@mogga Happy New Year to you and your family!
Every time when I visited England (I had a daughter over there, married into an English family) I always came away with the impression the Brits I met still regarded 'Awstralia' as their 'colony' 'their land' - and that was right across the board of social class - well I didn't mix with the aristocracy, but there such thinking would be automatic.
Re; our Aboriginal brethren: I feel I cannot even have an opinion, as I am a newcomer to this land - and I would not have chosen Australia had I known how that most of the white people I would be meeting despised and hated Aboriginal people - I was constantly shocked about the way 'they' were spoken about.
Things have changed for the better - but also some newer migrants have taken up that despicable attitude.
The saddest thing which happened to our Aboriginal People was that the men have been emasculated by their alcoholism, their complete abandonment of a sense of responsibility to their families, to the children they spawn etc. and they will only regain pride and the capacity to form some kind of resistance, or maybe create respect in the outer community, once they regain the will to be 'men' - in the meantime the mothers, grandmothers, aunties have kept some sort of subsistence tribal identities going - but it is not enough.
White man's initial interference has destroyed the hunter/gatherer model of society and has only replaced it with dependency. A natural way for both people to behave - we really have to think carefully now how we proceed.
In the meantime it is a good thing that we have given Aboriginal people some privileged treatments, some chances, which some are capable of using to their and their families' advantage.
It's always good to see a fully emancipated and achieving person of Aboriginal descent being successful, people like some of our sportsmen and women, people like
Ernie Dingo, or that wonderful presenter on TV
Stan Grant, who is always calm, always has a valid viewpoint - many musicians, my own favourite being
William Barton (composer and wonderful didgeridoo player)
and many women - possibly more Aboriginal women than men have made it in public life
- I was astonished to read that our historic '
Mirrie Hill' (married to Alfred Hill an Australian/New Zealand composer) was of Aboriginal descent. I worked with one lady who had Aboriginal blood, but would never admit to it - she was a wonderful 'mate' and 'colleague'. Or that wonderful lady who played in one of the first films about Aboriginals 'Jedda' with Aboriginal actors Robert Tudawali and Ngarla Kunoth-Monks
- now Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM, becoming an outspoken and well-spoken activist for the Aboriginal cause - and has died only recently (on 22nd January 2022).
To all those 'haters' I say: watch some films, some programs presented on occasion on TV - the NITV channel also brings movies of and about aboriginal people of other lands - I have often found them to be interesting and enjoyable.
Wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR 2023
Go well
Taurisk
