![coin](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/coin-e1587347017197.png)
Who Gets to be an ‘Elder’?
Everyone at some point has been called upon to acknowledge “Elders past, present and emerging”. I’ve sometimes genuflected to their “wisdom, courage, creativity and resilience” at conferences six times in a day. But who decides who’s an Elder, or an “emerging Elder”, an older non-elder, or just a proud member of the XYZ Nation toting a Senior’s Card?
Big Four consultant PwC has grappled with this conundrum in a report handed to the Victorian Treaty Advancement Commission (VTAC) in December. The brief was to advise how an “Elders’ Voice” top-tier structure could work with the First People’s Assembly on Treaty, representing traditional landowners. PwC spent 5000 words defining an “Elder”, after consulting 201 of them in 19 workshops statewide. More than 80 per cent of the Elders want a way to challenge spurious Elders. PwC quotes one Elder: “There is no existing process to confirm ‘who is an Elder’. It’s hard enough to confirm Aboriginality, who…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins