It’s just more of the same problems and programs

These are among the factors noted in every inquiry. Except that with each report the list of problems grows and the list of programs to manage the problems grows.

And the clincher, of course, is that “communities and experts” have told the commission about the importance of “maintaining and strengthening connection to land and culture” as “a protective factor” for young Aborigines.

Would this be the culture that lauds violence to settle disputes; humbugging, that is, bludging off family; sorcery; and forced teenage marriage to old men?

Pat Anderson, joint author of Little Children are Sacred, one of the 50 reports, said during the current round of consultations on the recognition of Aborigines in the Constitution that “traditional kin-­based Aboriginal law was closer to a conventional constitution than it was to Western legislation, which can be changed by governments”.

Anderson says Aborigines “already have a complex legal system, which puts us as equals, not inferiors, to the Western system”.

Yes, spearing, hearsay evidence and payback can be quite complex.

My advice to the commissioners is to stick to matters that relate to the conditions in the facilities and staff training. If you are to indulge in anthropology, trace the lives of those Aborigines who have succeeded, despite “colonisation and loss of culture and land”.