A Wahdjuk Professor from Perth has spoken out about the Systemic Bias he believes is so ingrained in Australian society that neither political party has the capacity to legislate for Indigenous Australians.
Professor Ted Wilkes is a passionate Noongar activist and anthropologist, and as the Chair of the National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol committee, is critical of the Federal Governments' habit of making knee-jerk reactions to major issues.
"I think governments are accountable to themselves. I work in a research institution and I will always maintain that there is enough evidence now to suggest to governments how to get it right so we want governments to develop policies based on evidence,” says Professor Wilkes.
While the evidence to help cure ingrained social ills may be there, Professor Wilkes argues habits stemming from colonisation still affect today's decision making process.
"It seems that something happens in the system where we don't get it done properly. I'm aware that some of that is about what we call Systemic Bias; a form of indifference towards people who don't belong in the mainstream. Aboriginal people have always lived on the margins in this country and we've not been allowed to mix within the mainstream; we have in fact deliberately been kept outside," says Professor Wilkes.
While many advances have been made, Professor Wilkes believes the country still has a national amnesia about its history.
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