A world made in England

Of course our indigenous population do not have the resources to do this on their own and this is where government and non-government organisations can help. Provide Aboriginal mothers when they are pregnant with tape recorders and tapes of the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms so their babies can hear this sublime music in utero. For reasons that are not yet entirely clear, facility in classical music has some relationship to mathematical ability.

Make available in indigenous communities libraries of the best of English literature from Shakespeare on - maybe reading sessions or "book clubs" with a free lunch thrown in for indigenous parents and their children at weekends. Break the separation nexus between "indigenous" and White Australians.

In the long term perspective of 40,000 - 60,000 years of Aboriginal habitation of the island continent of Australia, the few hundred years of European contact may seem a mere blip, but it is an important blip. It brought a written language and a sense of self-identification for the indigenous tribes.

There were some amusing tales in India post-Independence of the impact of British colonial rule. A year after Independence in 1947, a newspaper reported that some villagers did not know that the British had left. Not to be outdone, The Times of India came up with a rival report that in another remote area, despite 150 years of British rule, the villagers did not know the British had ever come!

Whatever the impact of British colonial rule (and we think of the benefits of the Westminster system of government, the building of railways etc) an important decision India made post 1947 was not to regard the British as adversaries, i.e. invaders or conquerors. This carries an important message for those of our indigenous population of mixed blood. By labeling your white ancestors as "invaders" you are at war with part of your own heritage. Make peace.