4 ms·

> Nicholls' predecessor as governor, nuclear physicist Mark Oliphant, confidentially wrote to the state government expressing concerns about the appointment. He

> Nicholls' predecessor as governor, nuclear physicist Mark Oliphant, confidentially wrote to the state government expressing concerns about the appointment. He said there were "grave dangers" involved, as "there is something inherent in the personality of the Aborigine which makes it difficult for him to adapt fully to the ways of the white man". That opinion is not nuclear physics. Or science. Is it? What force propels that meme, and why or how does it endure?

perilunar 5y ago
I don't think it has endured. Oliphant said that in ~1976, and said later he regretted it. (see the source article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Nicholls#cite_note-Black-34 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Nicholls#cite_note-Bla...). Oliphant himself had an interesting life. He discovered the structure of Tritium, was involved in the development of the cavity magnetron (radar) during WW2, and kick-started the Manhattan Project. If you're interested in physics and haven't heard of him, give his Wikipedia page a read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant
- rjsw 5y ago
  I guess my grandfather would have met Oliphant when they were working on radar. There is a family story of my grandfather sleeping with a prototype cavity magnetron under his pillow to keep it safe from air raids.
yesenadam 5y ago
Oliphant's wikipedia page says about that quote: The authors of Oliphant's biography noted that "that was the prevailing attitude of almost the entire white population of Australia until well after World War II" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant (Sydney here.) I've known two aborigines well, one was a dear friend for many years[0]. I'd have to say, and they would no doubt agree, that their whole culture–or whatever fragments of traditional culture they've inherited–"makes it difficult for [them] to adapt fully to the ways of the white man". Impossible to adapt very far or very well at all, let alone fully. Just as western culture, I imagine, would make it difficult for white people to "adapt fully to the ways" of aboriginal people if they tried, or to prosper in an aboriginal world, if it still existed. The whole "go to school, get a job, live in a house" thing was very foreign to my two friends, they had nothing of that in their lives. Aborigines didn't do that before white people came here, now that's what you have to do to be considered fully human, or to live decently in a city or town. Aboriginal culture was horribly assaulted for 150+ years, often with genocidal intent.. It's a huge tragic situation, with no easy answers. Australians no longer call it "adapt fully to the ways of the white man", it's just life in modern Australia, but it comes to the same thing. p.s. Thanks to OP for posting this, I hadn't heard of Nicholls, sounds like an amazing guy and an amazing life. [0] That was in the last 20 years, in Sydney. I grew up in the 80s in a country NSW town, lots of aborigines in the area, but I don't think I ever even talked with one. There were some at my high school but we never came in contact, at all. They lived in an aboriginal village separate from the main town; white people never went there.
- fit2rule 5y ago
  With over 67,000 years of culture and heritage - the worlds longest-running mine operation (Wilgie Mia), its oldest known still-extant school (Gabarnmung), the longest successful oral traditions of any culture, ever - the original land owners don't need to adapt to us: We need to learn more about them. And it can't happen a moment too soon.
  - User23 5y ago
    On the plus side immigration has been absolutely stellar for the Australian economy.
  - yesenadam 5y ago
    > We need to learn more about them. And it can't happen a moment too soon. Ok, does that include you? Go! I looked up Wilgie Mia. Apparently a 20-metre deep hole in the ground, an ochre source. Hmm. Couldn't find anything online resembling a school by that name, assuming you don't mean the rock art site whose "existence had been forgotten until its 2006 rediscovery". I'm not sure what "longest successful oral tradition" means exactly. (What does "successful" mean there? Are there unsuccessful oral traditions? And what does it come to besides "no writing system"?) ...And don't we all have "over 67,000 years of culture and heritage"?
    - fit2rule 5y ago
      Wilgie Mia has been a constant mining operation for over 10,000 years, and the ochre from this location has been identified in trading networks all over Australia. (European settlers didn't believe the original land owners had an economy - they did.) Gabarnmung is a community education site, which has been being used for 40,000+ years to teach generations of original land owners about the land and the animals it supports. The longest successful oral traditions -- we Westerners can't even keep our oral stories accurate for a few decades - the original land owners of Australia were able to re-tell the same stories for 60,000 years. They used cryptographic techniques to ensure the accuracy of re-told stories, to the point where the evidence of the accuracy of these tales is supported by the geological record today. Your ignorance of all of this is not surprising. It is very inconvenient for modern Australians to realise that they did indeed genocide a great, functional civilisation, and that the conclusions made by our forefathers that the original landowners were 'nothing but savage animals' was not only racist dogma designed to justify slaughter, but absolutely and utterly incorrect.
bryanrasmussen 5y ago
>What force propels that meme, and why or how does it endure? the force would be the xenophobia present in some large percentage of every human society, the thing that allows it to endure would the framework of racism.
- goldenkey 5y ago
  > framework of racism In basic terms, race describes physical traits, and ethnicity refers to cultural identification. The physicist simply said that "white man" culture is difficult for natives to adopt or even want to adopt. It is a fairly reasonable statement.
rbg246 5y ago
Clearly it would be prevailing attitudes of white supremacy.

perilunar 5y ago

I don't think it has endured. Oliphant said that in ~1976, and said later he regretted it. (see the source article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Nicholls#cite_note-Black-34 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Nicholls#cite_note-Bla...). Oliphant himself had an interesting life. He discovered the structure of Tritium, was involved in the development of the cavity magnetron (radar) during WW2, and kick-started the Manhattan Project. If you're interested in physics and haven't heard of him, give his Wikipedia page a read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant

rjsw 5y ago
I guess my grandfather would have met Oliphant when they were working on radar. There is a family story of my grandfather sleeping with a prototype cavity magnetron under his pillow to keep it safe from air raids.

yesenadam 5y ago

Oliphant's wikipedia page says about that quote: The authors of Oliphant's biography noted that "that was the prevailing attitude of almost the entire white population of Australia until well after World War II" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Oliphant (Sydney here.) I've known two aborigines well, one was a dear friend for many years[0]. I'd have to say, and they would no doubt agree, that their whole culture–or whatever fragments of traditional culture they've inherited–"makes it difficult for [them] to adapt fully to the ways of the white man". Impossible to adapt very far or very well at all, let alone fully. Just as western culture, I imagine, would make it difficult for white people to "adapt fully to the ways" of aboriginal people if they tried, or to prosper in an aboriginal world, if it still existed. The whole "go to school, get a job, live in a house" thing was very foreign to my two friends, they had nothing of that in their lives. Aborigines didn't do that before white people came here, now that's what you have to do to be considered fully human, or to live decently in a city or town. Aboriginal culture was horribly assaulted for 150+ years, often with genocidal intent.. It's a huge tragic situation, with no easy answers. Australians no longer call it "adapt fully to the ways of the white man", it's just life in modern Australia, but it comes to the same thing. p.s. Thanks to OP for posting this, I hadn't heard of Nicholls, sounds like an amazing guy and an amazing life. [0] That was in the last 20 years, in Sydney. I grew up in the 80s in a country NSW town, lots of aborigines in the area, but I don't think I ever even talked with one. There were some at my high school but we never came in contact, at all. They lived in an aboriginal village separate from the main town; white people never went there.

fit2rule 5y ago
With over 67,000 years of culture and heritage - the worlds longest-running mine operation (Wilgie Mia), its oldest known still-extant school (Gabarnmung), the longest successful oral traditions of any culture, ever - the original land owners don't need to adapt to us: We need to learn more about them. And it can't happen a moment too soon.
- User23 5y ago
  On the plus side immigration has been absolutely stellar for the Australian economy.
- yesenadam 5y ago
  > We need to learn more about them. And it can't happen a moment too soon. Ok, does that include you? Go! I looked up Wilgie Mia. Apparently a 20-metre deep hole in the ground, an ochre source. Hmm. Couldn't find anything online resembling a school by that name, assuming you don't mean the rock art site whose "existence had been forgotten until its 2006 rediscovery". I'm not sure what "longest successful oral tradition" means exactly. (What does "successful" mean there? Are there unsuccessful oral traditions? And what does it come to besides "no writing system"?) ...And don't we all have "over 67,000 years of culture and heritage"?
  - fit2rule 5y ago
    Wilgie Mia has been a constant mining operation for over 10,000 years, and the ochre from this location has been identified in trading networks all over Australia. (European settlers didn't believe the original land owners had an economy - they did.) Gabarnmung is a community education site, which has been being used for 40,000+ years to teach generations of original land owners about the land and the animals it supports. The longest successful oral traditions -- we Westerners can't even keep our oral stories accurate for a few decades - the original land owners of Australia were able to re-tell the same stories for 60,000 years. They used cryptographic techniques to ensure the accuracy of re-told stories, to the point where the evidence of the accuracy of these tales is supported by the geological record today. Your ignorance of all of this is not surprising. It is very inconvenient for modern Australians to realise that they did indeed genocide a great, functional civilisation, and that the conclusions made by our forefathers that the original landowners were 'nothing but savage animals' was not only racist dogma designed to justify slaughter, but absolutely and utterly incorrect.

bryanrasmussen 5y ago

>What force propels that meme, and why or how does it endure? the force would be the xenophobia present in some large percentage of every human society, the thing that allows it to endure would the framework of racism.

goldenkey 5y ago
> framework of racism In basic terms, race describes physical traits, and ethnicity refers to cultural identification. The physicist simply said that "white man" culture is difficult for natives to adopt or even want to adopt. It is a fairly reasonable statement.

rbg246 5y ago

Clearly it would be prevailing attitudes of white supremacy.