Letters, April 26, 2023

Treated differently

I’M getting bored with being told that Aboriginal people shouldn’t be treated differently to any other race.

We’ve treated them differently for 200 years, to their detriment, and this seems to me a discriminatory remark.

But why are all indigenous people different to the rest of us?

Scientists asked this question of Australian Aboriginal people and published two reports in 2017.

The Center for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide took DNA from hair samples collected from Aboriginal tribal people all over Australia in the 1930s by the anthropologist Norman Tindale.

From the resulting DNA they worked out that Aboriginal people had settled all over Australia by about 64,500 years ago and remained where they had first settled until the white colonisation of Australia 200 years ago drove them out.

Another report in 2017 was of an Aboriginal habitation site in Kakadu with stone tools and cooking fires that dated to about 65,000 years ago.

This site is thought to represent the first Aboriginal people to reach Australia from Indonesia.

So in about 500 years they had spread across Australia and stayed ‘on country’ until removed by white colonisers.

These studies appeared on an ABC Catalyst program.

The genetic markers that separate these DNA samples relate to place, which shows that the link to tribal lands is not just cultural and historic; it is also in their genes.

I’m sure that similar studies of other indigenous people around the world would show similar things.

This is why indigenous people need to be treated differently and shown greater respect by our institutions and within our economy.  Being on Country is not a desire for Aboriginal people it is a need for which they are programmed.

And in Australia our law responded to Aboriginal people by claiming they did not exist.

Terra nullius (empty land)!

What an unholy mess it is and it’s high time we cleared it up.

A yes vote in the referendum for the Aboriginal voice to Parliament would help to do this, and not before time!

Rob Tanner, Bridgewater

Nuclear dump

I AM waiting with bated breath for the rest of the mainland premiers to show SA that they are enthusiastic to win the contract from the Federal Government for nuclear waste dumping in a similar way to their response towards why Adelaide received the Gather Round of AFL.

Plenty of negative interstate comments as though we are somehow undeserving of such a high profile event, but in their opinion the right place for nuclear disposal.

Glen Chenoweth, Goolwa North

Irresponsible drivers

TRAVELLING to Mt Barker on Long Valley Road on a couple of occasions in the past weeks, I witnessed on numerous occasions, P platers not only breaking the speed limit on the newly constructed road but also having no regard for the road rules and arrogantly overtaking over double solid lines on other sections of that road.

With all the money that is being spent on this road, this type of behavior is not acceptable and is not going to prevent road accidents.

It’s time for some type of video surveillance cameras to be placed inconspicuously along the road, to capture images of this behavior and have the perpetrators caught and duly punished for their disregard for not only their own safety but also other road users.

It’s happening on too many occasions.

It has to stop.

Ian Tonkin, Strathalbyn

Broken promises

THERE were many election promises made by the Albanese Labor Party before they were elected to government.

Among those were better health and aged care, improved housing affordability, reduction in energy prices and cost of living.

They were going to create 600,000 new jobs, bring back Australian manufacturing while reducing 43% of our emissions by 2030.

Their promise was to bring all Australians together with unity and optimism.

Fast forward 12 months and we’re experiencing unprecedented health and aged care crisis, housing affordability is getting further out of reach, and power prices and the cost of living are both increasing exponentially.

Ideological climate policies are causing uncertainty in manufacturing investments and net zero targets are turning into a pipe dream. Instead of unity we’re being divided by race and there’s widespread pessimism about our future.

And yet Anthony Albanese has been named “the most influential” by Times magazine.

This title may be a clue to his surging popularity as the ignorant and naïve are the easiest to influence.

K. Stachovic, Meadows

Control cats

MS James’ letter “Wrong culprit” (The Courier, April 12) is another example of the “Trumpian” logic used by those who believe cats should not be controlled.

Does she not realise that goshawks are a native species which have evolved with the other species she says are under threat by their predation in Mr Hobbs yard?

The difference is cats are not native and our indigenous species are not able to withstand predation by them.

Cats are great companion animals and as such play a role in the health and happiness of their human families.

But they need to be controlled for their own sake and for the sake of our wildlife.

It is not hard and not expensive to build cat runs connected to the family house to keep cats under control.

As is happening in NZ, our aim should be to remove all undomesticated cats from the Australian environment.

I urge all Hills residents who are concerned about our native wildlife to support the Adelaide Hills Council’s Animal Management Plan (currently under review) which requires cats (and dogs) to be registered and kept confined to the owner’s property at all times.

Ian Westley, Mylor