Australia set to recognise Aborigines as first people of continent

[Violet_Crumble]

39. As bad as Australia's been, we seem to be miles ahead of the US...

btw, like Tony, I'm Australian. I doubt any country settled by the British Empire can claim purity, but it's how we try to make atones for the genocide and undo what damage we can that makes a difference. Australia under a Labor government has taken big steps to try to do that, but there's still a long way to go.

Has the US recognised native title when it comes to indigenous Americans? Australia has. In 1992 the High Court accepted native title and struck down the concept of terra nullis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mabo_v_Queensland_(No_2)

Has the US govt ever issued an official apology to indigenous Americans for what was done to them? Australia has.

http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/our-country/our-people/apology-to-australias-indigenous-peoples

I work in a large organisation, and that apology was the only thing I've seen where everyone's stopped working and stood in front of the TVs in our breakout areas watching. Nothing's done that before, not 9/11 or Julia Gillard becoming PM. Our former conservative PM, true to form, refused to attend the sitting of Parliament, and the Liberal leader gave a speech afterwards making excuses for the treatment of Aboriginal Australians.

On the down-side, and it's interesting to note that the example I'm going to use is from when John Howard was PM, there was a call back in the late '90's for a Royal Commission examining the issue of government funding to our indigenous population. What abysmal funding there was wasn't being pointed in the right directions, but because the Liberals were in power, instead of it being a Royal Commission, they duck shoved it to a very small government agency I was working in, where they hoped no-one would take any interest in the inquiry or its findings. And they got it right. The findings of the inquiry was that there needed to be better and more focused funding to indigenous communities, and the government of the time totally ignored it. So, yes, we have a long way to go yet...

I'm totally disgusted and disillusioned by Julia Gillard, but I'm glad when she comes out with something I agree with for a change. But knowing the history of referendum results here, I've got grave doubts that any referendum on removing racist stuff from the constitution will succeed, mainly because how referendums are run means that unless there's a vast majority supporting change it's not going to get across the line....