Please watch this video & then read this. For a number of years there has been a policy of supporting & encouraging the indigenous peoples of the 200+ different language groups across Australia especially in remote areas to seek self empowerment in reconnecting to their homelands & culture & to develop projects to support youth & language & culture & dance & elders. Thousands of man hours of those from these communities and many who have supported them has had the biggest shift in helping many communities to start to find their feet & for amazing results like this video to come into fruition. Many non indigenous people across Australia do not realise the amazing results achieved & the challenges that have been faced & shifted & the many more that still exists. Most still dont know or understand the richness & depth of knowledge, skills & culture that all of the 450+ different nations (larger & more diverse than Europe was & is) had & have been systematically destroyed by government policies driven by paternalistic colonising imperialist racist ego driven pseudo Christian mentality that some how the invading culture was some how more worthy or important or even more developed than the 40000 year old culture that is still here. Yet since John Howards time there has been a systematic attack & dismantling of these very successful projects (see our Gereation) by all of the federal and state governments. This has been especially obvious starting in the Norther Territory with the intervention and now spreading to Western Australia. These projects need to be maintained & expanded. Yes plenty of individual parts may need to be revised & reassessed but the over all successes far our weigh any of the specific problems that may have come up. Every child in Australia should learn the local Indigeous spoken, danced, sung, played & drawn / made languages along with their own cultural heritage languages & English. Once we finally as a nation & as individuals take on that: This country was & still is Aboriginal Land The culture that was & is still here is AS valuable to us all as our own historical & contemporary culture. That the Indigeous people of this land need to have a treaty signed with each nation (ie not a token one that is meant to be applied across national boundaries. How would the European countries respond to a treaty being made that would then be applied across all the countries?) That we recognise & support every Indigeous nation the right to self determination & sovereignty of their own lands while of course also recognising that we all now live on much of this land & also consider it our home(s). then we will start down the road that the political & media stunt of the apology (even if for many of us individually it meant more) only ever hinted at. Supporting the Indigeous people of this land by standing for & making sure funding is maintained (& increased) for homeland & remote community & language & cultural programs is vital. It is being removed as you read this all over Australia. What did you do once you knew? (Drew Dellinger) --Roland Smith
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 22:09:49 +0000
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015