Social justice for Indigenous Australians is about renewing Australia. It is about allowing us the benefits, opportunities, and living standards that this country's natural resources have created. Those people may be 19th century British and Irish families, or mid-20th century and newer arrivals from Greece and Lebanon, Chile and Vietnam. Nevertheless, they all share obligations for our housekeeping. The national task of indigenous social justice means nothing less than constructing together or cultivating a new sense of nationhood which provides not just shelter but a home for all our peoples.
Failure here has many outcomes.
In relation to Aboriginal health, for instance, researchers have recently been stressing that even by the depressing measure of statistics for disadvantage among Indigenous peoples in countries like New Zealand, Canada, and USA with similar histories to our own, Australia has failed as a country. For instance, we see many Australian business people and professionals adopting a suitably international sophistication in treating immigrant non-Europeans as equals at work and leisure but continuing to maintain a disdain for Indigenous Australians. We must establish a framework for community which includes Indigenous no less than non-Indigenous Australians. The cornerstone of Indigenous policy and politics in Australia is identity and the maintenance of that identity by individuals in company with others who share it. We are not simply isolated individuals, but peoples, with a homeland and a traditional culture.