What are the issues facing the Aboriginal people of Australia?
Dispossession is the root of all the evil. If we look back only several generations, people have lost their land, their culture, their language and many are now forced into a position in society that they cannot relate to. We see the results of that in family breakdown, alcohol abuse, substance abuse, and people lacking initiative, or skills around raising a family or seeking employment or pursuing an education. Those are just some of the things that are the effects of their dispossession. The majority of Aboriginal people are living in very poor housing; we are only 2% of the population and within our communities, something like 70% are unemployed or even more. People are living day to day. In many cases they are living in Third World conditions because our people are at the bottom of the barrel when it comes down to economics. A lot of our people haven’t been taught the skills of survival in this type of world. When I say this type of world, I mean modern society. We were classed as
