Indigenous – The Saltbush Club

Welcome the Warmth

By Viv Forbes

At dawn today (30^th July) mid-winter in sunny Queensland, it was zero degrees on the lawn outside our kitchen and the small water tub for our chooks was iced over.

Every morning, as soon as it gets light, Judy puts a winter coat over her jamas, adds gloves, glasses, rubber boots, a beanie and a walking stick (icy grass is very slippery). She then trudges down the hill to check any new-born lambs and then lets the sheep out of their dingo-proof night-camp into their paddock for the day. As soon as they are let out, they dribble into a long line and, led by the wisest old ewe, they wend their way across the frosty flat and then make their way up the hill to the highest point facing the morning sun.

WARREN MUNDINE QUERIES INDIGENOUS FUNDING

By Cliff Reece

Public funding is not resulting in “aboriginal people living longer lives and getting educated and in jobs and housing.”

Nothing much of value was achieved by Prime Minister Albanese’s disastrous attempt to corrupt our Constitution by inserting a race-based and divisive ‘Voice’.

If it had been successful, it would most certainly have led to the disruption of government processes and huge additional taxpayers’ costs.

However, what it did achieve is to open our eyes to the massive waste of taxpayers’ money that has been allocated to indigenous groups but clearly never made its way to the people who most need it.

Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders still live in abject poverty despite all the billions of dollars allocated to Indigenous groups, so the question we all need to have answered is: “what happened to all that money?”

Are We Indigenes Yet?

By Viv Forbes

Reference: “Indigenous Voice to Parliament to include regional voices to address local issues”: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/voice-to-parliament-to-include-regional-voices/100020562

The UK has seen many waves of invaders and colonisers – Neanderthals, Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Norsemen, Normans and more recently Indians and Pakistanis. Only Irish, Welsh and Scottish inhabitants have had the strength to get special recognition today. All are treated as ordinary citizens.

No human race evolved in Australia so we are all colonists or invaders. Several races walked, paddled, sailed or flew here over the past 60,000 years. Some displaced earlier arrivals, others mixed with locals and some became extinct. Some left rock art distinctly different from that of later arrivals and some destroyed or hid evidence of earlier tribes. Some were cannibals, some brought domesticated animals with them and all hunted native animals, sometimes to extinction. None can claim moral superiority. Continue reading “Are We Indigenes Yet?”