A furious Noel Pearson has slammed a "bastard government" for maligning his controversial educational system in Cape York, saying outrage over the abuse of young people in Darwin's detention centre is selective if there is no support for measures to stop them ending up there.
At the Garma indigenous festival in northeast Arnhem Land on Saturday, the Cape York leader said that without a strong grounding in education, indigenous people are becoming "slowly culturally pauperised because we're not economically strong".
He derided media attacks on the model of direct instruction in Aurukun, which was criticised after a group of youths victimised their teachers and principal, leading to a shutdown of the school.
"This is the first time I've admitted defeat, it's the first time we have been out-manoeuvred; we have suffered setbacks in Cape York at the hands of a bastard government," Mr Pearson said.
Mr Pearson accused the media of tearing down "every good thing" by criticising the direct instruction teaching model used in Cape York.
He said the wider community was outraged about the problems, like the Don Dale abuse, but offered no support for the solutions.
"That misery going on behind the doors of detention centres has always been the case. How could it ever be any other" when indigenous incarceration rates are so high? Mr Pearson said.
The policies that have the best chance of diverting kids from the "alienation of their mothers' breasts" get no traction, he said.
"To our old friends who can't get their heads out of an old way of thinking (on indigenous affairs), your presence is a stumbling block to us, you have got to get out of the way."
Constitutional recognition is just the tip of the pyramid to help indigenous people achieve greater self-determination to help their kids stay out of detention, Mr Pearson said.
