Petrol sniffing is just another step down a very brutal, violent road. Combine it with no jobs and no hope and the dead-end destination is clear enough. Forget, though, the lure of political rhetoric or even the emotional appeal of national reconciliation, necessary and inevitable as that may be. Indigenous people around the world have always been trampled in the rush to progress. Protection will be limited at best.
Nothing seems to turn around the statistics.
Instead, the problems among the Indian kids on many of the larger reservations are only getting worse no matter what their elders try to do. In Australia, it's also evident that little of the daily catastrophe facing Aboriginal communities would be fixed by treaties, self-government or formal apologies. Nor will more government money or even improved health and education facilities be enough. Yes, it is always better to build good schools and hospitals, particularly in remote communities. But the outback is also littered with examples of facilities that have been allowed to waste away through lack of interest and commitment as much as through lack of funding.