Talking in my online community - the Indigenous dilemma

Dear Visionary Opposition leader,

So it comes to light how you Dingo Dundee Nelson secured the party room numbers to snare the Liberal leadership. The WA Liberals were that staunchly against Turnbull's proposal to agree to saying SORRY to the Stolen Generations, that you Dingo Dundee said you would refuse an apology if the WA Liberals voted for you as party leader.

Now thanks to you DINGO and your pack of conspirators, there is no consensus on an important issue to many Indigenous Australians, thus detracting from the whole heartening nature of the apology, that Malcolm Turnbull as a Liberal leader showing a partisan vision on the issue could have offered.

So the regressive ferals of the Liberal Right have once again created a political wedge with the Aboriginal people, as in their ugly appropriation of Mangrook they enjoy a political kick to kick with the aspirations of one of the most disaffected minorities yet important first foundation stones in the building of a truly great Australian nation for the future.

Up there Cazaly Brendan Dingo Dundee Nelson!

In the dreams of many visionary contemplating Australian's you've well and truly dropped the ball on this one.

Signed,

I shouldn't have expected any more



My impression is that a lot of Aboriginal leaders are that spent on ineffective government actions in their communities, that the consensus amongst them on what to do has diminished and now they are speaking out as disparate views on what the government tries to do for them and what they think are the best solutions. Thinking about it taking away a central body like ATSIC has probably done this.

I don't want to get into a debate about the merits of that, but I will say both sides coming together on saying Sorry would have had an influence uniting Aboriginal leaders in a common good for their people. I think the government has to give them back a forum to talk together; it may be happening I'm not aware of it. I'm not committing to going back to self-determination with funding, but I do think they need to become united to move forward. Let them argue amongst themselves and stand united in the public view, the media are just chasing the Aboriginal leaders for quotes now.

I don't know if you know of Waleed Aly, a leading young Australian academic/lawyer/journalist who happens to be of the Muslim faith, but he and his wife are fed up with the media because every time something happens with the Muslim community, they ring Waleed for a moderate Muslim opinion, Aly doesn't like answering their questions because they want stereotype responses - when he is about real cultural investigation.

While the media agenda is asking Aly for a view to unite Muslims, the media are going the other way with Aboriginal leaders. I read an article by Kevin Andrews on the approach a government needs to take with Aboriginal people and it was like stamping work choices and the freedom of an individual subscribed by a capitalist ideology onto the Aboriginal people - that's what is happening with their leader's expressing their opinions in an openly democratic approach - if you follow what I'm saying - individual voices by a section of a society in an open democracy doesn't work unless you combine your voices into a lobby and give your community a unified voice.

The way it is at the moment it is just a vicious circle - that's just my opinion.

After all that has not been achieved, if I was an Aborigine, I'd probably be madly kicking around empty cans in the dust as well.