burning

[hnpcc]

We were discussing the Redfern riots at morning tea yesterday.

"Nothing's changed since 1988", said Smithy. "It was happening then, too, in the lead up to the Bicentennial".

Actually, it's longer than that. There were riots in the 1970s, and probably earlier too.

For a while there it all seemed so hopeful. Keating's speech, Mabo, Wik, grassroots reconciliation committees... maybe we could make this work, reverse some of the injustices of history, try to move forward.

And then the counter-attack. "Black armband history", the history wars, the sorry debate.

And now? It seems like nothing. There's certainly no leadership from the top - our current PM is only comfortable in the presence of his own kind, preferably cricketers or rugby players. What happened to the vision?

One step forward, a giant leap backwards.

Comments

[numbat.livejournal.com]

Australia is after all a deeply conservative place. Any sort of change has a vast amount of self-interest and ignorance to cut through.