So Kevin Rudd apologises to the Stolen Generation and we have a corroboree to open Parliament. Now I have no problem with the nation holding up its hands and going, "Whoops, our bad" for something which really was stupid and ill-considered, if well-intentioned. But to act as though the forced removal of children from their families was something that only affected Aboriginal children is disrespectful to the children of poor British immigrants who were similarly taken from their families. Where's their apology?
But it seems that we're to ignore the body of caucasian children removed from their families. After all, bad stuff doesn't happen to white people.
And the corroboree.... Again, I can applaud an attempt to reflect and celebrate the variety of Australian culture but if we're going to reflect that variety, won't we have to spend over a week opening Parliament with a festival that celebrates every culture that's been brought into the nation with immigrants of different racial background? Or is it just because they were 'Australia's Original Inhabitants' that they get special treatment?
It seems to me that the Aboriginal community in general is like a teenager forced to go to Europe with their family and sulking over not being able to go to up the coast with their friends. They're given an enormous numbers of opportunities - grants and scholarships and work programs - to encourage them to make more of themselves, to become part of the nation as a whole, joining their culture with the wider variety iof cultures that make up Australia. But few take up these opportunities. The majority of Australia's Aboriginal population is under-educated and unemployed. The rate of alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and sexual assault is higher amongst Aboriginal communities than anywhere else in the country. And instead of taking advantage of the opportunities available to them? They complain about the opportunities taken away from them over a hundred years ago.
In the end, the British were an invading nation (probably the friendliest invading nation ever) and they moved in and took over. It happened, it's been recognised as something that was less than appropriate and it's time to move on and deal with the way things are instead of reminiscing about how things were and wishing they could be like that again.
But it seems that we're to ignore the body of caucasian children removed from their families. After all, bad stuff doesn't happen to white people.
And the corroboree.... Again, I can applaud an attempt to reflect and celebrate the variety of Australian culture but if we're going to reflect that variety, won't we have to spend over a week opening Parliament with a festival that celebrates every culture that's been brought into the nation with immigrants of different racial background? Or is it just because they were 'Australia's Original Inhabitants' that they get special treatment?
It seems to me that the Aboriginal community in general is like a teenager forced to go to Europe with their family and sulking over not being able to go to up the coast with their friends. They're given an enormous numbers of opportunities - grants and scholarships and work programs - to encourage them to make more of themselves, to become part of the nation as a whole, joining their culture with the wider variety iof cultures that make up Australia. But few take up these opportunities. The majority of Australia's Aboriginal population is under-educated and unemployed. The rate of alcohol abuse, domestic abuse and sexual assault is higher amongst Aboriginal communities than anywhere else in the country. And instead of taking advantage of the opportunities available to them? They complain about the opportunities taken away from them over a hundred years ago.
In the end, the British were an invading nation (probably the friendliest invading nation ever) and they moved in and took over. It happened, it's been recognised as something that was less than appropriate and it's time to move on and deal with the way things are instead of reminiscing about how things were and wishing they could be like that again.
3 comments:
Careful :P I said somthing like that at Uni last year and was asked to leave the class for the day.
Hook
"the children of poor British immigrants who were *similarly* taken from their families."
I'm curious; where do you derive your sources for this information? What was the government policy that resulted in that action?
[separate to the above]
I'm going to go out an limb here and say I feel that characterising the "crisis of Indigenous social and cultural disintegration" as merely a matter of a community of behaving like a petulant child is a gross oversimplification of a serious matter.
-The Grumbler
In my opinion, insisting on cultural purity is childish, as is stamping your foot and pouting instead of getting on with things. And to me that's exactly what the wider aboriginal community is doing. Things have changed and they're not going to change back. It's time to move on.
The thing is that, based on the kinds of things I've seen quoted from members of the stolen generation itself indicates that this isn't about the treatment that they received. In their misguided way, even given the fact that it was based in a ridiculous concept, people were trying to do their best for those children. They were trying to improve their position in a world that had changed, to provide them with a healthy environment, clothing, shelter, an education. The children who were taken for the most part do not complain about the treatment they received, acknowledging that they were provided with good food, health care and education. Instead, they complain about being cut off from their cultural heritage.
I'm in favour of the aboriginal culture. I just think it should be part of an Australian culture, much the way Maori culture is part of New Zealand culture. People emigrate to Australia every day and, while many of those racial groups form somewhat insulated communities, with every generation they become more integrated into the society, their cultural heritage blending with and enhancing a national culture. Our culture. The aboriginal stance is divisive. They don't share that cultural heritage with the rest of the nation.
And, in the end, they are given enormous numbers of opportunities. There are many government funded and independent initiatives to encourage specifically Aboriginals to become educated and to find work. To help them not just repeat the cycle of alcohol abuse and domestic violence which is the norm for so many people living in Aboriginal communities. But very few take up those opportunities.
Not only that but I think Psi has a point in this: what comes of this apology? An apology means the government has accepted responsibility for what happens. So... compensation claims, anyone?
As for the other, it's what I was taught at high school.
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