A waste of money

MY BROTHER-IN-LAW (Bill, I’ll call him) grew up in a family of 12 on an aboriginal mission. He often shares stories of his childhood, and the mainly good times, growing up near the Murray River.

At age 16 his family moved to a working-class suburb of Melbourne playing sport, going to school, getting jobs, going to church and integrating into the community. Bill says one of the best things about moving to a suburb of largely migrant families meant they were just one of the many different cultural groups. Bill did a trade and ended up running his own successful small business. He is a leader in his extended family and the local Aboriginal Co-op. And Bill is one of the best people l have ever met.

When l asked about the referendum, l was surprised he didn’t commit to voting one way or the other but said it is a huge waste of money and many aborigines will be voting “No”. Enough said, l guess.

Bill is unmistakably aboriginal but says there is some white blood in his family background. His wife is “white,” with Scottish ancestry, they have three children and their six grandchildren have mixed heritages.

So, my thinking is, who here is aboriginal anyway, someone who is half “white”, the grandchildren of 25 per cent (or less) aboriginal blood or are we all just Australians and leave it at that?

Is there any good reason to vote “Yes” when many aborigines are against the referendum?

Name withheld