A WELCOME MOVE



First a couple of `disclaimers.`  It`s difficult, if not downright presumptuous, to comment from a distance of 13,000 miles and it`s probably more presumptuous to even pass comment on a society and a country from a position where one`s own country hangs on to some tenuous notion of sovereignty over that faraway land.

But I`ve been interested in Australia for more years than I care to remember.  It has so much going for it with its necessarily short but dynamic history and culture.  I`m even a member of the John McDouall Stuart Society which exists to honour the memory and achievements of one of the country`s greatest pioneers, who came from Dysart in Scotland.  But in a way, his quite heroic achievement - in opening up the hinterland and blazing the trail for the overland telegraph - exemplifies the `taking over` of the country by incomers and the indifference if not outright hostility shown to the indigenous population of aboriginal tribes.  

After all, they have been there for countless centuries, at one with the land, at one with nature, understanding and respecting their place in the scheme of things in the dreamland and doing rather well before the arrival of explorers, pioneers and settlers who brought a kind of presumptuosness of their own.

Over recent years, the divide in all kinds of ways between the aboriginal and incomer populations has become more recognised and things have happened to narrow that divide. For example, in 2008, former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Australian government,  made a formal apology for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on the indigenous Aboriginal population.  And now Australia has said it will hold a referendum on recognising its indigenous people, the aborigines, in the constitution. The aim would be to improve conditions for the country's most disadvantaged community. As a first step, the new Prime Minister, Welsh born Julia Gillard, announced that a panel of experts would lead a 12-month national debate on the issue. It's unclear when the vote would take place, although it seems unlikely before 2013.

All sounds very encouraging and another welcome move.  But a couple of things intrigue me.  The first is that, after all this time, why not just get on with it, for surely the issue is very clear and the prospect of yet more prevarication and navel gazing might simply lead to yet more distrust and disenchantment and, at worst, damage the integrity of the process.   But secondly, if this were a perfect world, surely the aborigines would be holding a referendum to include the newcomers in their own constitution?  Or is that just too presumptuous?