To The Australian Labor senator Pat Dodson is the latest Aboriginal leader to damage his cause ("Leaders fear loss of 'Anglo imprint'", 10-11/8). Insulting us by claiming erroneously that "Australia has very little to celebrate in its own right" apart from democracy is amazingly foolish. Has Dodson forgotten the heroism of the early explorers, the industry of the pioneers, the Anzac spirit and the proud record of our men and women at war, the dedicated leadership that led to Federation, the planting of churches across the continent, the works of our artists from Elioth Gruner and Norman Lindsay to Wlliam Dargie and John Brack, our literary tradition that runs from Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson to Patrick White and Martin Boyd? He is misleading to complain about "the Anglo-Celtic imprint on this nation". Australia really is an Anglo-Celtic nation. As for his feigned blindness to the reasons for Australians' fear of Aboriginal constitutional recognition, it is as reprehensible as his claim that there has been a longstanding failure of magnanimity towards Aboriginals. The reverse is the truth.
Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic