The culture wars and petty feuds obscure the seriousness of indigenous education

Similarly, care needs to be taken with affirmative action policies.

If we are to pursue a stronger policy of affirmative action designed to get Indigenous Australians into higher education then that program needs to be targeted appropriately at the people most in need of help. One of the most likely sources of community division on this issue would be the receipt of assistance by people who are not genuinely disadvantaged and the failure to reach those who are seriously disadvantaged.

Affirmative action policies are very contentious. They have generated a considerable amount of controversy in the United States. In that regard nothing is more damaging to the policy of affirmative action than the sight of a qualified candidate sitting on the sidelines having failed to gain entry to a course of study due to quotas.

The matter that arose out of the Bolt case was the suggestion that some individuals with a marginal Aboriginal identity were using that heritage to seek professional and financial advantage. This is a very delicate subject. The legacy of colonization and inter-marriage are that there are a number of Australians with a part Aboriginal heritage.

But in the present context there does need to be a gatekeeper policy with all affirmative action measures, to ensure that the policy reaches those who need it most.

Allowing candidates to self identify as Indigenous in order to receive government assistance is inappropriate. Whilst self-identifying as Indigenous might be fine in a social or political context, it is less appropriate where access to public monies and professional appointments are concerned. In an affirmative action context it is worth considering that if you apply for a benefit under a program and you have an ethnic heritage whereby you belong to both ethnic groups X and Y, where X is the disadvantaged group and where Y is socially and economically privileged, but you identify as belonging only to group X, that you might in fact be misleading the decision-makers who are administering the program. Whether this would be a serious wrong would depend upon the specific circumstances of the matter. But it does raise a question of ethics.

At the very least where a policy of assistance or affirmative action is in place a candidate for assistance should be able to show both a genuine link via ethnicity to the affected community and a genuine economic need.

That said, Aboriginality is a complex topic and there is little to be gained by looking backwards and casting aspersions on others. The key issues now are to tailor the Intervention so that it works effectively and to open the doors of higher education to more Indigenous candidates. The issues raised here are very difficult and delicate. They are not greatly helped by the cultural wars amongst the 'elite'.