There are many Aboriginal people in Australia leading this double existence who are irreparably damaged by the static they receive from their own families and communities for their achievements in the Anglo-Saxon world. Their strivings are seen as betrayal and psychologically ill. They are known to their people as ‘Jackys' and ‘Marys', or ‘coconuts', the definition being ‘brown on the outside, white on the inside'. The reason for all this cattle dust is that the Australian heroes are all Anglo-Saxon, and if any Aboriginal student challenges this, she or he is frozen out of the education system until they learn to be ‘rational'. Becoming ‘rational' of course means ‘agreeing to assimilate'. It is this or become the black dropout, those Aboriginal subjects of innumerable university theses and government surveys, the conducting of which regularly provides non-Aboriginal students with their own degrees.

European Australians must let go of England. It is time to do just that. American universities are the leaders in providing cultural role models for students. The way to a ‘real' multicultural society in Australia is through providing relevant role models for our students. We must duplicate the American pattern, for it does work; I have seen it. Or must I, as an Aboriginal elder, advise Aboriginal students to seek higher education in America?

Australian educational institutions can and must lead the way in forcing parliaments to recognise these urgent needs. Concurrently, our universities must acknowledge and recognise the fact that their domineering and entrenched elitism still implements the mid-Victorian attitude of 'survival of the white tribe at any cost' and is counter productive to a racial equality of the future.

It is, therefore, both logical and imperative that this elitism be hastily dissolved. White Australians must accept that it is time for them to be the listeners and the learners. They must accept that Aboriginal and ethnic people have their own traditional and contemporary tutors, and they are available here and now. In short, let us learn and understand logical grassroot culture of all races — an exchange where all races stand equal unto each other. Then and only then can there ever be a true multicultural Australia.