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| Down Under | |
| Top players blow in for didgeridoo festival | |
| 2003-05-04 | |
Some of Australia's top didgeridoo players are in Pine Creek, 230 kilometres south-east of Darwin, today for its annual Didgeridoo Festival. The day includes Indigenous cultural activities, winding up with a sunset concert. The concert also closes the Pine Creek's three-day Goldrush Festival. Organiser Elaine Gano says the Didgeridoo Festival has been growing steadily since it began in 1996 and they are expecting up to 600 people to attend. "It's a chance for them to hear traditional and contemporary playing, which is not something you can easily find these days, and also some very traditional dancing and it's free, so that adds to the attraction," she said.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #5 Hi Leo, In Sth.Central Arizona I have the San Carlos Apache reservation to the East And White Mountain Apaches to the North,the best thing that has happened to these people is Indian Gameing(own and operate thier own casino's)this has made a great difference in the lives of Native Americans. Reservations here in the U.S. are considered Soverign states with thier own governments,police,etc.. how does it work in Ausstralia? |
| Posted by: raptor 2003-05-05 05:23:53 |
| #4 You are right, leonidas: it IS the governments fault to the extent that they enabled the corrupt indigenous leadership to exploit their own people. I agree! But the corrupt indigenous leadership must also take responsibility for misusing the funds that were *intended* to help their communities. It was due to the PC brigade who didn't want a 'paternalistic' "white" state administering the aid but who wanted aboriginals to self-administer aid according to their own cultural dictates and power structures. Unfortunately those power structures are the kind often that give all the decision-making ability to unelected, unaccountable tribal elders who are born, not voted in. It is simply corrupt feudalism all over again and that just leads to the poor old serfs getting none of the money. You cannot absolve them of all blame and responsibility. |
| Posted by: Anon1 2003-05-04 22:49:10 |
| #3 "Another problem of multiculturalism: turn a blind eye to corrupt and undemocratic feudal practices in aboriginal communities and you end up with malnourished, alchohol-dependant and poverty-stricken people who are rapidly losing their culture but who lack the ability to replace the loss with anything productive. There is a "genocide" going on but it isn't the fault of the government: it's the corrupt aboriginal leadership who are strangulating their own people! " Anon 1, You are DEAD wrong. It is the fault of the govt for enabeling the "aboriginal leadership". I live on a U.S. "Native American tm" reservation and have wittnesed how dependence on govt "programs" have devastated the intended recipients. |
| Posted by: leonidas 2003-05-04 21:52:15 |
| #2 I just cannot believe it's free: that's fantastic! Some aboriginal festivals are extremely expensive for tourists (read rip-off). Welcome one and all, come and have fun in Australia!!!! I'll buy any rantburger I come across a beer!!!! yellerKat is right though... the few shaken survivors from ATSIC more like it. For the edification of rantburg, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission receives in excess of $1billion a year to fund Aboriginal projects. It is headed by Geoff Clark, an individual who frequently indulges in pub brawls and who has had no less than 4 separate individuals who claimed he raped them and who have attempted to take him to court. Aboriginal politics in Australia is rife with corruption. Recently the federal government decided to separate ATSIC from the ability to spend it's $1billion annual budget due to the fact that hardly any of the money actually made it through to the poorest aboriginal people. Aboriginal communities still have some people who live with no running water and bad health care yet the government alone shells out on average $60,000 for every Aboriginal man woman and child living in this country. So where does all the money go? And that's not even counting the hundreds of millions that Aboriginal Traditional Owners get from Mining company royalties. Another problem of multiculturalism: turn a blind eye to corrupt and undemocratic feudal practices in aboriginal communities and you end up with malnourished, alchohol-dependant and poverty-stricken people who are rapidly losing their culture but who lack the ability to replace the loss with anything productive. There is a "genocide" going on but it isn't the fault of the government: it's the corrupt aboriginal leadership who are strangulating their own people! |
| Posted by: Anon1 2003-05-04 20:37:39 |
| #1 You mean the few shaken survivors from the Aboriginal Holocaust? |
| Posted by: yellerKat 2003-05-04 18:16:24 |