This weekend SBS showed a film named " Utopia " by veteran journalist John Pilger. It could be said that Pilger has an intense dislike of all things " British " and his film sought to lump all the disabilities suffered by Australia's indigenous people on the first white settlers and the following self governing administrations.
It is an indisputable fact of life that our Aboriginal people have a far shorter life span than Australia's white population and they suffer a range of medical problems from diabetes to glaucoma that are under better control in the more established communities. They are over represented in our prison population - and they suffer a heavy handed approach from law enforcement and the various agencies tasked with delivering Aboriginal services.
There are things in our past that we should be ashamed of having committed, and Aboriginals living on tribal land often live in " third world " conditions. Many of the events which are now regarded as atrocities - and the " Stolen Generation " fits that mould - were actually genuine attempts to improve the Aboriginal lot and rescue young children from a life of poverty and discrimination. They failed miserably, because of a total disconnect between the western mind and that of a tribal people living an entirely unfamiliar way of life - to a new tribe of people of a different colour.
Pilger sought to highlight the deplorable state of Aboriginal housing, and the home he showed near Uluru was illustrative of what white Australia has long thought Aboriginal people needed. It was the type of home we would expect to see in a nice, white suburb. Kitchen - bathroom - living areas, suitable for a family of two adults and several kids.
Aboriginal culture doesn't work that way. They are tribal people and friends and relatives expect to be accommodated when one of the tribe scores a home. The resident admitted that perhaps twenty or more people lived in that house - and the filming clearly showed the result of that overcrowding. Mattresses on the floor. Lack of furniture. A very crappy toilet. In fact, the place was filthy.
Another fact that perplexed earlier housing providers. Aboriginal lore dictates that when a person dies their place of abode is abandoned. Not a problem when that place is a humpy on the bank of a creek, but earlier administrations simply could not understand homes standing empty - and in many cases being stripped of timber to fuel camp fires. It was simply a clash of Aboriginal and white culture - and it still exists today.
The problem seems to be one of " understanding " ! The people who make the decisions are usually white politicians who live in the city and have a total lack of the culture that dictates the Aboriginal mind, and they try and impose the concept of " suburbia " on a people who move from place to place to mesh with the seasons and their concept of lifestyle.
Pilger likes to play the " blame game " - and that is probably a good thing because city folk need to understand that we have a problem that is stunting the life opportunities of the people who were here long before white settlement. How we fix this problem - is a very good question !
The issue of who owns Australia is a divisive part of the equation. Certainly the Aboriginal people had centuries of tenure before 1788, but modern Australia can not be ignored - and the only practical solution is compromise. A similar conflict exists in other lands - and it might take centuries before the mix of people coalesces into a common stock. It is worth noting that " white Australia " is a meld of most races of planet earth - and each generation sheds a portion of past heritages.
The last thing we need is a " them " and " us " culture to flourish. We can not impose a white lifestyle on the Aboriginal people, but equally they need to accept that they are now part of a major world nation that is not going to pack it's bags - and go home !
A film like Utopia serves the purpose of setting out the problems that remain unfixed. Fixing them will only be achieved when black and white minds agree on a common purpose of action !
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