"Were they better off before whitey or are they better off now?" phrased this way leads to a nuanced discussion. and it depends on the values you place on various individual responses.
many Aboriginal people have made a successful transition to white culture/society. so these people have benefitted massively in western terms. yet they also lose much of their native culture so in the balance its entirely how these people feel about their lives individually.
but we've been referring to remote communities. people who are trying to remain within their cultural values and lifestyle. western influences have resulted in self-imposed restrictions due to having a permanent house, inadequate and crumbling housing and infrastructure, anger at the society that has destroyed their traditional lifestyle (purely emotional) yet anger at themselves for adopting the house lifestyle, anger at being given grog, yet habitual love of getting drunk, impotence to overcome their addictions.
grog robs one of volition and motivation to live well. we see this everyday in every community. rubbish accumulates so that its "too hard" to clean up.
of course, according to methodological anthropology studies aboriginal people had an excellent lifestyle pre-colonisation/invasion. they lived healthier lives for far longer than their European counterparts in the late 18thC. so yes they were better off before we came here.
