Story so far…. Struggling what to make of Aborigines. The indigenous people. Encounters haven’t exactly been encouraging. Sitting around. Often drunk. Not infrequently rude and abusive. But not stupid. Collectively very capable at playing the system. Knowing which buttons to press. And how hard.
Formulaic. Start with the premise that the wider society owes you something. Stick doggedly with this. Doesn’t matter if the injustices you rely on to assert your case for positive discrimination are now just historical footnotes. Actually, it helps. Much easier to distort faded memories in your favour than fresh recollections.
Dissenting voices are easily dealt with. Play the Race card. Or, better still, recruit a "do-gooder" from the same ethnic group as the opposition. A misguided apologist. Get them to do it for you. Gives accusations of racial discrimination, of prejudice, much more credence. No matter how unfounded.
Tongue-in-cheek? A little. But if there’s one place you can be sure of finding those harbouring prejudice based on race, then it’s amongst race relations practitioners or supposedly dispossessed minorities. Usually so blinkered they’re unable to see the irony…
For my own part, I’m sticking to some simple principles in my efforts to understand the Aborigines. Everyone an individual. To be judged on their own merit. But not a soft touch. Hard facts rather than emotional fiction. And never an apologist for history. The search continues…
