over by the White Administrators every time they try to speak up at community meetings - why is it that you are happy to smile and pretend everything is ok and Aboriginal people are doing just fine when you know damn well that is not the case.
If you did well at school, great. You've done better than almost every kid from a disadvantaged community. The fact you are unable to see this is the reason why I write this blog. The almost essay-like effort you put in here means I am succeeding even just a little. You want solidarity 'sista'? Well join me in having people ridicule you for all the extra financial benefits received because of Aboriginality that I can't avoid BECAUSE of the colour of my skin. Let's all be ridiculed together. Difference is, you've got the fancy scholarship to console you.
(cont)
DeleteIt is of little comfort when you write things like 'discrimination in finding housing' about Aboriginal people. How many times have you been discriminated against because of the colour of your skin when it comes to housing? Right now, I am sitting in Emergency Accomodation. The house is freezing cold in winter, like a hot box in summer and it is tiny, there are thankfully only 6 of us so we don't come close to true Aboriginal overcrowding. There is no working phone line, and because this house is supposed to be short term (i.e 2 months, tops) it isn't going to get fixed until I leave. I've been here nearly 2 years with all my stuff in boxes and have submitted so many rental applications I've lost count. Rental discrimination is just words to you, but I live it day in and day out - and I'm one of the lucky ones.
How many voices are missing from this conversation? You get your say, I get mine, but there are thousands of people who currently get NO say. They don't have the education, confidence or access to do so - yet we both have that privilege. Not all Aboriginal people are the same, and it is a cliche many in your position are happy to trot out when you want to explain away an opportunity granted to you or special treatment given to you because you identify with the racial heritage of ONE grandparent, but you're not happy to have that line thrown back at you when people want you to stop and see your relative life of privilege compared to many of your so called 'brothers and sisters' and that perhaps, as far as race based benefits go, they're not helping the most needy. Just providing opportunities to a minority within a minority.
Be proud of your heritage, continue telling the stories of your ancestors and keep traditions alive in your family if you have them - that is advice I would give to everyone, regardless of their race or culture or whatever the acceptable PC term is these days. But be honest enough with yourself to realise that your Aboriginality is but a small part of who you are. It is not something that has crippled you, nor has it made you unable to function in society. Your mere presence here is testament to that fact.
You do not need to accept an Aboriginal scholarship to keep your culture alive. But I suspect you knew that anyway.
"The saddest thing about all of this blog - and the majority of comments made so far - is that it all seems to be about what we look like."
DeleteWhat a load of crap! What has been argued is that people such as yourself receive huge benefit at the expense of the truly needy of your 'community'. Now, I am more than willing to accept that I am wrong in this. To convince me, all you have to do is detail how much money in total for all courses/expenses you have received, and then, explain to me why it is better that Aboriginal children living in absolute destitution and deprivation would not be better served receiving this money instead. That's it.
All through your reply you argue as one who is a representative of ethnic collective. Not once do you demonstrate how your individual need is greater than others. People such as myself (Celtic white baby), do not deprive you of your culture in any way shape or form by stating a simple truth, that the money you receive, could be better directed to those in far greater need. It is a coward's response you give to label such observations as racist, even as you paint yourself the victim. No. The victim is the kid living an absolute shite life, one with zero possibilities. The monies you have received should be going to them.
Dallas,
ReplyDeleteWhat if your "white skinned boy" to use your own words, aspired to become a Doctor or a Barrister? Or even worked hard enough to be offered a place at Harvard or Cambridge?
If he were to be successful in any field, would he no longer be considered a role model to his people because he is not "easily identifiable" as Aboriginal?
Would he have to forget your story, and how you have had to overcome disadvantage and therefore in the process have given him a better life for it?
In a previous post you wrote that neither of your children are disadvantaged “simply because they have an Aboriginal father” and that they do not fit the ‘stereotypes’ associated with Aboriginal kids in central Australia. However, would you agree this does not make them any less Aboriginal? They are still entitled to be proud of their heritage.
The comments surrounding this article focus on the aspect of disadvantage, yet how is it that we can judge disadvantage simply by looking at the colour of someone’s skin? Do you know the background of any of the scholarship holders? Just because you gain a good education, and go to university does not mean you have not had to overcome forms of disadvantage to get there. Education is a tool used by many including Aboriginal people to overcome forms of disadvantage, and it is not easy, as you would know Dallas.
The comments from Big Nana suggesting that none of the scholarship holders are “working in areas that could actually help the Indigenous people who need it the most” is also misled. Many of the scholars you reference are studying in the areas of Health and Education within their own communities. I would suggest these are two areas where support for Indigenous people is needed the most.
I do agree with one point you bring up Dallas, and that is that these scholarship holders should be held to some form of responsibility for their actions. I believe that there should be some responsibility on completion of their studies for returning to their communities and creating positive outcomes within them, and hopefully on a much broader scale. The terms of these scholarships, actually indicate this as one of the requirements. But as many of these scholarship holders are still overseas, away from their family and people. Why not support those who are genuinely working towards a better future for ALL of our people, rather than shoot them down based on the colour of their skin?
If your son was in a position similar to the scholarship holders, I would support him as an Indigenous Australian as I hope you would.
Brotha_B - You are quite correct when you say you cannot judge disadvantage based on someones skin alone, and this is why I would prefer to abolish race-based funding completely - needs basis is the only way to go, as to do so by location/race/gender will only improve the lot of the already advantaged in those groupings, much like the current system is doing.
ReplyDeleteI don't need to know backgrounds of the scholarship holders to know that the system/criteria that gave them their privilege is fundamentally flawed. Whether they have the saddest sob story in the world will not change that fact, they aren't given these opportunities based on how hard they've had it, on the contrary (as one of the lucky recipients revealed above to leave you in no doubt) it is about how much they've excelled over and above their peer group. In other words, hardly struggling and nowhere near the shallow end of the pond.
The current batch of winners might be overseas at present, or not far from leaving - but we've had race based scholarships for DECADES. This is not a new thing, but something that has been filling communities with false hope for a long time. What actually overwhelmingly happens is that all the 'I'll be back to help' talk dissolves into a focus on a career, and constant betterment for the self.
The community, if already disadvantaged, is hurt further by the removal of their lone or near lone high achiever. The person providing a positive role model is no longer around, and the most educated person is not able to bear witness to and report the suffering of those without the same level of education or worldliness to do so. The best hope of an advocate is gone, and while its nice to say, 'my niece/granddaughter/cousin is a lawyer/doctor', it can also make you a target. Envy is a pretty normal human emotion, especially when you watch singular success among terrible suffering - not nice for any community, but it has been going on for a long, long time. How do you think the term 'coconut' ever came to being? I have no problem accepting that there will be black-skinned, more traditional Aboriginal people than myself who would apply such a label to me. I can even see why they would think that, and, agree with them. I don't speak like most black-skinned Aboriginal people, I read and write for pleasure and don't feel threatened by white people or angry at them just for being white, heck, I don't have an Aboriginal flag on display anywhere in my house. I grew up with white parents, went to an all-white school and the only other Aboriginal people I mixed with were people I was related to and fostered with. Every 'side' has a go at me, and I'm cool with it. We're all entitled to our opinion and there isn't a slur you could throw at me that I haven't heard before that hasn't been said to me by people of every race, colour and creed.
(cont)
DeleteAlso, please don't be afraid to use 'white-skinned boy' to describe my son around here. He does have white skin and I'm not sure why people pussyfoot around that fact, but we don't in our house (calling him black will prompt a comment like 'think you need your eyes checked')and I won't tolerate it here on my blog.
Anyway, in this lifetime I don't see my son going to Harvard or Cambridge. He has an intellectual disability and part of the reason I stay living in the shithole I do is so he can go to an awesome school where they aim higher for the kids than a few shifts at Maccas or packing shelves when the customers aren't around. Whatever his dreams, I don't want anyone to claim him as a showcase for race, or disability when he achieves them. It cheapens the hard work and effort that it takes to make it in this world.
Are my kids more or less Aboriginal than those in Central Australia? I'm on a word limit with these responses, but, I'm starting a new blog post to deal with this one because I've got a lot to say in answer to your question. It may take me a day or two to get it finished (I'll work on it tonight though, kids are in bed so fingers crossed) but I wont do it justice here.
For those interested in Greg Lehman I suggest you Google his name + Aboriginal then click on the article from The Australian titled Not so black and white. (This article is a must read for anyone interested in Aboriginal identity.)
ReplyDeleteLehman identified as "1/64 Aboriginal" before he saw the light and realized he's black. No wait, I misread ... I should have said "realized he's Aboriginal".
Wow, superb blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is magnificent, let alone the content!. Thanks For Your article.
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A great article, but I work with the 'mob' here in the North, and what they think of these pocket-liners is not printable.
ReplyDeleteI suppose this info is completely unique.
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In the immortal words of Bess Price, they don't look like blackfellas to me.
ReplyDeleteHa.......yes Mate I saw that show. She had them pegged alright.
DeleteDallas I admire your wisdom, your coherency and your courage. Keep them honest Mate.
Ahh the great old ugenics. Aboriginality has nothing to do with skin colour. Its about culture. There are many dark skinned white heart Indigenous Australians that are not Aboriginal in practice or ideology, in other words they pratice AND believe western white values, usually made to hate themselfs by the church. If anyone needs evidence of this i suggest people research William Buckley. A free convict that choose to live and learn Aboriginality, was accepted as family including secret mens knowledge. If skin aka ugenetics detimined Aboriginality then explain William Buckley. You must be squeaky clean throwing rocks
ReplyDeleteAhh the great old ugenics. Aboriginality has nothing to do with skin colour. Its about culture. There are many dark skinned white heart Indigenous Australians that are not Aboriginal in practice or ideology, in other words they pratice AND believe western white values, usually made to hate themselfs by the church. If anyone needs evidence of this i suggest people research William Buckley. A free convict that choose to live and learn Aboriginality, was accepted as family including secret mens knowledge. If skin aka ugenetics detimined Aboriginality then explain William Buckley. You must be squeaky clean throwing rocks
ReplyDeleteAhh the great old ugenics. Aboriginality has nothing to do with skin colour. Its about culture. There are many dark skinned white heart Indigenous Australians that are not Aboriginal in practice or ideology, in other words they pratice AND believe western white values, usually made to hate themselfs by the church. If anyone needs evidence of this i suggest people research William Buckley. A free convict that choose to live and learn Aboriginality, was accepted as family including secret mens knowledge. If skin aka ugenetics detimined Aboriginality then explain William Buckley. You must be squeaky clean throwing rocks
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