I guess my life is very similar to many white suburban Australians, I don’t really know any Aboriginal people. I definitely haven't tried to make it this way but circumstances have made it be that way. I went to school in the Adelaide hills and during primary school and high school I don’t remember there ever being one Aboriginal kid in any of my classes. Where I worked for fiver years there was not one employe that was of Aboriginal descent. And at Uni there are no Aboriginal people in any of my classes. To purposely seek someone out because of their race seems a bit perverse to me.
Without having any friendship or working relationship with anyone of Aboriginal decent means my experiences have been largely negative. The biggest event in my life that has involved Aboriginals was about five years ago. Me and my friend had parked our car by the torrens river at the back of Adelaide Uni. When we were heading back to it, a group of Aboriginal youth tried to mug us. I was lucky only to get punched in the face a few times but my friend had his arm broken. As this is my only ever experience of violence of any kind it has left a major impact me. Living on South Terrace on a regular bases I get homeless people (many Aboriginal) asking for money or just get general abusive behaviour. As I suffer terribly from anxiety these experience again have quite a big impact on me.
Although most of these experiences have been negative I absolutely don’t think this represents Aboriginal people at all. As any descent human being should do, I judge people as individuals, not on their race.
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