ABORIGINALS A SORRY LOT
The remains of one of the most primitive cultures on Earth continue to struggle to cope with elements of Western Civilisation that many Westerners fail to master. The simple ethos of regular employment still eludes the grasp of many.
Not to say Westerners are not exploitative and profit-seeking. The reality is that people who colonised far away lands in bygone years had to be ‘survivors’ who overcame great challenges and difficulties to wrest a living from the land. In many cases they were unsuccessful and the whitened, bleached remains of their failures served as a reminder to the rest that absolute commitment was required – or nothing.
Contrasting the exploitative commitment of Westerners with the haphazard nomadic existance of Australian Aborigines serves no purpose but to denigrate the natives. There was no need for the Aborigines to develop Western ideals and to this day, in the minds of many, there still isn’t.
What further complicates the issue is a cultural lack of understanding of how and why Westerners think and act the way we do. Successful Westerners, that is.
And on top of that, the present situation is compounded and confused by the facts of integration which have led to some successful Aborigines glossing over the fact of their predominantly Western genetics. They imply their fair skin and tertiary education are of no consequence in their successful adaptation to our culture and society.
The fact is, some essentially white individuals with tertiary education and excellent opportunities in White Society make a play on their Aboriginality to dominate the discussion and steer a narrative steeped in emotive terms – truth being, they are using that Western Competitiveness to survive as Australian Aborigines. They don’t all do it in a completely respectable manner either but who can point the stick at mere humans who fall pray to greed and vanity! All too human indeed.
The present hot debate surrounding Prime Minister Kevin RUDD’s “Sorry” statement has by no means reached its denouement. More water must flow under the bridge before this little game will be ended.
Completely Other strategies will need to be successfully implemented also if the plight of the Aborigines is to be relieved. And for those who are already brain dead from ‘substance abuse’ (sniffing petrol fumes etc.), the solutions will be an affront to a vocal minority who feel these dregs of unsound mentation should be always allowed to simply roam free, to further harm themselves and to harm society as a whole.
Round them up, as Hitler proposed? Ideally they will not be sent off to some gas chamber but being left to roam free like mongrel dogs, feral, uneducated, unable to fend adequately for themselves and yet driven by humanity’s innate survival instinct? Give me a break!
So thinking outside the box will be the Order of the Day and while Rudd is polishing his CV with an Apology To The Stolen Generation, we hope he is devoting equal time to formulating exactly how he will steal the Present Generation! All these sorry individuals who’s only chance to “get a life” is to figure on national and international media, crying foul over well-meaning individuals who feel Aborigines should be, in part, rescued from themselves will be professionally deaf now! They will be deaf to Western Pleas to intervene and deaf to the suffering of their ‘brothers’, who by their suffering provide the soap-box on which the late’ one-twelfth caste base their living and reputation.
So long as there is a segment of Aboriginal Culture out there, in its pristine squalor, these Town Blacks have it made!
And it is a problem. Even many Aborigines accustomed to living on the outskirts of towns (we are not discussing the ‘fully integrated’ here) would think twice before confronting a Myall or some other up-country native. Those individuals out there are still, despite their falling numbers, among the original spear-chuckers’. Give them credit, there is nothing wrong with being that, except in the old days they fell foul of squatters who objected to the natives spearing the sheep they had imported all the way from England to breed. A clash only of civilisations.
Clearly, any effective Outreach will need to address ALL these elements of the problem. Some initiatives, including the current one in the Northern Territory, will offend a minority of thoughtless, not to say disingenuous, do-gooders but if effort is directed by measurable outcomes instead of hyperbole, such intervention must be practical, effective and quite intrusive.
We don’t require a rudder here, we need tugs to turn the vessel in a totally different direction. One that permits Australian Aborigines to continue to practice their Art and elements of their Culture. A failure to adapt to some of OUR cultural demands will lead to incarceration, suffering and no doubt, “Deaths In Custody”.
When mentioning ‘Deaths in Custody’ in connection with Australian Aborigines (a painful and emotive subject) it’s important to grasp the reality of what we mean. At one time we found a native Australian Crow in our neighbourhood with a broken wing. Wildlife advisory experts told us it would be pointless to capture the crow and try to ‘heal it’ away from the rest of its flock. So we just fed it twice a day on the recommended lamb’s heart (picky!!!) and watched while it became stronger and more vocal and the broken bone gradually knitted. It learned to ‘climb’ trees, from which it raucously boasted of its ability to provide nourishment for its family – who gathered around at mealtimes and also thrived on the lamb’s heart meat! At last it regained full strength and flew with its flock. Once the flock started pecking the rubber seals out of the front windows, we ceased feeding all together!
The point to this little vignette is simple – we were told if the crow was separated from its flock it would pine and die. “Deaths-In-Custody” statistics reveal a very similar syndrome effective in Australian Aborigines who are locked away in cells. They neck themselves regularly.
That sounds uncharitable. Feel for the duty police officer who has to cut down the corpse after he was absent only minutes from constant surveillance.
Thus it must be understood we are dealing with situations and circumstances outside the Western Norm and so were early white settlers in Australia. They sensed a critical inability in the Aborigines to adapt to Western Norms and an equal ‘difficulty’ in forming the desire to ‘adopt’ our peculiar set of values. Our values are, of course, what define us individually, as a Society and as a Nation.
Saying the Aborigines can maintain their original cultural values unchanged must be to accept we would have to leave ours also unrelieved – just lock them up as criminals and let Time take its course and its Toll. So that is absolutely NOT an option.
Saying SORRY addresses none of this.
We, the White Supremacist Pigs, are sorry the Abos can’t get the message?
What SORRY means depends on who you are and what your personal emotive problems are. Those who decide they have a supposed empathic bond with the black victims will never be happy with a truly effective solution – that’s not their bag.
Those who desire a truly effective solution for the Australian Aborigines will automatically accept the need to impress ‘change’ upon the natives. It’s a burden the Whites must continue to shoulder and saying SORRY may simply cloud the issues. If it leads down the path of ‘Compensation’ – an attempt to feed large sums of money to alcoholic degenerates – then we foresee substantial on-going debate.
Sorry about that.
rai@wenublog.com