Just finished the 7 part documetary called First Australians and I am so mad. The documentary tells the story how the British first came to Australia and how ever since - to this day - the aboriginals have suffered. Watch it yourself:

http://www.sbs.com.au/firstaustralians/index/index/epid/1

edit: Yeah maybe not the best description but they do say a picture is worth a thousand words don't they?

sorry, do not have time for this since we just celebrated thanksgiving

Why shame on Australians now? I'm pretty sure most of the current day Australians didn't do that shit. I mean, that would be like blaming me personally for the genocide against native americans.

Who ate all the Squanto?!?

So you think the aboriginals are nowadays treated equally, that they now have the same possibilities in life as the white people have?

Living in Wyoming, I find myself driving through Indian reservations from time-to-time, and it is a sobering reminder of what happened to these people many years ago. It's sad, really.

Canada has many of the same issues. really I think the natives are tying to do the impossible. Live half in the 19th century and half in the 21st century. Creating their own ghettos as a way to keep their heritage, which seems to have only become a heritage of poverty and poor education.

If you wanna see how the aboriginals are treated nowadays, watch the episode 7.

did the ausie gov't recently agree to pay reparations to the aboringinals?

also, no offense, but why is this news? i thought it was common knowledge that the british empire raped the world for a duration and will someday be punished like in "city of men" or "28 days later."

To me, and to most of the people I've talked with this is something not very well known. And it's not something that happend back in 18th century but is something that seems to continue to this day. I had heard about the abuse of the aboriginals in Australia, but I had no idea it was so organized by the government, that they actually wanted to get rid of all the aboriginals once and for all.

oh. well i guess i didn't understand that from your initial post. i'll watch that when i've got some time, but i can't say i'm that surprised... unfortunately.

I feel like Australia and America are very similar nations. Both of them are collections of fuckos who were cast off from Britain. The difference is that we got the religious nutjobs and Australia got the criminals, but both cases involved raping and pillaging the native peoples, so it amounts to about the same thing.

Question: Have the aborigines been treated badly?
Answer: Yes

/endthread

not everything here has to be debated.

Absolutely not. I'm just saying it's unfair to blame the systematic abuses the aboriginals suffer on present day Australians who were born into that system.

But we have to blame someone!

Im pretty sure that aboroginals nowdays actually live better than in the past. Life in the wild was never easy for them, forge the bs they lived in a paradise before evil white men come, life for til the XIX was harsh even in the wealthiest countries for most people, and extremely harsh for any society that can be coined as "primitive". If the europeans didnt come, they would have much less "possibilities in life".

That's an awful lot of rationalization. Practically every society has it better now than they did in the 19th century, as you kind of implied. However, it's pretty undeniable that things got worse for the natives before they got better. Some of it was unintentional (disease), some of it was very intentional (such as the Stolen Generations, which should be at least required skimming for everyone participating in this thread).

I'm pretty sure you're an idiot and talking out of your arse.

Aboriginals in modern Australian society face issues which are institutionalised, ignored and endemic. Their quality of life is far below that of the average white Australian with a life expectancy difference of some 10 years. They are faced with a great number of health issues such as diabetes and glaucoma as well as more difficult issues associated with the circulatory and renal systems. Problems which are easily treated in white society but not in the Aboriginal population especially amongst those who live in the bush.

Alcohol and drug abuse and violence, both domestic and sexual, will be experienced by the majority of Aboriginals at some point in their life. Literacy and numeracy rates are at the same level as those in developing nations. Aborginals are far less likely to graduate high school, let alone university, secure a job or decent housing.

Suicide rates amongst Aboriginal males is at an all time high and they are far more likely to both commit and be the victim of crime. 21% of Australia's prison population are of Aboriginal descent while they only make up 2% of our overall population.

Our governmental solutions over the past 220 years have ranged from attempted genocide, to ignoring the issue, systematic and institutionalised kidnapping and abuse, throwing money at the problem and hoping it goes away, to broken promises and empty apologies.

Regardless of whether the situation was caused by the current population of Australia, Aboriginals are treated like third class citizens in their own country and are the most disadvantaged group in Australian society. Our government does nothing but pay lip service to a huge range of issues faced by our indigenous population and as an Australian, this fills me with deep shame. So please, do not trivialise the issue with your ridiculous notion that life is now better for a race of people who deserve a lot better.

It is an interesting dilemma. Which would you guys choose, independence with the lack of modern day institutions and inventions or modern day poverty?

I don't really know what I would say. I suppose there is more chance for upward mobility today, but of course there is something to be said for being free.