![black eye](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/black-eye.jpg)
A Debate Remote from Reason
Back in March, when Prime Minister Tony Abbott referred to remote communities’ preference to remain ‘on country’ as ‘a lifestyle of choice’ it prompted a storm of protest from Aboriginal spokespersons and other interested parties. Abbott’s mentor on all things Indigenous, Noel Pearson, used ‘deranged’ to describe the debate. Abbott’s chairman of the Indigenous Advisory Committee, Warren Mundine, boldly suggested the PM was ‘out of touch’. Aboriginal activist and University of Canberra Chancellor Dr Tom Calma was ‘disappointed’, with many others on radio and TV expressing shock at what Pearson called a ‘very disappointing and hopeless’ statement.
A particularly poignant response to Abbott’s lifestyle choices was that of Warren Mundine, who wrote in the Australian using his clan name, Nyunggai. He regarded as ‘inaccurate and unfair’ the PM’s words, in his view invoking the terrifying memory of forced removal from ancestral lands. Mundine stated…
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