DOMESTIC VIOLENCE , and its causes goes unreported on OUR ABC

 Presumably because it's not PC to say so ........ even on the ABC   (see in particular the claims of Jacinta Price and those who have observed major causal elements inside aboriginal communities where traditional culture is observed -- as far back as 1880; see below ) 

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE  goes UNREPORTED  and totally MISUNDERSTOOD 

Today is the day of the referendum and "progressives' all around the country cannot believe that their fellow Australians can be so racist ( or at least appear to be )
This false perception goes to the heart of the angst and blind sidedness of our generation . Progressives, having largely proven to prove nothing, are not sure about our culture,  but we switch channels and say  we think 60000 years might have taught the first people's something .

Fair enough , but to vote for a constitutional change means our forebears got something wrong  which is where our ABC could have been helpful..
Not everything is wrong .
Where was the constitution wrong? No.  It seems to me the clause removed in 67 was a neccesary adjustment and the idea of institutional 'non recognition"  was a misunderstanding and   a category error. not a helpful one but one that simply happens as Boswick found , becuase you can't actually locate all the aboriginal people and the decision had been made to try ( right or not) to protect them .( before even 1850 when only handfuls of europeans set up little towns like Colac Warnambool and Port Fairy  ( Boswick's most detailed account of numbers , agriculture,  and conflict in 1857. My impression from Boswicks very comapssionate reporting is that just then ,as now, we steel and wheel merchants didn't really know how to help the first peoples, who were just overwhelmed by the cultural differences .   

So this lie has become a bigger one in the hands of those who want more power and opportunity to promote their own righteousness. Sure there is hurt injustice and plain takeover but what human community is free of those injustices ,even from our own ? I can make a list only 3 recent generations long . Are we ever going to forgive as we have been taught to do for our own good, even though we can't always forget ?????
Like children, the country follows the child Whitlam,  Andrews, Turnbull and Albo into solving a problem that wasn't there but was an action, maybe m  built on a mix of real care and also despair and some guilt.( still not OUR guilt as some post or pre Christians would have it !!!!) 
All that doesn't mean the children presume to have answers, and that the quick fix of a bit of law and statute (constitutional) is really going to help things.

The West's best answer to injustice heaped upon one has always been counterintuitive ( not revengeful as our bodies tempt us ): Overcome evil with good. 



  . 

If we ever do rewrite the constitution , which might not be a bad thing. 
we could do what Washington and others did and said in the USA
"Under God we are all equal and in this land it is incumbent on the government to prove it so before the law . "
We wouldn't be , as Albo the god like master of ceremonies TODAY be singling out one race for special privileges and him for special note as Pa. 
A real progress historian scientist  would go sifting the good from the bad ; the sustainable from the unsustainable . no such attempt by our publicly funded truth seeking journos . That is bad .

 

1. The ABC could have asked or just reported Bonwick  - yes the first peoples were counted even in 1857 

Next question 

1. Can we learn anything about land use . yes we can and yes we can be very critical of industarail methods and eco thinking which was wrong for land use here .Bruce Pascoe and Bill Gammage  butchered the prospects of a proper scinetific review - still needed .

No we must support ALL cultures as Niebuhr called for it ----- to be subject to revision , The closer scrutiny not just of time, but genuine independant scientific , philosophic and historical scrutiny  - sustainability 

1. Were the first peoples harsh in their treatment of each other and were they stuck? 
   like some moderns  whose in faith in Nature , which in the dark of the days night gave them, as it does now us , as excuse to be brutal ( read White again on children and mothers ) 

The ABC 's failure to properly follow up on Jacintas Price's point that if The VOICE of some tribes is listened to, the domestic violence on remote women and children can be expected to increase.  ( read J,. Smiths  account  of  Booandik Tribe 1880 ) 

note  her detailed descriptions of aboriginal marriage practice and the common suicide of mothers and killing of babies . pages 4-7
If culture is worshiped again then cruel nature will again rule because men will use it as a licence . 

Time for the ABC to properly and fiercely study how domestic violence can be so easily prosecuted by men who get their own way with women --  Add this to an honest account of the history of modern west and their menfolk as well . 

The West's best answer to injustice heaped upon one has always been counterintuitive ( not revengeful as our bodies tempt us): Overcome evil with good. 

 Apart from the intro and this ending, this note was posted before the result was known (extra note made 8pm 14th Oct)  

Aside added 28th Oct 2023

While the beaten wife may not get a technical quick fix to domestic violence by the above complex truth ,( overcoming evil with good )  (that is by SIMPLY allowing her partner to beat her --thats not a thoughtful response to a man ouuta control)  we all have to bear in marriage and family the assaults and insults from our partners who don't always understand or agree with us .It makes us all angry from time to time and IMO we must all face the complex truth about anger being both helpful AND dangerous.  

As Western law and culture clearly indicates if you are going to PREVENT and TREAT violence ( and deal with anger for example -  an adrenalin response?)  you have to accept that VERBAL ASSAULT is as bad as PHYSICAL assault . Sometime I know as someone who has worked with unhappy alcoholics,  that the only preventative defence you often have  is to run away . Noradrenaline too works that way  by allowing time , distance and some return to reason to play  their part.in the face of the wild emotional dangers from anger and adrenalin