The black and white brothers

I look at my hitchhike partner gingerly, as if asking? 'What shall we do? Accept the lift or decline?'

Exasperated, we climb into the car.

The white, dishevelled driver introduces to us, himself and his Aboriginal partner at the back, as 'black and white brothers'.

I shall never forget this moment. This title had a major impact on my life. It etched into my memory and has kept haunting me through the nearly 50 years that has passed since this encounter…

As we travel from Alice Springs to Darwin with this generous pair of down and out alcoholics for the next few hours, the words 'black and white brothers' take on a different, albeit sad meaning for me.

It now means, the broken Aborigine finding his mate in a white hobo: an alliance of 'la miserablés'!

After arrival to Darwin, I can't help noticing drunken Aborigines everywhere!

And lots of 'black and white brothers!'

I am flabbergasted: This is not the self-determination that we so enthusiastically dreamed of, while I was a reporter on This Day Tonight ABC TV, finishing that job just before this hitchhiking.

Now that Gough Whitlam came to power, he became the architect of the new policy of self-determination for Aborigines.

A seemingly unlimited amount of cash is being thrown at the Aborigines with the motto: do anything with it, now you are free! But we whites forgot to ask the question:

Are you equipped to be free now, when we have dispossessed, neglected, injured, disintegrated and demoralised your people for generations?