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Hey Strawman, I'm pretty new to this site so I'm not sure if I'm saying this in the right place but meh. I'm currently doing my last year of high school and I have a major modern history assignment on Aboriginal Australian history. I silently groaned after hearing of our topic this term- This is about the tenth unit I have done on Aboriginal history in my school life and, quite frankly, I find Australian history rather boring. In comparison to say Germany's, America's, China's or Spain's history, ours is rather uneventful. Don't get me wrong, I know there were many horrible crimes inflicted onto the the Aboriginal people during the "invasion" and after, but I am seriously sick of being preached to about how ignorant I am about the aboriginal suffering (when after about ten units on Australian history I can pretty much recite its timeline off by heart!!) At risk of being boxed, packaged, labelled and thrown onto the conveyor belt to rascistville. I think Australia's overcompensation towards the Indigenous people is in fact, in itself, racist. It is as if we are insulting their intelligence through our lack of belief that they can look after themselves. I have an indigenous friend in my art class and she is continually frustrated every lesson by our white, extremely pro-aboriginal art teacher. Every unit she is expected to create a dot painting about her culture, the stolen generation, and racism in general. It's kind of like, everybody, even sometimes aboriginals themselves, over-identify Aboriginals as Aboriginals. Your skin colour or your background doesn't determine who you are!It's only one aspect. I'm part Maori and Jewish I don't do do a freakin art project on it every term or talk about it 24/7 or expect anything from Germans as compensation for the Holocaust! Anyway, sorry about the rant phew- back to what I was originally saying.. I am doing a Modern history assignment with my hypothesis being participation by indigenous people in Australian pop culture has helped to promote their culture as well as bring awareness to ongoing problems. And it's hard. I kind of disagree with the statement. I mean fair enough their integration into pop culture has brought awareness to their existence and culture but it doesn't solve much. Putting an Aboriginal person on a coin, playing a didgeridoo in a pop song or saying "sorry" doesn't stop all the alcohol abuse or domestic violence in Aboriginal communities. Well, I was browsing the web for ages sifting through website after website when I came across yours and thought Bravo! A like minded person that is willing to risk being called a racists in order to actually tell the truth and what everyone is thinking. I then discovered that there were people going off at you completely missing the point off your argument. They are either, themselves ignorant and stupid or in complete denial. Anyway, I know I probably sound like a rascit, selfish, pretentious generation-Y/Zer and will definitely spark anger and hatred in a few sanctimounious pro-indigeneous-but-not-really individuals but BRING IT ON. Oh but I will have to say that I disagree with you on one matter... Yes many criminals and alcoholics in indigenous communities are completely capable of solving their problems themselves and taking responsibility. But the European forefathers of Australia and today are partially to blame for their condition. An entire race of people have had "civilization" pushed onto them in a matter of a hundred years or two, while it has taken European countries thousands of years to develop into the way they are today. And furthermore, while every individual regardless of race has every right to get completly wasted, when it results in domestic violence, it is the responsibility of the government (unless we live in anarchy) to intervine. This is not always the case in indigenous communities however, what with the government being in complete denial about the violence and all... Anyway I guess this brings me down to the point of my massive rant (oh yeah sorry about that) I just wanted to ask if you had any ideas for a stance I could take on my hypothesis, without sounding like a racist, and what your thoughts on it were... Thanks :)
-Naomi
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