This thread reminds me so much of some jewish/german debates/fights I've seen. Should all non-jewish Germans today pay 10% of their income to jewish people or something like that to "bridge the divide" even though it happened 60 years ago?
Aboriginals doing the HSC exam today are generations upon generations apart from those originally slighted
Many non-aboriginals today are:
a) also generations upon generations apart from those who originally did the wrong thing
b) descended from migrant families who played no part in this whatsoever
Where will it end?
The people who screwed up in the first place were but few of many, and are long gone. Australia is such a multicultural country and I'm sure I can say on many people's behalf (including my own) that my forefathers had NOTHING to do with 'Colonisation' and the mistreatment of Aboriginies (my parents migrated here only a few years before I was born). I do think the Prime Minister should apologise on behalf of the government, and I do think the government (as in, people who have the power to change things as opposed to innocent HSC students who aren't involved and can't do jack, basically) could do a little more to fix things up.
But it frustrates me to no end when people like this thread starter start randomly pointing fingers and blaming people. I feel like screaming "Look, I'm actually somewhat sympathetic for your cause. Wanna stop blaming me for killing your great-great-grandfather decades before I was even conceived?" It's stuff like this that makes me think those that have been slighted would prefer to ignore my support so that they can concentrate on getting angry and yelling at people every opportunity they get.
In other news, I don't think "Rabbit Proof Fence" and Sally Morgan's "My Place" are on the HSC English Prescribed Text List by coincidence.