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August 13, 2007
The assimilationists argue that Aborigines have no future as a distinct or separate people. The decentralised communities are deemed to be living museum pieces, fringe communities with quaint customs. A distinct culture and way of life represents separatism and this was interpreted as apartheid. That argument of Paul Hasluck is being recycled today, in response to the abandoning of the policy of assimilationism in the 1970s, the recognition of dispossesion and the silence about dispossession.
Self-determination for Indigenous Australians requires economic autonomy. Economic dependence negates self-determination. However, reconciliation is a difficult concept because white and black Australia have never been united.The differences and conflicts are too great. The assimilationist argument returns because the self-determining decentralized communities took to the grog and destroyed themselves through violence and sexual abuse of woman and children.
David McKnight's From Hunting to Drinking is a classic text. It explores the devastating effects that alcohol has had over a period of 30 years on Mornington Island, off the North Queensland Coast, Australia. Drinking has become the main social activity on the island and the amount of alcohol consumed has reached a disturbing level.
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