The basics
As Aboriginal academic Marcia Langton says, the most difficult relationship is not between black and white people 'but between white Australians and the symbols created by their predecessors. Most Australians do not know how to relate to Aboriginal people. They relate to stories told by former colonists.1
Myths are powerful: they influence the way we think about things of which we might not have direct experience. Because few Australians have relationships with Indigenous Australians, myths have become one of the main ways of 'knowing' about Aboriginal peoples.
Individual Australians need to bust these powerful and often destructive myths by setting the record straight about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fellow citizens so that respectful relationships become possible.
Whether it's a conversation with your colleagues or chatting at a dinner party, here are some facts to help you set the record straight.
Press the links below to bust some myths!
- Real Indigenous people live in the bush
- Indigenous people only excel in sport
- Indigenous people are alcoholics who can't handle their grog
- Indigenous people are lazy and don't want to work
- Indigenous people get free houses, cars and undeserved special treatment
- Tasmanian Aboriginals are "extinct"
- Violence/abuse against women and children is part of traditional Indigenous culture
- Native Title can take away people's property
- Reconciliation is over
- Indigenous people trash their houses
- Indigenous people are doing nothing about their own problems and expect government to do everything
- Too much taxpayer money is spent on Indigenous people
- Indigenous organisations are corrupt
- There is no Indigenous leadership
- The failure of ATSIC is proof that Indigenous people can't look after their own affairs
- Traditional marriage systems promote sexual abuse
- I can't make a difference
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1 Marcia Langton, Well, I heard it on the radio and I saw it on television, Australian Film Commission, Sydney 1993, p33
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