Warning politics involved but your vote your choice 🙏
I have been asked to co-ordinate a program called “on track “ in bourke which puts young offenders through a boxing course and reports to the judge at sentencing. Mission Australia is partnering PCYC and Boxing NSW which i was till recently treasurer .
Bourke is also having success with the justice reinvestment program
“justice reinvestment approach to criminal justice reform involves a redirection of money from prisons to fund and rebuild human resources and physical infrastructure in areas most affected by high levels of incarceration” source AlRC
When i was in Bourke last i was riding the new bike path between bourke and north bourke and an indigenous kid maybe 12 pulled up beside me and full of beans says “where you going?” and then says “can you do this ?” and pulled a wheel stand.
Bourke is a sh*t show with the highest per capita crime stats for nsw, a massive ice problem and is often used in same conversations as alice springs and yet the physical talent of these young kids is amazing but they get dragged into the crime and by 20 most are defeated and incarcerated .
I had to do indigenous studies as a core subject at macquarie uni recently as part of an arts degree in politics i have been doing and was failed the first time as i hated it that much and spoke out. white man bad white man bad 😡🤬 and i feel it permeates to grass roots so whiteys trying to do good are fair game including myself . Also what came to light in the course is the disunity amongst indigenous themselves which means they won’t accept one treaty it has to be 250 treaties one for every tribal nation . no chance of singing the national anthem in indigenous language as they do in NZ because which of the 200 languages could anyone agree to 🤷🏻
My tenant in bourke who administer indigenous housing in bourke shire , and are mostly of one family all drive better cars than i do and so it goes .
I admire my birth country for what they have achieved in the last 40 years with the All Blacks the symbol of the partnership and wish for that for australia .
The referendum will probably fail on Saturday and like the Republic we will probably not see the likes of it in our lifetime and nothing looks like a solution to replace . It is token, it is a very small step but it was something and now the future does look bleak .
It’s sad but i do hope idiots like Fred Hollows, who is buried at his request in Bourke, keep fighting for this troubled but amazingly gifted people who no doubt are often their own worst enemy.
The photo below i took circa 2012 when after a long drought the heavens opened ☔️
