A fascinating discussion. I am Scottish, and therefore part of the oppressed peoples of the North whose culture has been subsumed by the evil English etc, etc here in Great Britain, the motherland for all you upside down folks there down under. For those of you not familiar with our own internal struggles, Scotland is now run by the SNP (Scottish Numpty Party) led by the redoubtable Nicola Sturgeon. She gives her waking hours to dreaming of cats wearing sporrans around their necks, dogs sporting kilts and scheduling Braveheart termly showings for school children - lest they forget their heritage and the oppression they have lived under without actually knowing it. What it has shown me is that looking backwards is never going to end well. I was brought up on a diet of Scottish battles that invariably involved glorious defeat by the wicked English hordes. The problem was it turned out there was a world out there that no one bothered to tell me about. No one took the time to speak of the rows of Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English soldiers who died next to each other in the trenches of World War 1 or the numerous foreign battlegrounds of World War 2. The Commonwealth graves around the world are lined with soldiers of every nation who fought alongside each other and came to an untimely end - including a fair number of Australians as well. We have fought as one and are all the better for it. Have the Scots always been treated well? Absolutely not. Have the Aborigines always been treated fairly? Almost certainly not. Undoubtedly they were there first and had us Brits not exported our criminals to you lot, then this may have been a very different discussion. It would probably not be taking place here, however, as you would have no airline industry to talk of.
The simple fact is that we all have a history - hence the flags of Australia and New Zealand. I get you might want to break away from your past with us, but be careful what you wish for. I massively admire so much in Australia, but you are in danger of becoming ashamed of all aspects of your culture. Your culture is not just aboriginal - it is mixed inextricably now with British, European, Oriental and Middle Eastern culture now too. That is increasingly who we all are. Are you all about to deport yourselves back to Serbia to join Djokovic in shame that you exist? Sure, be aware of your cultural history, but dreaming of a return to the 'good ole days' before oppression began is difficult. None of you want to oppress the Aborigines now. The question is how best to help them help themselves. You cannot keep them 'racially pure' any more than you would entertain the idea of keeping the white population racially pure. Get a new flag by all means, but if it means pretending you have no other culture other than Aboriginal, it does an enormous disservice to all the other cultures you now have in your midst. Wait and see the arguments you have about what flag to replace the current one with and how divisive they will become. Whatever you choose will open Pandora's Box and it will not end well. Putting an Aboriginal flag on Qantas aircraft is fine - maybe best to think of a few other people who have made a contribution to Australian life as well and honour them too.