Nightfactory wrote: In real life, they have been screwed royally over and over again by a variety of different non-indigenous Australians and have had to fight (with the help of Aboriginal agents) to retain their rights and their culture.
*Beats his head against a sharp rock*
No. Just no.
I grew up with Aboriginals, real modern aboriginals. All my my mothers friends are aboriginals. I am so tired of this preconception foreigners have. They view Australia through their own cultural lens and don't realize how things really are here. The Aboriginals were not Native Americans, they were not a particularly wise people. They were talented survivalists but their culture was terrible, filled with everything from incest to cannibalism. People talk about atrocities, like the first settlers gave them blankets with small pox. That ISN'T what happened.
One of the things the aboriginal people have been most up in arms about is the poisoning that happened. However, no one ever tells the full story. They were not "poisoned" like with the blankets. The aboriginals had been stealing flour from the local farms during the night. Breaking into their sheds and stealing their livestock and their flour. So a bunch of the farmers got together and poisoned bags of their own flour, marked them and left them in the sheds. They didn't leave it out for people to get. However, when the aboriginals stole their flour, they took it all and so took the poisoned bags and that is why they were poisoned. When the first settlers came, the aboriginals tried to sell them women as slaves and were rejected. So instead, they pimped them to the sailors as prostitutes.
These were NOT a wizened tribe of enlightened beings with the knowledge of the dreamscape. However, Australia has been copping it ever since because unlike many other countries we don't want to be ********. So we give them better healthcare, we give them larger government subsidies, they get more money per month from the government from unemployment than the white man, they can legally travel anywhere in the country via government owned rail for $2.00 (it may have gone up, I will have to ask but it was $2.00 in 2004) when it costs anyone else between $25.00-180.00 dollars (depending on location). The Aboriginals already have more than the white man, its no longer equality and most do not even know nor respect their own heritage anymore. However, Australia can really put their foot down without looking bad because they will play the race card.
Still not convinced...
Just last month, my brother who lives in an
Aboriginal Community in Warburton running a small government funded shopping center, had his shop smashed in during the night and everything (from food, ipods, EVERYTHING) stolen BY CHILDREN as their parents stood outside telling them what to do (because the kids could not be prosecuted). Stop and let that sink in for a minute and NO this isn't just ONE community. This is THEIR CULTURE by and large. The real issue for these people. But I hear you, "Akashic Soldier is just a racist", well is
she a racist too? And she is being NICE.
The PROBLEM is, people (even some people in the cities who are away from it) don't see the problem. They look at the culture through rose tinted glasses and think its this great thing. However, on payday it isn't even safe to go into the street because you will be beaten and bashed, then likely dragged out of town and left to die. They administer justice (legally mind you), by driving a spear into your leg.
This is Australia's problem and if anyone who know ANYTHING about their history does a little digging, this is what they're going to find. The ugly, ugly truth of the matter.
STILL thing I am exaggerating?!
Here you go. Enjoy that. Aboriginal women are 15 times more likely to suffer from domestic violence and 10 times more likely to die from it.
Still, sound like an enlightened people or a wonderful fantasy culture?
We live in an ugly freaking world, an ugly brutal world. The thing is, the mythology of the Aboriginals is fantastical and unique. They are also an admirable people BECAUSE of this adversity and those with the strength of character and will to overcome it. However, most don't. Most blow their money on booze and drugs on payday and live a predatory or criminal lifestyle, either as criminals or victims of their friends and family. THAT is the real aboriginal culture. You put that in a book and its no wonder people have to take a step back.
You guys just don't see things for how they are. There is a reason my little brother needs to live in a cage. Yes, you read that correctly. His house is surrounded by a cage (to prevent people from getting in during the night!). There is a reason they do not send normal petrol to rural Australia (as huffing was causing death). The entire situations with the aboriginals is complete **** and I hate that they need to suffer because of it and I hate that they make others suffer because of it.
Sure, you can blame the First Settlers. You can say that all their problems started when we came and they wouldnt have so many communities in shambles without "the white man" introducing drugs or alcohol. However, that wouldn't stop the rape, incest or cannibalism that some tribes practiced. It wouldn't cure them from their illnesses or a lot them any of the modern convinces either.
So, you can either "offend" a bunch of people with the ugly truth of the matter (like I just have) or you can not write a book about the Aboriginals. Anything even half way "accurate" NEEDS to address these MASSIVE social issues.
So please, stop viewing Australia and its people and history as something its not. The aboriginals were never stolen from their families as some might claim. Anyone who even for a minute research the Stolen Generation will find that most of the "liberated" aboriginals were half-cast children who were abandoned to DIE in the desert by their tribes because they were the product of prostitution. This was their tradition! When the Catholic Church found out children were being left for dead, babies left in the sun to die, they went up and arms and started taking them. Was it wrong? Who can say. I sure as **** would rather be raised in an orphanage and educated than left to die on a god damn rock. However, we are supposed to "respect" these traditions.
Well, no sir. I do not think so. Killing babies, is not acceptable -- even if they're you're babies.
Disclaimer: Before you sling names at me and call me a racist, don't bother. I am not. I am a realist. I am also repeating almost verbatim what Nel (one of my mothers aboriginal friends who is an elder for the Clarence Valley) has said herself to me multiple times. To quote her exactly, "We shouldn't respect all of the old traditions. Some of that **** was nuts."
Warning: Racism is a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement. While I have no doubt that there are a number of social challenges facing aboriginal people in Australia, indicating that the cause of those issues is because they are Aborigines is a racist statement and a violation of our forum rules.