TL;DR
This compendium was inspired by another answer for this question, one that was well intended but whose conclusions, for the most part, I disagree with profoundly. This answer contains corrected and reinterpreted statistics, personal experience and a wildly celebratory, positive view of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
I encourage all who have wondered sadly about the state of Aboriginality in Australia, to at least scan this and take the corrected statistics on board. It's not necessary to watch all of the videos - I've included these only to better illustrate the amazing diversity of Aboriginal experience in Australia today.
It's not my intention to argue with anyone's experience - but simply to give a balanced view. I've used a lot of upper case and bold here - not to be aggressive, but to allow you to find the relevant statistics and important information if you should choose to scan this answer.
(Edit: Don't take the following to mean that I believe Australia or Australians are any more racist than any equivalent country in the world. I've defended us against claims to the contrary here on Quora and I'll continue to do so. Yes, there is racism here - just as there is in every other country in the world. )
ABOUT ME:
I don't identify as Indigenous, though some of my family do. It's somewhat silently accepted that there is Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) ancestry on my mother's side of the family - but nobody talks about it.
(((( MY GRAN'MA))))
My brother and I are regularly asked by Aboriginal people where our people are from or who our family is or even 'Where your mob at?' 'Mob' generally means tribe and/or extended family. Traditional Aboriginal people had very strong web of kinship ties and the interest in placing themselves and those they meet in relation to each other and the land they come from remains strong for many of them today.
My stepsons identify as Indigenous, as their mother (my dear friend, my ex's other ex) is Aboriginal/Islander/Asian
, with parts of her family hailing from Torres Strait, where some of the world's most beautiful people are born due to intermarrying between the local islanders and the Asian people (generally Chinese) who worked extensively in the pearling industry in the 1800s.
I've also had many close friendships and creative partnerships with Indigenous people including stays with friends at remote communities.
This is me about 10 years back with Bill and Rose Thiaday on an Aboriginal community called Wooribinda (Woori) a few hours inland from Rockhampton in central Queensland. Bill and his brother, Mick Thiaday developed a network of radio stations throughout outback Australia which have given remote communities a connection to the modern world they couldn't have dreamed of 20 years ago. They are tough, dedicated men and there are many such elders working hard to undo the damage colonisation has done to their culture.
Okay. Let's get started. Myth Busting Murri style.
1) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE GET ALL THE WELFARE:
Many people complain that Indigenous people get more welfare than white people in the same position, seeming to believe that being Aboriginal or Islander is like some kind of never-ending credit card. The following link explains the basic financial strategy of successive governments as they try to address Indigenous health and housing issues:
Australian Human Rights Commission
While it is true that Aboriginal people are eligible for some minor alternative benefits to white Australians, this issue is blown out of all proportion by those white people who object to it. It is not nearly so much as those who have been manipulated by the politics of envy believe (One Nation (Australia)) and is not nearly so easy to get hold of as some imagine.
The middle class welfare available to families - Family Assistance Payments, baby bonus, tax breaks - is at least equal to and far exceeds individual Indigenous assistance in many cases. Disadvantaged white people also have access to low cost loans to buy government housing through the Housing Department.
For example: Pathways shared equity loan
There are many reasons that ATSI people require extra assistance with things such as housing and employment.
One is that many businesses are reluctant to hire obviously Indigenous people without some form of government incentive. It's sad but true, though I don't think for one minute that this happens only in Australia.
Also, many landlords won't rent to Indigenous people.
Two personal anecdotes:
1) My landlord once said to me, 'We don't rent to blackfellas. Only time it ever happened, this bloke had his friend come around and rent the property. By the time I found out, it was too late - if you kick them out, you're in big trouble with the law.'
When I asked him how it went, he said, 'Oh, yeah, good. He was very clean. Left the place really good actually.'
'Ah, so that would have changed your mind about the whole issue then.'
He looked at me like I was crazy. 'No way. We were lucky. He was one of the good ones.'
That landlord was as nice a guy as you'd ever meet on any other subject you could mention.
2) A white friend was applying to rent a house with a mutual friend who happens to be Aboriginal. He hadn't been able to get away from work, so she'd done all the business with the estate agent and it was a big YES. The owners had accepted the application and were pleased with both of their professions, their rental histories and credit ratings.
He felt he really should make the effort to go in and meet the agents and so the next time she went in there, he went with her.
A few hours later, she got a call from the agent saying the owners were very sorry but they'd actually just that day found someone privately to rent to.
I was once in a taxi heading home and to make conversation, said to the middle-aged woman driver, 'I've thought of driving cabs, but I always worried it would be dangerous. Ever had any trouble?'
'Nah. Never. But I only drive during the day, and I never pick up blacks.'
Huh?
Imagine your life, if strangers who held an undeserved low opinion of you had this kind of power over such things as whether you work, whether you get a place to live, whether you can get a ride home in the rain, for god's sake.
Another area in which Indigenous people need extra assistance is health. The statistics are clear. Australia wide, Indigenous life expectancy is about 17 years less than white Australians. Many people believe this is due to alcohol abuse.
However, the vast majority of Indigenous people do not abuse drugs or alcohol.
In fact, statistics show that 37% of ATSI people do not drink at all, as opposed to 22% of white teetotalers. Read more at this link:
Reconciliation Australia Mythbusters
Then of course, there is the terrifying suicide epidemic which affects all Australians, young and old, white and black. But the Indigenous numbers are particularly alarming.
Suicides accounted for 4.2% of all registered deaths of people identified as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander in 2010, compared with 1.6% for all Australians.
Read more here: Australian Bureau Statistics - 3309.0 - Suicides, Australia, 2010
I have a personal connection to this statistic - my stepson is a part of it. He committed suicide 3 years ago.
This is a slide show of his funeral set to the song Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd.
I was very torn about including this video. I don't want to feel that I'm using his death to make a point. But then again - why shouldn't I? His death and that of those like him are exactly why this point should be illustrated.
Oh, and also - many people believe another myth about death and Aboriginals - that the dead can simply never be mentioned again. It's much more complex than that and most urban Aboriginal people no longer follow this tradition, or they follow it for a proscribed amount of time.
Some people say that people like my stepsons 'don't look very black', as if therefore, they don't need to have any problems with racism, as if therefore, they somehow choose discrimination by declaring themselves, as if they should somehow deny that part of their heritage and...
What? Try to pass for white?
What are they supposed to do when half of their family is black, as you can see from the above slide show? While it may be true that they won't be pulled over for Driving While Black as often as their darker cousins, they certainly get pulled over just as often when they have their family in the car with them.
They feel angry to see their family treated this way. They feel sad to see them suffering injustice. They feel guilty to be treated a little better than their cousins when they go out in to the world just because they are fairer of skin.
I feel all those things for them, too.
2) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE HAVE AN IRRATIONAL REACTION TO BEING DISPOSSESSED
Some people claim Indigenous people have an ongoing hatred of whites which was not assuaged by PM Kevin Rudd's official apology in 2007 and that this is borne out by their treatment of the police.
But really, while most Indigenous people I know have stories of prejudice and bigotry they have experienced, there are very few who hate all whites. Most take all people as they find them, just like any reasonable person does. Amongst the Indigenous people I know, the only ones who hate all police, sight unseen, are the criminal element.
Just like any other racial group, really.
Which brings us to...
3) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE ARE TAKING UP ALL THE PRISON BUNKS
It is commonly claimed that, although they only make 2.5-3% of Australia's population, aboriginals make over 80% of prison populations.
The correct statistics are:
26-27% of the prison population Australia wide are of Indigenous descent. If you remove the aberrant Northern Territory numbers from the equations, the rate falls to 17%.
In the Northern Territory, the least populous region of Australia, the figure climbs to between 80 and 84% depending on whose figures you are using. It's important to note though, that the Northern Territory also has the highest Indigenous population: 33% compared to - remember? - Australia-wide 2.5-3%.
With a population of 233,300 it is the least populous of Australia's eight major states and territories, having less than half as many people as Tasmania.[1]
More here: Northern Territory
Let's look a little further into this terrible statistic.
Northern Territory routinely puts people in jail who should be in hospital.
In the Northern Territory, Aboriginal people with a cognitive impairment who are found mentally impaired under Part IIA of the NT Criminal Code are incarcerated in maximum-security jails in both Darwin and Alice Springs.
More here: Issues in the Northern Territory (ADJC)
So we can't really know who among the 84% percent of the NT prison population really belong there. Add to this the NT's policy of mandatory detention and you get a real Injustice Stew.
Here is a small list of some of the crimes for which NT Aboriginal people have gone to jail under mandatory sentencing:
Margaret Nalyirri Wyndbyne, 24, receiving one can of beer value $2.50: 14 days jail.
Jamie Wurramara, 22, stealing box of biscuits and orange cordial on Christmas day value $23: 1 year jail.
Samual Eupene, 23, goods in custody of seven pearls found on beach, value unknown: 14 days jail.
Joanne Coughlan, 27, criminal damage of an electronic till by pouring water on it. Damage bill paid by defendant: 14 days jail.
Chris of Gunbalanya, 18, receiving petrol value $2: 28 days jail.
Robert of Nhulunbuy, stealing two cartons of eggs value $8: 14 days.
Kevin Cook, 29, stealing a beach towel from a clothes line value $15: 1 year.
Liam Edwards, 16, stealing $20 he claimed he found: 28 days jail.
Brett Willoughby, 19 stealing one bottle of Stoli value $2.04: 14 days jail; and
Johnno Johnson Wurramarrba 15, stealing textas, paints and liquid paper value about $50: 28 days. Died in custody.
More here: Shane Stone and the NT’s mandatory sentencing regime
To be fair, the Northern Territory's mandatory sentencing laws were watered down in 2001 after being legally challenged by the Federal Government. However, they remain the most draconian in Australia and in May this year, the newly elected conservative government beefed up the mandatory sentencing laws once more and well, I don't think Tony Abbot's Federal Government will ride to the rescue this time.
In summary:
The Northern Territory jails black men at a rate of almost 6 times that of South Africa during the last years of Apartheid, the most racist regime in recent memory.
Again, Australia wide:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners comprised just over a quarter ... of the total prisoner population. The age standardised imprisonment rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander prisoners was 1,914 per 100,000 adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population.
More here: Prisoners in Australia, 2012
This statistic tells us many things, but perhaps the most important piece of information is ignored:
Over 98 000 ATSI people per hundred thousand are NOT in jail!
Let me spell this out for you.
THE VAST MAJORITY OF ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS ARE LAW ABIDING CITIZENS WHO WILL NEVER SEE THE INSIDE OF A JAIL.
4) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND THEIR INSATIABLE THIRST
Many people believe that alcohol abuse among Aboriginal people is 'rampant'.
While it is true that there are communities where alcohol abuse and petrol sniffing are tearing the people apart, as previously mentioned in this answer, 37% of Indigenous people do not drink at all.
In 2008, around one in six Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander people aged 15 years and over (17%) drank at chronic risky/high risk levels, which is similar to the rate reported in 2002 (15%).
More here: The Health and Welfare of Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Oct 2010 The Australian Bureau of Statistics.
While this is a worrying statistic, what is once more left out of the picture is the fact that:
83% OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DO NOT ABUSE ALCOHOL
Incest and sexual abuse is also sometimes spoken about as though it's a normal part of Aboriginal family experience. In fact, the vast majority of Indigenous families care very well for their children in all areas of life.
5) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND HEALTH
Some people believe that all Aboriginal health disadvantage is due to 'lifestyle factors', basically meaning excess alcohol.
In fact, a great deal of it is related to the problem of remote area medical assistance. Urban Indigenous people still have a higher incidence of diabetes than non-indigenous people, but much lower than those in remote communities.
Diabetes/high sugar levels were reported by around 1 in 16 Indigenous people. Diabetes/high sugar levels were more common among Indigenous people living in remote areas (that is, communities/small towns) (around 1 in 11) than among those living in non-remote areas (that is, big towns/cities) (around 1 in 20)
More here: Review of diabetes among Indigenous peoples
It's worth turning this statistic on its head, as well, to get a clearer picture of how the vast majority of Indigenous people actually live.
Yes. The incidence of poor health is high and some ATSI people are victims of a quicksand of sickness, addiction, discrimination and poverty, but the vast majority are in good health and look after themselves in order to stay that way.
15 out 16 INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AUSTRALIA WIDE DO NOT SUFFER FROM DIABETES.
Furthermore:
IN URBAN AREAS WHERE HEALTH SERVICES ARE AVAILABLE, 19 OUT OF 20 INDIGENOUS PEOPLE DO NOT SUFFER FROM DIABETES.
6) INDIGENOUS PEOPLE AND COMMUNISM
It's also been said that :
Aboriginals have large extended families and property is expected to be shared. For example, if one was to buy a new car it wouldn't be abnormal for a 2nd cousin to 'borrow' the car for several weeks.
For most Aboriginal people that I know, this is simply not true.
For some in remote communities, there is a need to regularly travel many hundreds of miles to main townships for supplies of one kind or another. But since there's little use for vehicles within the small communities, it's true that cars and other transport are kind of seen as communal property to be used according to need.
It's also true that some desert Aboriginal people have an entertaining relationship with their vehicles, as shown by the TV show, Bush Mechanics (TV Mini-Series 1998). My brother who has worked in remote South Australia as a mechanic for 30 years, assures me it's all true. He has seen Aboriginal people come into to his garage after driving many kilometres using a sapling to replace a snapped axle.
However, if any of my urban Indigenous friends' family were to take their car for 2 weeks without permission, there had better be a bloody good reason.
7) MORE INDIGENOUS ALCOHOL ABUSE AND UNEMPLOYMENT, BUT NOW WITH A SIDE ORDER OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND RENT ARREARS!
I've seen it written here on Quora that:
Along with alcohol abuse and unemployment comes a range of issues including domestic violence. Furthermore, 60% of those removed from public housing in the past 2 years were aboriginal. Reasons include non-payment of rent, disturbances & damage.
I would be interested to know where the '60% of evictions from public housing' statistic comes from. But again, let me counter with another statistic that shows more clearly how many Indigenous people live their lives.
HOME OWNERSHIP RATES
Around one in eight Indigenous households (18,350 or 12%) owned their home outright (without a mortgage secured against the dwelling) and a further 38,650 (24%) owned their home with a mortgage.
More here: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Home Ownership: A snapshot, 2006
Again, there's a sad disparity between white and black households, but 36% of Indigenous people are just mosying on through life living the great Australian dream of never having to deal with discriminatory landlords and real estate agents or the bureaucrats at Public Housing ever again.
A common misconception among white people is that Aboriginal people willingly destroy the houses they are given by the government.
Sara Hudson from the Centre for Independent Studies in St Leonards, NSW, says that “although vandalism to houses is evident in some communities, the widespread assumption that Aborigines destroy their houses is false” [3].
Rather, “studies conducted over a seven-year period (from 1999 to 2006) found that the major causes of ‘house failure’ were lack of routine maintenance and faulty construction and design.”
“Of the 4,343 houses surveyed in 132 communities, only 11% passed national standard safety. In 50% of houses, there was no tub or bath to wash a child in, and only 35 per cent of houses had a functioning shower.”
Architect Paul Pholeros has 30 years’ experience in Aboriginal housing. He says that 60% of housing problems arise from poor maintenance, 25% from poor initial construction and only 8% from damage and abuse by its tenants [8].
The problem is not the people. The problem is shitty housing.
—Paul Pholeros, architect [9]
The state of Indigenous housing across remote Australia is the most visible and enduring evidence of the failure of governments, over decades, to address Indigenous disadvantage.
—Jenny Macklin, Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister in 2009 [4
Read more: Aboriginal houses
8) THOSE DARN MURRI KIDS GOING ALL AMERICAN GANGSTA!
I've also read this statement on Quora:
Aboriginal youth don't generally learn their culture from their elders. Hence they try to identify or dress as black 'Americans' ie 2Pac t-shirts with bandanas and jeans hanging below the butt.
Yes, it's true that some Aboriginal youth have co-opted black American hip hop trappings. But not because the elders don't teach them about their own culture.
Teenagers all over the world adopt American culture for better or worse - from Coca-Cola to rap, American cultural imperialism, aided by unlimited advertising budgets, pervades the world and annoys the shit out of parents everywhere.
Is it really so surprising that Indigenous Australian youth would identify more closely with Tupac than with Hanson (band)?
It is hilarious, in that way where it hurts to laugh, that European civilisation would do everything it possibly could to stamp out Aboriginal culture - breeding programs, cultural indoctrination with Christianity, outlawing language, the Tasmanian genocide - and yet come back at contemporary Indigenous people in 2013 with the accusation that they don't teach their children the ways of their ancestors.
Besides which, it simply isn't so.
Many Indigenous people and communities are far more dedicated to teaching their children the old ways than most white people, for whom putting on a DVD of a TV comedy from America in the '60s is about as far as they get with exploring the roots of their culture.
Here is a chess table that my stepson, David, made for me.
Pretty freaking cultural, I'd say. Like most Aboriginal paintings, it tells a story from his people's oral history. Aboriginal people did not have a written language, but their history was recorded in paintings.
9) ABORIGINAL PEOPLE AND RELIGION
Another mistaken belief about Indigenous people is that they don't have a religion.
Many Aboriginal and Islander people do in fact have a religion. There are Aboriginal Catholics, Protestants and Muslims. There are even Aboriginal Jehovah Witnesses - I know this because one came to my door once and tried to give me a Watchtower, just like any old garden variety J.W.
Deacon Boniface Perdjert from Wadeye, Northern Territory.
(PHOTO: BETH DOHERTY, ACBC)
World class athlete Tony Mundine, an Aboriginal and observant Muslim, faces Mecca to pray.
A delegation from the Gubbi Gubbi people welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama to their country.
The guys in this picture will likely finish their smoking ceremony, sit through the service, then wipe off the clay, throw on a t-shirt and head out to the footy field to watch the game, or maybe home to throw a prawn on the barbie and knock back a couple of tinnies. Responsibly, of course.
And of course, since this is Quora, I'll specifically mention there are also atheist Aboriginal people.
Dreaming is more of a spiritual philosophy than a religion and is often practiced/ believed in tandem with religious beliefs. It's a beautiful, magical world view and the basis of it has echoes of Jung's Unconscious Archetypes and Plato's Theory of Forms.
Dreaming says that we here on earth are but reflections/copies of the Ancestors who reside in the Dreaming. Everything you see on earth has a magnificent, perfect prototype that lives in the Dreaming, best described as another dimension that exists alongside this one and can project itself into this one as necessary. For instance, any old kangaroo that jumps in front of your car is a mortal reflection of KANGAROO. We ourselves are reflections/ projections of the original MAN and WOMAN. Even objects that are inanimate to us, are reflections of perfect spirit objects in the world of the Dreamtime.
Any of us can be inhabited by our 'prototype' spirit at any time. Any kangaroo can become KANGAROO if there is a need. This is why traditional Aboriginal people pay so much attention to the natural world. Absolutely anything can be infused with Spirit and become a messenger from the Old People at a moment's notice, returning again to its mortal state just as quickly. This is how a traditional Aboriginal person might explain those instances of a child being able to lift a car off someone or a dog rescuing a baby from a burning house - they temporarily embodied Spirit.
SOME RANDOM BITS AND PIECES YOU MAY FIND INTERESTING...
Indigenous peoples are not one culture. They are similar to Native Americans in that there are many tribes with many different set of laws and customs, linked but separate. For instance, the didgeridoo is seen as synonymous with Aboriginal culture across the country. It's actually a north central Australian instrument. The people around where I live don't use them except, in recent years, for fun. Also! Didgerdoo isn't an aboriginal word - it was coined by a journalist trying to convey the sound it makes to his readers.
I've come across the perception from a few people internationally that the term 'abo' is not offensive here. It is. I think the perception comes from the Rolf Harris song Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. This song was recorded in 1960 or so before Aboriginal people were considered citizens in their own country and basically refers to Aboriginal people as chattels. It's true that it's not as offensive as the N word. It doesn't make you a monster in the way that saying the N word appears to in the US, but no, don't go calling Indigenous people abos - it's definitely not cool.
As with the N word in other countries, some ATSI people may choose to refer to themselves and their friends and loved ones in this way. Aboriginal people most often refer to themselves as Murri in Queensland and Koori in New south Wales. I'm not familiar with other states. Blackfella and whitefella are also common terminology among Murris and can be used in a matter of fact way to refer to someone's race if you know the people well. They are not really considered offensive, but are considered presumptuous if used with too much familiarity.
A cultural difference in language which could be misinterpreted by those from other countries is the practice of calling Aboriginal Elders Auntie and Uncle. Generally only other Indigenous people and white family will do this, but sometimes white friends will be invited to do so. Don't get the wrong idea if you see this happening. I presume it would be a great offense in the US because of slavery, but the Elders consider it a mark of respect here and whites who are invited to be part of the family in this way feel honoured.
And, oh yeah. We don't use the term Native here. I've learned on Quora that it's cool for Native Americans - but yeah, don't do it here. The word native is very strongly tied to our native fauna and Aboriginals were once considered a part of that. :(
It's worth mentioning here many white Australians deny the use of the term genocide for what happened to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people. There was no intent to kill all Aboriginals off, it's commonly claimed - it wasn't a genocide, it was an accident.
Personally, I believe that point is moot but I don't want to argue. Let's just agree that:
Colonisation occurred in 1803 and the British developed a policy aimed at ridding the Tasmanian mainland of Aboriginal people. The colonisers didn't really mind whether the Indigenous people moved to the outer islands or died.
By 1833, there were only 200 left due to war and disease
These 200 surrendered under the false promise of having their lands returned to them and were exiled to Flinders Island where they continued to die of disease and misery
In 1847, Tasmanian Aboriginals were again transferred, further away from their homelands
In 1876, Truganini, widely considered to be the last full blooded Tasmanian Aboriginal, died.
Those Indigenous people who now identify as Tasmanian Aboriginal have mostly European ancestry and are the descendants of Palawer women who were abducted and kept as slaves by European sealers in the Bass Strait.
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This is my most comprehensive Quora answer yet. It's also my most important one. It's a subject I'm passionate about and, compared to your average white Australian, knowledgeable about. But I'm no expert, my answer is not in any way a last word.
I'm not saying that the things most often mentioned about Indigenous people - alcoholism, domestic violence, high unemployment - are not problems in some places, but they are not actually what the overwhelming majority of ATSI life experience is all about. These stats, supposedly gathered to help them, are often used as just another way to beat Indigenous people up.
When we talk about Indigenous people, it's as if the conversation can only be about the extremes of Indigenous experience - those who excel in some field, those at the very top, or those who have been beaten by life, those at rock bottom. It's as though the overwhelming majority of those who occupy the middle ground of everyday life don't even exist.
Sometimes they look like this...
Sometimes they look like this...
But believe me, they're here, getting on with their life and making the best of it.
Cathy Freeman is one of Australia's greatest athletes and when she won Olympic Gold at home in Sydney 2000, the nation couldn't have been prouder. That is how successful an obviously Aboriginal person has to be to get positive attention.
Still, she kept insisting on carrying the Australian Aboriginal Flag along with the Australian Flag whenever she won, and well, that just pissed a lot of people off.
CATHY FREEMAN FLAG CONTROVERSY, SYDNEY 2000
In the lead-up to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australian sprinter Cathy Freeman was warned she would risk losing her medals if she chose to fly the Aboriginal flag.
The warning was a reference to Freeman's actions six years earlier, where she draped an Aboriginal flag along with an Australian flag around her shoulders for a victory lap after winning a medal at the Commonwealth Games.
It was the political nature of the gesture that most upset officials. “Because the Aboriginal flag is not the national flag we would be concerned the athletes are putting themselves at risk of breaching rule number 61 of the Olympic charter,” a spokesperson for the AIC told media.
The Aboriginal flag was declared a flag of Australia in 1995.
Many Australians don't realise that the Aboriginal Flag has been an official flag of our country for nearly 20 years. Come on, cobbers - catch the fuck up.
Being Aboriginal means everything to me. I feel for my people all the time. A lot of my friends have the talent but lack the opportunity.
- Cathy Freeman, after winning Gold at the '94 Commonwealth games.
That Indigenous Australians have to work so hard to get positive recognition, when negative attention is never further than a headline away, reminds me of the quote by Ginger Rogers - that she did everything Fred Astaire did, backwards and in heels.
For those of you still with me, just a little more on the the amazing variety of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island culture and experience:
I've mentioned remote communities a few times in connection with the social problems that a lot of people talk about. But the truth is that there are plenty of beautiful, healthy, happy kids on most communities as well and those kids are doing fun, contemporary, creative stuff.
Here are The Woorabinda Boys performing their original song No More Drugs.
And this is an hilarious bit from The Chooki Dancers of the Yolngu people of NT as they interpret Zorba the Greek. Many of them have no English, but they have a great sense of humour.
Here is an ARIA award performance of the Oz classic Treaty by Yothu Yindi. Australians loved the song, but unfortunately, it didn't help much in getting the longed for treaty happening.
This was filmed at The Laura Festival ( Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival ) a biennial celebration of Indigenous culture. Most Aboriginal traditional dancing is called Shake-a-leg and tells each tribe's Dreamtime story or some other part of their oral history. A lot of older people, white and black, call all dancing shake-a-leg, which I think is kind of cute. I have been asked up to dance with the words, 'Hey, wanna shake a leg?'
And now, to cap it all off, a little eye candy. Hot Murri guy playing with his dij - oh my! Derek Pharms is a master of the dij.
TL;DR. Again.
All in all, the most important thing that you can know about Australian Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders is that they are far, far more than a great big bunch of horrific statistics. They are a great big bunch of individuals.
Some of them are very traditional and some of them are very modern and the rest of them fall pretty much along the continuum between.
Most of them are probably pretty much like you.
They go shopping at the supermarket. They eat takeaway occasionally. They put a lotto ticket in every week. They watch Disney films with their babies and they have trouble controlling those babies once they become teenagers. Most ATSI people would be no happier that their teenagers are co-opting US ghetto culture than most white parents are, but there's not a lot they can do about it.
Just like any other parent.
Read other related questions on Quora:
Who are the aboriginals of Australia?
What is the point of the Aboriginal people being recognised in the Australian Constitution?
Are the aborigines responsible for the extinction of Australia's megafauna?
Read more answers on Quora.