Aborigines

Noel Pearson's reflections on his home town are depressing. Noel is an aboriginal leader with a University degree. He is articulate and intelligent. Mostly his articles are incomprehensible to understand. He is usually critical of government policy towards the aborigines.
Jim Belshaw is trying to get a grip on the problem(s) that must be addressed to help the Aborigines (notice I don't refer to them as a community, because as Jim says, they are not one homogeneous mass, but a very diverse group of cultures).

There are similarities to the plight of the American Indians. I wonder if we can learn anything by comparing the problems with Australian aborigines to those of the American Indians?

And then, in contrast there is the New Zealand Maori. It's hard to pinpoint what it is that makes the Maori different but I guess it's the fact that they don't have a history of discrimination to deal with. The Maori's have always had the Treaty of Waitangi.
Maybe it's the fact that the Maori had a concept of ownership of the land whereas the aborigines have no such concept.
Maybe it's because the Maori weren't treated like vermin, a pest to be exterminated like the aborigines.
Maybe it's because the Maori had the right to vote.

Whatever the reason, the Maori in New Zealand are part of the country and never feel that sense of separateness that the aborigines exhibit. There is no sense of discrimination in New Zealand as there is in Australia.