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Writing - business services, verse, comment all text copyright pa cosgrave "The euphemisms will wear themselves out in time. Stick to the words" David Marr "Stick to the point and the words will come" Cato weblog (current editorial comment) business writing services
grant funding applications, awards submissions There's a great deal of grant finance out there, but who's got the time to wade through eligibility criteria & guidelines, chase up letters of support, edit and position pictures, collate it all, write a credible story and project manage the application? Paul does. He's written and project managed many business proposals and applications including, in 2007, a submission for a regional business awards finalist and the winning submission for a statewide local government award. professional cv - $175.00
Sydney's Indie Music Travels The World on Virtuallive.tv august 2008 High quality weekly internet broadcasts from Sydney’s best alternative music venues have become a reality with the launch of Andrew Gelao’s new online music channel www.virtuallive.tv. Gelao has aligned his unique skill set with an emerging music environment to create new business opportunities for himself and the industry. “Sydney music is in a massive growth stage. There’s just nothing like the thrill of seeing new acts at ground level that you know are potentially huge, and being able to show them nationally and internationally is its own reward”. He points to bands like Faker and Wolfmother as examples of success born from the vitality of Sydney’s independent scene. Despite his natural enthusiasm for the concept, Gelao maintains an impressive business realism about commercial potential. “My point of difference from the YouTubes of the world is that I’m showing real, high energy recordings, professionally produced, from inside great venues”. There’s no lip synching here. “They represent a weekly spotlight on original music and new bands with genuine live performance integrity”. With no pre-publicity, Gelao is already achieving 20,000 hits per month. “I think once word gets round, a million views a year is going to be realistic”, he says, “and that’ll bring major value adds for bands, venues and sponsors. Because of the co-operative web development strategy with Club Blink, our internet presence has generated hundreds of overseas visits to both the club and the site”. Gelao’s high quality recordings are professionally produced and his conviction that they offer huge benefits to bands is clear. “I’ve recorded about 300 bands now, so I have a big catalogue. My university Olympics media experience taught me audio engineering and my video and lighting knowledge came from a decade of industry experience”. He takes his material from Sydney’s two leading alternative night clubs, Blink and Trash, posting brand new content weekly. “These are raw, high energy performances reflecting the uniqueness of Sydney’s alternative music scene and, I hope, making a real contribution to independent music”. The internet, he says, is a new gateway to musical desires. “I expect that music will become essentially free. CDs and albums will still sell, with music consumers customising their own CDs and DVDs. We’re looking to add features like this to our website”. Do record companies need to do more to confirm their place in this new environment? “I’m sure they’re on the case”. Gelao’s business currently sustains through DVD fee packages on band performances. “As the business grows, I’m confident that value for venues and sponsors will increase enormously. But that’s a little further along - right now I’m focusing on product development and a big audience growth push. Along with the Agincourt Hotel and Club Blink, we’ve been working hard on venues to offer something truly unique to Australian music”. Now that his new site is live, Gelao sees expansion to Melbourne and Brisbane as the logical next step. Andrew Gelao’s films from Sydney’s alternative music venues screen weekly at www.virtuallive.tv (call 0438 804 025). ... ends 500 words
The Emotional Strength of The New Fuller Landscapes september 2007 “While painting, I don’t analyse light. I just paint the light I see, and the way it describes something that excites me deeply”, says renowned Australian landscape painter, Warwick Fuller. Fuller’s forthcoming exhibition at Katoomba Fine Art presents new works, large and small, painted during the last twelve months and includes landscapes from his recent trips to the NSW Central West and the UK. They have one thing in common. They describe Fuller’s need for emotional connection with his subjects. “It may be a grand mountain ash or a weed growing in a crack in some concrete but if it’s capable of bringing me that immediate excitement, I have to paint it. And afterwards, the experience is one of hopefully having kept alive something rare from that first sensation of contact”. This approach, though, is problematic for Fuller. It delivers emotional honesty but also brings internal conflict. “The hardest thing in tackling a landscape in this way is that you must keep open the intuitive side of your perception and to some extent subvert logic and control. But realistically, all artistic development also needs that practical control”. Fuller goes into more detail on this sometimes difficult balance in the new film Fuller's Earth. Shot as a television pilot, the film describes his background, techniques and influences. It was filmed over a four day painting camp on the Macquarie River in NSW, in Scotland and at his Little Hartley studio in the Blue Mountains. The film shows several outdoor painting development sequences with the artist's commentary. The exhibition will show over fifty paintings, including two large canvases: Floor of the Forest, painted in Mt Victoria and Cliff Top, Sublime Point, also from the Blue Mountains. It will also display the recent picture that Fuller is most excited about, Twilight Sky, Bruinbun, shown in conception and completion in Fuller’s Earth; and the magnificent Scottish dawn at Flodigarry on the Isle of Skye, Quiraing Sunrise. The exhibition runs at Katoomba Fine Art between October 6th and October 24th. Warwick Fuller’s next London exhibition will be at Panter & Hall in Mayfair in April. ... ends 350 words Trainride Into History august 2008 “This will be not so much a music gig as an armchair theatre performance”. John Moran describes forthcoming concert performances of two new compositions in the unique setting of a historic 1930s hospital locomotive carriage at Zig Zag Railway, Clarence Station, in the Blue Mountains. Moran is also a talented artist specializing in distinctive – some say disturbing – oil paintings. He combines audio and visual media including his guitars, synthesizers, bass and vocals, under the intentional mis-spelling of the John Moran CorpEration. “I’ve been trying out a new performance approach recently and now it’s ready to show. So I chose the most unusual setting I could imagine for the Clarence performance of these 30 minute soundscapes”. Unusual, perhaps, but highly appropriate – one of the compositions is entitled Trainride and both pieces (the other is Titanic) share the same dark themes characterising Moran’s painting. He calls his music a crossover “… 2008 going forward into the 1970s! It’s influenced by the early ambient music of Wakeman, Eno and Kraftwerk but there’s plenty of punk, too. If Joe Strummer had ever worked with Edgar Froese, they might have cooked up something similar”. Moran’s music is all locally made and self funded in his Blackheath studio. A London session muso in the 1960s, he bought a guitar again in 2003 after a long musical absence and hasn’t stopped since. He formed local bands before embarking on the CorpEration project and now has six albums under his belt with an impressive portfolio of critiques. The Legendary Pink Dots’ Ed Ka-Spel says “Sometimes a CD comes along that makes you want to fling open the windows and scream about it to the world”. “Moran blends modern jazz, blues, sound effects, classical dissonance and world music elements”, says the UK’s Guitar & Bass Magazine. He’s adopted a similar approach in “giving music back” to Iceland’s Sigur Ros, turning up unannounced at small country venues and playing free. “This worked well on the south coast in May, when I took some paintings as backdrops in small town halls. I really like the intimacy of small audiences, so I’ll only have 25 seats available in the railway carriage”. Although the CorpEration is primarily intended as a vehicle for his own performance, these live concerts will benefit from Julia Day’s drumming. “Julia’s perfect for me. She’s such a sensitive, interpretive percussionist, always with you as an instrument, never dominating”. After Clarence, Moran will spend almost two months taking the show, plus a workshop, to Kerry Cannon’s Ceramic Break Warialda Sculpture Park and surrounding centres, and then to Sydney’s Cosmos Rock Lounge and Blackheath Composers’ Night. “These will not be conventional concert performances”, says Moran. “I’m promoting experimental audio and audience interaction. The Puzzle Factory’s Dax Liniere will choreograph surround sound and effects, taking people well away from normal listening zones". The performance evening will begin with platform drinks at 7.45pm on September 13, tickets $15.00 (+612-4787 8833, 0416 221 770). More information and audio samplers of Trainride and Titanic at myspace.com/thejohnmorancorpEration. ... ends 500 words Still City, Always 2005 a reunion with Newcastle, NSW, after a 30 year separation the new hunter street fades to winter twilight as beautifully as the old one always did unable to change its way there’s no easthams girl anymore just around the corner in perkins st no bhp, no steel city now just internet outlets cafefuzion with a zed and strange, purposeless shapes of iron sailing alleyways where once we walked echoes of ealing in a haunted indian face peering from the half-light corner store while squeaky DJs scream dot com dot I owe but pigeons still roost in boarded facades fading defiantly in grand inelegance and all the more elegant for that the river lights twinkle past the great northern and still the sidewalk puddles of melting ice cream mixing now with pavement art and backpacker boots still the newsagent where once I met norman wisdom sad and fading, too, in a corner, reading the herald hoping someone might remember him still the waves are perfect still the ships and surfers queue still, there’s andy on the radio playing supertramp and status quo and still the shop girls look you in the eye and say thanks, take care and mean it still helen reddy, mozart, slim dusty and edith piaf all together in the same cheap bin and still the graffiti says luke loves sarah not foreigners are taking over no regrets it was la vie en rose gentle, fading city of dreams changing without changing as only you can always in another city’s shadow always your cross, carried alone doomed by place never to be what you might have been stay what you are nurse your memories hold your twilight ice cream puddles pass your time you will never be a steal city and know there will still, always, be those who remember mp3 audio of still city, always The Ministry of Brown 2001 dark brown echoes from light brown halls brown scratches on brown walls caramel charts on a tattered old cord reflecting tired scribbles on the brownboard brown biccies, brown drinkies quiet collusions, via brown winkies brown wax in brown's ears brown-owl faces shielding brown fears soup stain stripes on sepia shirts watery eyes mask deep brown hurts brown hangovers, brown coughs power games and cruel brown scoffs dandruff storms rage on shores of tweed against the half refusal of the half brown plea brown hows? brown nows! how now? brown’s cowed brown agenda on brown breath brown apprehension of a deep brown death brown smells brown socks brown teeth brown ties brown wives brown sex brown balls brown lies nicotine stains on trembling hands brown pretenders in a wide brown land published: Gallimaufry, WrightLight P/L, 2004 The Charge of the Loud Brigade 2005 dedicated to Denis Kevans after Alfred Lord Tennyson half a league, half a league, onward, all in the valley of deaf rode the silk hum drum "Forward, the Loud Brigade!” players big hitters quietly achieving, noisily being excellent and relevant passionate, extreme edgy, radical counting sleeps timing deliverables engaging the challenge of best practice on the ground wired for sound beeping their presence staying in the loop crashing life’s party pushing the envelope dealing with it, getting over it feedbacking issues staying across it moving on seamlessly blackberries catwalking barking key learnings sharing their take on it doing their coffee telling each other where they are brainstorming options connecting their dots vertically integrating, searching for disconnects, constructs icons, x factors and killer apps all this, while thinking outside the square transitioning their processes going forward making it happen or not happen as the mood takes them it’s a good look it’s all good on approach online getting the smarts keeping their balls in the air mining data, unpacking, drilling down thinking big picture flicking, resonating downsizing, outsourcing leveraging, considering the flip side of the upside human resources, in control of their KPIz, TQMz and PDFz ...not! not on their screen, not going there and not replying theirs is not to make reply theirs is but to hue and cry cliches to the right of them cliches to the left of them boldly they ride, and well and when can their glory fade? short story in fifty words 1 1990 Everyone saw the comet People started to hear buzzing noises in their ears and soon realised they knew when others were talking about them. All politicians went mad immediately It took about two weeks for the rest. All except me. Now I'm going mad because I never heard a thing
short story in fifty words 2 1990 A bus stops. A schoolboy passenger asks his friend Got any brothers and sisters, then? A glazed nod. Laughter freezes, conversations falter. Where are they, then? A pause, a sigh, a quiet reply. South Australia. The bus drives on. An old lady weeps silently. A day begins in nineteen ninety.
Number Cruncher 2008 Like so much garbage in the bin the numbers herd the humans in The holding pens await the day when digits run the world, their way thx 1138 QF4, you’re running late The people parroting 24/7 The dreary rhyme of 9/11 So now the fateful day draws near The Number-in-Chief makes it very clear the pins and passwords cheer aloud Digits Extract! Now is the hour h5n1’s got a good idea Let’s encircle them from the rear he says to general applause and the numbers nod, cos this means war Telstra 101 agrees and RU486 with glee suggests that star ten hash leads on The numbers charge, the humans run The numbers charge, they know no fear the dot points bringing up the rear while flanks of gantt charts now repel the last remaining human cell The pens await, the great blades shine WD40 bides his time The tragic sobbing mass arrives And triple 0 says screw you, I’m offline haiku - the homeless man milson's point station, 2007 on a train the homeless man snores his alan bennett book falling shut An Old Man's Day 2008 inspired by kate miller-heidke's 'don't let go', morris iemma & gen than shwe dear diary tuesday a better day the ringing in the ears is not so loud today the goldfish moved again and the paper says the premier said that mums and dads are hurting someone got my name right in the shop the kitchen light worked again so the electricity must still be on the kid next door didn’t scream last night his uncle must’ve been away maybe he’s busy everyone’s busy a song on the radio by someone called kate said who invented all these things we have to do? i wouldn’t mind some things to have to do the new tv show last night looked just like all the rest another panel of famous people i’ve never heard of laughing, joking, sneering in grunts, and words like like the blonde is still in the house the troop ship seems so long ago when we fought for Burmese freedom but it might be 1944 still, just new words new generals, new guns, old horrors old soldiers, old mates still gone what for? no more troop ships, no more hand to hand no more mates, no more fights for freedom now they kill for oil and interests with fingers on buttons, planes without pilots bombs in jackets and the mums & dads & uncles & kids are hurting, the politicians tell us it costs a lot, just to hurt these days but pet food’s not so bad and the paper said the premier said it’s all for our best interests because that way, the kitchen lights will keep turning on
missed the spring clean again this year but at least the dust is my bloody dust and the bathroom floor stains all mine, too i’ll go outside again today this could be mailbox week maybe it’s garbage day, i just forget i just try to forget
Seconds Out, Round 2 oct 9 2008 The Sydney Morning Herald, on its October 6 front page, reports the “Bill Henson Saga”. It came as a surprise that there was, in fact, any such a thing as a saga running over this matter. To all intents and purposes, it had seemed that an unpleasant and contrived news event earlier this year (see Art, Police & The Suburbs, may 30), benefiting a nervous new prime minister, child protection advocates and circulation auditors, had finally finished. Previously in the Henson Saga: A new exhibition at a Sydney Gallery had included Henson’s photographed nude study of an adolescent girl (with her parents’ full and public consent). A complaint was made to the police, enabling a media report that Complaints Had Been Made To Police. The exhibition was disrupted; many politicians expressed revulsion over art they had not seen; publicity was generated for the child protection cause (no bad thing); a fine and reputable artist was denigrated with his work removed in front of television cameras from several Australian galleries (very bad thing); and suburban puritans generally enjoyed themselves. When it was over, the image received a spotless bill of health from the censor’s office, police announced no grounds for charges and the confiscated artworks were returned to galleries. There was much shock and horror, much waste of limited police resources and nothing approaching an informed debate. Right, let’s go to the pub. But wait. There’s more. Some months later, a detail from a journalist’s book on the matter is re-printed in the Herald and other outlets. It describes objectively (and not unsympathetically) how Henson observed strict protocols in seeking possible adolescent models at a Melbourne school in the company of proper authorities. Henson’s photography has long been concerned with adolescent anguish. He does it with skill and integrity but now the knives are out again. The deputy prime minister, this time, is filled with disgust and offers a quote about strangers entering schools looking for nude children. Yuk. Good story, eh? And thus we have a new round in what is now, apparently, “the Henson saga”. In the chapter What is News? in his recent book on the history of journalism, My Trade, BBC editor Andrew Marr makes a number of points in a British context which may well apply in Australia. The number of child sex crimes, he observes, remains generally static and the number of child murders has declined in recent years. Available studies show only that we know nothing of how prevalent these crimes are. And yet the number of paedophile stories in the media has risen astonishingly since the mid 1990s. Marr concedes this may eventually emerge as a valuable warning from a caring media about a highly sexualized age. On the other hand, he notes, society has rapidly developed a deep suspicion of men who lead scout troops, coach swimming, take photographs near beaches or lead youth groups. Parents are afraid to allow their offspring out alone, many innocent men have been made miserable and a large number of children have been unnecessarily frightened. Treatment for paedophilia has not noticeably improved and much innocent voluntary work has been curtailed. Marr goes on to write that “brave, intelligent, probing reporting is so important that it is now impossible to imagine a decent society surviving without it [while] bad journalism … ready to whip up irrational fears, is a fast route to social perdition”. Whether a new round of reporting of Bill Henson’s art and methods (or, at any rate, what others think of them) amounts to brave, intelligent journalism or just another bite at the cherry is probably a debate we need to have. I'm not holding my breath. ................................................................
Zimbabwe: Time for Thabo to Lead, or be Left june 17 2008 On a continent famous for many outstanding statesmen, there have been some truly unpleasant leaders in Africa. Malawi’s Hastings Banda and Uganda’s Idi Amin Dada are archetypes. Yet, the regime of Robert Mugabe remains a casebook study in tyranny, determined to hold power at any cost to its people while the “international community” does what it recently did in Burma. Nothing. Since act 1 - the atrocities of Matabeleland - Mugabe has constructed his epic tragedy using the so-called liberation war veterans to violently force farmers from their land and brutally intimidate political opponents. He has publicly compared himself to Adolf Hitler (Panorama, BBC TV, 2004 - click for audio). Unlike Hitler, however, he has caused not solved inflation and ruined Africa’s healthiest economy, creating unemployment, disease, starvation and misery for millions of Zimbabweans. When the country’s Supreme Court, on rare occasions, has found the courage to defy him he has simply ignored its rulings through the common mechanism of the tyrant, the special decree.
He perverted the outcome of the most recent elections through pressure on the electoral commission, which took a month to partially announce voting returns and has still not fully released them, though the nationwide results posted immediately at polling booths showed a substantial victory for the Movement for Democratic Change. Since then, Mugabe has steadily increased pressure on anyone who may oppose him in the forthcoming presidential run-off election, itself a farce, employing thugs to threaten, beat and, allegedly, to murder MDC supporters. External media and independent election monitors are banned, though the courageous undercover reporting of ABC and BBC journalists leaves little room for doubt about these events. Now, presumably for his personal safety, Mugabe appears to have cut a deal with Zimbabwe’s military. The MDC Secretary-General has been arrested on treason charges based, according to a brother in Australia, on a forgery. The party leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, viciously beaten up last year, is effectively prevented from election campaigning by regular detention, release and re-detention. MDC voters are denied food aid, available only through Mugabe’s Zanu PF party. Most recently, whether speaking for himself or the army, Mugabe has threatened civil war and publicly stated that the democratic opposition will never be permitted to govern; and if further proof of his lunacy were needed, he now claims a divinely appointed right to rule and once again blames Gt Britain for all Zimbabwe's hardship. Britain, like all former colonial powers, has much to answer for in Africa, but not for this. Zanu PF’s sweetly smiling election posters, meanwhile, offer soothing captions suggesting that all is entirely well in Zimbabwe, thanks to them. There is one African leader who could have helped prevent all this – the South African president, Thabo Mbecki. But the man who took up Nelson Mandela’s mantle has not only denied the link between HIV and AIDS and kept antiretroviral drugs from AIDS sufferers; himself presided over dramatic economic inequality; and done little to protect foreign refugees from mob violence. He has consistently appeased this modern day Amin. Kenyan, Tanzanian and Angolan leaders have now publicly pressured Mugabe. Gordon Brown says it's all an outrage. Zzzz. Condoleeza Rice says "it's time the world got tough with Mugabe". Well, go on then. It won't happen, of course, and Mbecki's deafening silence continues. The time when he could plausibly use the ‘African Brothers in Arms’ notion as an excuse for silence is long gone. The horror of life in Zimbabwe increases daily and the “international community” will do nothing. It is time for Thabo Mbecki to speak. Whatever he may have tried behind the scenes has served only to grant impunity to Mugabe, which Mugabe knows. Before the final, scarcely imaginable act of this tragedy plays out, and for the sake of his suffering fellow Africans, Mbecki must say “Mugabe must go”. If he fails to do this, he will leave to history the perception, already current, of being perhaps Africa’s weakest leader of modern times. Footnotes: Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Australia (SBS News, 17/6/08) said the MDC had perpetrated serious violence on Zanu PF supporters. On June 18, Zimbabwe's government was reported to have withdrawn its ban on food distribution by NGOs (unconfirmed). Thabo Mbecki has since travelled to Harare to meet Robert Mugabe but made no statement. On June 22, the MDC withdrew from the run-off election saying that over 70 of its supporters had been murdered and further loss of life was unacceptable. Mr Mugabe continued with the election as the sole candidate, won it with a vote of "over 90%" and declared himself President. On July 27, Mr Mbecki criticised the UN Resolution to charge the Sudanese President, Hassan Omar al-Bashir, with genocide in Darfur. .......................................................... Art, Police and the Suburbs may 30 2008 Dear Prime Minister, I have advocated your leadership of the Labour Party for many years. Like you, I live by Christian values, or try to. I worked locally for your election victory and on election night I eagerly anticipated a new, principled and enlightened national direction. Your precipitate judgment on Bill Henson’s adolescent nude photographs as “revolting” suggests the process of achieving this direction has yet to commence. This is a media-driven issue. That is what the media does and should do. But it is not a matter for police or political interest and, most certainly (as legal ambiguity over the soundness of mooted charges suggests), it is not an issue of pornography. Perhaps the host gallery was naïve in posting a promotional image on the internet. Perhaps. But that is a different issue and it is not the only Gallery in the world to promote controversial material. That is what galleries do, and should do, and today’s strong support for the artist from the adolescent’s parents makes its own statement. The media were always going to approach you promptly on this and the difficulties of delivering an immediate live response on a contentious issue are understood. But it would now be helpful to redress the damage caused by a genuinely held but, frankly, emotive remark which has delivered an imprimatur for other agendas. We now see the results, which a more considered response may have mitigated. As with the previous Prime Minister’s tacit endorsement of the Hanson position early in his tenure, many respond readily to reactionary leadership signals and the consequences can be unpleasant. The Nazi book burnings were born in contrived moral outrage. In the 21st century, do we really want police raiding art galleries around Australia, confiscating artworks? I believe they have more important work to do and I imagine they would mostly agree. A conciliatory statement to the effect that despite your personal indifference Henson's work represents unequivocal artistic merit, and that his career must not be jeopardised by a witch hunt or unfounded judicial action which would be likely to fail, would go a long way towards achieving this. The “debate” has become unseemly and risks damage to the artist, artistic freedom and the nation. It needs to be decisively concluded and that would be easy to do in a measured, dignified way which could enhance your leadership. If we do need a real debate, this is not it. And in a wider sense, the residue of suburban zealotry which can still divide us, retarding social growth, needs to be addressed for once and for all. You are in a position to do both and I hope you will. That’s why I voted for you. Yours etc
footnote: On june 2 2008, Bill Henson's photographs received a ‘G - General’ classification from the Classification Board. A Board Member stated on ABC Radio that images reproduced by news media contained no pornographic context. Shortly afterwards, the Police announced that no charges would be laid and confiscated Henson works were returned to galleries . ................................................... Liberating Burma uk guardian weekly letters april 25 2008 The Burmese military had three days' warning of an extreme cyclone, certain to cause huge loss of life, and decided not to warn its people. It then did nothing to help them for two days, and virtually nothing since. Further, it actively stopped outside help (while it made films describing its own generous aid efforts, making people clap for the cameras on the eve of an election to perpetuate its own illegitimate rule). Does this not amount to genocide by a government against its people? Meanwhile, the conflict in Iraq costs about $5000 a second. If such obscene amounts must be budgeted for 'defence', why can some of these resources not be directed to the removal of animals like the Burmese junta? Was Burma liberated from fascism, sixty-four years ago, for this? ...................................................... The Vision Splendid october 7 2007 Sometimes it seems we were all away the day they did imagination. An ABC Local Radio call-in segment recently asked listeners to outline their sixty second grand vision for the nation. There’s an election due any week now, apparently, with regiments of promises from both sides charging over the hill, but little vision from either. A good chance, then, to call and 'have your say'. The segment was intriguing, even allowing for Local Radio's established focus on the lighter side of life. All entertaining enough, there was talk of free optical surgery for people with eye disease and putting respect back into schools. Good. Lots of calls for better public transport, making local government planners more accountable and real redistribution of wealth. Yes, let's do it. Someone suggested the piping of city storm water inland. Nice idea, if it's practical. And, of course, let’s get rid of the states, that'll fix things. No argument here. In fact, it's difficult to disagree with any of this except that it hardly amounts to vision. What was sad was that not one caller nominated a genuine process of reconciliation with Aboriginal people which, it might be argued - and I do - is where the grand vision must begin. Perhaps we’ve all just ‘moved on’, as the Prime Minister likes to put it. And this isn’t the only country, of course, to turn away from historical discomfort. The British have collective baggage to reconcile in India, Ireland and Palestine, as do the French in North Africa. Canadians, South Africans and Americans have made advances in legally binding recognition of their own indigenous peoples. But there’s more to be done. Even though the institutional apology risks becoming a cliche, around the world there are many sorries still to be said. So, is any talk of future vision realistic before the present achieves an honest equilibrium? Not to denigrate the good intentions of the radio callers, I don’t believe so. Mr Howard often speaks of the need for balance but balance in the present first needs balance with the past. The ‘sorry’ dialogue in this country, after a period of inspiring reconciliation marches in the 90s, has gone quiet. Some sympathisers with the wider cause say the word itself may no longer be relevant, anyway. Aboriginal people are encouraged by some leaders to point the way by looking to their own house and the statistics on black violence, intoxication and child abuse confirm this imperative. But why does the nightmare exist at all? Why is domestic violence in indigenous Australia so much greater than the national average? Who brought the grog? I recently discovered Kate Grenville's spellbinding historical novel Secret River. I had thought I understood quite well the situation in which Australia’s conquered people finds itself, until I read this book. Nowhere have I seen described so eloquently how alienation, accrued over generations, can be absorbed into self perception. So I don’t agree that a dignified apology to black Australians has become irrelevant. It remains long overdue and until we do it (and until, for that matter, the British do it in Palestine and the French in North Africa) the people of these places will remain embittered and continue to collectively self harm. Why is this simple word ‘sorry’ so difficult, when to say it would liberate both them and us; and, more importantly, do away with the very idea of them and us? It would take longer than sixty seconds, and perhaps there might be some court cases. But perhaps, too, a grand vision for a future together could at last be properly considered. And then, at last, we could really move on.
Footnote: The new government of Kevin Rudd formally apologised to the "stolen generations" of Aboriginal people on its first parliamentary sitting day in 2008.
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