General Discussions

[Lods]

I think Macca37 raises an interesting point with respect to how the mechanics of the indigenous voice will work with the different communities, language and effectively nations that exist in Australia.  I do know that a government institution in Victoria, hired the wrong person from an indigenous background to serve as indigenous liasion in a health care service, and that person was from Queensland with the result that it did more harm than good for the people in that Victorian community and resulted in them being disengaged.

On a previous theme....if you want to see a 'rainbow' have a look at a map of the indigenous groups within Australia.

I remember when I first started teaching I was sitting with a young indigenous lad.
He was from the Northern Territory and somehow or other had found himself caught up in the NSW  juvenile Justice system.

We were watching a game of touch football and more than half the boys were indigenous inner city kids.
We talked about home and the the things he liked to do...a lot of hunting and fishing, very little schooling was pretty much the things he enjoyed.

He pointed to the group playing football and said..."See these blokes, they're 'yellowfellas' (I'm not sure why he picked that colour but he did). They don't know any of that stuff."
He saw 'himself' as different.

So finding that united indigenous voice may still be a challenge in this day and age.
Some issues are universal, others are area or people specific.