Tuesday, May 30, 2006

GENOCIDE ATTEMPT ALLEGED

The thrust of a Menzies Research Centre report by former Keating government minister Gary Johns is that schools, rather than helping outback Aborigines take responsibility for their lives, have actually encouraged irresponsibility. The report recommends, amongst other things, that Aboriginal culture not be taught at school:
"Western education cannot and should not preserve Aboriginal culture..."
Given that Aboriginal cultural traditions vary greatly across the country, as evidenced by language variations, this seems nothing more than common sensical. Anyway, how are a bunch of mostly white teachers meant to properly teach Aborigines their own culture?

Naturally, Antony Loewenstein sees the proposal as something sinister:
If adopted, the Australian government will be trying to kill off one of the world’s oldest societies.
It's all in a day's work for the imperial Howard government.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home