After the Apology: still keeping our distance

This article is not about the apology itself. What I want to talk about is “the where and how to from here” in the murky and politically undiscussed terrain of race relations in Australia.

In mid November 2009, Foreign Editor for The Australian, Greg Sheridan, stepped out of his usual world affairs role and wrote a short article based on his visit to Hopevale in Cape York. By referring to Sheridan’s article my aim is not to talk about Northern Queensland, but to focus on what the article says between its lines about the relationship between of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. Along with acknowledging his inexperience of Aboriginal Australia, Sheridan makes a poignant statement: he says “I wish I had more Aboriginal friends, more contact with the communities”. This statement is obviously genuinely felt, and I would hazard, resonates with the feelings of many other non-Indigenous Australians.

The question for me is why Greg Sheridan doesn’t, especially given his long-standing prominent position of one of Australia’s leading journalists, have more knowledge and have more Aboriginal friends. And to take the focus off Sheridan, this question can be extended to the vast majority of other non-Indigenous Australians. Why don’t Indigenous Australians know more about and know more Aboriginal people than they do?