Wednesday, Mar 28, 2007 at 11:53
I was hoping that no-one was going to come back with this hoary old chestnut, but you did. I can only respond with an example.
Whatever happened in the past - is in the past. You, me, everyone else that pays taxes now (and had nothing to do with any perceived wrongs of the past) has paid an absolute fortune trying to correct these perceived wrongdoings. Tipping money at it hasn't solved the "problem", nor will giving aborigines exclusivity over land.
My wife works for an Aboriginal Corporation. This organisation has set up countless endeavours designed to give these people a real "leg-up" in business, training and life in general. I can tell you that every single attempt bar one has failed. Why?
Because the very people they are designed to help, won't help themselves. The problems range from petty pilfering, to outright stealing, to misuse or mistreatment of property (their property) to rorting allowances and payments, to innapropriate use of mobile phones and vehicles, to sabotaging the programs. (Please do not reply by saying that you get this in the rest of society - we are talking about total failure of programs resulting in withdrawal of funding, and malpractice at rates dozens of time higher than in general society). They have abysmal attendance habits and use "cultural" reasons as excuses for almost everything they do wrong. You talk to the more respected of these people (who sit back helplessly watching these projects fail) and they will tell you that the so-called cultural reasons are nothing but rubbish.
I think you have to be very careful here. It is not possible for these people to go "back" to a traditional way of life, so they have to come up with a blend that allows them to retain as much of their culture as possible, and yet still progress into the 21st century. This is no different to any other race or nation of people that has been displaced by another race or nation of people over history. This is not going to happen by disenfrachising the very people whose taxes prop up the gains these people are supposedly making.
I agree that the right to use the land to continue cultural practices is fair and important, but to give small groups or individuals unfettered rights to disproportionately HUGE tracts of land or sea is wrong. In WA, occupiers of crown land, such as sheep or cattle sation owners or mining tenement operators, are not allowed to deny the public the right to access the coast. Nor are they allowed to charge for such access. Even privately held lands are subject to certain restrictions over where the property extends to beaches. So why then should any race have the ability to control access? By all means make it clear to the public at large that to disturb these people in the practice of their culturals beliefs must not happen, but at the same time, aboriginal people must respect the European penchant for exploring, fishing, travelling and adventure.
This recent ruling is wrong. It is wrong for a host of reasons and it certainly is not Karma.
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