My first 15 years was in the bush.. rudimentary education until i joined the RAAF.. blacks had no rights and i was not equal by aussie standards..but i learnt and worked and drank beside them.. in 1967 the referendum saw all the blacks thrown off their land.. it belonged to the station owner.. blacks worked hard for rations only.. sadly they had no country and no jobs.. welfare..stolen generation and grog destroyed them.. i was treated badly by sons of good families and there was no reporting chain that worked.. i have been in security..education as an aboriginal..islander education officer. Dept of justice.. other jobs.. but know of all the treatment and attrocities committed.. i fully understand the closed process that still keeps us subject to laws and rules that are racist and binding.. i am now 72 and in bad health. But never give up the fight for justice.. more and more we are getting better education and making our mark.. injustice or not.. the white population still has not lived here one percent of the time we have been here.. keep your voices strong..

Ernie you are ‘Spot On’ with what you have written. Your health IS your business. The system is SO broken, in so many areas, because it so often seems to be about creating wealth for a few rather than focusing on solving the problems for so many. As Jimi Hendrix so aptly said: “When the power of love over takes the love of power the world will know peace.”

The first step is definitely bringing it out into the light, as you are, for change to occur. May you find brilliant solutions because the answers do not lie in the pockets of a few, but in the hearts of many. For all of us back to the land and back to Nature is where the truth will be found.

In the 1980’s I was commissioned to create a series of drawings in support of Aboriginal breastfeeding, by the Nursing Mother’s Association for the Thallikool project of Australia. Having been blessed at that time to have worked alongside the most incredible Aboriginal elder Della Walker (who sadly is no longer here to share her incredible insights, except through her brilliant book” Me & You”) for a considerable period of time I felt very privileged to have been asked to do this. In 2005 the Australian Breastfeeding Association created limited edition prints with this written on them ‘Having breastfed her own four children, these drawings are her dream of a healthy future for not only the original people of this magnificent country Australia but also it’s newcomers”

It breaks my heart to see over 30 years later that the health of Aboriginal communities has got worse rather than better. There is no reason for it to be like this. I’ve worked alongside some brilliant Aboriginal people who have the answers but are not being enabled or allowed to enact them. This is where the problem lies. Self-determination is paramount. Give a child a healthy safe start and they will bring magic to our world.

https://www.charityauctionstoday.com/auctions/warrnamboolbreastfeedingcentre-667/items/aboriginalbreastfeedingartprint-10615

“Della Walker believed that ‘whether you are a white person or a black person, caring and sharing is what it is all about, me and you together that’s the beauty part of it'” https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/me-and-you-the-life-story-of-della-walker Cover art by Tryphena McShane.

More about the incredible Della;

Della Walker, of Gumbainggir descent, was born in 1932 on Ulgandahi Island, an Aboriginal reserve in the Clarence River delta near Maclean, New South Wales. She attended school on the island before her family moved to nearby Yamba, where she was employed in domestic duties at a local guesthouse.

When she was 17, the family moved to the Tabulam reserve, 45 kilometres west of Casino. She married there, and worked both as a domestic aid and an assistant to her husband in his seasonal farming jobs.

Walker became an unofficial midwife at the reserve, and subsequently became involved in a number of community activities: organisation of church services and the Djunagun dance troupe; promotion of her mother tongue, Aboriginal education, the teaching of Aboriginal Studies at regional TAFE colleges; and counselling of prisoners at the Grafton gaol.

She was also a member of the Aboriginal advisory council of the College of Advanced Education in Lismore, president of the Housing Association and the local Land Council at Tabulam, a director of the Yamboora Aboriginal Corporation at Yamba, and chair of the Nungera Aboriginal Cooperative Society at Maclean.Walker is a craft worker, screen printer and maker of echidna-spine necklaces. https://shop.aiatsis.gov.au/products/me-and-you-the-life-story-of-della-walker

Yurrangu Yamaji

Proud of you, my brother. Proud that you are not giving up on what is the heartbeat of us blackfullas. Strengthen the men…which in turn strengthens all us blackfullas. Down to the women and children.

We support you mate.
Thinking of you men getting together on country gives me strength and hope for my self and all Homo sapiens.

Ernie, that was bad news to wake up too, I have always thought the camping on country programme sounded like a great initiative that was working well.
I despair of government and their weird ways that always seem to benefit themselves and their mates
But Ernie, you have white mates out here and although I cannot afford much I would be happy to throw in some of my oldie pension if it helps run another camp .
I spent a number of years working in NT with First people’s in need of housing and may have a slightly better understanding than most of those lollies …
Annabel

Please let us know if there is anything we can do to support Camping on Country in their next journey. I’m sure lots of people want to help despite the governments unwillingness to.

With gratitude for your resilience
Casey

Sounds like a good idea. I know a lot of the money goes to the white fellow pocket. You can develope your own tourism. We all have to take care/charge of our own health. Are Aboriginals willing to listen to what make a healthy body. It’s taken me nearly 60 year before. I found the answer. Now I am healthy. The weight has dropped off me with out trying and at 67 year enjoying life, garden growing and sharing with people who wasn’t to listen.

You express without bitterness what you have been made to put up with.. I don’t know why the government and a lot of ‘not indigenous people’ can’t generously support you. Please continue, difficult as it may be, to practice what has been an amazing ancient pattern of beliefs and lifetyle. You are great. Thanks.

Hi Ernie. My Name Is Ian Newnham. I am Australian, just like you. We are together in this part of the world not from any direction on our part but as the result of many things done and not done by those that went before. The challenge lies in front, not behind and we must establish successful ways of dealing with them now and tomorrow. Democracies are fraught with in-built, corrupt decision-making processes that seldom resolve complex issues. Having said that, they also produce some amazing resolutions and a vast proportion of fair-minded and astute citizens. For well over 50 years many groups with similar agendas have corruptly influenced outcomes by dividing Australia and seeking self-interest solutions.
Many Australians now see any meaningful solutions as too complex and tainted with one self-interest group after another queuing up for more dollar solutions to vexing concerns. Politically this is toxic and as a result, the grant cycles become a poisoned chalice regardless of merit and many good and realistic solutions are lost. This huge source of goodwill has to be revitalised and debated in Australian forums made up of Australians of all backgrounds who are prepared to support other Australians in their quest for improvements in lifestyles. Responsibilities and Obligations form an ongoing part of the mix and in the 21st. Century reality is that whilst much of what went before is wholesome some are not and adjustments have to be made..
“Closing the Gap” is a political attempt to remove guilt and it does nothing to solve a problem that is moral and ethical. It will take Australians to do that.