She's baaaaack!!!

[Punk Rooster]

I'd listen to Gough Whitlam singing anyday of the week over Tim "Middle-Aged angst" Freeman.

A peer of yours, no doubt!

[our_longreach]

I have only just read this thread today and the one question I would like answered is who the hell made Coorong a moderator???? His posts are offensive and should be deleted. Definitely not the conduct you expect from a moderator of this site.

[another grub]

agre with OL.... for once!!!!

[mighty_tiger_79]

this sounds like a poll!!!!!!!!!!

id second that

[Coorong]

And I will defend your right to voice such an opinion.

[Rik E Boy]

And I will defend your right to voice such an opinion.

Quite right too. It'd be a bloody boring site if everyone agreed all the time. It would be the online equivalent of a Crows match. Anyone who suggests that Coowrong shouldn't be a mod better but their hand up..it would be a thankless task I imagine.

regards,

REB

[mrjbeam1981]

xen•o•pho•bi•a [zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-]–noun
an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.

I looked upon this thread sometime last week, but I am unlike the "stereotype" portrayed by members of this forum as I have a job (well three) and have taken a while to reply.

I am not surprised by some of the comments expressed.

As some of you may be aware I am a proud Indigenous Australian.

I will tell you my story first, then go back and answer each comment personally, from an Indigenous perspective.

I grew up in a South Australian public school. From an early age I understood that I was Indigenous, however the culture wasn’t expressed as much as I had seen from other Indigenous families (I will answer why later). Throughout school my extroverted personality allowed for me to express whenever it came relevant “yes I’m Aboriginal”. In primary school it didn’t seem an issue, yet as kids gotten older, they changed. “Friends” who didn’t seem to care earlier on, were now yelling out the taunts which we have all heard, “boong”, “coon”, “abo”. With this I came home asking my folks why this occurred. Their response was “they didn’t know any better”.

This was the first time I experienced racism. It wasn’t just my fellow students. I remember one incident vividly. I lashed out at a student, really belting him for calling me a name. He went off and cried to the teacher who presently gave me a detention. I pleaded my case as it was out of frustration for being racially taunted. The student still did not receive a reprimand.

This continued on throughout my school until I got to the point of saying to myself “I’m sick of lashing out at these idiots, I’ll turn it all around”. So whenever they said those words, I kept it to myself. My mindset was to use those taunts as inspiration. The mentality I had, was to succeed in spite of them, too prove them wrong and it worked. I received my year 12 certificate, and those people who had given me shit, did not.

While we are all entitled to our own opinion, some of the comments made on this forum could be from the same mindset as the kids in high school. To change the “stereotype” you need people to succeed and that’s what I am to do!


For the record I have just been elected to the Local Council, I am 1 semester away from graduating with a degree in politics, with the comment on my last paper in which I received a high distinction saying “I do hope you are you considering Honours next year”., an option I am seriously considering. It is ironic that the paper was about racial inequality within Australia.

Last time I heard a number of the students who had made those remarks in high school were unemployed and apparently “looking for work”.

[Rushby Hinds]

Well said mate.

[Leaping Lindner]

Thank you linesmen. Thank you ball boys. Game set and match.

[mrjbeam1981]

How was it wrong. we took kids out of relative poverty and gave them a chance. The disapointing thing is many went back.

Have any of you (and I know their are a couple of Aboriginal forum members) ever lived in their community. I did for the first 20 odd years of my life. Educated with them, lived with them, spoke thier language, drank with them, partied with them, worked with them, loved a few, fought a few too.

The true aboriginals like my mates dont call it the stolen generation, and a few of those "were stolen" too, but were thankful and have lived happy and positive lives.

This whole stolen generation thing has been developed by blue eyed lawyers who see it as a goldmine. Similar with the land right thing.

This argument is way off track. Pauline is accused of asking questions on the imigration policy. I ask similar questions. Travel to Melbourne and visit any suburb. Vietnamese who came here 2-5 years ago as refugees, now live in the best suburbs and drive merc'. Similar to many other nationalities.

Walk into any chemist shop, milk bar, service station, bakery, doctors surgery, newsagents, bottle shop etc in Melbourne or Sydney and you will wonder what country you are in.

some of you Adelaide people sometimes live in a sheltered part of the world, 30 minutes and twenty years from reality.... me thinks

I, like wedgie dispute these comments.

firstly there are many differing definitions of a "true" Aboriginal. In some instance Aboriginal people say "if you have any aboriginal blood in you, then you are either Aboriginal or your not". then there is the Aboriginal defined by the Government in which you have to prove you Aboriginality. i understrand why it is done but i still get offended by having to "prove" my Aboriginality.

as for the stolen generation being "developed by...lawyers" I can't agree with you there. my grandfather's family was not in poverty, his father was a german cattle station owner do you think he deserved having his son "stolen" because they were "poor"?[/b]

Having grown up on Aboriginal land in the back blocks of the NT and spoken to many Australians (salt water mob and desert mob) who were removed from their parents and the children and grand children thta were removed. It is fair to say that most of of them are appreciative of the economic and education opportunities they were able to experience that made their lives in an economic sense much easier. The common comment is, "Hey that was what happened back then no point looking back or holding grudges, I wouldn't have had the career I've had or been able to provide for my kids if I didn't get that education"

However look into their eyes and there is a particular look that says they experienced many emotional hardships that they can't or don't want to explain (at least not to me any anyway). Plenty of documented evidence in the press recently of what has happened to wards of the state and British orphan's so to say some of that didn't happen to some individuals of indigenous decent would be head in the sand stuff.

So while they have gained on one hand they lost on the other and as a parent nothing could compensate for having a child taken away from you

So to be fair for every person who benefitted from the policy that existed 50 years ago it is fair to say that for everyone who beneffiteed there are those who are f***ed up.

Certainly a lot of my best mate's anger about the system can be traced to what happened to his Mum and Aunties...Mind you he know's how to make they system work for himself too......

Could not agree with you more. there are a number of positives to come out of the stolen generation, two of them being the stories of John Moriarty (a cousin of my mothers) and Archie Roach. John was removed from the top of NT and brought down to adelaide to grow up, went off to school, uni, played for the soccer-roos and is now a managing director of an major art company based in Sydney. (John is famous for painting the QANTAS plane in aboriginal art).

and Archie a successful musician, be it due to his experiences of being removed.

but unfortunatly the negative do out weigh the positives, loss of culture, family life led to people becoming dependant on alcohol and drugs. its a negative cycle because these people eventually had families of their own, their children experience this "culture" and all it does is repeat itself.

Holy madhouse, Batman!! What did I start here??

First off - the quote I mentioned at the top was from Sunrise. If anyone has a link to the transcript I'm sure it will show that she was in no way taken out of context.

I read what I could stomach of Coorong's racism and lack of understanding, and applaud Wedgie's comments in response. It's all very well to talk about "not getting a vote" and so forth. May I remind you, Coorong, that it was WORSE than that! Under the constitution - until 1967 - the Aborogines were not recognised as part of the population. And as a result were not just prevented from voting. They were deprived of funding that otherwise would have gone their was for essentials that white Australia took for granted. And not only that (and I have been given one example of this) when Aborigines were the victims of a crime, it got nowhere! Because they weren't part of the population, the laws of the land that would have otherwise protected them did not. If it hadn't been for the efforts of good samaritans like Daisy Bates it would have been even worse!

Also, the Aborigines were the victims - to a degree - of the White Australia policy. Now when it was first brought out that policy was aimed at preventing Asians from coming in to the country, but it didn't stop a similar attitude being applied to the Aborigines in government decision making.

This is what Coorong doesn't get. For 179 years (1788 to 1967) there was legal psychological MURDER going on. Generation after generation was being driven into the ground, and that is bound to get into the psych of families over those generations. And despite the constitution being changed almost 40 years ago - it's going to take a lot longer than that to repair the damage that has been done. We PUSHED the Aborigines into the dirt - and now Coorong expects them to pick themselves up? Hey, sunshine - they don't know how because we drummed it into them for 179 years that they weren't worth it! It has to take it's toll AND you can't just sweep it aside just like that. Recognise the damage, and do something about that first. And I don't mean chucking money at it either.

A treaty would be a good start - as well as the government having the guts to say "I'm sorry", on behalf of the ignorant governments that Australians voted for from 1901 to 1967 - particularly those at the time of the Stolen Generation and the White Australia Policy.

I work in education and i try explain this to the kids. my mum is 46 years old which means for the first 7 and a half years of her life she was considered an "alien" by the government. what i find sad about the whole situation is that when i ask her about our culture, she changes the subject, its like she doesn't want to talk about it, and i have to respect that.

as i said in the previous post, for the "stereotype" to change, you need people to succeed. this means, completing year 12, gaining suitable employment/going off to uni, even getting elected to parliment. until this happens however, the "stereotype" will continue its negative cycle from generation to generation.

[am Bays]

I've been waiting for you to put your two bobs worth in Joel...

Love to have a quiet beer one day with you and discuss some of these issues and your experiences, especially how you've had to learn about your culture.

[Coorong]

Well said JB, I too would like to share a frothy or two with you. Discuss your points and mine.

Whilst not aboriginal myself, got a fair bit as a boxhead.

Where I went to school, 400 kids 200 of each. (no not boys and girls, well probably) Spoke the language and funny thing we all developed a 'common" language.

When I went shearing my teacher and mentor and still a bloody good mate, is aboriginal.

I suppose our experiences forms our opinions/attitudes etc.

Not apologising for what I said, but either the interpretation or the delivery were off wack.

[Sheik Yerbouti]

Matter of interest JB, do you find Nunga an offensive reference ?

[redandblack]

I think it was more likely the delivery than the interpretation, Coorong.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, JB.

[Rik E Boy]

Great post JB. I experience Racism on my first day in primary school. I was bashed for having blonde hair. I grew up in Marrickville, don't remember anything about it but my Ma told me so no lasting scars. Let's just say it was all Greek to me. Funny also how the 'cool kids' at high school turn out to be the biggest losers as they are always the ones looking back.

regards,

REB

[Coorong]

I kinda figured you would think or post that R&B

As for JB, (and others) doubt they would take offence at the name Nunga as they have promoted it.

Similarly Poms, Croats, Serbs, Huns (and I am one) Kiwi's, Yanks, Canooks and Frogs. Do we get upsets by being referred to as Croweaters or Banana Benders or Cornstalkers.

I think political correctness does go a little to far.

Wogs Out of Work starred who? and what was Mark Mitchell's favourite character, loved and emulated by all?

And now we have the situation where some schools and shopping centres etc, dont put up or celebrate Christmas for fear of offending. Time we had a think about a few things!

[Snaggletooth Tiger]

I think political correctness does go a little to far.

Spot on!
I'm half 'Squarehead Kraut' & 'Irish Mick'
(explains my short fuse & love of grog!)
...it don't mean s#*t!
We're ALL Aussies!

[PhilG]

..

[mrjbeam1981]

as for the term nunga, not offended in the slightest. as some of the louts know, i use it myself.

i had to laugh though. i was with my dad somewhere and i said something about a "black fella" and he looked at me and said "you can't call him that" to which i said "look at me". makes me laugh thinkin about it.


another problem i've faced recently is the "using" of the aboriginality. i had an interview with the advertiser (see other thread). i got off the phone and went over to mum and said "shit i hope they don't just focus on the aboriginal part". i was actually stoked with the article.

i'm bloody proud of my of my aboriginality but its not the only thing i'm standing for, and if i want to go anywhere in politics frankly this is the attitude i'm going to have to have to get anywhere!

[PhilG]

..