impervious182
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- 2005
Aboriginal leader in 'snub' uproar
THE Board of Reconciliation Australia has angered staff and stakeholders after snubbing a promising young indigenous leader as its next chief executive.
The organisation announced on Monday that it had chosen Paul O'Callaghan, a former Australian high commissioner to Samoa and previous head of the Australian Council for International Development, as its new chief executive.
But many staff and indigenous activists across the country reacted in shock and disbelief because they knew there was a strong indigenous candidate in the field.
"It's heartbreaking," one staffer told The Age. "I just don't get it. Many people just sat and cried after we were told."
Another said it was impossible to understand the board's thinking. "It's hard to know how we can ever accept it."
Hmm... slightly pathetic. I mean, can there ever truly be reconciliation until expectations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians change? (And what does 'reconciliation' even mean anymore?)THE Board of Reconciliation Australia has angered staff and stakeholders after snubbing a promising young indigenous leader as its next chief executive.
The organisation announced on Monday that it had chosen Paul O'Callaghan, a former Australian high commissioner to Samoa and previous head of the Australian Council for International Development, as its new chief executive.
But many staff and indigenous activists across the country reacted in shock and disbelief because they knew there was a strong indigenous candidate in the field.
"It's heartbreaking," one staffer told The Age. "I just don't get it. Many people just sat and cried after we were told."
Another said it was impossible to understand the board's thinking. "It's hard to know how we can ever accept it."
Why should it be 'expected' that an Aboriginal must get this job; so much so that others break down in tears when someone even more qualified gets the job?
It's an expectation that Aboriginal people will be treated differently; pampered, because of their skin-colour. It's sad to see these attitudes still present in 2009.