I really do love Bill Bryson. In this interview, he manages to talk sensitively and intelligently about ‘new’ Australians’ relationship with Aboriginal Australians.
“Australia went from being a pink-skinned, sunburned, Britannic nation in the 1940s to, in a generation or so, one of the most ethnically diverse nations anywhere. And they did it all very successfully. There’s been hardly any downside to this change in immigration policy. Most of it has gone very smoothly. The people have been assimilated, and everyone realizes that it’s made the country a richer and more interesting place. Most people are really proud of that.
Still, you have this great, fundamental paradox: why doesn’t this extend to the Aborigines, the indigenous people? Australians are not a racist people. They really do have a sense of fair play. And Aborigines are not hated or treated with contempt. It’s more a puzzle: how do we bring them into society? No one has come up with any approaches at all. The gains have been almost entirely marginal.
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It’s not that they’re universally marginalized, but in terms of social policy the Aborigines are without question Australia’s greatest failure. That’s hardly a contentious assertion to make. Everyone agrees. The question is, What do you do about it? They’ve tried lots of things. Nothing has worked so far.”
Australia’s inability to find ways to live up to the responsibility to provide the opportunity for equality in life expectancy, quality of life, education, etc is one of the reasons I’m no longer proud to be an Australia. (John Howard and the xenophobic, homophobic attitudes he encourages are most of the rest of the reasons). It’s a difficult issue. How do you reconcile 40,000 years of history? How do you find a lifestyle that works for people who have been dragged into the 21st century without any say?
Forget sucking up to the US and freaking out about refugees: finding the right questions to ask, and looking for the answers should be Australia’s first priority.