Forced assimilation will not work on a resilient people


Last year, a senior government minister referred to remote communities as "cultural museums." Her agenda was clear: it was time to stop treating Aboriginal people as being different from other Australians, and it was time to stop funding those communities. This self-justifying approach to the assimilation has not worked here nor elsewhere in the past. Those of us in power generally don't appreciate how resilient and resistant Aboriginal people can be. Nor do we seem to understand that some values are considered by Aboriginal people to hold more life and vitality than many of our own - Fr Brian McCoy

SOURCE
Eureka Street



22 Aug 2006